Luke 3:1-14 | “The Word of God Came” – Preston Highlands Baptist Church

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When God Speaks, Things Happen

When God speaks, things happen. When God spoke, the universe came into existence (Gen. 1:1), and even now his word holds the universe together (Heb. 1:3). When God spoke to Abraham, a family that would bless the whole world was created. When God spoke to Pharaoh through Moses, God’s people were set free. When God spoke to the Israelites at Mount Sinai, the mountain shook, the people were terrified, and a nation was created. When God spoke to the pagan kings of Babylon and Persia, they let his people return to the Promised Land.

When God speaks, things happen. All creation testifies to the power of God’s word. God’s word is creative and effective, living and active. God’s word carries with it a mysterious power to accomplish the things he says.

Only one thing in the universe has rebelled against God’s word, and that’s us. We were created in God’s image to know him, listen to him, talk to him, and enjoy him. But from the beginning we’ve preferred to listen to the voice of the serpent and follow our own inclinations rather than God’s word. We’re the only thing in the universe who hears God’s word and says, “No!”

But in mercy, God still sends his word to those who don’t want to listen to him. He comes to us with his word and wants us to respond to him with faith. God doesn’t just want a response, his word demands a response.

The word of God demands a response. This is what Jesus himself said. Mark 1:14-15 says, “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’”

Jesus says we must do something with his message. Jesus’ relative John the Baptist said the very same thing. John and Jesus’ message were the same: God’s kingdom is here in Jesus and anyone who wants to be a part of that kingdom has to repent and believe. No one gets into the kingdom by default. No one gets in through family connections or good performance. The only people who get in are those who respond to the word of God with repentance and faith. Is that you?

The Word of God Demands a Response

As we move into Luke 3 today, we’re moving into the beginning stages of Jesus’ adult life. But just as Luke did in chapter 1, he connects Jesus with John the Baptist. We can’t understand the one without the other. John came first to prepare the way for Jesus. So Luke brings us back to John and tells us in chapter 3 about John’s ministry.

In Luke 3:1-14, we see John begin his public ministry. John’s message is clear: those who turn from sin and turn to God will be saved. The main point of this text is that the word of God demands a response.

In this text, we’ll see John’s baptism (vv. 1-6), John’s message (vv. 7-9), and the people’s response (vv. 10-14). Again, the main point of this text is that the word of God demands a response.

John’s Baptism

First, we see John’s baptism in verses 1-6. Because Luke is committed to historical accuracy, he begins the next section of his story about Jesus’ adulthood by situating these events historically, referring to Roman and Jewish rulers at the time in verses 1-2.

But a force more powerful than Tiberius, Pilate, Herod, Philip, Lysanias, Annas, and Caiaphas was beginning to be unleashed on the earth. After over 400 years of silence from God, verse 2 says, “the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.” This phrase, “the word of God came to…” is a prophetic idiom. It’s used repeatedly in the Old Testament to signify that God’s word is coming through a prophet. For example, Isaiah 38:4 says, “Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah.” Jeremiah 13:3, “And the word of the Lord came to me a second time.” Hosea 1:1, “The word of the Lord that came to Hosea.”

John stands in a long line of prophets who spoke for God. His words were not his own. They were from God, the same God who spoke the universe into being. This means that his words cannot be ignored.

John is “in the wilderness” (v. 2), in “the region around the Jordan” (v. 3). God often had things to say to his people while they were in the wilderness. The challenges of the wilderness alert us and often awaken in us our deep and abiding need for outside help, for God’s help.

There may be some symbolic meaning here in that John is near the Jordan River. The Jordan was the gateway to the Promised Land. The exodus ended at the Jordan. When the Israelites arrived at the Jordan, they were finally home. John is at the Jordan to exhort Israel to enter the Promised Land again, this time through the Messiah.

Verse 3 says that John was “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” Notice that he’s “proclaiming” a baptism, not just baptizing. The baptism he’s preaching about is a “baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” He’s preaching a message about beginning a new life with God. John isn’t preaching baptism, he’s preaching repentance.

This was a shocking message, especially for Jewish people. Mark’s account says, “The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him” (1:5). Jews were flocking to hear this prophet who “wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist” and who “ate locusts and wild honey” (v. 6). But John’s message was even more shocking than his clothing or diet.

