Advent 2 (5)

Luke 3:1–6 NIV84

1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert. 3 He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: “A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. 5 Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. 6 And all mankind will see God’s salvation.’ ”

How do you indicate what year it is? Seems like a simple question. You look at your calendar or digital display and it gives you the month, day, and year. As I am typing this, my computer tells me it is 12/02/2021. [Palindrome] But I submit that this is not the only way we mark time. As one who has moved around a lot in his lifetime, I may tell you that this is the beginning of my fourth year at St. Paul’s and Grace. I may refer to past events not by the year, but by where I was living at the time. We may reference key events by noting who was President of the United States or if it was during a war or other significant event. Before the advent of a unified calendar in western civilization, the time was often marked by what year of a Caesar’s reign it was or who was in power in what area at the time. This is also found in the Old Testament. Isaiah’ famous passage, “In the year that King Uzziah died . . . “ Luke, who is the most careful about teaching when events happened in the life of Jesus, sets the time in verses 1 and 2 of our text.

It should be noted that The modern Gregorian calendar — which is used in most of the world — is based around the traditional birth of Jesus Christ. In Christian circles, the abbreviation AD may be affixed to the year number; AD stands for Anno domini, or “year of our lord”. When referring to dates that came before the traditional birth of Jesus, the suffix BC (“before Christ”) is used.

In order to make the year-naming system more inclusive, we often replace AD with CE (“common era”) and BC with BCE (“before the common era”).

What significant event happened at this time? It is the start of Jesus’ public ministry. But before he began his ministry, God sent a prophet (who had been prophesied) to prepare the hearts of the people to receive him in the proper way. John began his ministry when “the word of God came to John, son of Zechariah, in the desert. Another minor point is that most people at that time did not have first, middle, and last names so to distinguish on John from another, he is labeled as the “son of Zechariah”.

“The word of God came . . .” Does this sound familiar? 1 Chronicles 17:3 (NIV84)

3 That night the word of God came to Nathan, saying:

103 times in the Old Testament we are told “the word of the Lord came”. In a miraculous way the Lord would reveal to a prophet an important message they were to speak to God’s people. Often this would also be recorded as it was in those reference. This message was not some inspirational speech the prophet had devised or a product of his own intellect or imagination. It was a divine revelation with the weight of God’s authority behind it.

2 Peter 1:19–21 (NIV84)

19 And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

It can be noted that this would be the first time in 400 years that a prophet would receive a message from God to speak to his people.

God calling John to preach was an event that had been prophesied in the book of Isaiah.

Luke 3:4–6 (NIV84)

4 As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: “A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. 5 Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. 6 And all mankind will see God’s salvation.’ ”

Isaiah 40:3–5 NIV

3 A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. 5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

There is a slight difference in meaning because ancient manuscripts did not have punctuation as we do today. Is it the voice of someone calling who is in the desert? or is it Some calling out that something should be done in the desert? Well, John the Baptist was in the desert and he did his work in the desert so both seem accurate.

The imagery is of a herald preparing the physical route of a king before he would arrive. We can imagine a major construction project going on. Although the ancients did not have railroads, we can use that imagery. How difficult it must have been to create the transcontinental railroad in the United States! It goes through some major mountainous regions and low places needed to be raised or passed with bridges, some higher elevations were cut down, numerous tunnels were built. Much harder than a highway because trains are limited to grade and the curves. It was a difficult thing to prepare the way for such a means of transportation.

It would be difficult for John the Baptist to carry out his ministry as well Why? Because it involved calling people to repent of their sin and to look to the coming Messiah for forgiveness.

Relativists: Those who don’t believe in absolute truth and who conduct their lives according to what they deem best for them.

Moralists: Those who are very strict about the letter of the law, believe they are doing a good job at following it, and who look down on others who aren’t towing the line.

Neither one is willing to repent.

But repentance is key to being in a right relationship with God and receiving Jesus as our Savior.

What does it mean to repent?

Luke says nothing different from Matthew when he describes John as “preaching the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” His preaching aimed at repentance. When it achieved its purpose, that is, when it awakened in people a knowledge of their many and condemning sins, so that they were desperate for an escape from them, John pointed to Jesus and said, in effect: “He is your way out! He will take care of your sins through his sinless life and atoning death for you. (John 1:29!) Therefore he can forgive, wipe out, cancel, remove your sins fully, freely, without any condition, without any price for you to pay!” To all such distressed sinners John the Baptist offered baptism as the seal, the divine guarantee, of divine forgiveness. The souls newly come to faith in Jesus are always eager to be baptized and to have their sins washed away. (Acts 2:38; 3:19) That was the happy result of the Baptist’s call to repentance in the case of many, as we hear: “People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River” (Matthew 3:5, 6).

Connected with this preaching of repentance, John baptized those who did confess. That is why we know him best as John the Baptist.

John’s baptism was “for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:4), that is, actually resulted in forgiveness for those penitents who came confessing their sins. This truth must be stressed because some try to downgrade John’s baptism. They assert that John’s baptism conveyed no grace and no remission, while that of Christ did. Such a contention cannot stand. In Acts 2:38 Peter offered the penitent Jews Christ’s baptism with these words: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” The baptism of John and that of Christ are essentially the same. Jesus simply took up and continued John’s baptism. Later he instituted this Means of Grace for all nations. (Matthew 28:19, 20)

Franzmann, W. H. (1998). Bible history commentary: New Testament (electronic ed., pp. 52–53). Milwaukee, WI: WELS Board for Parish Education.

How did the people respond to John the Baptist’s ministry? Some came out to see this aberration with no intention of changing. He was unique and not normal so they sat in judgment of him.

Others came out of curiosity and were swayed by his message while others ignored it.

He certainly had an impact on large crowds of people.

How difficult was it to hear him? Well, you would have to go out into the wilderness and have a plan to be near him.

Today, it is still important (even necessary) to hear the message of John the Baptist. Although it is much easier to have access to his message, responding can still be heard. But if we listen to the word of God his message is, the word of God can impact our hearts and prepare us for trusting even more in Jesus. Amen