The Only Savior, God’s Son

Luke 3

Main Idea: We have the testimony of the people, the Father, and the test proving that Jesus is the Son of God and our Savior.

1. What Do the People Say (3:1-20)?
   1. John’s public context (3:1-2)
   2. John’s public ministry (3:3-9)
   3. John’s practice in ministry (3:10-14)
   4. John’s personal identity (3:15-17)
   5. John’s persevering faithfulness (3:18-20)
2. What Does the Father Say (3:21-22)?
3. What Does the Test Say (3:23-38)?

Getting to know someone is not always easy. One of the most profound questions we will ever be asked is, “Who are you?” It is a simple question, yet it calls forth a lot more than a three-word answer. It is one of those questions in every culture and every place that people ask. In the Cayman Islands people ask you, “Who ya fa?” or “Who are you for?” which means, “Who are your people?” or “Where are you from?”

We have lots of ways of saying who we are or where we’re from. My mother blazed the importance of this question on my pre-teen mind. Whenever I was around my father’s side of the family, I would often shy away from people. But my mother would always say, “Boy, those are your daddy’s people. You need to know your people.”

Who your people are has a lot to do with how you answer “Who are you?” That’s no less true of the Lord Jesus Christ. The question that runs through this Gospel is, “Who is Jesus?” Who are his people? Where is he from? And that question has a lot to do with authenticating that Jesus is the Christ.

We live in the real world. We know that a question like “Who are your people?” can be difficult to answer. There is another saying I sometimes heard from my mother: “Mama’s baby; Papa’s maybe.” Sometimes there may be some controversy around the parentage of the child, as was the case with Jesus. Mary was pregnant while only betrothed to Joseph, who had not known her. Because of this scandal, Joseph even considered putting her away quietly (see Matt 1:19) or calling off the engagement. Oftentimes in these kinds of circumstances gossip swirls and questions are raised about the baby. Luke 3 answers three questions: What do the people say? What does the Father say? What does the test say?

When it comes to Jesus we don’t need Jerry Springer to prove paternity. We only need Luke 3. In this chapter we have the testimony of the people, the testimony of the Father, and the test itself: the genealogy of our Lord.

What Do the People Say?

Luke 3:1-20

In verses 1-20 Luke introduces us to the public ministry of John the Baptist.

John’s Public Context (3:1-2)

Verses 1-2 provide the public context. John begins his public ministry in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar. The Caesars were the rulers of the Roman world. Beneath Caesar was a governor named Pilate. And beneath Pilate were three tetrarchs who ruled various regions. Phillip ruled Iturea and Trochonitis, Lysanias ruled Abilene, and Herod ruled Galilee, Jesus’s hometown area.

Not only does Luke introduce us to the political hierarchy of the Lord’s day, he also tells us about the religious hierarchy in verse 2. This all happened “during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas.”

Luke gives us the entire civil and religious order of Jewish society under Roman occupation. We are left to think these are the movers and shakers of Jesus’s day, the powerbrokers. So the most striking point of verse 2 is that “God’s word came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness” (emphasis added). It is interesting to follow where God’s word goes. The word or revelation of God keeps going to the little people. It doesn’t to the Caesars or even to the priests in their robes. It goes to shepherds in the fields keeping watch over their flock by night. It goes to a little virgin girl. It goes to old men and old women well past the age of bearing children. It goes to Zechariah’s son, John, who doesn’t love the world or follow the ways of the world; he lives in the wilderness.

Two things clue us in to John’s prophetic status. First is the phrase “God’s word came to John.” That phrase is a formula from the Old Testament frequently used of prophets. Second is the reference to John being “in the wilderness.” God often sends his servants into the wilderness to prepare them for the work of the ministry.

In Luke’s Gospel little people are the heroes. That’s a wonderful thing in a world and a Christian church where people are intoxicated with the powerful. We love the elites, the rich and the famous. This is why Christians sometimes get so excited when some rapper or entertainer becomes a Christian. We should rejoice with heaven at the repentance of every single sinner. But I suspect some Christians are happy because the person is rich and famous. We think somehow the credibility of the gospel is enhanced because the wealthy and the powerful believe.

God’s ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not like our thoughts. Sitting higher and thinking higher, God looks lower to the little people. I believe Verses 1-2 are a Gospel version of what we read in 1 Corinthians 1:26-29. Paul says God didn’t choose the powerful, wise, and strong but the weak, foolish, and despised things to confound the world. That’s what God is like.