The shocking thing was that John was calling on Jews to do what they thought only Gentiles needed to do. In those days, for a Gentile to become a Jew, they had to be baptized, circumcised, and make a sacrifice. Baptism by itself, even without circumcision, was enough to make a Gentile a Jew.

But John’s baptism is for Jews. John is placing Jews in the place of Gentiles.[1] He’s preaching that Jews need to be baptized to be part of God’s people. He’s saying their physical relationship to Abraham doesn’t count (v. 8). He’s saying that, unless they repent, they’ll perish and won’t inherit the kingdom of God.

John’s message was for religious people who thought they were good with God. He’s saying that religious heritage means nothing. He’s saying that only the repentant are forgiven of their sins.

He’s saying that people need to repent because the Lord is coming. This is one reason Luke quotes Isaiah 40:3-5. The Isaiah passage says that “the Lord”, or Yahweh, will come to save his people. Luke applies this passage to how John is preparing the way for Jesus, indicating his view that Jesus is Yahweh, and saying that the God of Israel, Yahweh, is the one who’s come in Jesus.

John’s sermon was simple: “God is coming to save the world. If you repent of your sins, stop trusting your religion and trust in the Lord, your sins will be forgiven and you’ll be saved. And, as a symbol of your repentance and the new life you’ve begun with God, you should be baptized.” This is “the word of God.” It demanded a response then, and it still demands a response today.

John’s Message

In verses 7-9, John makes his message more pronounced. Verse 7 says that John is addressing the “crowds” who were coming to be baptized. Matthew’s account says that he addressed these words to the Pharisees and Sadducees (Mt. 3:7). For Luke, John’s rebuke is for the whole nation, probably because the cancerous teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees had spread through the whole nation, resulting in a nation that, for the most part, believed it was safe with God when in reality it was in imminent danger. One of the results of bad teaching is people who think they’re saved when they’re not.

A Struggle of the Species[2]

Verse 7 says that John called the people a “brood of vipers.” That’s not very diplomatic language! But it is deeply theological language.

You may remember when we studied Genesis 3:15 back in December that it says that the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent will fight each other. The struggle is initially between the serpent and the woman, but the second phrase of the verse says the struggle will spread to their kids, “between your offspring and her offspring.” There’s going to be a lifelong and vicious struggle between these two families.

Genesis 3:15 sets the stage for the whole Bible. There will be war. The two sides are the two seeds. It’s the seed of the serpent versus the seed of the woman.

Genesis 3:15 establishes a pattern that we see throughout the Bible: Cain versus Abel, Joseph versus his brothers, Pharoah versus Israel, David versus Goliath. There’s always been conflict between people who belong to God and people who don’t belong to God.

This seed versus seed theme shows up in the New Testament when John the Baptist calls the Pharisees, or crowds, a “brood of vipers!” (Mt. 3:7) They’re the seed of the serpent. Jesus later says to his enemies, “You are of your father the devil” (Jn. 8:44). In 1 John 3, the apostle John says there are two kinds of people, “children of God” and “children of the devil,” and the way to know the difference is to see who loves righteousness and who loves the church. He says, “By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother” (vv. 8-10).

Since Genesis 3:15, humanity is divided into two communities: the elect, who love God, and the reprobate, who love self. Every person who’s ever lived is either of the seed of the woman or of the seed of the serpent. This begs an all-important question: which one are you?

One of the reasons we take baptism and church membership and church discipline so seriously is because God has always been careful to distinguish between those who’re his and those who’re not. There’s always been a sharp and bright dividing line between those who love God and those who don’t.

Repentance is Visible

The opening to John’s sermon was meant to be offensive because people need to know that life is short and the wrath of God is coming (v. 7b). Indeed, John says that God’s judgment has already started in Israel (v. 9). In light of this, John tells the people to do something really simple, to start looking at their lives and to stop looking at their religious profession.

The first part of verse 8 says that a repentant person will live a repentant life. True repentance is visible. It’s like fruit on a tree. You can tell what kind of tree a tree is by looking at what it produces. In the same way, you can tell what kind of person a person is by looking at what their life produces. If a person’s life is producing righteousness and love for God and love for others, repentance lives in their heart. If a person’s life is producing unrighteousness and complacency toward God and hatred toward others, repentance doesn’t live in their heart.

