Carey's Bible Study Notes
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ministry of john the baptist
life of christ: luke 3.1-18
ministry of john the baptist
introduction
When we began the NT portion of the life and ministry of Christ, we started with the announcement of the birth of John the Baptist. The reason we start with John the Baptist is that he played an integral role in the ministry of Christ. Some misunderstand his role when they claim that he is the last of the OT prophets and that he belongs more to the OT than to the NT. That�s simply not so. Although as we look at the preaching of John the Baptist we tend to think of it as being harsh and negative in tone, Luke describes it as being good news or gospel (Luke 3:18). Why is John�s preaching good news when it seems to be so harsh and negative? The good news or gospel of Jesus Christ informs us that God has sent Jesus to be our Lord and Savior, that is, He has come to save us. Save us from what though? We have to be either drowning or lost in order for someone to take the time to save us. Well, John is telling us the terrible situation we are really in cries out for salvation. Until a person realizes how lost he really is, he will never reach out to Christ for salvation. John also belongs to the NT church rather than to the OT prophets because he serves as the forerunner to the Messiah. He may resemble OT prophets in dress and style; however, he is clearly linked with Christ�s ministry because he is Jesus� forerunner.
the setting for the appearance of john (3.1-2)
Luke first lists the secular and religious officials who were in charge of Judea during the ministry of John the Baptist. Luke informs us that John appeared on the scene during the fifteenth-year of the reign of Tiberias Caesar, who was the Roman emperor at this time, sometime between 27 and 29 AD. Next, Luke says that Pontius Pilate was governor over Judea. Ancient Israel was divided into 3 parts�Judea in the south, Samaria in the middle, and Galilee in the north. The Roman province of Judea consisted of Judea and Samaria; Galilee fell under Herod Antipas� jurisdiction. Roman provinces fell under 2 categories: senatorial provinces and imperial provinces. The senatorial provinces consisted of those lands which tended to be friendly towards the Roman empire, such as, Greece. Imperial provinces, on the other hand, tended to be rebellious and needed direct supervision by the emperor. Judea fell under this second category, being ruled by the emperor�s agent Pontius Pilate.
Herod was Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, who upon the death of his father received the lands of Galilee to the north and Perea to the east of the Jordan River. He received the title "tetrarch" which literally means "ruler of a fourth part" because he received approximately a fourth of his father�s lands. Philip was also a son of Herod the Great; his mother none other than Cleopatra. He ruled lands to the northeast of the Sea of Galilee (Iturea and Trachonitis). Lysanias ruled Abilene which bordered Damascus.
The religious rulers over Israel were Annas and Caiaphas, the high priests. According to Jewish custom, a high priest was to retain his office until his death; however, when you look at the Gospels, they appear to claim that more than one high priest was in existence at the same time during the ministries of John and Jesus. Annas had been the official high priest from 6 AD to 15 AD; however, wishing to keep power from concentrating too much in any one man�s hand, the Romans dictated that ever so often, the high priests should be changed. For the next 20+ years, Annas arranged it so that his sons and his son-in-law Caiaphas would assume the office of high priest. Although these sons and son-in-law were the official high priests, the truth is that Annas was the high priest in terms of real power. He was a Mafia godfather manipulating all the strings.
Why such a lengthy discussion of the people in power at this time? First to impress upon us the historical nature of the ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus. There are many elements in the life of Jesus which tend to be fantastical in nature because of the supernatural element involved. What separated Jesus� ministry from that of the myths of the Greek gods who supposedly performed miracles? The Greek and Roman myths depicted events in a distant misty past separated from time and history. Not so with the Gospels. Luke is placing the life and ministry of Jesus smack right in the middle of historical persons, events and places. What we are reading about is not some mythical event but an event occurring in real space and time witnessed by real people who died proclaiming its truth. Moreover, these events did not happen a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away but just a few years prior to Luke writing the Gospel. Paul, in fact, claimed that not only had 500 people encountered the resurrected Jesus but that most of those people were still alive when he was writing and could verify what they had seen.
Next, those first readers of the Gospel of Luke knew that the people described here were more than just ordinary people filling certain offices in the Roman empire. They represented the very wickedness and corruption of society at that time. Our school history books tend to glorify the pagan Roman empire. Although the Romans were master architects and builders, they nevertheless were cruel and degenerate. Someone recently told me that they had seen the movie The Gladiator and that they had been repulsed by the degenerate lifestyle of the Roman emperor in the movie. Another told me that they scaled down the violence in the movie, taking out scenes which went over the top. Trust me, even the scenes they deleted did not do justice to the degenerate and violent nature of the Roman empire. When John calls Rome a great whore in Revelation, he was not joking. Tiberias, Pilate and other Roman officials indulged themselves in the most degenerate lifestyle imaginable.