John’s Public Ministry (3:3-9)

In verses 3-14 Luke turns to John’s public ministry. Verse 3 summarizes his ministry. John “went into all the vicinity of the Jordan, proclaiming . . .” When the word comes, the preacher preaches. It is like fire shut up in his bones (see Jer 20:9).

I love John. He only has one good sermon. And the truth is every pastor only has one good sermon—the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is what John is preaching in “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (v. 3).

Repentance simply means a change of mind, a change of heart, and a change of direction. All of us in our sins apart from Christ were driving toward the city of sin. But something happened, causing us to switch lanes and drive in the opposite direction. Now we drive with the city of sin in our rearview mirror as we head to the city of God. That is what repentance is—that turning in the heart and mind that results in a changing of direction of the entire life. John preaches his heart out: we must repent for the forgiveness of sins.

Repentance and forgiveness go together like hard work and a corner office. There is no forgiveness unless there is also repentance. To forgive is to cause two things to stand apart from one another, to separate them. In forgiveness we place the guilt and offense on one side and we put the offending, guilty person on the other side. We relieve them of their guilt against us. The Bible says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has [God] removed our transgressions from us” (Ps 103:12). This is what John preaches in the wilderness as people come to him.

John is a prophet who himself was prophesied. Seven hundred years before John, the prophet Isaiah told us there would be a forerunner who cleared the path and made ready for the coming of the Lord himself. Luke quotes Isaiah’s comments (see Isa 40:4) about valleys being filled, mountains leveled, and crooked places made straight not because God is interested in transforming physical land. These are metaphors for a construction project in the human heart. These are vivid ways of describing repentance.

John has come to make the people ready for the coming of the Messiah. That readiness boils down to repentance from sin. Repentance looks like a deep alteration of the heart.

Verses 7-9 give us a glimpse into John’s preaching. John’s theology of repentance affected his proclamation. John’s preaching was confrontational. People come to John to be baptized. These people are already sympathetic to the message. These are not the sinners going to party in clubs. These people are coming to do something religious. But John is well aware that you can be religious and be lost. You can engage in all kinds of external religious exercises and not be repentant. So John confronts them in verse 7, saying, “Brood of vipers!”

In our day we are told we must always be nice and never offend people. But right from the start John proclaims his warning. John knows there is a God who has appointed a day when he will pour out his anger and indignation against sin. The thing to really be worried about is the judgment of God, not the politeness of the preacher!

Sometimes the preacher does you the best favor when he gets in your face. He loves you best when he tells you the things that you don’t want to hear but that are true and necessary for your soul. We need preachers who will tell us about our state before a holy God, even with words like, “Brood of vipers!” Verse 18 tells us John’s teaching was “good news.” Luke describes this preaching as “exhortations,” and it is for the wise who have ears to hear. John confronts them about their spiritual standing before God.

Moreover, John confronts them about the quality of their lives (v. 8). Repentance isn’t simply mental. True repentance is accompanied by fruit, by good deeds.

This is how the gospel was preached from the earliest days. For example, the apostle Paul, testifying before King Agrippa, says that he preached “that they should repent and turn to God, and do works worthy of repentance” (Acts 26:20). There is no gospel preaching without the preaching of repentance—of turning from sin to God and demonstrating that turn in a new life. John confronts his audience about the quality of their lives.

John confronts his hearers about their possible futures. He warns in verse 9, “The ax is already at the root”—not at the branches or at the trunk of the trees. The ax is at the root, the very sustaining source of the trees. The ax of God’s judgment is already in motion, and it is aimed at the life-giving base of the nation of Israel.

This forerunner introduces us to a coming King who is also Judge. It’s the fact that he is a Judge that makes repentance so deeply necessary. Repentance brings salvation. The failure to repent brings damnation. There are only two ways to live. There are only two ways to face: either we face the condemnation that is to come or we face the salvation in his Son. And here’s the thing: this salvation is behind our backs. We must turn around from sin in order to see it.

Perhaps you have never repented of your sin. If you have never turned in mind and heart to agree with God about your sin and turned in mind, heart, and life to follow Jesus, then you may be religious or even raised in the church, but you are not yet a Christian. You may be offended that the preacher is calling you a sinner. If so, that’s probably an indication that you don’t understand your sin very deeply. You don’t understand the necessity of your repentance. The true offense is not that your sin is being pointed out. The offense before God is that you don’t acknowledge your sin.

