Luke #9: The Identity of Jesus (3:21-38)

Good morning! We’ve just viewed a video on the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions. Each year in March and April, Eastern Hills takes a special offering to support missions work throughout North America such as church planting, compassion ministries, direct evangelism, and chaplains in various organizations. Our goal as a church is $19,000. As we mentioned during the announcements earlier, the Week of Prayer for North American missions is this week.

Welcome to Family Worship with the church body of Eastern Hills! Whether you’re here in the room or online this morning, we’re glad you’ve decided to be a part of our worship and celebration of Jesus. Thanks praise band for leading us in songs of worship and commitment this morning.

If you’re a guest in the room today, I’d like the chance to just meet you briefly and thank you personally for being here after service is over, if that’s okay. After the benediction verse at the end of the service, would you mind just coming down and introducing yourself if we haven’t met yet? That’s also a great time to give me your welcome card, that you can find in the back of the pew in front of you. You can also put those in the boxes by the doors after the end of service if you don’t have time to come and meet me. If you’d rather fill out something online, you can find that at the bottom of our “I’m New” page on our website or in our mobile app.

Auxano Mind the Gap Survey

Before we get to our message this morning, we are going to spend some time in a different kind of worship. Nearly a year ago now, the church voted to engage the services of Auxano Church Consulting and our friend Dr. Clint Grider to come alongside Eastern Hills to guide us through a process called vision framing. For the past six months, the team that the church appointed to this ministry has been diligently working and praying and seeking the direction that the Lord has for Eastern Hills. Through this process, we’ve had a couple of “wet cement” sessions where we have shared the results of God’s movement through the process. We arrived at a Mission Statement that we believe captures the uniqueness of Eastern Hills: that we are “People helping people live out the unexpected love of Jesus every day.” We’ve also sought to understand and capture the things that we value as a church body: Authentic family; real truth; transformational growth; and practical impact.

We’ve also started work in establishing a broad, four-category strategy of moving us to deeper and deeper involvement and following Jesus. Then finally, we created five general questions that speak to the outcomes that we believe God would want to see in our lives as we follow Him.

Today, we will enter the next phase of our vision framing process. We will take a Mind the Gap Survey, which has been specifically created by our vision framing team to give us the pulse of where we are right now as a church, so that we can get a picture of what we need to focus on as we move forward into the future that God has planned for Eastern Hills. You’ll be able to take the survey online using your mobile device. Those of you watching online are welcome to do the same. We also have paper copies for you to use if you’d prefer. Those will be entered into the online survey by Liana and Rebecca.

This survey will be completely anonymous and confidential. No one is going to know your answers, and in fact, there’s not even a place for your name on the survey. What we need most is that we all approach this survey in a way that’s open and honest before the Lord. It’s really between you and God, so there’s no reason to hide. Hebrews 4:13 tells us: “No creature is hidden from Him, but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account.” This time is God’s people, coming before our Lord, to have Him examine our hearts so that He can show us who we are as a church right now.

(GRAB A STOOL) In fact, before we all enter into this time, allow me to set the stage for honesty and transparency… and you’re going to know a couple of my answers as a result. The first part is just demographic and participation information through question 14. Then comes our mission statement, followed by the “MY MISSION QUESTIONS:” Each of our outcome expression questions, followed by five statements each that fit in that category. Answers will be recorded on a scale ranging from “Not true of me now” to “Very true of me now.” I want to share a couple of mine that I have to check “Not true of me now,” for a couple of different reasons.

First, under the question “How am I keeping my hands open for God’s use?” The second statement is “I build enough margin into my day to respond to the people and opportunities God brings to me.” If I’m going to be transparent and honest, I have to check “Not true of me now.” Church family, I have so much going on at the moment that I don’t feel like I have any margin whatsoever to play with. I’m convicted by this, because not having any margin sometimes makes a ministry opportunity that God brings my way feel like a distraction, rather than a blessing. That’s not a good place to minister from. But if I’m going to be honest, “Not true of me now” is what I have to check here.

I also have to check “Not true of me now” for something that I used to do, but haven’t in a while (as my margins have vanished, probably). Under “How am I growing Christian friends who are growing me?”, the third statement says, “I meet for accountability with at least one godly person who knows what I’m currently struggling with and helps me apply biblical solutions.” I used to do this all the time, but really every since the pandemic, this accountability relationship where someone holds ME accountable has fallen more by the wayside. Nearly all of my regular discipleship meetings are more focused on me pouring into someone else. Not that that’s bad… I am a pastor, after all. But I used to have a men’s group that did this, and we just have all gotten so busy that meeting became difficult, and we stopped. So for this one, I’m going to check “Not true of me now,” and prayerfully listen to how God would have me make a change in this regard.

