Luke 3:16-38

Luke 3:16-38 details the basic ministry of John the Baptist; there are four main points in this text:

1. Date

2. Dude

3. Decree

4. Disclaimer

We looked at the first three last week.  The one I didn’t get to was the disclaimer.  So we will start with that this week.  And it works really well as a transition to the second half of chapter three which shifts the focus off of John and back on to Jesus Christ:

15 The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ.

Verse 15 starts out saying the people were in a state of expectation.  Have you ever been in a state of expectation?  I’ve been in one ever since we contracted with Jon LeBar to pour our steps and handicap ramp for the new building.  He couldn’t give us a firm date. The fact is, we were the last job he agreed to do because he is switching careers.  He knows that we are eager to have the steps poured because we will need them to get occupancy.  So back in October he told me instead of making us wait until the end he would try to squeeze us in early between a couple of other jobs.

Since that time I have been in a state of expectation.  I get up in the morning and I look out my window to see if any work is going on.  Every day when I walk home for lunch I hope to see trucks and construction crews out in our parking lot.  The other day I was sitting in my office when I heard a large truck pull up beside the church.  I jumped out of my chair thinking, “This is it!  He’s here.”  But no, it was just the UPS man.  The more days that go by the higher my expectations run.  Surely he has to be coming soon.

That's just a small example of how almost the entire Jewish nation was feeling.  The Greek phrase can actually be translated ‘standing on tip toe.’  You know how a child when they get really excited for something to happen will stretch up on their tip toes as if that stretching up will help the event arrive sooner.  The whole Jewish community had this strong, excited expectation.  Only they weren’t waiting for a work project to get completed.  They believed that at any moment the Messiah, the deliverer of Israel, God’s chosen instrument would appear on the scene to save them and free them.

It was constantly on their minds.  They whispered about it in the synagogues.  They discussed it in the market place.  They dreamed about it in their homes.  On the streets and in the shops it was a constant topic of conversation.  And the more people talked about it the stronger the anticipation grew, until there was a fervency of belief that at any moment the Messiah was going to come on the scene.

So when some longhaired wild man began preaching out in the wilderness people took notice.  And when he preached with power and conviction the masses began flocking to him.  And then, when he called the Pharisees and the Sadducees on the carpet and reamed them out in public, people couldn’t help but begin to wonder.  “Is this the guy?  Could this be the Christ, the Messiah?” 

There hadn’t been a prophet in Israel for 400 years.  Oh sure there had been plenty of pretenders.  But pretenders, while they may initially draw a bit of a crowd are usually exposed fairly quickly.  It became obvious that John was no pretender.  He was speaking from God.  So they began to wonder if he could be the one. 

But as soon as John got wind of those speculations he put an immediate stop to them. 

16 John answered them all, "I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." 18 And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them.

John could have just said, “Nope, I’m not the one.” and then gone on with his ministry.  But knowing the way people are, sometimes a simple, direct response isn’t good enough.  Can’t you just hear certain people in the crowd if John had simply said “No I’m not the messiah," saying back to him, “Are you sure you’re not him?  Look at all the great things you are doing.”

So rather than take the chance of any misunderstanding or doubt lingering in the people’s minds John emphasized the point that he was in fact not the Messiah in three different ways. 

1. difference in baptisms. 

John reminded the multitudes that his baptism was nothing more than an external ritual.  I baptize you with water he told them.  But the Messiah, the one whose coming has been promised to us, He is going to baptize with the Holy Spirit.  Now for us to understand this point we need to make sure we understand the word baptism the same way John’s crowd would understand it. 

The root word for baptism literally means “to dip.”  The word actually came out of the clothing industry.  If a person made a woolen or cotton garment it would be white.  But all white got pretty boring and so a method of dying the cloth different colors was invented.  People discovered that certain berries and minerals and other elements would stain the cloth. 

They would gather together what they needed to make a certain color and they would boil it up in a big pot.  Then they would take the bolt of cloth and dip it in the pot.  When it went in it was white.  When it came out it had taken on the color of whatever was in the pot.  And it was said to have been baptized because it is now identified with the color that was in the pot. 

Well it didn’t take long for the Jews to recognize the symbolic power in this procedure.  If a person outside of Israel wanted to convert to Judaism part of the process included being baptized.  The religious leaders would dunk the convert in water to symbolically wash off the filth of their old, pagan beliefs and to show that they are now taking on the characteristics of the Jews.  The baptism showed that they are now identified with this new way of life. 

Pretty soon the term baptism came to mean identification with. It was symbolic.  So when John baptized people with water it was an identification of the fact that they had repented of their sins, because that was the message John was preaching.

The Messiah, on the other hand, was going to baptize repentant converts with the Holy Spirit.  Their identification of belonging to Christ would be the fact that they had the Holy Spirit.  That is why the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:9, “But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” 

John did only an external baptism.  The baptism of the Messiah would be internal, a giving of the Holy Spirit to transform a person’s life.

2. John compared their greatness. 

Basically he was saying, “You guys all think I’m great, but wait until the Messiah comes.  He is so great that I am not even worthy to untie his sandals.” 

Now that picture doesn’t mean a lot to us so let me give you a few details to help us understand.  Feet got really dirty back then.  There were no sewer systems so human waste was frequently deposited on roadways.  Shepherds would herd their sheep or goats or cows along roads to take them to market or just to get them from one place to another.  The animals often left proof of their travels along the road. 

So when you walked from one place to another in sandals your feet got really dirty.  That’s why the custom of foot washing before mealtime got started.  Who wants to eat with that smell wafting up around your head? 

