Luke 3:1-6

Luke chapter 3, verses 1 to 6. Now in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetriarch of Galilee, and his brother tetriarch of Iyturia and of the region of Trachonitus, and Lysanius, the tetrarch of Abilene. Anas and Caiaphas, being high priest, the word of the Lord came unto John, the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. And he came into all the country about Jordan preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah’s the prophet, saying the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Every valley shall be filled, every mountain and hill shall be brought low, the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth. And all flesh shall see the salvation of God. May the Lord bless to us his holy and sacred word this morning. Someone has said a good minister is like an alarm clock. Alarm clocks have a specific purpose. That’s the wake you out of sleep. The alarm clock’s buzzer goes off. And you are awakened by the shrill noise. It’s hard to get up in the morning and begin the day, and sometimes alarm clocks are abused. Sometimes they’re thrown to the floor, sometimes they’re thrown across the room and everything else. People get upset because their sleep or their dream has been interrupted. Now, the minister’s job, the minister’s job, is to cry out. to warn people, to awaken them from spiritual sleep. And the people are blissfully dreaming, totally oblivious, not cognizant of what is really happening in the world around them. And the minister’s duty to arouse them. Sometimes people get quite upset and abused the minister too, and we’re going to see that was the with John the Baptist as he dealt with Herod later on in this chapter. So there is a turning on the minister. In our text of scripture, John the Baptist begins his public ministry. And he is calling people to repentance. People who for many years were in spiritual slumber, if you would. They were now suddenly spoken of and condemned as sinners in need of salvation, in need of repentance. It was a wake-up call. It was an alarm. It was an alarm that was being given. They were told that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The Messiah has arrived, and they must believe in him. In this manner, John began to prepare a people for the Lord. It was a time of spiritual awakening, a time of enlightenment about the things of God. And the long-awaited Messiah is about to step on the scene, about to begin his ministry. And there was a lot of excitement that was caused by John’s ministry. Our text is the description of John’s ministry and how he fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that is spoken of and quoted here in this text of Scripture. We see, first of all, the time of John’s ministry here in the first two verses, verse one and the first part of verse two. and it’s dated here by government officials. If you wanted an exact date, you pretty much have a good idea here, maybe at least a year, because of all the people that he are mentioned by Luke. He’s very precise in this matter. He mentions, first of all, the emperor of Rome is Tiberius Caesar. He is the third emperor of the Roman emperor. Julius Caesar is the first. Augustus was the second. He was the one that was raining when Jesus was born, if you recall Luke chapter 2 in verse 1. It was Augustus. But now we’re dealing with some perhaps 30 years later, and Tiberius is the third emperor. Now Tiberius, we’re told, rained 22 years, and he died during his first. 23rd year, but Luke tells us that John began to preach in his 15th year of his reign. This was the time John began to preach and Jesus was baptized and the kingdom of God was revealed. Now, Tiberius was a cruel man. He was a wicked character. But Israel, as we have found, being under the power of Rome was no longer in control of circumstances. They were under the overall control of the Roman Empire. And so here is the Caesar who rules over them. The governor of Judea was Pontius Pilate here, or Pontius Pilate. Now, he too is a Roman. him well. He’s the fifth governor appointed by the emperor over the Jews. Historians portray him as a wicked man, just as the scriptures reveal him to be. He was one of those rulers that was mentioned in Psalm 2 who counseled against the Lord and against His Christ. For in the book of Acts, Psalm 2 is quoted in his name. is mentioned as one of those individuals. He reigned poorly. He was replaced. He had to go back to Roman answer to the emperor for his evil administration. He was the governor of Judea. The Tetriarchs here, Herod, Philip, Lysentius are mentioned. The title Tetriarch applies the fourth place of something. It means fourth. And so it seems like it is fourth in line of the governors who would rule over a particular land. For instance, normally he had first the emperor. He is over the entire empire. Then you would have the pro-consul who would be over a province. And then you would have a governor or a king sometimes over a region. And then underneath them there would be tetriarchs over a province. a section of a region. Herod Antipus, the son of Herod the Great was mentioned in chapter 1 in verse 5 who was reigning at the time when John the Baptist was born. We find was the ruler over Galilee at this time. He was over the northern section of Israel. Where Nazareth would be