One that I would check “Slightly true of me now” is the second statement under the last question: “How am I sharing my faith journey with neighbors where I live, work, and play?” The statement, “I know the names of my neighbors and spend enough time with them to know their current joys and struggles,” is slightly true for me now. I know the names of the folks on my cul-du-sac, and I know the struggles and joys of a couple of them, but certainly not all of them. So I’m going to mark “Slightly true of me now.”

So, the time has come for us to take this survey. There will be a QR code and URL on the screen, and if you’d prefer to use a paper copy, please raise your hand and the vision framing team will bring you a copy. Let’s pray before we dive in.

Opening

Last week, we saw that John the Baptist called all people to repentance, to fruitfulness, and ultimately, to Christ. That call hasn’t changed. We are still to confess and repent of our sin, as we reflected as we answered the fifth question in the first mission section. We are to bear the fruit of compassion, integrity, and humility in our lives—fruit consistent with repentance, according to John. But without being in a relationship with Jesus by faith, we won’t see either repentance nor the fruit that flows from it in our lives. We need Jesus.

And in this morning’s passage, we arrive at the baptism of Jesus in the waters of the Jordan river, the inauguration of His ministry on earth, which will culminate in His dying on the cross for the sins of the world so that we can be justified before our holy God, and His victory over death and the grave, so we can have eternal life.

So please stand as you are able in honor of the reading of God’s holy Word, and turn to Luke 3 in your Bibles or Bible apps in order to follow along as I read our focal passage this morning, verses 21-38:

Luke 3:21–38 CSB

21 When all the people were baptized, Jesus also was baptized. As he was praying, heaven opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in a physical appearance like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well-pleased.” 23 As he began his ministry, Jesus was about thirty years old and was thought to be the son of Joseph, son of Heli, 24 son of Matthat, son of Levi, son of Melchi, son of Jannai, son of Joseph, 25 son of Mattathias, son of Amos, son of Nahum, son of Esli, son of Naggai, 26 son of Maath, son of Mattathias, son of Semein, son of Josech, son of Joda, 27 son of Joanan, son of Rhesa, son of Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, son of Neri, 28 son of Melchi, son of Addi, son of Cosam, son of Elmadam, son of Er, 29 son of Joshua, son of Eliezer, son of Jorim, son of Matthat, son of Levi, 30 son of Simeon, son of Judah, son of Joseph, son of Jonam, son of Eliakim, 31 son of Melea, son of Menna, son of Mattatha, son of Nathan, son of David, 32 son of Jesse, son of Obed, son of Boaz, son of Salmon, son of Nahshon, 33 son of Amminadab, son of Ram, son of Hezron, son of Perez, son of Judah, 34 son of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham, son of Terah, son of Nahor, 35 son of Serug, son of Reu, son of Peleg, son of Eber, son of Shelah, 36 son of Cainan, son of Arphaxad, son of Shem, son of Noah, son of Lamech, 37 son of Methuselah, son of Enoch, son of Jared, son of Mahalalel, son of Cainan, 38 son of Enos, son of Seth, son of Adam, son of God.

PRAYER (North American Missionaries)

I have up here with me this morning three forms of identification. I have my driver’s license, my passport, and my Costco membership card. With these three things, you could learn a little bit about me: my full name, my address, my eye color, what I look like (in black and white, in the case of my Costco card), and some of where I have traveled in the world. Most of us carry around proof of our identity such as these. We use these things as evidence of the fact that we are who we say we are, we live where we say we live, etc. These things are not our identity itself, though: they merely affirm facts about us so others can know those facts. I mean, if you took my three things that I have up here with me this morning, you would actually know very little about me. But what you would know is pretty important stuff.

Well, this morning our focal passage serves as a couple of forms of identification for Jesus, and what we learn from this passage is extremely important. Is it everything that we need to know about Jesus? Certainly not! But the two identifications that we see between Jesus’s baptism and His genealogy are vital for everything else we know about Him.

The two pieces of identification are hinted at in the prophecy about Jesus back in Isaiah chapter 9. In verses 6 and 7, we read the following:

Isaiah 9:6–7 CSB

6 For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 7 The dominion will be vast, and its prosperity will never end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever. The zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish this.

“A child will be born for us… He will reign on the throne of David...” These two things are prophecies of Messiah’s humanity. The Messiah would be a literal human child (to start), who would actually be born. Not only that, but he would have a link to the throne of David—he would have to be one of David’s descendants in order to rule on David’s throne. Not just anyone can do so. This is actually the proof of Jesus’s identity that we will consider second this morning.

