The Gospel According to Luke: Part 9 :: By Dr. Donald Whitchard

Published on: May 29, 2020 by RR7

An Exposition

Luke 3:1-22: A Voice in the Wilderness

“Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was Tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. He came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:

‘THE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS,
‘MAKE READY THE WAY OF THE LORD,
MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT.
‘EVERY RAVINE WILL BE FILLED,
AND EVERY MOUNTAIN AND HILL WILL BE BROUGHT LOW;
THE CROOKED WILL BECOME STRAIGHT,
AND THE ROUGH ROADS SMOOTH;
AND ALL FLESH WILL SEE THE SALVATION OF GOD.’”

He therefore began saying to the multitudes who were going out to be baptized by him, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee the wrath to come? Therefore bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I say to you that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Also, the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.’

“And the multitudes were questioning him, saying, ‘Then what shall we do?’ And he would answer and say to them, ‘Let the man who has two tunics share with him who has none; and let him who has food do likewise.’ And some tax gatherers also came to be baptized and they said to him, ‘Teacher, what shall we do?’ And he said to them, ‘Collect no more than what you have been ordered to.’ And some soldiers were questioning him saying, ‘And what about us, what shall we do?’ And he said to them, ‘Do not take money from anyone by force, or accuse anyone falsely, and be content with your wages.’

“Now while the people were in a state of expectation and all were wondering in their hearts about John, as to whether he might be the Christ, John answered and said to them all, ‘As for me, I baptize you with water, but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thing of His sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. And His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor and to gather the wheat into His barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.’

“With many other exhortations he preached the gospel to the people. But when Herod the tetrarch was reproved by him on account of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and on account of all the wicked things that he had done, he added this also to them all, that he locked John in prison.

“Now it came about when all the people were baptized, that Jesus was baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, ‘You are My beloved Son, in You I am well pleased'” (Luke 3:1-22, NASB).

Skeptics and unbelievers tend to say to anyone who will listen that the Scriptures are a collection of myths and legends that are not based in historical fact and are as real as the tales of the ancient gods and goddesses of places like Greece, Rome, Egypt, or Babylon that are part of a literary tradition that is, at the most, interesting, but not anything on which to base one’s life and path.

This is just plain lazy thinking and the attempt on their part to avoid the possibility that what we as followers of Jesus Christ hold as true and sacred just might be accurate after all, especially those verses that speak of accountability for one’s life and words before a holy God:

Matthew 12:36
Luke 12:20, 48; 19:15
Romans 14:12
1 Peter 4:4-5

In reading the events of Luke 3, we are introduced to authentic, genuine, and historically verified individuals whose lives, achievements, and records have been written down in ancient texts and uncovered by the work of archaeologists. Each person’s existence has been accepted as a provable fact.

What Luke has done is to show Theophilus and future readers of this Gospel that the events and achievements of the Lord Jesus Christ are not the product of vivid imaginations or the legends of a particular nationality, but real events as proven by the writing of the other Gospels, resources outside Scripture, archaeology, as well as eyewitness testimony of what the Lord Jesus said and did:

1 Corinthians 15:1-8
2 Peter 1:16-21; 3:15
Acts 4:20; 5:32; 9:1-6; 26:22
Psalm 66:16
Isaiah 63:7
2 Timothy 1:8

The centerpiece of this chapter is not Caesar and his contemporaries, but of the preacher from the deserts of Judea, John the Baptist, who is the LORD’S vessel of service to prepare the nation for the arrival of the promised Messiah and the Redeemer of Israel as well as the mighty Judge who would render the final harvest of the redeemed and the reprobate of history.

Objective history records the existence of prominent individuals and summarizes their achievements, but in looking at the Scriptures, we examine the message proclaimed by these figures of history that God has used to present His message of repentance and redemption that humanity needs to hear, like it or not, and the consequences of either responding to or rejecting His message from His chosen spokesmen.

Up to that time, God had chosen not to speak, either audibly or through any prophet or leader for over four hundred years. The Law and the Prophets that made up what is known as the Old Testament gave the exact words, decrees, comforts, and confrontations that Israel needed to exist as a nation and be the representative people to show the world around them that there was but one God, the Creator and Sustainer, and no one else is or was His equal.