included in that. Philip was the brother of Herod. Philip was the brother of Antipus, he ruled over Iatoria and Traconitus. Now this was territory in the east side of the Jordan River, where the half tribe of Manassah was and Rubin and so forth. This Philip married Herodius, who was stolen away from him by Antipus, Herodotipus, and he’s mentioned later on in this chapter, and John the Baptist condemns him for stealing away his brother’s wife. Verse 19, that comes up. Lysanias, we know little about, and we know a little about Abilene here. It was a small area in the province of Syria. That would be above Galilee, east of Ituria. So these are the tetrax. The high priest of Israel, Anas and Caiaphas are mentioned. Now you may be wondering. why there are two high priests. Doesn’t God’s loss either supposed to be one high priest? Why how come there are two high priests? Well, the law said a single high priest, they would serve till death, and then the son would take over. Well, in this period of Jewish history, great confusion reigned in the land of the nation. In this land. The affairs of the nation were in sort of chaos. They were domestic disputes. there were also foreign influence, there was foreign influence which disrupted the scriptural role of succession. There are those who believed, and it’s certainly very possible, that the Romans removed one high priest and replaced him with another. In this case, probably Ennis may have been removed, and Caiaphas was replaced. He was anus was probably high priest first and then Caiaphas later, but the Jews would still recognize Anus as high priest, but also they would have to, because of the Romans, but also give recognition to Caiapus. That may be how they ended up with two. In the book of Acts, it appears that Anas again became the sole acting high priest. If you look at Acts 4.6, he’s mentioned as the high priest. So I don’t know how that all played out, but you can imagine God’s law being circumvented because of these kind of circumstances. So this time period is dated by government officials. The emperor, the governor, and the tetriarchs, as well as the high priest. Now let me make this observation. You should not be slack in duty because of the darkness of the times. There’s hardly a name here that’s mentioned when we think about it on any of these rulers who was not infamous for being wicked. They’re all wicked. Every one of them. Even the high priest. From the emperor of the high priest, these men were evil. And the earth seemed to be given into the hands of the wicked here. Such were the dark times. In which God said it’s time for John the Baptist to begin his public ministry. The forer of Christ who would announce that the kingdom of God is in hand. Now obviously God’s ways are not I ways. We would have argued maybe we should wait for a more opportune time to begin proclaiming the kingdom of heaven is in hand. The Messiah, the Messiah, is coming and so forth. There’s a danger in believers slacking their hands in the work of the Lord because of the wickedness of the times. Despite the darkness of the day in which you live, God is capable of bringing about a very great light to shine in the darkness. And that’s what happens with John the Baptist. For this reason, Paul tells Timothy preach the word, he says,. Be instant in season, out of season. Second Timothy 4, verse 2. Now, when Paul writes 2 Timothy, he’s about to be beheaded by Caesar Nero. He’s been placed in prison. He’s about to be a martyr. He’s about to offer himself up, as he puts it, and be sacrificed because of his preaching of the gospel of Christ. And there’s young Timothy to whom Paul writes, and you can imagine Timothy thinking, maybe tempted to think, well, maybe this isn’t the best time to be planting and trying to establish churches in the Roman Empire because this is what’s going to happen. Look what’s happening to Paul. What does Paul say? I charge you. I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ that you preach the Word. Don’t you do. dare slack up because I’m going to be killed. Don’t think that this, you know, don’t think, well, I’ll wait for a better time. You preach it whether you think it’s a good time or not, in season or out. Be ready, he says, be instant, be ready at hand to preach the gospel. Always. When you act in faith, even when circumstances are unfavorable, God blesses it. We should always recognize that. Because we believe that God can do anything. That nothing is too hard for God. And we’re acting in faith when we step forward and do something for the kingdom of God, even though it looks like it’s a bad time to do it. Think about this. If Luther and Calvin waited for better times, there would never have been a reformation. They were the dark ages. If I listened to all the naysayers, down through the years this church would have closed its doors long ago, and we wouldn’t be here. You can’t have a church without a church building. You can’t make it with that small group of people. Isn’t our duty to be faithful to the Lord and preach the word and let him take care of it? If he wants us here, we’re going to be here. If he doesn’t want us here, we won’t be here. But I can say that he has miraculously provided for this church to keep it going down through the years. We look at the apostasy of the day. We think of the