“...a son will be given to us… He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” These things prophesy about Messiah’s divinity. He would be a “son” who is “given” to humanity. The Messiah would also have the attributes and even the titles of the Lord Himself: Mighty God, Eternal Father, but still possession the position of sonship: Prince of Peace. It is this identity of Jesus that we will consider first this morning:

1: Proof of Jesus’s divine identity

Because we are reading the book of Luke, we’ve gone to this point after reading chapters 1 and 2. We’ve read about Gabriel appearing to Mary, saying that Jesus would be called the Son of the Most High (1:32) and the Son of God (1:35); we’re read the angel’s declaration to the shepherds that Jesus is the Savior, the Messiah, the Lord (2:11); and read of Simeon’s celebration of seeing God’s salvation in person (2:30). The testimony has been powerful, but none as powerful or important as what occurred at Jesus’s baptism:

Luke 3:21–22 CSB

Luke doesn’t mention directly that John baptized Jesus, but he doesn’t need to. The first readers of his Gospel wouldn’t have taken a break right before what we have as verse 21. Verse numbers and section headers didn’t exist then. He verbally rewinds to John’s ministry again by saying, “When all the people were baptized.”

Jesus was praying as He was baptized, and “as soon as He came up out of the water” (according to Mark 1:10), His identity was declared by the Father and reinforced by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit came in physical reality in the form of something “like a dove,” and rested “on Him,” (this will be VERY important next week) while the Father spoke from heaven, testifying that Jesus is His beloved Son and is well-pleasing to Him.

In His declaration, the Father weaves together language from two prophecies connected to the Messiah: Psalm 2:7 and Isaiah 42:1.

Psalm 2:7 CSB

7 I will declare the Lord’s decree. He said to me, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.

Isaiah 42:1 CSB

1 “This is my servant; I strengthen him, this is my chosen one; I delight in him. I have put my Spirit on him; he will bring justice to the nations.

It’s rare that all three Divine Persons appear in the same verse of Scripture, but here we have precisely that: God the Son is baptized. God the Father speaks. God the Holy Spirit descends. One Godhead in three Persons: The Trinity revealed.

Now, if I were to tell you that Maggie and Abbie are my daughters, you might not believe me. I confess, sometimes I’m shocked by it myself. You might think, “How could such an average guy have such beautiful daughters?” Only by God’s grace and their Mel’s beauty, I promise. But if they themselves agreed with the statement that they are my daughters, that would strengthen my testimony. Jesus did the same thing. He called Himself “the Son” when referring to God the Father over and over in the Gospels, and I’m not referring to Him calling Himself “the Son of Man,” which He also did over and over. One example is John 17:1:

John 17:1 CSB

1 Jesus spoke these things, looked up to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you,

Furthermore, if other people, who had known me and Melanie and Maggie and Abbie for at least the girls’ whole lives, joined me in the testimony of their parentage, you’d be more likely to believe it. The Father’s testimony about the Divine Sonship of Jesus is reaffirmed in other places in Scripture (not that the Father needs reaffirmation). Here are just two examples:

Acts 9:20 CSB

20 Immediately he began proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues: “He is the Son of God.”

Hebrews 1:2–3 CSB

2 In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son. God has appointed him heir of all things and made the universe through him. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

Jesus is the Son of God, and we can believe it. He said it, and He proved it. We can identify Him as God’s Son through the testimony of the Father, the Spirit, the Word, and His own testimony about Himself.

Now, we might be left with one lingering question because of verses 21 and 22. Remember that John’s baptism, according to verse 3 which we saw last week, was “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” I mentioned it was an “outer sign on an inner change.” But Jesus is God: perfect and sinless. Why would He need to be baptized? Matthew gives us a little insight:

Matthew 3:14–15 CSB

14 But John tried to stop him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you come to me?” 15 Jesus answered him, “Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John allowed him to be baptized.

Jesus didn’t need to be baptized for repentance. He was baptized as a means of identification: Though Jesus is completely sinless, He still came “in the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity.” (Phil 2:7). I view His baptism as a part of this “taking on” of our likeness. It’s a part of the proof of His humanity, which is our next point:

2: Proof of Jesus’s human identity

In modern thinking, no respectable historian would deny the fact that there was a human male named Jesus from Nazareth in the early first century AD. Accepting His humanity is easy for us. We are more likely to struggle with His divinity. But believe it or not, the greater issue in the early years of Christianity was Jesus’s humanity. Given the testimony of those who had been with Christ, it was easy to believe that Jesus was God in the flesh. The part they struggled with was whether He was actually human, or only appeared to be.