The next part of verse 8 says that the thing we should not look to when trying to figure out if we belong to God or not is our religious identity. John says, “Don’t even try to think that you belong to God because your parents were Christians or because you’re a member of a church or just because you’ve undergone baptism or because you do good things for people.”

He’s saying that our profession isn’t what counts, but the way in which we live our lives. The meaning of John’s baptism was the manifestation of a repentant heart. Anyone who sees baptism as their admission ticket is still condemned. John’s message is a “baptism of repentance.”

John is challenging the people’s belief that their Jewishness is enough to get them to heaven. He’s telling a bunch of religious people that they’re no better than pagans, that without repentance they’ll never belong to God’s people, that without repentance they’ll burn under God’s judgment (v. 9).

Mike McKinley wrote a book called Am I Really a Christian? Each chapter challenges us just like John the Baptist challenged these Jews. The chapter titles summarize McKinley’s point: “You are not a Christian just because you say you are, You are not a Christian if you haven’t been born again, You are not a Christian just because you like Jesus, You are not a Christian if you enjoy sin, You are not a Christian if you do not endure to the end, You are not a Christian if you don’t love other people, You are not a Christian if you love your stuff.”[3] For millennia people have assumed they’re good with God when they aren’t. Thankfully God has given us his word and his church to help us know that we know him. If you’re struggling with this question, talk with the person you came with or grab me after the service. There’s nothing more important to talk about than what it means to truly know God.

What is Repentance?

It’s easy to hear all this talk about repentance and think something like this, “You know John, you’re right, I need to get my act together, I need to stop doing this and start doing that.” But let me say it as plainly as I can: changing behavior isn’t repentance.

Notice the language John uses in verse 8, “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.” He says that fruit should “keep with” repentance. He’s saying that fruit is the result of repentance, not repentance itself. He’s saying that a changed life comes from a changed heart.

The word repentance in Greek means “a change of mind.” So repentance is when our minds’ perceptions and dispositions and purposes change. John Piper puts it this way, “Repenting means experiencing a change of mind so that we can see God as true and beautiful and worthy of all our praise and all our obedience…This is the demand of Jesus to every soul: Repent. Be changed deep within. Replace all God-dishonoring, Christ-belittling perceptions and dispositions and purposes with God-treasuring, Christ-exalting ones.”[4]

Repentance happens when God changes our operating system. This kind of change happens when God shows us how holy he is, how ugly our sin is, and how good Jesus is. The result of this is a new way of living. And this is exactly what John the Baptist says next.

The People’s Response

In verses 10-14, the people respond to John the same way they did Peter preached on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:37), “What should we do?” The word of God that came to them through John the Baptist has convicted and changed their hearts and they know something needs to change. But they’re not exactly sure what, so they ask. When we don’t know what to do next, it’s always a good idea to just ask someone.

John proceeds to tell them what repentance looks like, and he says it looks like loving your neighbor. As one scholar says, John’s response is simply: “forsake your sin and conduct your life in a manifestation of neighbor-love.”[5] And another writer says, “True repentance leads to a practical change of life.”[6]

John is saying that the fruit that grows on the tree of true repentance is ethical in nature. John tells the tax collectors and soldiers to play by the rules and not take advantage of people they’re serving (vv. 12-14). In a society like theirs where corruption and exploitation were the norm, this kind of life-change would be super obvious.

But in verse 11, John takes it even further, saying that the haves should share with the have-nots, that those with more should share with those with less. This isn’t socialism because it’s voluntary, not compulsive sharing. The Christian wants to share and chooses to share. Their hearts have been changed by grace and they can’t help but live with open hands.

John addresses tax collectors and soldiers in this section probably because they were the ones who were moved by his message of repentance while the religious leaders were not. The social outcasts understood their need. The super religious stood their ground. Grace always looks most attractive to those who understand their need for it.

The Word of God for Us Today

John the Baptist preached the word of God and the people who saw their need responded. The word of God demanded a response then and demands a response today.

The word of God for us today is this: “Long ago, in many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Heb. 1:1-2).

God’s word to us today is that his Son, Jesus, came into the world to live a perfect life, die on the cross for our sin, and rise again on the third day so that anyone who repents of their sins and trusts in him will be saved.

The Word of God Came

Luke 3:1-14