Christ As the Prophesied One

Intro

Alright, welcome back everyone. And if you’re new with us tonight, welcome for the first time. Thanks for joining us tonight as really dive into the Gospel of Luke.

Speaking of which, if you have your Bible on you, or a device that has the bible app, go ahead and turn to Luke Chapter 3. Get your eyes on the word of God.

Why is this important? So that you can see that it’s not just my opinion, or my idea of what should be said, but that everything we discuss tonight is from God’s word itself.

So, Luke Chapter 3. We will be starting in verse 7 when we get to it…but before that I want to make sure we have an understanding of who Luke is and when this gospel was written.

I didn’t really get a chance to dive into the history of Luke last week, so give me a minute to just give you some context. Because one of the ways to bring about Confidence in the Word, one of our C’s, is to understand as much about it as we can.

So. Luke.

The gospel was written or at least complete somewhere around 62AD. That is, a little less than 30 years after the death of Christ.

If you’re interested in understanding how we know, come find me afterwards and I’d love to nerd out with you.

But for now, Luke was written around 62AD. And Luke himself, we know, was not only a Physican…that is a doctor…but he was also a gentile (non-jew).

On top of that, we know that he was a disciple of the apostle Paul. In fact, if we are thinking about the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John…Luke is the gospel that was most certainly influenced by the apostle Paul. As it was probably under his leadership and authority Luke wrote what he did.

So…all that to say. Luke, heavily influence and discipled by Paul. As a gentile doctor, wrote this gospel…and wrote a super detailed account, so that Theophilus…who we talked about last week…could be more confident in what he was taught.

Alright…sorry…I know that’s a bit of info..but it’s important info and knowing the history and context helps us better defend the word of God to naysayers, and gives it a higher authority in our lives.

So…that’s the 2 minute history of Luke. Now here’s what we are getting into today...

I told you we would be going through Luke, and discovering more about Jesus. And today starts that journey.

In Luke 3, we see what it means for the Jewish people that Jesus was the Prophesied one.

If you’re taking notes, which I always encourage you to do…you could title this note page “Christ as the Prophesied One”

Because that’s what we are seeing today.

That Jesus was indeed the long prophesied savior, messiah, Christ.

What it meant for the jewish people of the day, and what it means for us today.

Got it?

So in Luke chapter 3, we see the story of John the Baptist. If you don’ know who he is…he’s Jesus’ cousin, born to Zechariah and Elizabeth…there’s a whole miraculous story there found earlier in Luke…but in this chapter Luke is focusing on how John the baptist was preparing the way for Christ.

If you look down at the text, it says in verse 2, that the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah and he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (more on that in a minute)…and then Luke shows us that what John the baptist was doing…was fulfilling a prophecy that was made 800 years before by the prophet Isaiah.

And what did the prophet say? What is it that John is fulfilling? Follow along with me as I read

Luke 3:4–6 ESV

As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”

800 years before John the Baptist was born…Isaiah said there would be someone who would come out of the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord. and that he would make his paths straight...

Meaning…there would be someone that came before God/this long awaited savior of the jewish people…there would be someone that came before him that would prepare the way…that would create a level path for him to do what he needs to do.

And what Luke is saying…is that John is that guy.

John is like the opening band at a concert. He’s there to still play music/aka preach the truth, but his purpose is to get people’s attention, direct them toward the stage, get them excited, announce what to expect, increase their anticipation, create space for more people to walk in and be ready…that’s John the baptist in a nutshell.

He’s the one who will prepare the way of the promised one…because what does it say in verse 5 is going to happen when the promised one arrives?

Luke 3:5–6 ESV

Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”

Everything that is broken will be made right. Everything will be leveled and even. All things that are out of place, will be put back....the world will be made right.

Luke quotes Isaiah the prophet here, not only to show that what John was doing was declared 800 years before he would even do it…but to emphasize that Jesus…who this whole gospel is centered around, just like our lives should be centered around him...

Jesus, is the the long awaited prophesied one.

He’s the headliner. The one that everyone has been waiting.

And people have been waiting for him…for a long time.

Way back, at the dawn of time…thousands of years before even the Prophet Isaiah made his prophecy…God himself declared a prophecy.

In Gen. 3…the fall of man had just happened. Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they ate the fruit of the tree that they had been commanded not to…they brought sin into the world…and God, as he is giving them the consequences, stating how they would be cursed…even in the midst of God as a fair judge pronouncing his righteous judgement upon mankind…gives this glimmer of hope.

Talking to satan in Genesis 3:15

Genesis 3:15 ESV

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Even in the midst of this punishment…God tells Satan, that out of Eve’s offspring, there will be a man who wounds Satan, just as Satan will also wound him.

On this side of the Cross we know that that is speaking of Christ. Who dealt a killing blow to sin, death, and Satan…while also giving up his physical life for us...

But for the people then…all it was was a glimmer of hope…that someday that would come.

And throughout the next few thousand years…God continued to build upon that promise…reveal more and more of it as time passed.

