E100-54

 

John the Baptist

Luke 3:1-20

Kevin's Commentary

You are encouraged to go through steps or process scripture in these steps:

• Pray = in anticipation of what God wants you to discover. God, my Lord, I’m always eager to be with You and listen to You speak to me through Your Word and Spirit.
• Read = with purpose look for what God is trying to communicate. You may want to read out of several translations and highlight key words.
• Reflect = on the context and put yourself in the shoes of people at that time. If John the Baptist had a message for us today, what do you think it would be? How do you think he would look, communicate, and be received by people?
•     God is ... What do we learn about God?
•     We are ... What do we learn about people?
• Apply = information without application is fruitless. Decide on some practical steps you can take for fulfill what God wants you to do. John told his listeners how to produce “fruit in keeping with repentance.” If you need to produce any or any more of that fruit, adopt one of John’s suggestions.
• Pray = yielding to God to empower you to do what the word convicted you to do. Lord, sometimes Your Word makes me uncomfortable but I do want to hear it clearly and obey it fully.

For deeper Bible study and more resources go to Life of Christ Blog notes.

For other parts of the Essential 100 Scripture Series, click on the link with the topic #E100.

#Repentance

Notes:

Time for a Change

John chose to live in the desert 

(1) to get away from distractions so he could hear God's instructions; 

(2) to capture the undivided attention of the people; 

(3) to symbolize a sharp break with the hypocrisy of the religious leaders who preferred their luxurious homes and positions of authority over doing God's work; 

(4) to fulfill Old Testament prophecies that said John would be a voice calling in the wilderness to prepare the way for the Lord (Isaiah 40:3). 

The purpose of John's preaching was to prepare people to accept Jesus as God's Son. When John challenged the people to confess sin individually, he signaled the start of a new way to relate to God. Is change needed in your life before you can hear and understand Jesus' message? You have to admit that you need forgiveness before you can accept it. To prepare to receive Christ, repent. Denounce the world's dead-end attractions, sinful temptations, and harmful attitudes.

Beyond Words

John's message demanded at least three specific responses: 

(1) Share what you have with those who need it; 

(2) whatever your job is, do it well and with fairness; 

(3) be content with what you're earning. 

John had no time to address comforting messages to those who lived careless or selfish lives—he was calling the people to right living. Just as a fruit tree is expected to bear fruit, God's people should produce a crop of good works. God has no use for people who call themselves Christians but do nothing about it. Like many people in John's day who were God's people in name only, we are of no value if we are Christians in name only. If others can't see our faith in the way we treat them, we may not be God's people at all.

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Kill to Make Alive

(Luke 3:1-20)

John was not a smooth, comfortable preacher. He was blunt, confrontive. He pulled no punches, and preached a message of coming wrath. He was one of those "sin" preachers that folks today seem to find so distasteful.

John's warning not to rely on descent from Abraham (v. 8) struck at a root of first-century Jewish faith. As the chosen people, the seed of Abraham, and possessors of God's Law, many felt their standing with God was secure. John attacked this favored doctrine, and demanded repentance matched by moral reform.

Perhaps it's surprising, but people often hunger for just this kind of preaching. Deep down everyone senses he is not what he could or should be. There's a sense of relief when pretenses are stripped away, and we're forced not only to face our need—but are given hope that we may somehow become better than we are.

It's this that kept crowds coming to hear John, and wondering in their hearts if John might be the Christ. And it's this that makes modern John-like messages of repentance and "unquenchable fire" messages of "good news" too (vv. 17-18). The Bible's "condemning" word about sin isn't condemning at all! In demanding that we face our guilt, Scripture brings rather than annihilates hope. Only when we face guilt do we seek forgiveness, and find the new life in the Jesus that John preached.

So while you and I rightly major on the grace of God when sharing Jesus with others, it's not wrong now and then to stand, like John, and fearlessly rebuke both sin and sinner. The word that condemns is at times the door of hope.

Personal Application

Let God guide you when to share the Good News in the guise of bad.

Quotable

"Ministers who can preach the Gospel of Jesus in our kind or civilization without making anyone uncomfortable deserve an automobile for the difficult feat. And they need one to compensate them for the lack of spiritual vitality which makes performance of the feat possible."—Reinhold Niebuhr