See the Salvation of God
Notes
Transcript
Doxology:
This is my Bible. It is God’s Holy Word. It is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto path, and I will hide its words within my heart, that I might not sin against God. Amen!!
Biblical Text: Luke 3:1-18
For those who may be joining us for the first time today, we started a journey through the Gospels at the beginning of the year. We are taking all four gospels, blending them together, and walking through the life of Jesus in order from start to finish.
We have already made it through the birth accounts of Jesus and John the Baptist, and a few weeks ago, we looked at the only account of Scripture during the childhood of Jesus.
As chapter 3 of Luke opens, 18 years have passed since that last historical event of Jesus’ life, which was Jesus learning from the religious leaders in the temple at 12 years old. The public ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus are about to begin.
Luke 1–5: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Chapter 17: Setting the Stage for Jesus (Luke 3:1–6)
For thirty years each had lived in seclusion. John “lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel” (1:80). Jesus lived in the obscure, out of the way, off the beaten path village of Nazareth, where “He continued in subjection” to His parents (2:51). Only a select few, those who were looking for the consolation and redemption of Israel (2:25, 38), knew the true identities of John and Jesus. Of that small group many, such as Zacharias, Elizabeth, Simeon, Anna, and Joseph, had most likely died by this time and gone on to glory. The angels who announced their births had long since returned to heaven. But the three decades of silence were about to end.
The Old Testament closed with the promise of Messiah’s coming:
1 “Behold, I send My messenger, And he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,” Says the Lord of hosts.
But before Jesus’s ministry could begin, His forerunner was to appear to prepare the way for Him. Years earlier, John the Baptist’s father, Zacharias, had prophesied concerning him:
76 “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways,
So for the opening of the next act, John appears center stage before us so that he can introduce the main character, which is Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
1 Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,
2 while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.
3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins,
4 as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight.
5 Every valley shall be filled And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough ways smooth;
6 And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”
Context
Context
The A.I.M. of this text is to usher in the person and ministry of Jesus, both of which are summed up in vv. 2-3:
2 while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.
3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins,
John’s message of repentance and forgiveness has never changed. It is the same message that every true preacher of God’s truth still proclaims today. It is the good news alone that provides hope to a sin-cursed world.
This message was desperately needed by a religiously bankrupt Israel. Coming out of the Babylonian captivity, a legalistic religion arose amongst God’s people. They believed they could gain a right relationship to God by means of their own efforts. Jesus denounced this false perspective in the Sermon on the Mount. He declared that no one can earn salvation by keeping the law, since the standard is the absolutely perfect holiness of God.
Focusing on external behavior instead of heart attitudes, making showy public displays of giving to the poor, praying, and fasting all mark those on the broad way that leads to destruction. Those counting on such self-righteous achievements to earn their salvation are foolishly building a house on sand - one that will be washed away by the flood of divine judgment. But those who declare spiritual bankruptcy, humbly mourning their sin, yearning for a righteousness granted them by God, and trusting in the Lord Jesus, will become sons of God and inherit the kingdom of God.
Content
Content
Forgiveness of Sins
Forgiveness of Sins
As previously stated, Israel was caught up in a works-based righteousness. Salvation, they were taught, came from keeping the Law, observing the traditions, and performing the rituals. But the realization that they could not perfectly do those things laid a heavy burden of guilt of them. Jesus declared that the Jewish religious leaders:
4 For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
Defending the biblical truth that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, Peter asked his fellow Jews at the Jerusalem coucil:
10 Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
Their manmade, works-based righteousness had failed them. As they sought to get closer to God, they actually moved farther and farther away. They had become lost in their own understanding of righteousness. In turn, they had become accustomed to worshipping the Law of God, and had forgotten all about the God of their Law.
Their focus was on themselves and this caused them to lose sight of God. There was no personal relationship with God anymore.
Yet the Jewish people knew that the New covenant promised forgiveness. In Jeremiah 31:34, God declared, “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
They also understood that God is by nature a forgiving God. The Lord described Himself to Moses as one “who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin.” (Exodus 34:7)
As Moses interceded on behalf of rebellious Israel, he characterized God as “slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression.” (Numbers 14:18)
In Nehemiah 9:17, Nehemiah called God “a God of forgiveness.”
David declared:
1 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered.
2 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit.
5 I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah
5 For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.
12 As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
3 If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
4 But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared.
Daniel also took comfort in the forgiving nature of God.
9 To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him.
Isaiah pictured God’s forgiveness as a cleansing, or being thoroughly washed and made clean.
18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.
Micah also spoke of God’s forgiveness:
19 He will again have compassion on us, And will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins Into the depths of the sea.