Well, the man Jesus is a card-carrying member of the human race, even though He is also divine. Luke gives us proof of this identity:

Luke 3:23 CSB

23 As he began his ministry, Jesus was about thirty years old and was thought to be the son of Joseph, son of Heli,

In order to save a little time this morning, I’m not going to re-read the entire genealogy. We often tend to kind of “glaze over” genealogies in the Scriptures, because we think that they don’t have much to offer us. However, in his commentary on Luke, Pastor Thabiti Anyabwile explains two important reasons for genealogies in the Bible:

First, they prove who was Jewish and who was not. God’s covenants, all the way back to the promise He made to Abraham in Genesis 12 that all the nations on the earth would be blessed through Abraham’s offspring, were made to the nation of Israel. The Messiah HAD to be Jewish.

Second, genealogies prove who was or was not a “son of David.” In the Davidic covenant, which God made with David in 2 Samuel 7, God promised:

2 Samuel 7:16 CSB

16 Your house and kingdom will endure before me forever, and your throne will be established forever.’ ”

There would eventually come from David’s line the promised Messiah, whose reign and rule would be established forever. So not only did the Messiah have to be Jewish, but He had to be a direct descendant of King David.

Both of these things are very “human” facts about the Messiah. He had to be from a particular ethnic group, and even more specifically, He had to be from a particular tribe in that people group—Judah (because David was from the tribe of Judah), AND He had to be from a particular clan within that tribe—the clan of David.

But it gets better. There was a curse brought on David’s “royal” line through Jeconiah because of his disobedience to the Lord, and was broken:

Jeremiah 22:30 CSB

30 This is what the Lord says: Record this man as childless, a man who will not be successful in his lifetime. None of his descendants will succeed in sitting on the throne of David or ruling again in Judah.

So the Messiah had to come from David, but NOT from Jeconiah.

Back in the first message from this series in Luke, which Joe preached, he mentioned that the genealogy in Matthew 1 traces Joseph’s line, while the genealogy in Luke traces Mary’s line. Some scholars agree with this take, and some do not.

The fact is that the two genealogies are quite different: Matthew traces downward beginning with Abraham, while Luke traces upward from Jesus, going all the way back to Adam. There’s a reason for this: As I said last week, Matthew’s Gospel was a Jew writing to Jews about the Jewish Messiah. His primary concern is the Jewish people, who traced their heritage back to Abraham. Luke was a Gentile writing to Gentiles about the Savior of humanity, so he went all the way back to Adam, the first human. Matthew’s genealogy covers 42 generations, and Luke’s covers 77.

The two lists are the same from Abraham to David (other than some commentary that Matthew offers). But the first generation after David, they split. Matthew traces the “royal” line through Solomon, and Luke proceeds from Solomon’s brother, Nathan. They meet back up at Shealtiel, the father of Zerubbabel, who led the first Jews back to Jerusalem from Babylon, then split again with Zerubbabel’s children, not coming together again until the mention of Joseph.

So how do we know that Matthew followed Joseph’s line, and Luke followed Mary’s? Generally speaking, the early chapters of both writings are from the perspectives of Joseph (in Matthew) and Mary (in Luke). But more than that, we get an extra hint in verse 23. “Jesus was about thirty years old and was thought to be the son of Joseph.” Matthew records that someone named Jacob fathered Joseph, a very specific term. I believe that Heli, listed next in Luke, was Mary’s father, or Joseph’s father-in-law, and Joseph is listed as “son” of Heli because of convention at the time. Nathan is my son, the only son I have, even though he is my son-in-law.

One last thought on this: Jesus’s human lineage doesn’t include Joseph at all. This is why Matthew ends his genealogy with verse 16:

Matthew 1:16 CSB

16 and Jacob fathered Joseph the husband of Mary, who gave birth to Jesus who is called the Messiah.

and then launches right into the record of the virgin birth. Joseph was in the line of Jeconiah. Matthew was actually proving that Joseph wasn’t Jesus’s father, because if he were, then Jesus couldn’t be the Messiah. Luke records that Mary’s line is traced back to David’s son Nathan, who was not in the “royal” line, but was a prince of Israel nonetheless, and so Jesus can be traced back to David, but apart from the Jeconian curse. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant.

One more genealogical point to make before we answer the question of why this identity stuff really matters: Luke’s list ends in a really interesting way:

Luke 3:38 CSB

38 son of Enos(h), son of Seth, son of Adam, son of God.