The devout remnant of Israel who read and studied the Scriptures were anxious to see when the promises of God’s Deliverer would come to pass, while many were indifferent or had given up and turned to other areas of interest and concern. They tended to ignore the reading of God’s Word or went through the motions of religious worship without a true sense of commitment or respect towards God and His direction. Many of the priests and officials of the temple had gone from devout and obedient towards God’s laws to empty, rote motions that meant nothing. The true meaning of a heart directed towards the LORD had become lost in religious tradition and ritual. It was at this low point in Israel’s history that the Sovereign LORD put His plans into action.

John the Baptist is now ready to come to the nation’s attention. Matthew’s Gospel describes him as having “a garment of camel’s hair, and a leather belt about his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey” (Matthew 3:4). He and his ministry are presented and described in:

Isaiah 40:3
Malachi 4:5
Matthew 3:1, 4, 7,13, 15; 4:12; 11:2, 7, 11, 14; 14:2, 3, 4, 10; 16:14; 17:13; 21:32
Mark 1:2, 5, 7; 6:14, 20, 29; 8:28; 9:11
Luke 1:13, 57, 60, 76, 80; 3:2; 7:20, 24-27, 28: 9:7, 19; 16:16; 20:6
John 1:6, 15, 19-23, 29; 3:26; 5:33, 35; 10:41
Acts 13:24; 19:4

John was a man of self-denial (Matthew 3:4),

courage (Matthew 3:7; 14:4),

obedient to the LORD (Matthew 3:13),

a powerful preacher (Mark 1:5),

a man of humility (Mark 1:7; John 1:19-23),

a man dedicated to holiness before God (Mark 6:20),

a burning zeal for God (John 3:35),

and a man honored by the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 11:11; Luke 7:24-27).

His message to the people in terms of preparing them for the coming of the Christ was for them to repent of their sins and renew their love for God.

Repentance is not just the act of turning away from one’s sins, but also that of making one’s life accessible to God and surrendering your self-centered ambitions. It allows God to cleanse the sinner and make him into a new person before God. The Scriptures are clear in that all people need to repent now (2 Corinthians 6:2), because no one has any guarantee of tomorrow (James 4:14). John also preached a message of restitution, that is, one who is ready to give to others (v.11) and is demonstrated by the practice of honesty in all things. It is being content with what one has without complaining of what one does not possess. This is a sign of thankfulness.

The issue of being content with what one has needs to be revived and preached by pastors and taught as a principle of godly living in Bible study classes in these times where it seems that a lot of what passes for proclamation of the Word centers on making oneself “prosperous,” and that “poverty” is some kind of horrid sin that is not part of being a child of God. This is a favorite ploy of some unscrupulous televangelists, used as a scheme to make one believe that by sending them “gifts” or “seeds” of money, the individual will receive abundant blessings from God in return. All this has done is to make the televangelist wealthy and has robbed the desperate or equally greedy person, planting seeds of bitterness and unbelief within their lives.

We need to remember that nobody takes anything of this world with them when they die, and there are no trailers behind funeral processions.

John’s preaching also dealt with revival, which starts with an inquiry about the things of God, and prepares the person to reap the rewards of a renewed spirit and see this renewal spread throughout the land, and bring all people to the throne of God for salvation and a return to holiness. True revival begins with the moral change within someone, made possible by a move of God in the person’s life. That renewed individual turns away from his old life and leaves it to die, while embracing the new life under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

In the history of America, for example, preachers such as Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) and George Whitefield (1715-1770) delivered hard-hitting gospel messages from both the pulpit and open field, urging all people to repent and give their lives to Christ. This was known as the “Great Awakening” of the 18^th century, with entire towns coming to salvation and renewal of spirit.

The preaching of John Wesley in England (1703-1790) brought about revival in the land and prevented the nation from going the way of the bloody and atheistic French Revolution that toppled the monarchy and brought in a reign of terror and bloodshed for many years. It was Wesley’s methods of preaching and training of other ministers that brought about what is now the Methodist church, which needs revival itself today.

Repentance and revival mean exposing and naming sin for what it is, and not trying to excuse or justify it when it happens in someone’s life. It can also mean being willing to suffer for the sake of truth.

There are numerous graves around the world filled with the bodies of Christians across the centuries who lived, preached, taught, and defended the faith at the cost of their lives. In over two thousand years, the world, the flesh, and the devil have tried to silence and destroy the message of Jesus Christ to no effect. It is He who will bring all things under His feet and make a new heaven and earth free from the curse of sin and destruction, and will make all things new. This is His promise and was affirmed by His death, resurrection, and ascension.

