The Son of God
Luke • Sermon • Submitted
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Transcript
Explain the Bible a bit if new people (we believe it’s a good book and a book where we learn about our savior Jesus)
We started looking at a book in the Bible called Luke.
Here’s a short video that will introduce the book and will also cover some concepts that we have already mentioned, especially during the Christmas season.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OLezoUvOEQ
Before we look at the ministry of Jesus, Luke included how Jesus prepared for his earthly ministry.
When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened 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.”
There are many people who have their opinions on who was Jesus? Maybe you have your own opinion.
As we start a new year, I think it’s helpful to see what the Bible says concerning Jesus. Having the right view on Jesus can help us as we begin to walk into 2021.
Today, we will see who God himself thought Jesus was-Who did God think Jesus was? Let’s pray so that God may help us.
Prayer
There is a big difference in the area of time between the last time we spoke about Luke and what we read today.
Last time we saw Jesus when he just born and now Jesus is an adult.
A lot of time has passed in the life of Jesus.
When we focused on Luke back during Christmas, we saw the birth of Christ.
And now, Jesus is in his thirties.
While Jesus was in his thirties there was this form of religious revival taking place in the land of Judea, the land where Jesus was at while he was in his thirties.
A cousin of Jesus, John—he was the son of Elizabeth, he was leading a religious revival.
He wanted people to return to God.—A spiritual revival was taking place.
And John baptized the masses as a sign of their renewed devotion to God.
Jesus, then came to the scene.
He came and was baptized by John.
Jesus didn’t need to renew his relationship with God, but he was supporting the work, ministry, revival that his cousin, John, was leading, and Jesus was identifying himself with those whom he came to save.
After Jesus was baptized, Jesus began to pray.
Prayer was an important practice for Jesus. As we will see in our time with Luke, Jesus would regularly pray, especially in critical moments of his life. His baptism happened to be a critical moment.
And as followers of Jesus, we should pray. I encourage you to take this month, as we start a new year—I encourage you to join us in prayer. Everyday, as Alyda mentioned we will have a different emphasis to pray about.
Jesus did it, his disciples did it, and so should we.
Now, as Jesus was speaking to God in prayer, the heavens opened.
The heavens opening was a common event within the Bible—it would happen whenever something was going to be revealed.
It was also reminiscent of the Exodus and Sinai—The heavens would open, and God would be with Moses and sometimes God’s fire would fall.
When the heavens opened this time,
the Holy Spirit descended.
This is also reminiscent of the Day of Pentecost. On the Day of Pentecost, on the day when the church started, like Jesus, the disciples—his followers, prayed, and the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit fell. Luke is showing a link between prayer and the Holy Spirit.
Well, what is the Holy Spirit? Or rather, who is the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit is God’s spirit.
We first see it in
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
Then, we see the Spirit empower people in the Old Testament.
In Exodus 3:1-5, Bezalel, a builder, was empowered by the Holy Spirit to do certain tasks.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills—to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts.
Kinda interesting to see how the Spirit can empower people in different ways. It’s not always in churchy stuff, but as we see here, the Spirit can empower people to work in craftsmanship.
In Isaiah 11:2, there is a prophecy of a son of David, David was a great king—this son would receive the Spirit of wisdom and power.
Look,
The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of might,
the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—
And now we are seeing the fulfillment of this.
The Spirit that we saw in Genesis has descended on Jesus.
Jesus has the Spirit of the Lord.
The Spirit has empowered and anointed Jesus.
Jesus is full of wisdom and understands, and has power and knowledge.
While Jesus had been anointed by the Spirit, this does not mean that Jesus was adopted as the Son of God.
As we saw in the nativity story, Jesus was already the Son of God.
The Spirit descending was a public, visible sign.
The Spirit had descended—it was a visible sign.—a sign of God anointing Jesus. God selecting and preparing Jesus.
The Spirit descended in bodily form, as a dove.
And then, there was a voice from heaven—this was the voice from God himself.
He said, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
God used two prophetic, biblical verses, that were written centuries ago, to describe his relationship with Jesus and to identify Jesus.
Who did God think Jesus was? Well, to answer the question,
God quoted Psalm 2:7 and Isaiah 42:1
The first part of the declaration “You are my Son” comes from Ps. 2:7.
And the second part, “with you I am well pleased” is from Isaiah 42:1.
Psalm 2:7 says
I will proclaim the Lord’s decree:
He said to me, “You are my son;
today I have become your father.
This was a messianic prophecy.
The people of Israel were waiting for a king, hundreds of years ago.
This was a verse that the Israelites would read over their kings at the coronation ceremonies, in expectations for the true king who would come to bring peace and restoration.
And at Jesus’ baptism, God is the one who declares that Jesus is his son.
As God’s son, Jesus is the awaited king!
Jesus is the Davidic king who is God’s earthly representative.
Jesus fulfills the long awaited hopes.
He is the hope this world needs and needed.
And God also quoted
“Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
and he will bring justice to the nations.
The prophet Isaiah spoke of a future servant of God.
In other verses, the prophet spoke on how the future servant would suffer.
But here we see that the servant is God’s chosen one in whom God delights.
And God would put his spirit on him and this servant will bring justice.
And at Jesus’ baptism, we see God’s Spirit come on Jesus.
We see that God is truly pleased with Jesus.
He delights in him.
This is central as we continue to look at Jesus.
When we see Jesus do his miracles, we must see that before he started his ministry, Jesus was already God’s Son. God had already delighted in Jesus.
Jesus was born as God’s Son.
And We saw with the angel Gabriel and Mary, that Jesus is the Son of God.
With the angels and the shepherds, we see that Jesus is His Son.
Jesus is the Son of God.
And at Jesus’ baptism, we see God himself declare that Jesus is the Son of God.
God’s words here are an unimpeachable declaration of Jesus regarding his identity and mission.
Jesus is God’s servant and son who fulfills God’s purpose and mission of redemption and establishing peace with justice.
This is the promise of Old:
God would have a son who would bring a peaceful kingdom.
(Hand motion Gospel)
And now, Luke is challenging us.
He is putting us at a crossroads.
Will we decide to join Elizabeth, the angels, and God himself by recognizing and affirming Jesus’ identity as the Son of God, or will we oppose Luke, the angels, and even God himself?
Everything that follows comes from the fact of Jesus’ identity—that he is the Son of God:
Now, because Jesus has come on a mission, on God’s behalf, forgiveness is possible. (Raise tied hands)
Look at this perspective:
New Testament III: Luke Heaven Opened so that Sin Could Be Forgiven
HEAVEN OPENED SO THAT SIN COULD BE FORGIVEN. ORIGEN: The Lord was baptized. The heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit came down upon him. A voice from the heavens thundered and said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am pleased.” We should say that heaven was opened at the baptism of Jesus and for the plan of forgiving sins.
Jesus is God’s son, and as his son, he was faithful to his father, he did the will of his father, by dying on the cross and taking our sins upon the cross.
I pray that today you would see Jesus as God’s faithful son, just as God himself declared it.
I pray that you would be able to answer the question “who is Jesus” by saying that he is the Son of the living God.