He spoke it to the patriarchs like Abraham, Jacob, Isaac…he spoke it to prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah, he spoke it to King David…every time…adding a little more detail to it…building the anticipation, opening people’s eyes to the fact that someone was coming...

Someone that would wound Satan, someone that would be a king forever, someone that would rescue and redeem the people of Israel, and the whole world…someone that would bring freedom to them...

That anticipation was building and building, and what Luke is saying here…is that John existed to remind the people of who they had been waiting for...

The long awaited, long prophesied, long promised one…the Christ. The messiah. The Savior.

The one who would make all things right, fill the valley, level the mountains, level the ways…and as it says...

Make all flesh see the salvation of God.

So, Jesus is that prophesied one. That’s the thing to learn about tonight. Is that Jesus didn’t just come out of nowhere. His birth, life, death, and return are all things that have been prophesied and spoken about for thousands and thousands of years.

And if we are going to Center our lives on Christ…we need to have that in mind. We need to make Christ bigger in our thoughts, we need to give him the majesty that he deserves. We need to see the scope of power and promise that is held within him.

Because the Jewish people as a culture did see the significance of a messiah, and just what it meant to wait for him. Of course not all of them, just as we will continue to see in this gospel…there are those that were blind to him, that did not want to see him for who he was...

But…there were those that understood the scope of who Christ was as this long awaited prophesied one.

And those were the people…who were coming to see John. Who were there to hear what the opening act had to say, because they were desiring the headliner...

In today’s world that would be anybody who desires to know who Christ is…understand more about him…come to know him…hear what he has to say…prayerfully…that’s many of you tonight.

Prayerfully, you are one of those people who wants to hear what is being said…because you understand what it means for Jesus to be this long awaited promise of salvation who is going to right the world.

If that’s you…receive John’s next words as personal. Because what he says, is in response to those that desire to be saved and to know the one who is doing the saving.

Luke 3:7–9 ESV

He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

So what should our response be if we have come to a true understanding that Jesus is this long awaited salvation from God...

John says, don’t rest in false security. But in stead…bear the fruits of repentance…because that is what is going to save you.

He’s telling the jewish people…don’t rest on the fact that you’re a jew (that’s what he means when he is talking about Abraham being their father)...

Don’t rest in the fact that you’re a jew…because God could in this moment produce jews from the rocks nearby. He could turn that boulder over there into something that belongs to Abraham…no, just resting in how you’ve been raised or where you’ve been born is not enough..

Just like for you…don’t rest in the fact that you’re a “Christian”. That you had Christian parents, or that you go to a Christian church, or school, or college group. Don’t rest in the fact that you do Christian things and live in Christian based country.

Because surely God has shown us that many people can be made, and many things can be produced, that bear the title of Christianity, but bear no resemblance to Christ at all.

You saying you’re a Christian is not enough to save you from eternal damnation, not enough to make you a child of God, not enough for you to know Jesus in a way that saves you, redeems you, and sanctify’s you to be the way God intends for you to be.

It’s just lip service. It’s just resting on your laurels. It’s just putting your salvation in something false…giving you a false assurance that you are saved by this long awaited promise of salvation from God.

No. It’s not enough.

But Luke, recording John’s words, doesn’t end the story there. He gives the true solution to the problem.

What is it? Repentance. And not just the lip service of saying that you repent…but he says the solution is to bear fruit in repentance.

Meaning, say you repent, and actually do it to where it is visible in your life not only to you and God, but to others as well.

To summarize as we end here:

If you truly view Christ as the prophesied one, the long awaited salvation from God, then you’re not going to just rest on the title of being a Christian to save you…instead…you’re going to desire to know Jesus through the act of repentance.

And I want to leave you with the definition of repentance and what that actually means for you.

Repentance is two parts.

It’s the act of turning away from your sins…the things that you know violate God’s law, and seperate you from him just as they did with Adam and Eve.

It’s turning away from those sins that you hold on to so dearly…which means stopping them. Quitting them. Changing how you act. Changing how you think. Changing what you do.

But…that’s only the first part of repentance. Just doing that first part is not enough…because that’s just you resting on your works to save you…on your good deeds....that’s just as bad as resting in the title of Christian.

No…you have to have the second part of repentance…and that is to turn towards God/Christ.

It’s not that you would just stop doing what is bad, but that you would turn to the one who is good. Sincerely desire to please him, to know him, to love him. Because it’s only through that desire that you can even have the strength to stop committing those sins in the first place.

Because friends..each and every one of us is broken and in sin....all of use are crooked, unlevel, rebellious, seperated from God.

The only difference is…some of choose to truly repent, to turn away from our sin and sincerely turn towards Jesus as the prophesied savior of us.

And some of us just choose to call ourselves Christian, do christian things, attend Christian events, all while still just resting in that to save us and continuing to secretly treasure our sin…rather than truly knowing and following the one who does the actual saving. No true fruits of repentance to show.

I can’t make that call for you as to which one you are.