And what has God done about sin? He has charged us nothing for his salvation. God sent his Son into the world to live a righteous life that we could not live. Christ came into the world voluntarily and died the death we deserve in order to pay the penalty for our sins. The wrath of God is absorbed by the Son of God on the cross so that sinners would not have to suffer that punishment if they trust in Christ. Three days later God raised Jesus from the grave to demonstrate that he had accepted the sacrifice of his Son on behalf of sinners.

All that is left to do—if we can call it “doing”—is to turn from our sin and turn to our Savior. Trust and follow him in order to receive the salvation of God. Do not get offended when God tells you he loves you, and when he loves you enough to point out your sin then loves you enough to point you to his salvation. Do not be offended. Receive it—all of it.

John’s Practice in Ministry (3:10-14)

John maintains an interesting pattern of ministry. He not only confronts the people (vv. 7-9), he also counsels the people (vv. 10-14). After John preaches a blistering sermon, the people wish to know what they must do to be saved. As John MacArthur once put it, “Hard truth makes soft people” (“Question and Answer”). The hearts of the people have been softened.

John gives a general principle and a specific practice. The general principle: In response to the message of repentance, they should demonstrate their repentance by sharing (v. 11). Repentance includes ordinary, along-the-way kindness and generosity to others in need. In true repentance our eyes are opened. We see how generous God has been to us in Christ, then we look with similar kindness on our neighbors. We recognize those who have no coats and no food while we have multiple coats and full cupboards. Many of us spend minutes in our closets deciding which coat best matches our shoes. How many school children did we pass on our way who need a winter coat? How many homes did we pass in need of groceries? The repentant Christian life opens our eyes to these things. God has been generous to us, and we are compelled to care for others. In repentance we recognize that our abundance is to be shared in blessing our neighbors.

The church I shepherd has five objectives that we call our “Five M’s,” and one of them is “Mercy.” We want to be a congregation of people who show mercy to our neighbors. We think it an odd thing to be a “Christian” and to be indifferent to the suffering and needs of others. It’s an odd thing to be Christian and to remain indifferent to poverty. So we wish to prove our repentance in a Good Samaritan way (10:25-37). We want to be like the lepers who returned to the city to tell others the Lord had plundered the Syrians and left us the spoils (2 Kings 7).

We wish to reflect this generosity in our private and corporate lives. As the Lord gives us life and opportunity we want to intentionally manifest this sharing attitude beyond the benevolence line of our budget or a temporary handout. We want this baked into our lives because we are repentant people who share.

Beyond this general principle, there is also a specific practice. In verses 12-14 particular groups of persons speak up. We move from the nameless “crowds” in verse 10 to the “tax collectors” (v. 12) and “soldiers” (v. 14). They want to know “what should we do” in their specific cases.

John answers in a way that considers their vocations and the specific temptations unique to their vocations. He counsels the tax collectors and the soldiers not to use their positions for selfish advantage (vv. 13-14). Do not extort. Do not bully. Do not cheat others using the authority of the state. Do not use weapons to take from people; rather, be content with your wages.

Our Presbyterian friends have a wonderful way of expressing this aspect of repentance. The Westminster Confession of Faith (15.5) says, “Men ought not to content themselves with a general repentance, but it is every man’s duty to endeavor to repent of his particular sins, particularly.” Repentance causes us to examine our own lives with specificity. We must think about how we use our callings, our positions, and our privileges to either help or hurt, to sin or pursue righteousness.

We must get before the Lord and ask, “Who am I? What are my callings?” Then we must ask ourselves, “What are the particular temptations of my calling? What sins am I drawn toward given who I am and my station in life?” Then we must go on to ask ourselves, “Given those things, what does temptation look like for me?” We must repent of our particular sins, particularly.

Luke 3:7-14 insists that we understand repentance, for if we do not understand repentance then we do not accurately understand the Christian life. As Martin Luther put it in his ninety-five theses, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent’ (Matt 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” In the Christian life we enter into a life of repentance, a life of ever turning toward that celestial city. Repentance is a wonderful Christian discipline.

John’s Personal Identity (3:15-17)

John’s public ministry raises the question of John’s personal identity. The people wonder just who John is. He is growing in their estimation. It is natural to exalt or esteem people when we recognize the good they have done for us. The crowds begin to wonder “whether John might be the Messiah” (v. 15).

