Luke 3:1 ¶ Now in the
fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor
of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch
of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene,
2 Annas and Caiaphas being the high
priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.
3 And he came into all the country about
Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins; 4 As it is written in the book of the words of
Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare
ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5 Every valley shall be filled, and every
mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways shall be made smooth; 6 And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
7 Then said he to the multitude that
came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you
to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bring
forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within
yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God
is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. 9 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of
the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn
down, and cast into the fire. 10 And the
people asked him, saying, What shall we do then? 11 He answereth and saith unto them, He that
hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat,
let him do likewise. 12 Then came also
publicans to be baptized, and said unto him, Master, what shall we do? 13 And he said unto them, Exact no more than that
which is appointed you. 14 And the
soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said
unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be
content with your wages.
I’ve already mentioned
that Herod’s territory was divided among his children after death. Tiberius
Caesar had been a very successful general but also a very reluctant emperor at
the age of 55 when he succeeded Augustus who spent much of his time away from
Rome. The wicked Caligula would rule after him. Pontius Pilate is known to us
outside of the Bible account by the inscription on the Pilate Stone, a brief
mention by the historian Tacitus, and some apocryphal Christian writings.
Like any good
historian, Luke is giving the political/religious context of the events he is
about to relate starting with the beginning of John the Baptist’s preaching. The
Saviour of the Jews and mankind has come to earth at the bottom of the
socio-political ladder. God’s order and His plan is not about kings and
princes. He doesn’t come into the world in a palace with a high-sounding titles
like king so-and-so or general whose-its leading an army with swords and
spears.
John came preaching the baptism of repentance for the
remission of sins.
Ezekiel 18:30 ¶ Therefore I
will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the
Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves
from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.
This is fundamentally
different from the baptism that Christians will have done after the
resurrection. Notice how Apollos had to be corrected because he knew only this
baptism of national repentance for the Jewish people.
Acts
18:24 ¶ And a certain Jew named Apollos,
born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and
mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus. 25 This man was instructed in the way of the
Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the
things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. 26 And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue:
whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way
of God more perfectly.
Notice here in Acts
that the community of the Jews and proselytes had to be baptized before
receiving the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:38 Then Peter said
unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
But, in Acts 10 the
Holy Ghost is poured out on the Gentile believers who then are baptized
afterwards as a sign of their new position in God with Christ.
Acts 10:44 ¶ While Peter
yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. 45 And they of the circumcision which believed
were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also
was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. 46
For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered
Peter, 47 Can any man forbid water, that
these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?
48 And he commanded them to
be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain
days.
Baptism is an important
Christian ordinance associated with a changed heart without which baptism alone
has no saving power. It is not magic, but an outward profession of an inward
commitment after the Holy Ghost has worked on a person’s heart and they realize
they must turn from their dead works and receive Christ as their Saviour.
Baptizing a baby who has no understanding of what is happening is no more
effective than baptizing a corpse.
Remission is synonymous with forgiveness with the former implying a lessening of the penalty and
the latter is the act of forgiving. This usage of words teaches us that we can
refuse to enact the punishment and still not forgive. They both go hand-in-hand
in the way God deals with us. You cannot say you forgive someone and then punch
them in the mouth for their offense against you anymore than you can honestly
say that simply because you did not choke someone unconscious that you’ve
forgiven them. God forgives and doesn’t exact the penalty we so richly deserve.
That is grace that goes beyond mercy. The Greek word is translated 9 times as
remission and 6 as forgiveness.
Ephesians 1:7 In whom we
have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness
of sins, according to the riches
of his grace; [see forgiveness with grace, unmerited mercy, here]
Colossians 1:14 In whom we
have redemption through his blood, even
the forgiveness of sins: [see
forgiveness lined up with redemption through Christ’s blood here]
Matthew 26:28 For this is
my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of
sins. [Christ paid the penalty that man deserved]
Romans 3:25 Whom God hath
set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; [remission,
not demanding that man pay the due debt for sin, is based on the forbearance of
God]
On a side note of
warning, though, about interpretation one of the errors of modern
fundamentalism is the viewing of the Bible like the owner’s manual for your car
or computer and refusing to use the cross-references to see parallel or
synonymous meanings. Obviously, they say, if it is a different word it must have
a different meaning. But, by cross-referencing verses, like reviewing the
entire context of a verse, the passage in which it is found, one can learn
meanings without spending all of our time trying to figure out how many angels
can dance on the head of a pin, a phrase that refers to the foolishness of
wasting our time on nothing of value.
Cross-referencing
verses, like context, provides meaning. The Holy Ghost, for his own purpose,
defines gospel as good tidings (good news) by comparing
Luke 4:18 with Isaiah 61:1 and the kingdom
of God as also the kingdom of Heaven
by comparing Matthew 19:23 with verse 24 and Matthew 11:11 & 12 with Luke
7:28 and other passages. The Bible, the story of God’s ministry of reconciling
man to Himself, is not like Emily Post’s Etiquette,
put your fork here and your knife there, but is a conversation between our
Creator and ourselves. Be careful how nitpicky you get trying to swallow subtle
meanings, numerology, and codes while choking on mercy, truth, justice, faith,
and turning from sin. It is not rocket-science but we make it so because of our
modern mind-set about judging a thing by its smallest part from the bottom-up
rather than judging a thing by its context from the top-down.