The job of taking a person’s sandal off was relegated to the lowest slave.  It was such a menial task that Jewish slaves were exempt from it.  Only a slave that was a foreigner could be given that job.  John said compared to the messiah he wasn’t even equal to the lowest of low slaves. 

3. John pointed out the difference in judgment. 

John preached against sin and many people repented.  He was bold to point out sin.  In fact, that is what got him thrown in prison:

19But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of Herodias, his brother's wife, and all the other evil things he had done, 20Herod added this to them all: He locked John up in prison.

But the messiah would do more than preach about sin.  He would be the final judge of people.

17His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

There would come a day when the Christ, the Messiah would separate all mankind into two groups, one group is wheat the other is chaff.  Back in that day everybody would have been able to picture in their mind the scene John was painting. 

At harvest time stalks of wheat would be cut down and thrown on the threshing floor.  An ox or a donkey would pull a large wooden sled over the stalks causing the wheat to separate from the stalk and breaking the stalk up into little bits.  When that was done the farmer would take a large shovel with tines on it and scoop up a load off the threshing floor.  He would toss it high up into the air.  The heavy grains of wheat would fall straight down.  But the chaff, the husks and the stalk and all that other stuff would be carried away in the wind.  Some day the messiah will separate mankind.  True believers will be gathered into His barn.  The rest will be burned with an unquenchable fire.

John’s job, as he stated himself, was to get the people ready for the Messiah, so that they would be wheat and not chaff.  So imagine John’s surprise when Jesus comes to be baptized.  We know from the other gospels that John recognized who Jesus was.  In the Gospel of John, John the Baptist proclaimed, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”  Matthew records the fact that John tried to protest saying that he should be the one to be baptized by Jesus. 

But Jesus insisted so John baptized Him.

21 When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

A lot of people have wondered about this incident.  Since Jesus was without sin and John was doing a baptism of repentance, why would Jesus need to be baptized?   I’m not sure we’ll ever have a perfect answer to that question this side of heaven, but I think one good possibility is that Jesus did it in order to validate the message and ministry of John.  By submitting to his baptism Jesus is declaring that John’s message is true and that the people need to prepare themselves for salvation. 

However, more important than the act itself is the fact that at the very beginning of His ministry Jesus receives an endorsement from God.  First you have God anointing Jesus for ministry with the Holy Spirit.  The Bible teaches us that Jesus willingly emptied Himself when he left Heaven to be born as human child.  Exactly how and what He emptied Himself of we do not know.  But from this we can see that He relied upon the power of the Holy Spirit for He did not start His ministry until that anointing came.  I believe that the Holy Spirit came upon Him in physical form so that the people would realize God’s favor was on Him.

Then, second you have God identifying Jesus as His own Son.  This would be a point of contention throughout Jesus’ ministry.  The religious leaders would often point to the fact that Mary, his mother, was pregnant outside of marriage.  Then they would make snide remarks saying who know who could be His father.  But God set the record straight right from the start.  He declared, “Thou art My Son.”  There can be no question about the identity of Jesus. 

Anyone can claim to be Jesus Christ.  Any one could say they were God’s own Son.  But only one has been endorsed by God Himself.  Jesus is not just a man, a good teacher or even a prophet.  He is the beloved Son of God the Father.

But he was also fully human.  So Luke gives us His human lineage:

23Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph,
      the son of Heli, 24the son of Matthat,
      the son of Levi, the son of Melki,
      the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph,
    25the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos,
      the son of Nahum, the son of Esli,
      the son of Naggai, 26the son of Maath,
      the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein,
      the son of Josech, the son of Joda,
    27the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa,
      the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel,
      the son of Neri, 28the son of Melki,
      the son of Addi, the son of Cosam,
      the son of Elmadam, the son of Er,
    29the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer,
      the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat,
      the son of Levi, 30the son of Simeon,
      the son of Judah, the son of Joseph,
      the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim,
    31the son of Melea, the son of Menna,
      the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan,
      the son of David, 32the son of Jesse,
      the son of Obed, the son of Boaz,
      the son of Salmon,^[d] the son of Nahshon,
    33the son of Amminadab, the son of Ram,^[e]
      the son of Hezron, the son of Perez,
      the son of Judah, 34the son of Jacob,
      the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham,
      the son of Terah, the son of Nahor,
    35the son of Serug, the son of Reu,
      the son of Peleg, the son of Eber,
      the son of Shelah, 36the son of Cainan,
      the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem,
      the son of Noah, the son of Lamech,
    37the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch,
      the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel,
      the son of Kenan, 38the son of Enosh,
      the son of Seth, the son of Adam,
      the son of God.

Sometimes reading a list of names like that in the Bible gets kind of boring and maybe even seems a bit useless to us.  But we can actually learn some good lessons from it.  Luke traces Jesus’ genealogy all the way back to Adam.  Since all nations have their beginning in Adam it is a reminder to us that Jesus came to save all people.  In a day when there is so much ethnic diversity and hatred it is good for us to be reminded that all humanity is one.  It doesn’t matter what color your skin is or what nation you trace your heritage to, in Adam we are all related. 

We cannot let our petty prejudices blind us to that fact or to the even greater truth that Jesus came for every man and Jesus died for every man.  When you read through the names in this genealogical list you find all kinds different of people.  Some were famous others were unknown.  But Jesus came for all of them.  Some of them had outstanding walks with God, others faltered frequently and some had, shall we say, quite checkered pasts.  But Jesus died for them all.   Every name on that list represents a story.  And God loved them all, loved them enough to send his only Son ‘that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.’ 

The same is true for you and me.