“Son of God.” Does that mean that Adam was divine? That was the argument that I suggested in the first point. No, it doesn’t mean that he was divine. But it does mean that he was divinely begotten. Everyone else in the list was the child of some other man: Seth from Adam, Enosh from Seth. But Jesus didn’t have a man as His Father—He was begotten directly of God by the power of the Spirit:

Luke 1:35 CSB

35 The angel replied to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.

Likewise, Adam didn’t have a man as his father—He was begotten directly by God Himself. The man Jesus and the man Adam share this distinction. And through the first Adam came our death as a result of sin. Through the second “Adam” came life, as Paul wrote in Romans:

Romans 5:14–17 CSB

14 Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam’s transgression. He is a type of the Coming One. 15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if by the one man’s trespass the many died, how much more have the grace of God and the gift which comes through the grace of the one man Jesus Christ overflowed to the many. 16 And the gift is not like the one man’s sin, because from one sin came the judgment, resulting in condemnation, but from many trespasses came the gift, resulting in justification. 17 If by the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

So the sin of the first Adam brought death to humanity, but the righteousness and grace of the second “Adam” (1 Cor 15:45) brings eternal life to those who belong to Him by faith. And this is because Jesus, being both divine and human, is uniquely positioned to be the mediator between God and mankind, which is the point this morning:

The Point: Jesus is our mediator

Granted: this point isn’t found in the passage we’re considering this morning. However, it is the point of Jesus being both fully God and fully man. We need a mediator, a “go-between,” to represent us before the Father, because the truth is that we deserve God’s wrath, not His love.

In the Old Testament, Job was a righteous man, but not perfect. And when great difficulty came into his life, he wanted to question the Lord about it. But even in that, Job understood that at that point, there was no one to fill that role. His statement is a hint of what God was going to do through Messiah:

Job 9:33 CSB

33 There is no mediator between us, to lay his hand on both of us.

Because God’s love for us, this is what Jesus has done. Since He is fully God, He was able to pay the price that we owe because of our sin—the choices that we make that don’t honor God, both by commission and omission, in both act and thought, in public or in private. God sees it all, and must call it all to judgment because of His holiness. So Christ died, giving Himself willingly as a “ransom” to purchase us out of death, testifying through His sacrifice to the incredible love of God.

1 Timothy 2:5–6 CSB

5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, a testimony at the proper time.

In Jesus, God Himself covered the cost of our sin, so that He could establish a new covenant of life with humanity. This new covenant is a a covenant of freedom, hope, and peace, because its ultimate promise is eternal life with God Himself because of our justification through the sacrifice of Christ. The author of Hebrews wrote it this way:

Hebrews 9:15 CSB

15 Therefore, he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance, because a death has taken place for redemption from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

This is why God the Son had to come. This is why He had to come truly as a man. This is why He had to die, and why it is so awesome that He rose again! If we stop trying to mediate our own salvation, and surrender to His redeeming work in faith, believing that He came, and died, and rose so that we can be saved, trusting Him as Lord of our lives, we will be set free from sin and shame and death, and will have eternal life that starts now, and lasts forever.

Will you surrender to Christ in faith this morning? Joe, Kerry, and Rich are going to join me down here in just a moment after I pray, and we would love to hear how God is moving in your heart regarding the Gospel. If you’re surrendering to Christ right now for the first time, this church family wants to rejoice and celebrate with you, because according to Scripture, you have passed from death into life! Would you please come and share that with us? If you’re online, I want to hear about how God is working through the Gospel in your heart as well. Send me an email.

One of the first steps of obedience that we take after we come to faith is to be baptized as a visible picture of the fact that we have died, been buried, and raised again to new life in Christ. Baptism is a testimony of the fact that we’ve been saved, and declares to the church that we have been adopted into the family of God. If you need to be baptized, come and share that with me.

If you’ve been praying about joining the church in formal membership, and you’d like to discuss that with me, come and let me know, so that we can make an appointment to sit down and answer any questions you have, to share our testimonies with each other, and to talk about our Statement of Belief. If you’ve already had that conversation with me, and are ready to present yourself to the church family for membership, please come during this time of response.

If you need prayer, we are available to pray with you, or if you’d like to come and pray at the steps, you are welcome to do so.

This time of response is also a good time to give as the Lord leads you. You can give online through the website or our mobile app, through texting EHBCGIVE at 888-364-GIVE, or physically using the boxes by the doors.

As the band and others come, let’s stand and pray together.

PRAYER

Closing Remarks

Bible reading (Eze 14, Ps 54)

Pastor’s Study tonight (second-to-last week in Ephesians)

Prayer Meeting Wednesday - focusing on North American missions.

Instructions for guests

Benediction

Hebrews 10:19–25 CSB

19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus—20 he has inaugurated for us a new and living way through the curtain (that is, through his flesh)—21 and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. 23 Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, since he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, 25 not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.

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