When John baptizes the Lord Jesus, the entirety of the Triune God is presented with the voice of the Father, the obedience of the Son, and the presence of the Holy Spirit (3:21-22). This is one of the major doctrines of the faith and is also affirmed in passages such as:

Matthew 28:19
John 14:26; 15:26
2 Corinthians 2:12
2 Timothy 4:13

The last section of Chapter 3 presents Jesus’ royal lineage through the bloodline of Mary, who, like Joseph, is of the house of David through his son Nathan. Heli is the father of Mary, and Joseph is his son-in-law. While Matthew’s family history of the Lord Jesus begins with the call of Abraham, Luke traces the lineage all the way back to the origin of man, with the creation of Adam by God Himself. If one does the research, they will find that the family lines coincide with the claim that the Lord Jesus truly is the rightful King of His people and will fulfill that task at the end of days when He comes back to rule and reign for all time.

In the next chapter, He will deal with the enemy of God and shows what to say to the devil when he tries to take the believer down.

donaldwhitchard@gmail.com

www.donaldwhitchard.com

Study Through Romans: Lesson 20 :: By Sean Gooding

Published on: May 29, 2020 by RR7

Chapter 7: 7-25

The Battle Within

“⁷ What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet.’ ⁸ But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. ⁹I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. ¹⁰ And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. ¹¹ For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. ¹² Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.

“¹³ Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. ¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. ¹⁵ For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. ¹⁶ If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. ¹⁷ But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.¹⁸ For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. ¹⁹ For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. ²⁰ Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

“²¹ I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.²² For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. ²³ But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. ²⁴ O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? ²⁵ I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.“

The study of Romans really hits me to the core. It dives deep into the very heart of being a Christian and brings us face to face with our selves. I surrendered to the ministry in the spring of 1984. I was 17 years old and had plans to go to a University here in Ontario to become an accountant or something else. But the Lord had other plans. In September of 1984, I was in seminary in Florida; and the rest, as they say, is history. I was saved as a teen (just 14 years old) in Barbados, my homeland. One Monday night, standing at the National Stadium, having heard a sermon by a preacher who was on a Billy Graham-style crusade in the Caribbean, I asked Jesus to forgive me, save me and put my faith in His death, burial and resurrection.

Over the years, I have heard a lot of people talk about repenting of one’s sins; and in truth I understood I was a sinner and that I needed a Saviour. However, I had no understanding of the depth of my sin. From the conversations I have had with the many saved people that I have known and know, I have come to understand that most of us have no real concept of how sinful we are until after we are saved and the Holy Spirit begins to deal with us.

The Sinfulness of Spiritual Leaders, Hebrews 7:27

Under the Law, the High Priest was required to offer a sacrifice for his own sins before he could offer a sacrifice for the sins of the nation of Israel. This very thing is reconfirmed for us in Hebrew 5:3. He has to offer sacrifices for his own sins and then the sins of the people. We can see that even Aaron, the first High Priest, had sin issues and required forgiveness often. Now, I am not equating the office of a Pastor with that of the Jewish High Priest. But what I am saying is that human spiritual leaders have to deal with their own sinfulness first, and they, we, need to be honest about it. Aaron, or the High Priests that succeeded him, offered sacrifices for their sins publicly; no one was astonished that they were sinners. All of us are sinners.

Sadly, we have built a culture of perceived sinlessness in the pastoral community. Many of the pastors I grew up with kept a very tight rope as to how close they let people get to them and their families. They tried to keep an air of perceived spirituality and not let the scrutinizing eyes in. I know many pastors whose children did not follow mom and dad. The kids rebelled and fought them at every turn, and many simply left when they were old enough to leave. Even with a spiritual leader like Samuel, his sons were no good to the nation. In fact, one of the reasons given to Samuel for the nation to get a king was that his sons were not like him. Look at 1 Samuel 8.

Paul, of course, was a Pharisee before he was saved. He would have lived by the letter of the law; and in his own words, he was blameless. Not sinless. But blameless, meaning he made the appropriate sacrifices at the right time for his sins. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would offer a sacrifice on behalf of the whole nation to cover the sins of the people. Paul was blameless, not sinless. There are some ‘pastors and spiritual leaders’ that present themselves as sinless in this present time. This means that they are telling you they do not commit sin daily. Of course, the Lord dealt with this in 1 John 1:8-9, telling us that any who would say they have no sin, referring to saved persons, are liars. Rather, we need to confess our sins, and God will graciously forgive us and cleanse us.