John wishes to set the record straight immediately (v. 16). He tells them that his baptism was symbolic. The true baptism includes the gift of God himself—the Holy Spirit. John makes it clear that the Messiah will bring God’s fire of judgment.

Every preacher and pastor should follow John’s example. Let us use all our fingers to point away from ourselves and to the Lord Jesus Christ. People will love and esteem faithful pastors. Sometimes they will appreciate their pastors too much or in improper ways. Let every faithful pastor work against that tendency in their people. The best way to help the people express proper affection is to emulate John by constantly pointing them to Jesus Christ the Lord. Make it clear that we must decrease and Christ must increase. We cannot be great and Christ great too. We cannot worry about people loving our sermons when we should want them to love the Savior.

Our task is to point to Jesus that he might be great in the people’s sight. We cannot point to him and to ourselves at the same time. Sometimes we must reorient the people so they see Jesus for who he really is. John the Baptist does that as he reminds the people of the winnowing shovel and the threshing floor. A winnowing shovel was used to separate wheat from the chaff. A farmer would toss the harvest into the air. The wheat would fall and the chaff would float on the breeze, thus separating the two. He would gather the wheat to be used, and he would gather the chaff to be burned as waste.

Christ’s coming includes this kind of sifting. The Lord Jesus said it himself:

“From now on, five in one household will be divided: three against two, and two against three. They will be divided, father against son, son against father, mother against daughter, daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” (12:52-53)

Christ plunges the winnowing shovel of the gospel into the world, and the wheat of faith is collected while the chaff of unbelief gets burned away in condemnation. Christians must bear faithful witness to Christ the Judge in a world that would rather Jesus were only a babe in a manger; they would only have Jesus be some wise teacher and consistently deny that he is Judge. Jesus is both the saving Lord who gives his life for sinners and the judging King who weighs us all.

John’s Persevering Faithfulness (3:18-20)

People are often wrong in their assessment of who Jesus is. The Christian’s job is to make it plain. John gives us a model of persevering faithful witness. We see John’s faithfulness in three things. First, John remains faithful with the gospel itself (v. 18). He keeps preaching the good news. Second, we see his faithfulness no matter the audience (v. 19). He preached the same gospel to Herod the tetrarch. He does not bend the message to suit the itching ears of his hearers. Third, we see John’s faithfulness no matter the cost (v. 20). For preaching the gospel without compromise to Herod, John finds himself locked up in prison. Before long, Herod will have John beheaded (Matt 14:1-2; Mark 6:14-29).

To bear faithful witness about Jesus requires us to be careful with the message of the gospel, to be lovingly confrontational with the people who hear it, and to pay the cost that Christ may call us to pay. That is the only way we make it clear that Jesus is Lord in both our preaching and our pain, that we fear God and not man. This is God’s calling on the Christian life and how the world will know who Jesus is.

Who do the people say or think Jesus is? They get it wrong. Who gets it right? Those who bear the message of Jesus Christ in the gospel. We must be faithful so that the crowds will truly know him.

What Does the Father Say?

Luke 3:21-22

What does the Father say about who Jesus is? That question gets answered in verses 21-22. We’ve heard John’s testimony that Jesus is greater than him and that it is Jesus who brings both salvation and condemnation. But what people say about Jesus does not settle the matter. We need other testimony. Here God the Father gives testimony.

Jesus submits himself to baptism. People sometimes wonder why Jesus was baptized if he did not sin and had no reason to repent. The other Gospel writers give us insight. In Matthew 3:15 Jesus explains to John that he must be baptized because “this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” The Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to fulfill all the righteous requirements of the law. We have broken all those righteous requirements. Here Jesus stands in our place not just as our sin bearer but also as our righteousness. All the active and positive obedience we owe God as his creatures, the Lord Jesus provides perfectly, even down to his willingness to be baptized by John for the remission of sins he had not committed.

John 1:29-34 also records the baptism of our Lord. Jesus participates in this baptism so that “he might be revealed to Israel” (John 1:31). Jesus submitted in order to demonstrate to Israel that he is the Savior they awaited. At his baptism a confirmation is given of this in heaven. Luke 3:21-22 records that the Holy Spirit, who is noncorporeal, who blows where he wills like the felt but unseen wind, takes the visible form of a dove as he descends on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then the voice comes from heaven saying, “You are my beloved Son.” The Father steps vocally out of glory to testify that the child about whom there had been some question is indeed his Son. The fullness of God in all three persons of the Trinity unites in revealing Jesus Christ as God’s Son and Israel’s Savior.