The same applied to the Herods, Antipas and Philip, and also to the high priests. Antipas seduced his brother�s wife Herodias to leave her husband and marry him. If that was not enough, he also had the hots for Herodias� daughter Salome. Salome though ran to her uncle Philip for a husband. Later, Herod Agrippa II who listened to Paul while in prison in Caesarea was involved in an incestuous relationship with his sister Bernice. The Herodian family was infected with incest through and through. With regards to the high priests, the Jewish rabbis a hundred years later characterized them as full of corruption and wickedness whose actions brought about the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and her Temple in 70 AD.
All this highlights and gives deeper meaning to Matthew�s description of the ministry of Jesus: "The people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light" (Matt. 4:16). Jesus� light would be bright no matter what; however, the darkness of the Roman empire through Jesus� light into sharp contrast. Just like people of today, the people living in Jesus� day needed salvation. In Jesus in contrast with their surroundings, the people saw a great light!
brief summary of the ministry of john the baptist (Luke 3:3)
Next, Luke briefly summarizes John�s ministry. He describes it as a ministry of baptism and the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Matthew likewise summarizes John�s ministry; he claims that the theme of John�s ministry was exactly like the theme of Jesus� ministry: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 3:2; 4:17).
By "kingdom of heaven," John and Jesus mean "the rule of God." A kingdom normally includes lands, houses, etc. One day these will make up a part of God�s kingdom; however, in the meantime, God�s kingdom is restricted to the rule of God in the hearts of people. Because God is a righteous God, His kingdom is a kingdom of righteousness. He expects the people who make up His kingdom to live lives of righteousness. The reason the kingdom of heaven is at hand is that the King is about to appear upon the stage of human history.
Since the King is on His way, John has come to prepare people for His coming. John prepared the people for Jesus� coming in 2 ways: first by preaching a message of repentance and second by baptizing those who responded positively to his message. The word translated "repentance" here literally means "a change of mind." The literal translation though does not do complete justice to the word. Repentance is more than a change of mind; it is also a change of heart and will. The image behind the word is that of a person walking away from God, making a 180 degree turn, and walking right back to God to live in obedient fellowship with Him. Baptism is the appropriate way to demonstrate that a person has truly made that 180 degree turn back to God. Next week as we look at the baptism of Jesus, we will explore more how the mode of baptism is important in conveying this repentance.
Before going into more detail on John�s preaching, we need to remember that repentance always is the first element in a person getting right with God. If we preach the love of Christ on the cross and yet do not preach repentance, we are promoting sentimentalism and not a proper relationship with God. This repentance is not a one-time event either. There will come a dramatic moment in our lives when we realize that we need God�s salvation and then repent from our sins; however, we need to live lives of repentance. Each day we need to commit ourselves anew to the element of repentance, deciding each morning to turn away from self and turn to God.
purpose of john the baptist (3.4-6)
Next, Luke describes the purpose of John the Baptist by informing us that John and his ministry were fulfilling Isaiah�s prophecy about the voice in the wilderness (Is. 40:3-5). Before looking at the Isaiah passage in detail, we need to remember its place in the Book of Isaiah. Isaiah 1-39 basically describes the sad state that the nation of Judah finds herself in. Once the seat of a powerful empire, she is now a tiny city-state ruling over a few neighboring villages which dare to call themselves cities. Her demise is on the horizon though because the real world power Babylon is about to emerge on the scene and destroy Jerusalem. The Babylonians as part of their plan to demoralize the Jews will deport most of them hundreds of miles away to Babylon where they will pose no threat to the Babylonian empire. God promises them though that their exile will only be temporary. Instead, after 70 years God will prepare a superhighway in the wilderness between Babylon and Jerusalem in order to bring His people back to their homeland. Around 520 BC God led them back through the wilderness to Israel. Well, God�s moving in the wilderness in 520 BC was not going to be the only time that God was going to be working in the wilderness. At the right time, God was going to prepare another superhighway in the wilderness and this time come once more in an even more dramatic way to His people.
First, what kind of highway was God going to build in the wilderness, and second, why was He going to build this highway in the wilderness in the first place? First, the highway that God was going to build did not consist of building materials like stones and asphalt but rather highways in the hearts of His people. Just like construction workers would smooth the stones that had been chipped and gotten rough over a period of time, so John had come to smooth out the rough places in the hearts of the Jews. John did not want God to have to pass through valleys, so he was going to fill in the valleys in the hearts of God�s people. Many of them had valleys because they were so beaten down by life, thinking that they were nothing and would never be the objects of God�s love and attention. John would assure them of God�s love for them and how He was coming for their benefit. When Luke records the beatitudes, he lists the first one as "Blessed are the poor." Nor did John want God to have to travel through winding mountain passes; instead, he would level the mountains in men�s hearts by blasting the pride which ran rampant in the hearts of many. He would straighten the crooked paths by pointing out to people their need to leave their corrupt lives.