The Sinfulness of the Man in the Mirror, Romans 7: 7-25

For those of us who are saved at a young age, as I was at 14, we have not yet tapped the depth of our depravity. There are many who are saved even younger than I, and they, once again, have no real concept as to the depths of their depravity as sinners. I can say personally that I am astonished each day as to how sinful I am. I am confronted with my thoughts, my conversations in my head, and my desires, the things that no one sees but me and God; and I am ashamed to say that I am a sinful, very sinful man.

I don’t think that I really began to understand the depth of my depravity until I was out of my teens and maybe even into my later twenties. I was a ‘good kid,’ good grades, seldom in any real trouble, off to seminary at a young age and then into the ministry. I knew I was a sinner and had to deal with the external things that most men deal with. But as I got older, I began to see that there was a real battle in my mind. A battle between what I wanted to do and what I actually did. In my mind I want to serve the Lord wholeheartedly, but the power to submit my body was hard to do. Then a sad but true revelation came to my understanding from something Jesus said in Matthew 15:11. We see this:

“Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.”

Yes, we need to be careful about what we watch and what we read. For our health, we need to be careful about what we eat and drink. But what Jesus tells us here is, it’s what comes out of a man’s mouth; and, later, he references that a man’s mouth speaks the things in his heart, his core. We can do the right things and even say the right things; but, for many of us, it is a mask for what we really want to say and do.

For me, this was a harsh enlightening. I was not one to use swear words, not one to hit on a woman, I regularly attended church and did all the religious things, but I was just a rotten sinner at my core. I was saved, I was redeemed by the blood of Jesus. But, the more I got to know the Word of God, the more time I spent in prayer and in confession, the more sinful I became. The battle waged on and on in my mind and soul, it waged in my members; and there were times when I thought it was easier to just give in, walk away and forget trying to be good, do good, and simply just be.

It would seem that Paul, in the power of the Holy Spirit, came to this sad but eye-opening revelation. A Pharisee would have had a very different view of his own righteousness. We are reminded of this when Jesus observed two men going to the Temple to pray. One, the Pharisee, reminded God how wonderful he was; and the other, a tax collector, reminded God how evil he was. Paul, at one time, would have been the former. But now, he is coming to the realization of his own sinfulness. He is seeing the battle, and he writes about it, almost lamenting the reality of what he has discovered. In verse 18, he makes the statement that in his flesh ‘dwells no good thing.’

There is not even a shred of righteousness in any of us. Not one iota apart from the righteousness we have from Jesus that we are saved. Then in verse 21, Paul comes to the conclusions and statement of the human condition – ‘evil is present with me, the one who wants to do good.’

This is our condition until death or until Jesus comes to get us. In our deepest depths, we desire to do good, do what is right, think, say and do the right things. But at the very moment that we determine to do what is right as revealed in the Word of God, evil, our flesh, our carnal minds, our sinful self is right there, and we become our greatest enemies. It can be depressing, and at times it can be disheartening. But there is a silver lining on these dark clouds; only saved people have this dilemma. Only saved people have this fight; we have even the desire to do what is good. And only we can truly understand the depth of our own depravity; and, in so doing, grow in our wonder at the salvation we have in Jesus.

The more I get to know me, the more wonderful Jesus is. The more I see how sinful I am, the more I understand why the Lord, in His compassion and love, came to save me. I certainly could not save myself. The more I see the sinfulness in my little 7-year old, and the love I have for her, the more I appreciate God’s love for me. The worse I see myself, the more amazing Jesus is. Oh, what a wonderful Savior! And, oh, what amazing grace we have in Him!

Has Jesus saved you? He loves you and gave himself for you. He loves you as the rotten sinner you are. And Romans 5:8 tells us that God showed his love for us in that, while we were sinners, Jesus died for us. He died for your sins and mine. Oh, wretched man that I am, wretched woman that you are, wretched person that you are, who can deliver us from this body of sin? The answer is Jesus. He is the only answer.

Romans 5:8 “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

God bless you,

Pastor Sean Gooding

Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

Mississionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca