Luke 3:7-18

Date: Sunday, December 13, 2009
Study 2: Repenting prepares us for Jesus.
Bible Study: John Prepares People for Jesus' Coming (Luke 3:7-18)

Historical Background:
Israel had forsaken the Lord.
The goodness of God had still left the people in their land; but the world was  under control of the Gentiles (Greeks/Romans).
Israel was now called to repent, to be forgiven, and to take a new place through the coming of the Messiah.
Thirty years have now passed since the birth of John and Jesus and it is time for the beginning of the ministry of Jesus Christ.
John and Jesus are both around the age of thirty when John begins his ministry of announcing the arrival of the Messiah and about six months later the Messiah steps on to the scene.
It was a very private 30-years for Jesus and John .. they didn't have any public ministry for those 30 years.
All we know about Jesus during these years we find in chapter 2 verse 40, "And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him." and verse 52, "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”
God now breaks 425 years of prophetic silence.  The last prophet that spoke was Malachi.

Before a king made a journey to a distant land, the roads he would travel were improved . . . In this same manner, moral and spiritual preparation for the Messiah was made by the ministry of John the Baptist.

What we have in the verses for today is just a sample of what John preached all day, every day, week after week, month after month. . . it gives us a pattern for our own preaching.

Luke 3:7-14  7 Then he said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. 9 And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” 10 So the people asked him, saying, “What shall we do then?” 11 He answered and said to them, “He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.” 12 Then tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” 13 And he said to them, “Collect no more than what is appointed for you.” 14 Likewise the soldiers asked him, saying, “And what shall we do?” So he said to them, “Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages.”

John uses strong words to address the crowd coming to him. They were coming to be baptized, which was a good thing. But John saw a deeper problem. They came to perform a religious act, but their hearts weren't changed. He called the whole lot of people a bunch of snakes.
Isaiah 59:5 -- They hatch vipers’ eggs and weave the spider’s web; He who eats of their eggs dies, And from that which is crushed a viper breaks out.
--- Men spreading evil and taking delight in it ---

John deals with three specific groups
“religious” folks
They don't actually ask for John's advice on how to change their hearts
they were typically blind to their spiritual poverty
John tells this group that their religious games are no good, and that the Jewish religious types aren't given a free pass into God's kingdom
each was to be judged according to his fruits .. even the Jews
the tax collectors, ask for help.
they want to know how to be right before God.
John tells them to operate with integrity as they collect taxes.
a group of soldiers ask for help
these were most likely Jewish soldiers (not Roman)
John encourages the soldiers not to use their authority to scare and bully people.

The professions of tax-collector and soldier were not condemned .. But the common, unethical practices associated with them were.

John speaks to a variety of people in the crowd--both the religious achievers and the religious dropouts.
Generically:
All need to love and help others on a personal basis.
All needed a change of heart as they prepared for the coming of Jesus.
They had to leave their sins behind and move towards their Savior
Repentance was necessary for the remission of sins
the baptism of water was an outward sign of that inward cleansing and renewal of heart
fulfilling of the Scriptures in the ministry of John . . . Isaiah 40:3
3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
“ Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God.
removing all that hinders us
If we are not really holy, both in heart and life, our profession of religion and relation to God and his church will be meaningless and will end us up apart from God
John knew that judgment of the Jews was about to come .. And it did 40-years later when Jerusalem was destroyed.
Requirements for Salvation ??

Luke 3:15-18   15 Now as the people were in expectation, and all reasoned in their hearts about John, whether he was the Christ or not, 16 John answered, saying to all, “I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.” 18 And with many other exhortations he preached to the people.
John did not let pride overcome him
John could only tell the people to repent and assure them of forgiveness upon repentance
he could not work repentance in them, nor give them remission on their sins
John can only baptize with water as a token that they ought to purify and cleanse themselves
but Christ can and will baptize with the Holy Ghost and give the Spirit to cleanse and purify the heart
Man was to repent … God Himself was coming
He baptizes with the Holy Ghost not just a renewal of desires, but power in grace in the midst of evil.
He baptizes with fire. This is judgment that consumes the evil.