people that are not serious about the things of God. I had someone at the dialysis clinic asked me about the church. And one of the things I told them about church, well, it’s for people that are serious. It’s not for people that are just light and frivolous about religious matters. I think it’s for people that are serious. Not that we wouldn’t take people in, but if you’re not serious-minded, I don’t think you would want to be here. You would find it difficult to be here. It doesn’t matter how small one is. Christ said if two or three are gathered and together, he is in the midst. Therefore, the important thing is that Christ is here that the word is preached. The time of John’s ministry here. It’s dated by the government officials. We might look at it and say, boy, this is not a great time. Maybe not. But it’s God’s time and he goes forward. Now, the characteristics of John’s ministry are mentioned in verses two and three. we read the word of the Lord came unto John, the son of Zacharias in the wilderness, and he came into all the country about Jordan preaching the baptism of repentance for the mission of sins. Now we see the divine origin here of his ministry. The word of God came to him. God gave him a message. He was called by God to preach the gospel. to enter into the ministry, the baptized and so forth. I like with the gospel of John, how it states it, there was a man sent from God, his name was John. God sent him. He didn’t undertake this ministry on his own, but he was directed to do it by God. Now, it had been prophesied that he would do it. Remember, we studied it in chapter 1, verses 13 to 17. He was supposed to do it. to be Christ forerunner. But he waits. He’s on the backside of the desert, so to speak. He’s in the fringe areas. He’s not in a urban areas with a lot of people. He’s sort of off on his own. And he waits to commence the work. And then God’s word comes to him, and he goes out to preach. He lived a solitary life in the wilderness of Judea for a time. And he comes out of night. And he comes out of night. nowhere. It’s out of nowhere. It begins to preach the gospel. He didn’t learn his doctrine from men. He learned from God. The word that he had, the message he had, came from God. This is important. That phrase indicates to us, he’s not proclaiming his own ideas. He’s not giving the tradition of the Jews here. He’s preaching a message that came from God himself. We have a lesson here for all ministers. The ministers of Christ, must not be people who run unsent by the Lord. It’s an office no one has a right to take up unless they are called by God to it. God complains that there were those who proclaimed, thus say it the Lord, when he had not sent them. And they were deceivers of the people. Jeremiah 23, 21, he says, I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. We have plenty of people like that. You and I have no right to expect extraordinary revelation from God. God coming and telling us, you entered in the ministry or something of this nature. Today, whether it be vision or dream or audible voice. But God does provide an inward call to the ministry. And he does provide, I believe, as well, an outward recognition that one has been called to the work. when they when people see the gifts that have been given to an individual. But unless we’ve been moved by the Spirit of God to preach, no one should take up the office, but there ought to be an inward desire proclaim the Word of God. You know, one of the one of the qualifications if you look at the eldership in 1 Timothy chapter 3. is that he must desire it. God puts the desire there to be a teacher or an elder or to proclaim the message of God’s word. And then as one is gifted and uses those, gets people recognize this person has been gifted by God to do this. So we don’t take this matter up lightly. Unconverted ministers would be very harmful to Christ. How can they preach and teach on something they didn’t know anything about. Never have an experience. How can you proclaim Christ when you don’t know Christ? That wouldn’t work. So we see the divine origin of this ministry. We see here, secondly, the necessity of repentance for the forgiveness of sins that’s mentioned here. Now, repentance when we use this word, it means a change of mind. It involves a true sense of your sin and a grief over it, a hatred of it. And then as a scripture will indicate, John will talk about, bring forth fruits meat for repent. In other words, show actions in line with that type of mindset. John the Baptist preached in Matthew 3, 2, we read, repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. There was a little boy got his hand hand caught in a rather expensive vase in his home. His upset parents were applying soap to his hand and various cooking oils trying to see if they could get his hand out of the vase and he couldn’t get his hand out. When they seemed ready to break the vase in order to get his hand out, he finally spoke up and said this, would it help if I let loose of the penny I’m holding? When you let loose, of course, his hand came right out of the vase. Friends, you can’t be released from your sins if you’re clinging tightly to them. Repentance involves a change of mind about your sins, a grief over them. Repentance requires you to change your thinking. The things you once loved you now should hate. You need a willingness to abandon them, to turn away from them. Though John practice a baptism based upon repentance. He required repentance prior to baptism. He also preached, behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. So we could say he preached repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. What we would call the same message we would proclaim today. And so upon repentance toward God and faith in Lord Jesus Christ, one, would be baptized. baptism is symbolized the believer’s death to sin and his resurrection with Christ to a newness of life. When you’re buried in the watery grave of a baptism, you identify yourself with Christ’s death. You’re saying that you’re dead to your old way of life. And when you’re raised up out of the water, you identify yourself with Christ’s resurrection and confess you’re going to walk in newness of life. Now it says here for the remission of sins. This means ice here means because of or on account of here. Remission. In other words, you should never think that either your repentance or your baptism is what blots out the sin. Now, it’s the Lamb of God which taketh the way the sin of the world, as John the Baptist proclaims. But because of your repentance, you should be baptized. John preached first repentance, belief in the coming Savior, and baptism with a public indication of your faith in Christ. But John clearly proclaimed Christ as the lamb that takes away the sin. In one day, C.H. Spurgeon said he was paying his bills, and as he was writing it out with the ink, he tipped over the ink well, and it’s spilled all over the bill and completely blotted it all out. See, I could barely read it. But he said that ink spill didn’t actually blot out the debt. He still owed the money. Even though he had spilled the ink on the check or the thing he was writing out to pay it, payment had to still be sent in. In a similar manner, no repentance or baptism can make atlment for your sin. It doesn’t blot out your sin. It takes the blood of Christ to wash you from your sins. No remand. reformation of life is sufficient to blot out your sins. You need Christ’s perfect righteousness to be made acceptable before God. But here are the key points here. Have you been convinced of your sin by the Holy Spirit? Have you had a change of mind about your sin? Have you repented of your sin? Have you fled to Christ for deliverance? from your sin and from the wrath to come. Have you been baptized as a public confession of your repentance of sins and faith in Christ? This is what we see John’s ministry is about and what I think every ministry should be about. So, divine origin of the ministry, the necessity of repentance for forgiveness. These are the characteristics of John’s ministry. Thirdly, we see the effect. of John’s ministry in verses 4 to 6. And it was written, it is written, in the book of the words of Isaiah’s the prophet saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his pass straight. Every valley shall be filled. every mountain and hills shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. John here is fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy, preparing the way of the Lord, making his path strict. John, he said, is the voice of one crying in the wilderness. His duty was to publicly cry out in a clear and articulate manner the good news concerning the Messiah or Christ. twice Jesus the Savior. When kings or generals or governors or government officials traveled, sometimes they would send out men ahead of them to prepare the way they were traveling. And so the purpose would be to make the road or the way ready for them. In other words, they would remove obstacles. They would build bridges. They would widen the road or fix the road or fill in some valleys or knock down some hills or make a path through the woods or whatever the case may be to make the path straight for the one coming. In a sense, this is what John the Baptist says he’s doing for Christ. He’s preparing everything for Christ. And then he says, I will fade from the scene. And Christ will come to the forefront. He’s fulfilling, Isaac. as prophecy. Now, what are the spiritual implications of John’s ministry? What is this all about? Well, let me suggest to you, those humbled and depressed by a sense of sin will be raised up. A valley is a low-lying place. To be filled in means it’s exalted. The person who has a true sense of sin is humbled by it all. And they’re brought low. They’re brought to a miserable state. But then through the gospel of Christ they’re raised up. They are exalted. Those in the spiritual valley are exalted by the Savior. The scripture declares, God giveth grace to the humble. First God empties you. First God shows your your vowsness and your sinfulness before he saves you before he exalt you. I like with Job we read it in Job 2229 these words. When men are cast down, thou shalt say there is lifting up and he shall save the humble person. There’s a lifting up in Christ. Have you been brought low under the weight of your sin? Have you come to Christ that you might be lifted up? Come unto me all. you that labor and are heavy laden, burdened down by your sin, and I’ll give you rest, Jesus says. The humbled and depressed by a sense of sin sin are raised up. The proud and self-righteous shall be