Christ Jesus, who had been the Father’s Son from all eternity past, will be the Father’s Son for all eternity future. And Christ is no displeasing, hard-headed boy. This young man of thirty years, who is God the Son incarnate, is the Son who pleases his Father. Do you wish to know what delights God? It is his Son. The Father looks at the Lord Jesus Christ, who has come into the world to take the place of sinners, and he concludes, “This Son of mine pleases me.”

This is why all those who are “in Christ” by faith also have God as a Father who is pleased with them. The Father looks at the faithful and he sees his Son. All the Son has done to please the Father has become ours through our union with Christ through faith in him. This is why Christians have every right to fight those nagging doubts and whispers that come along sometimes to suggest God is not happy with us. If we have made the hard choice of repenting of our sins and coming to God, we can expect to hear blessing from God, not condemnation. We do not have to shudder and cower for fear of a harsh word of rebuke from God. He gave us that rebuke to turn us away from sin. What we can joyfully and confidently expect to hear now that we are in Christ are words similar to those spoken at our Lord’s baptism: “I am pleased with you because of Christ.” All of our comfort, security before God, joy in his presence, sense of safety, and delight come from this marvelous statement from heaven. Jesus is God’s Son, and God is pleased with him. Because we are in him through faith, God is pleased with us.

This text is obviously Trinitarian, isn’t it? At Jesus’s baptism all the persons of the Godhead are present. God the Son is baptized. God the Father speaks from heaven. God the Holy Spirit descends on the Son in the form of a dove. This one text stands in clear contrast against errors in understanding the nature of God. Some have taught that there is one God who takes different forms at different times. They say he is the Father in the Old Testament, then he takes the form of the Son in the New Testament, and at other times he takes the form of the Spirit. They argue God exists in these modes—which is false. That all three persons exist in the same scene at the same time means modalism cannot be true.

At other times people wrestling with the mystery of the Trinity have tried to subordinate one or the other in some way. So, for example, they argue that Jesus is less than God but more than man. Or they tell us that the Spirit is a force rather than a person. But that’s false too. In this text we see the three persons and yet there remains only one God. Each person is fully and eternally God.

Belief in the Trinity is one thing that makes us Christian. The historical Christian church has always understood the Trinity to be foundational to who God is and foundational to the faith. So the person who denies the Trinity actually denies the Christian faith. They deny who God really is, and by that denial prove they do not know God.

Indeed, those who actively and self-consciously deny the Trinity deny the gospel itself. Ephesians 1:3-14 gives us a Trinitarian understanding of God’s work of redemption. It teaches us that the Father appoints our salvation, the Son accomplishes our salvation, and the Holy Spirit applies our salvation. Lose any one person in the Godhead and the entire gospel house falls down.

Trinitarian teaching about the nature of God is for our delight. The reality of the Trinity mystifies us and exceeds our intelligence. But praise God! For if we could completely comprehend God then he would not be God; we would be. Yet the Trinity is not meant to confound us as much as it is meant to delight us. This one true God exists in three persons—all of whom love us and all of whom participate in our salvation.

If we would know Jesus, we must know this God. It is this God who tells us that Jesus—not John—is his Son with whom he is pleased.

What Does the Test Say?

Luke 3:23-38

We have heard the testimony of John and the testimony of God the Father. Now in verses 23-38 we come to the testimony of the genealogy. If John’s prophetic ministry answers the gossip about the identity of the Christ, and the Father divinely vouches for Jesus as his Son, then the genealogy is the DNA evidence proving that only Jesus is the Christ.

The Lord was about thirty years of age when he was baptized and began his public ministry. In the Old Testament, priests would begin their public ministry at age thirty. The Lord’s example suggests we should be patient with baptizing persons. If the Lord could wait until he demonstrated some maturity, it is a good practice for us to do that with our children by not rushing them to the baptismal waters. The same could be said to men aspiring to pastoral ministry. If the Lord could wait until he was thirty, then young man at twenty-five, twenty-seven, thirty, and even thirty-five, you can wait too. You can be tested, endure, and learn something about patience.

Truthfully, everything I have ever rushed in my life I have messed up. If you are thinking, Pastor, help me go to seminary or pursue pastoral ministry, and you are in a hurry, then my question for you is, “Do you really want to be the next thing I rush?” You will need to learn patience in order to be an effective minister of the gospel; you may as well learn it as you wait for the Lord to prepare you and send you.