What behavior(s) in your life most distracts you from experiencing faith in Jesus Christ?

What steps will you take to prepare your heart for Jesus during this Christmas season? Where do you need to apply an attitude of repentance?


A threshing-floor: Threshing Floors were used in the ancient world to separate grain from the chaff. This was usually a two step process. First, the cut stalks of grain were spread on the threshing floor and a threshing sledge was pulled over the stalks by oxen. The sledge was a simple wooden sled or heavy board with stone or metal spikes on the bottom that would break the heads of grain from the stalks (Isa 41:15-16). The same thing could be accomplished by having the oxen walk over the stalks (Deut 25:4) or by beating them with heavy sticks (Judg 6:11).
The second step was to toss the broken stalks into the air with a large forked tool, usually made out of wood. The wind would blow the lighter chaff to one side, while the heavier grain would fall into a pile, which could then be gathered. This process of separating grain from chaff by wind is called winnowing (Ruth 3:2, Isa 30:24). Because of the need for wind, threshing floors were normally located on hilltops or in large open fields, and were often used as landmarks (Gen 50:10, 2 Sam 6:6) or meeting places (1 Kngs 22:10). Since threshing floors were so crucial to the life of the people, they were highly valued, and were often vulnerable to raids by bandits or rival tribes (1 Sam 23:1).
Because of the process of separating the good from the bad, threshing and winnowing became common metaphors for judgement (Dan 2:35), especially in the prophets (Isa 21:10, Jer 15:7, 51:2, 33, Hos 13:3, etc.). John the Baptist picked up this metaphor and used it as warning of the activity of the Coming One (Matt 3:12, Luke 3:17). Only rarely is the idea of threshing used metaphorically in a positive context (Joel 2:24).

Archaeology –
in 1961 there was discovered a dedication plaque on a building called the Tiberium and on that plaque is the name "Pontius Pilate." Pontius Pilate is a real person. He has the dedicatory plaque because he built the building in honor of Tiberius and called it "Tiberium."
On that plaque he is called "Prefectus." Prefectus was the official title. He was a Roman Prefect...a Roman Prefect. Later on that word in verse...in I think 46 A.D. was changed to Procurator. Sometimes you hear Pilate called a procurator, but that wouldn't have been true until 46 A.D. and Pilate was through in 36, so he was never called a procurator. In 70 A.D. they changed it to alegate(?), he wouldn't have been called that either. By then he was certainly dead. But he was a prefect.
One other person is named, Lysanias, tetrarch of Abilene. He's the only Texan in the group. I don't know if you people realize that Abilene is a Bible name, but it is. And for years critics said Luke is wrong here, he doesn't...Luke's history is bad here because the Lysanias we know about in history lived...died 34, 36 B.C. and he was killed by Marc Antony, so Luke's way off because Lysanias has got to be dead for fifty-some years by this time. That was until recent archaeologists have discovered some tablets with inscriptions showing Luke's accuracy to be precise. The record of these inscriptions tells us there was another man named Lysanias who ruled precisely in the time of John and precisely in the region of Abilene which is north of Galilee and west of Damascus. And so the archaeologists have aided us in supporting the testimony of Luke.

John received the Word:
If you go back in to Genesis 15 you run into the great patriarch, the father of Israel, the greatest of all Jews because he's the first one that launched the Jewish people by the covenant with God, his name is Abraham. And in Genesis 15:1 it says, "The word of the Lord came to Abraham." In 1 Samuel 15:10 it says, "The word of the Lord came to Samuel." In 2 Samuel 7:4, "The word of the Lord came to the prophet Nathan." In 1 Kings 17 it says, "The word of the Lord came to Elijah." And so the word of the Lord, or the word of God coming to someone was indicative of a calling from God, and we find that particularly illustrated among the prophets.