humbled. All who exalt themselves shall be brought low here. All who are puffed up by their own abilities, by their own sense of personal righteousness, who trust in them, themselves, look with contempt upon others, are the mountains and the hills. And what is the gospel coming to do? Well, to level them. They are haughty, they are lofty, they are lofty in their all minds. That shall be destroyed. The Messiah alone will be exalted as the one to look to. God resisteth the proud. God abhors those who’s heart is lifted up. Self-righteousness will keep you from the kingdom of heaven. It’ll keep you from seeking the mercy and the grace that is in Jesus Christ, because you’re trusting in yourself. For God to save the exalted, they have to be humbled first. They have to be brought low. All pride and self-righteousness has to be deflated. God has to level you. God will either break your heart and humble you, or eventually he’ll break your bones and destroy you. So the proud and self-righteous shall be humbled. Sinners shall be converted to God. The crooked shall be made straight. Now the word crooked here in the Greek implies something morally crooked, something evil, something wicked, something unjust or twisted in some fashion. Duteron 325 says this. They have corrupted themselves. They are a perverse and crooked generation. Crooked generation. They don’t walk straight. They don’t follow God’s path. People who are unbelieving are defiled. They are lawless. They are rebellious. They don’t walk according to God’s ways. Psalm 1.225 says the workers’ iniquity. Turn aside. under their crooked ways. They’re crooked. Who can make the crooked straight? Well, there’s only one. And that’s Christ can make the crooked straight. The word straight here is used in the sense of the right ways of the Lord. So what is portrayed here is a rectification of crookedness. We would say the heart being made pure, regenerated, if you would. The walk changed. So now the heart. they’re following the ways of the Lord. The gospel of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit changes you and you walk in newness of life. What do you know of this? What do you know about being made straight? Being regenerated by the power of the Spirit of God, having your life changed, the direction of your life changed, the way of your life changed. That’s what he’s talking. He’s talking about here. sinners shall be converted to God. Notice this. All impediments hindering the way to heaven shall be removed. The rough places shall be made smooth. Difficulties that would hinder people or discourage them from the way to heaven will be removed. Remember how the scribes and Pharisees are condemned because they shut up the way of heaven. They block people from entering into the kingdom of God by their teaching. by their really attack upon those who would follow Christ. They promoted the idea of salvation by the righteousness of the law by their own works. They added a ton of regulations and traditions to what God’s word said. So you could earn your way to heaven. But the gospel makes the way of to heaven smooth. It clears all this out of the way. You know, if you read the story, scriptures, they’re really rather clear and plain when it comes to salvation. Aren’t they not? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be said. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Isn’t that pretty plain and obvious? Isn’t it straightforward teaching? I am the way, Jesus says. That’s plain. That’s obvious. I’m reminded how Jesus had to get rid of all the the rough places that the scribes put, dumped on the law of God to try to confuse, they confuse people. You’ve heard it’s taught this, but I tell you this is what the law actually says. Clearing it off, clearing the way. All impediments, hindering the way to heaven shall be removed. All flesh shall see the salvation of God, verse 6. Now I take here the salvation of God truly as referring specifically to Christ and the way of salvation through him, through the gospel message. He is the way of salvation. He is the way, as I just quoted. Christ shall be proclaimed in the gospel to all flesh, and we take that as Jew and Gentile alike, will hear the gospel concerning Jesus Christ and be added to the kingdom, for it is a worldwide kingdom. embracing all nations. People will be given eyes to see the salvation of the Lord. Have you seen the salvation of the Lord? Have you been brought to faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ? This is the effect of John’s ministry. He fulfills Isaiah’s prophecy. And the spiritual implications of that we have just mentioned. Well, a good minister, I said, is like an alarm clock. walk. It wakes people up. And that’s what the purpose of the ministry of John is to wake people to alert them. Christ is coming. Christ is now here even. Believe on him. Trust in him. Repent. This is what John’s ministry was designed to do. Prepare people for Christ. Three things. We see the time of John’s ministry. It must have been important. Or we wouldn’t have been told all the time elements of these various rulers. The character characteristics of John’s ministry. He preached a gospel associated with repentance and so forth and the effects. How did it affect people? And we see that from Isaiah’s prophecy. Let us close with the word of prayer.