All of the great men of God who had personal encounters with God, knew God to be a forgiving God. John the Baptist did not want this understanding of God to be lost. He also was ushering in the Son of God in the flesh, who would show the world firsthand God’s love in physical form. To understand God’s love, all one had to do is watch Jesus.
Even today, all we must do to understand God’s love is to look at the life of Jesus. He embodied God’s love and manifested it to us all. Jesus is God and God is love. Nothing proved that truth more than His sacrifice on the cross for the forgiveness of sin.
Repentance
Repentance
Though God is willing to forgive, forgiveness comes only to those who acknowledge and turn from their sins. That is why John also proclaimed the need for repentance.
3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins,
The concept of repentance was also familiar to the Jewish people.
6 Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.
30 “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, each according to his conduct,” declares the Lord God. “Repent and turn away from all your transgressions, so that iniquity may not become a stumbling block to you.
31 “Cast away from you all your transgressions which you have committed and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! For why will you die, O house of Israel?
32 “For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,” declares the Lord God. “Therefore, repent and live.”
Luke 1–5: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary The Theological Setting
Repentance is not merely an intellectual change of mind about who Christ is, or superficial remorse over the consequences of sin. It is a radical turning from sin to God; a repudiation of the old life and a turning to God for salvation from the penalty and dominion of sin.
9 For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,
Those who come to Him broken in spirit, humble, and mourning over their sins will experience God’s forgiveness.
Saving repentance never exists except in partnership with faith. It is impossible to have true faith in Jesus Christ apart from true repentance from sin.
It must also be understood that repentance is not a human work that earns salvation. Repentance is not a pre-salvation effort by sinners to set their lives right, so that God rewards them by saving them. In true repentance, sinners recognize their dire condition, acknowledge that they are unable to save themselves, and turn to Jesus Christ as the only One who can save them.
9 I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us.
10 For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.
11 For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging of wrong! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter.
Apostle Paul begins by distinguishing remorse from repentance. Remorse is when we are sorry over sin’s consequences. In other words, as long as no one knew about the sin, you were ok with it. But once it was found out and caused damage amongst your loved ones, now you are sorry that you did it. This is being sorry over sin’s consequences.
Repentance, on the other hand, is a complete brokenness over sin. You are beside yourself. You now see sin for what it is, and as a result, you turn from it irrevocably, never to do it again. You put guards in place to aid you in that, regardless of the cost. You would rather suffer physically than be spiritually hindered in that way ever again. You come to a point of repentance when you truly see sin the way God does. When your heart comes into unity with His, sin is no longer an option. It becomes your enemy and you hate it, just as God does.
This in turn leads to a repentance “without regret, leading to salvation” as opposed to the “sorrow of the world that produces death.”
Remorse over sin’s consequences, which is little more than wounded pride stemming from being caught in sin, cannot produce the genuine repentance that results in forgiveness.
Paul then uses a series of words to define repentance.
Earnestness - an eager pursuit of righteousness that ends a person’s indifference to sin and complacency about their lost condition.
Vindication - describes the desire to clear one’s name of the stigma that is attached to sin.
Indignation - is righteous anger at the dishonor sin brings to God’s holy name. It goes hand in hand with “fear” of God’s judgment on sin and a “longing” to have one’s relationship with God restored.
Zeal - a passionate desire for righteousness that causes sinners to long to see justice done and the wrong of their sins avenged and atoned for.
The Corinthians’ desire “to be innocent in the matter” shows that the one who is truly repentant aggressively pursues holiness.
Baptism
Baptism
The baptism in view here is not Believer’s baptism, which symbolizes the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, because it had not yet been instituted. Not did John’s baptism produce forgiveness, for no ritual can accomplish that.
While there were various ceremonial washings in Judaism, there was no baptism of Jews. Though there was no baptism of Jews in Judaism, the Jews did baptize Gentile converts to Judaism.
5 Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him
6 and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.
This means that all of the Jews who were being baptized by John in the Jordan River, as they confessed their sins, were publicly acknowledging that they were no better than the Gentiles.
For Jewish people to place themselves on the same level as the Gentiles, whom they looked down upon, was astonishing. This is a picture of true repentance. They did not care what they looked like. They did not care what others thought. The power of John’s preaching had brought them to a realization of their sinfulness and separation from God. If there was to be any hope for restoration, they would have to come to the end of themselves and look to God for salvation.
Commitment
Commitment
The question I leave with you this morning is this: “Are you willing to do what they did? Have you come to the realization that there is no hope for you to get yourself to heaven. It is simply not within your power to do that. The only hope you have is in Jesus. He alone forgives. He alone can save.