What is the purpose of the genealogy in Israel? Scattered throughout the Old Testament are these tracings of family trees and relationships. Genealogies have a three-fold purpose. First, they prove who was Jewish and who was not. Such proof of Jewish ancestry was important because God’s covenants were made with Israel. The promise of a deliverer was a promise made to Israel, and he would come from Israel (Deut 18:15,18).

Second, the genealogies prove who could or could not serve as priests. Only Levites could serve before the Lord in the tabernacle and the temple. When Israel left captivity and exile during the days of Nehemiah, they turned almost immediately to the genealogies to register the people returning from exile. Nehemiah 7:64 tells us there were some who sought to be registered but were not found in the genealogies, “so they were disqualified from the priesthood.” The entire priesthood prefigured the coming Savior who would be the Great High Priest.

Third, the genealogies prove who was or was not a “son of David.” Do you remember the promise of 2 Samuel 7, when God promised to establish David’s throne forever? David’s son would be ruler over Israel and the hoped-for Messiah. But not just any son or descendant of David could fill that role. The genealogy also had to prove that anyone claiming to be Messiah was not descended from David through Jeconiah (Jer 22:24-30; 36:30-31). God declared that no one from Jeconiah’s house would sit on David’s throne.

This helps us understand some major differences between Matthew’s genealogy and Luke’s. Matthew’s genealogy is abbreviated and stylistic. He divides his record into three generations of fourteen as he traces Joseph’s lineage. He also breaks with Jewish convention by mentioning four women by name—and those were Gentile women.

Luke records a more exhaustive genealogy in a traditionally Jewish style. Luke’s genealogy does not mention any women by name. Nevertheless, Luke’s genealogy actually traces Mary’s lineage. We infer that from Luke 3:23 where we read that Jesus “was thought to be the son of Joseph, son of Heli” (emphasis added).

If the Messiah must be Jewish, a male descendant of David, and not a son of Jeconiah, why does Matthew twice mention Jeconiah and include Gentile women in the genealogy? It’s all very un-Jewish and disqualifying. Matthew writes his genealogy to prove Jesus’s claim to be Messiah is not through Joseph. Perhaps that’s why Matthew immediately follows his genealogy with the virgin birth (Matt 1:18-23).

Luke writes to show that Jesus is the Messiah promised by God and that his claim is fulfilled through his mother, Mary. This helps make sense of Genesis 3:15 and Isaiah 7:14, where we read that the offspring of the woman will strike the serpent’s head, and “the virgin will conceive [and] have a son” (emphasis added). Luke’s genealogy shows that Jesus fulfills all the criteria necessary for being Messiah. His claim is legitimate. The genealogy makes his claim a matter of public record.

No one else can establish their descent from David. In AD 70 the Roman army destroyed the temple in Jerusalem. They conquered and scattered Israel into captivity. The records of the genealogies and lines of descent were destroyed. Only here in the Gospel of Luke in the genealogy of chapter 3 do we receive the definitive evidence that the Messiah, the anointed one of God, is none other than Jesus Christ.

Conclusion

The genealogy helps Luke fulfill his purpose in writing this Gospel. His desire is “to write to you in an orderly sequence . . . so that you may know the certainty of the things about which you have been instructed” ­(1:3-4). Fulfilling the requirements for Messiah cannot happen by chance or by choice. No way. We don’t humanly control our births. We don’t choose our parents. We can’t set the time of our birth. Fulfillment of the criteria for Messiah cannot be manipulated or fabricated. That Jesus meets all the criteria is a remarkable evidence of his rightful claim to be Lord and Savior

The genealogical record gives us a tremendous amount of certainty. Our certainty does not only rest on the prophetic report about John, nor does it only rest on the extraordinary and miraculous events at the Lord’s baptism when heaven was opened and God spoke in a voice we have not heard. Here, traced and recorded over centuries, we have the answer to our introductory questions: Who ya fa? Where are you from? Jesus Christ is the King of kings, Lord of lords, and the only Savior, God’s Son.

Reflect and Discuss

1. Luke introduces us to John the Baptist. What was John’s unique mission?
2. What do we learn about John’s life and ministry that can inform our own?
3. How does the genealogy of our Lord help us to have confidence that he really is the Messiah? Can anyone else provide this kind of genealogical evidence for being the Messiah?
4. Consider some of the persons in our Lord’s family tree. Do you draw any encouragement about your own family when you consider some of the people in Jesus’s family? Why or why not?