Verses 4-6 hearkens
back to;
Isaiah 40:3 ¶ The voice of
him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make
straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made
low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: 5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it
together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
By comparing verses in
Isaiah and here in Luke we see that one definition of the glory of the LORD is His salvation. You do this by seeing how an
Old Testament verse is quoted or alluded to and then noting the words that are
substituted by the Holy Spirit.
John the Baptist is
pretty rough on his congregation, the crowds coming to be baptized by him. In
verse 7 he uses a phrase the wrath to
come. While he will elaborate on God’s judgment through Christ at the end
of the human story in the next passage this phrase is used elsewhere for the
judgment to come.
1Thessalonians 1:10 And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom
he raised from the dead, even
Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
Revelation 6:17 For the
great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
Revelation 11:18 And the
nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be
judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and
to the saints, and them that
fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the
earth.
God’s wrath on fallen
mankind who rejects His free offer of amnesty is a prominent subject of the
book of Revelation but is mentioned throughout the Bible and the church is
promised that it will be spared from God’s wrath, although many Christians will
experience the wrath of the Beast, popularly called the Antichrist.
John the Baptist tells
them to bring an attitude of repentance, not self-justification and
ethnic/racial pride. Regardless of their heritage from Abraham they stand
morally and religiously bankrupt before a holy God. In the so-called “Sermon on
the Mount” Jesus said;
Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven.
Poor in spirit is defined in Psalms and
Isaiah.
Psalm 51:17 The sacrifices
of God are a broken spirit: a
broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Isaiah 66:2 For all those things hath mine hand made, and all
those things have been, saith
the LORD: but to this man will
I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my
word.
This attitude is the
foundation of and the origin of fruits worthy of repentance, not pride over
your race, religious affiliation, national origin, political leanings, or any
other dead work.
Hebrews 6:1 Therefore
leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection;
not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of
faith toward God,
The people then pleaded
with him for instruction. How will these fruits display themselves?
For the people, in
verse 11, it is a life of generosity and charity, helping each other.
James 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit
the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
James 2:16 And one of you
say unto them, Depart in peace, be
ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye
give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?
Paul will further
define the fruits or proof of the Holy Spirit indwelling a Christian in
Galatians, chapter 5, as something against which there can be no law.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit
is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
And in Ephesians,
chapter 5;
8 For ye were sometimes
darkness, but now are ye light
in the Lord: walk as children of light: 9 (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness
and truth;) 10 Proving what is
acceptable unto the Lord. 11 And have no
fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
Verses 12 and 13 show
that those wielding governmental authority, here the hated collectors of Roman
taxes the publicans, were not to abuse their lawful authority or go beyond it,
not to be corrupt. Remember how Zacchaeus in Luke 19, a chief tax collector,
swore to Jesus that he restored fourfold to any man that had been accused
falsely.
Verse 14 has to do with
the extortion that soldiers could be guilty of with their authority of the
government behind them and carrying weapons of death on their persons. The
people suffered at their hands. The same might be applied to police today. Jesus
gave instructions to His followers that when one of these soldiers demanded
that they carry the soldier’s kit for them a mile that they offer to go another
mile, giving the disciple of Jesus a moral authority and control over the
situation that one does not have if you just grudgingly comply with a soldier
who could legally require your assistance in first-century Judea as a guide or
a porter. The ability to requisition local services was fundamental to an
occupying army. In the context of this next passage you can see the contrast in
that while John the Baptist focused on those who had power Jesus focused on the
response of those who did not have power.
Matthew 5:38 ¶ Ye have
heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
39 But I say unto you, That ye resist
not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the
other also. 40 And if any man will sue
thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. 41 And
whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. 42 Give to him that asketh thee, and from him
that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.
Traditionally, many
Christians have not viewed these admonitions in regard to avenues of power.
They have denied that a person can even defend themselves from ruffians and
robbers which shows a clear disregard for the context. This is evident in an
interaction Jesus has later in Luke with His disciples.
Luke 22:36 Then said he
unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his
scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.
37 For I say unto you, that this that is
written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the
transgressors: for the things concerning me have an end. 38 And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And he said unto
them, It is enough.
To say that Jesus’
admonitions deny your ability to defend your family from criminals, whether they
wear uniforms or not, is an absurdity. In the passage in Matthew 5 quoted above
the context is lawful authority. John the Baptist said to exercise authority
lawfully and Jesus said to obey man’s law to the fullest extent and beyond. We
are then told the exceptions in Acts when man’s law intrudes on God’s command.
Acts 5:26 ¶ Then went the
captain with the officers, and brought them without violence: for they feared
the people, lest they should have been stoned. 27 And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high
priest asked them, 28 Saying, Did not we
straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye
have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood
upon us. 29 Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We
ought to obey God rather than men.
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