Before we look into our scripture passage, I would like to give you an update on what we have been up to. On labor day weekend my wife and I returned from a trip to western New York state to drop off our youngest at Houghton College. Though we have done this first year college trip already 3 times, it wasn't any easier this time. We were graciously invited by another couple in our church who have also dropped off their daughter at college that same weekend to join them for a 2 day vacation at their time share in NH to just relax. It was just what we needed at the time.
Its interesting to think of our youngest starting his adult life of independence just as the passages we are looking at starting this week jump ahead to the time when John the Baptist starts his adult ministry. The message of the angel and the prophesy of Zacharias, John's father, has now come true. John has been called to preach and baptize to prepare the way for Jesus.
Luke 3:1 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, while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.
As we have stated before Luke wants to create an accurate account and demonstrate that the events happened in a real places to real people. The rulers and priests mentioned put the events in a real time period. John in is the wilderness . Why is John in the wilderness? There is a sense of setting aside, being apart, preparing himself for the spiritual mission that God was calling him to. This setting aside in the Bible is referred to as sanctification, to be set aside for use by God. So after preparing himself for this mission, John has left the wilderness and has entered the region around the Jordan.
"preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins…"
What is this message all about? Well we know that repentance means to turn from one direction and head in the other direction. Like going down the road to work and forgetting something at home, I immediately turn around and head toward home, instead of away from home. In this case John is referring to our relationship with God. We are heading one way, doing our own thing, and we need to be going the other way seeking God. We need to turn from going our way, to going God's way. Now there is sometimes confusion by many preachers that repentance is all about stop sinning. They will say we are to repent of our sins in a sense that we stop sinning. Stop drinking, stop gossiping, stop cheating, stop whatever. The idea conveyed by these preachers is we need to be pure before God will accept us. However I think that misses the point. In this passage of Luke we have more of a sense of repentance being to change our mind, our attitude and as a result our actions.
I am going to jump ahead to the examples in v10 - 14
The people were responding to John's call for repentance by asking what shall we do. Look at the positive instructions: If you have two tunics, give to some one who doesn't have one. Share your food. To the tax collectors who were resented because they cheated by collecting more than they should, they were told to just collect what they were supposed to. To the soldiers do not intimidate, accuse falsely and be content with your wages. All of these instructions effect your relationships with others, they take the focus off of our selfish desires and DIRECT THEM TO A DESIRE FOR GOD. Without a desire for God, we are lost. So if this is about turning back to God, why are we serving others. Because God cares for us and loves us. We serve him when we serve others.
Next time we will look more closely at what was accomplished by John's baptism, how does this prepare us for Jesus coming.
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