Why did God choose the wilderness as the site for John�s preaching? Why did God choose the wilderness as the venue for His coming into the world? God considered the wilderness wanderings of His people during the time of Moses as one of the most precious times He spent with His people. Although we read about the people rebelling from time to time in the wilderness, the truth is that during this time the people were aware of their dependence upon Him for food, protection, and water. Everyday God provided the Israelites manna and quail miraculously. They would have never been able to survive in the wilderness if God had not led them to springs of water. The pillar of fire by night protected them from the cold desert nights. When the Israelites entered Canaan, they tended to forget about their dependence upon God since the land nearly provided everything they needed. They failed to realize that God was the One sustaining Canaan and that its abundance did not just come naturally. God wants them to come back to a wilderness-type of thinking and remember that they were ultimately dependent upon Him for their very lives.
the teachings of john the baptist (3.7-18)
the ethical teachings of john the baptist (3.7-14)
Luke next gives some specific illustrations from the preaching of John the Baptist. These illustrations do not exhaust the content of John�s preaching but rather represent the kind of preaching he engaged in. While John is preaching, he sees in the crowd elements which have come to him simply because it was the fashionable thing to do religiously. Matthew specifies these elements as being the Pharisees and Saduccees, the religious leaders of the Jews. He compares them to snakes living in fields who flee the fields once someone has set the fields on fire. They did not come out of a sense of real repentance but out of shallow motives.
Next, he attacks one of the basic tenets of Jewish theology. According to most of the Jews in Jesus� day, everybody who was a Jew automatically qualified to be a member of the kingdom of heaven. In other words, the only requirement to enter heaven was being physically descended from Abraham and being circumcised on the eighth day after birth. John scoffs at this theology! Being physically descended from Abraham was no big deal. Being a Jews was worthless when it came time to meeting the qualifications to enter the kingdom of heaven. God could turn stones into physical descendants of Abraham. What qualified a person to enter heaven was a sincere repentance, turning from sin and turning to God.
Moreover, repentance was not only necessary but also urgent. With the King just about to appear on the scene, judgment was also just around the corner. His coming meant that judgment was about to be executed upon the people of Israel. In fact, John described the urgency and imminent nature of the judgment by comparing it to a man chopping down a tree. How close was this judgment? The judge is not out trying to decide on which ax to buy; neither is he at the shop sharpening the blade. He is actually beside the tree and positioning the ax at the root of the tree! These are desperate serious times in which we need to be serious about repentance.
Fourth, he describes to three different groups in the crowd practical ways they could express their repentance. (Note that repentance is not simply the shedding of a tear but a changed lifestyle.) Those who had more than enough to wear were supposed to give their excess clothing to those without. Tax collectors were supposed to stop cheating the people and gather only what they were supposed to collect. Soldiers were not supposed to intimidate the people in order to extract money from them but were supposed to be content with their wages. (Notice that John is not telling the tax collectors to quit gathering taxes nor the soldiers to quit soldiering; he is demanding that they live godly lives in their professions. Note also that he is not demanding that they leave their jobs and live like monks. Christianity wants us to live in the real world; Christ wants us to live like Him in the real world).
the announcement of the coming of the christ (3.15-18)
The second major element in John�s preaching concerned the coming of the Messiah, the Christ, that is, the One God would fill with His Spirit to accomplish God�s task for Him by saving His people from their sins. When the people saw John baptizing and preaching this fiery message, they began to wonder if Jesus was this Messiah. John assures them that he is not. The Messiah was so superior to him that he was not even worthy to perform a task that even Jewish slaves were considered too good to perform for their masters, untying His sandals. (Such a task was reserved for Gentile slaves).
Not only was the Messiah superior to John in His person, He was also superior to John in what He did. Whereas John did baptize, he nevertheless only baptized with water. The Messiah was going to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The Messiah was coming to judge His people. Just like the harvesters would throw the wheat up into the air with a winnowing fork in order to separate the wheat from the chaff, so the Messiah�s coming would separate those who sincerely loved God from those who did not. Those who loved God would follow the Messiah, while those who did not love Him would not. Moreover, just like the harvesters would take the chaff which separated from the wheat and burn it with fire, so those who rejected the Messiah would suffer a condemnation of eternal death by fire.
Some wonder if fire here refers to the fires of damnation or fires of purification. It most likely refers to both. John is most likely claiming that Jesus Himself and His baptism are fire. If we respond properly to Him, then we are like unrefined gold which the fire refines into being a precious possession. If we respond negatively to Him, then we are like chaff which bursts into flame whenever it comes into contact with the fire. Christ does not change. He will always be fire. We are the ones who determine how He will impact us, either by refining us or destroying us. The choice is ours.