Message Information
- Key Scriptures: Luke 3:1–20, NASB
- Series: Luke (2025-2027), no. 1
- Date: Sunday, January 12, 2025 (Morning)
- Venue: Central Baptist Church — Lawton, Oklahoma
- Speaker: Jared Byrns
- Audio File: Open/Download
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Why Preparation Matters
I’ve mentioned before, even recently, making breakfast for the kids. That’s now my job on the weekends. I used to make them breakfast every day before school while Charla got them ready. Then we realized it worked better if she did the cooking and I got them ready.
I would stress out a little bit about the time constraints. I wish Billie were here; she understands. She raised five kids. She knows how chaotic it gets. It’s like feeding time at the zoo, and time just gets away from you.
So I learned that, to make my life easier, I needed to prepare the night before. You know what? This works in all kinds of things. I don’t know why I don’t do it more, because it always makes life better if I’m prepared ahead of time.
I even got to where I would think, “Okay, I know this child likes this color plate, and this child likes this color plate.” I would take them out and stack the dishes in the order I was going to use them. If I was really prepared, I would even pre-crack all the eggs, put them in a Tupperware container, and put them back in the refrigerator—not leave them in a stack on the counter.
I would do all these things in preparation, and it worked so well that I should have done it every day. I just didn’t. Laying out your clothes the night before makes the morning easier. I don’t know why I don’t do these things more.
We know that being prepared helps. It makes life easier, and it helps us accomplish what we’re trying to do. I was thinking this weekend about all the people who had to be prepared for the snowstorm we had. The people at ODOT had to stockpile sand and salt and make sure the trucks were working so they could get the roads open again. They had to be prepared.
They couldn’t just wait for the snow and then say, “Oops, what do we do now?” Preparation is important.
Preparing the Way for the Messiah
This morning, we’re going to look at the ministry of John the Baptist and how he came in preparation for Jesus’ ministry. Those of you who were here last Sunday, especially last Sunday night, heard us talk about how we’re going to begin a study of the book of Luke. But since we have just come from Christmastime and have heard the story of Jesus’ birth several times—not that there’s anything wrong with hearing that story several times—and because we have spent a month or so focused on that, I decided we’re going to begin with chapter 3.
In the last week or two, you’ve also heard the stories of Jesus’ infancy and His preteen years at the temple as part of the children’s lesson. So we’re going to start with chapter 3 and go through the book of Luke as it talks about Jesus’ ministry. Last Sunday night, we had a time of preparation where we looked over those first two chapters as they set the scene for what’s going to come next. We also considered some things to keep in mind and understand as Luke points them out throughout his book.
We’re going to be in chapter 3 this morning as we look at how John the Baptist was sent to prepare the people of Israel for the coming of Jesus, so that when He came, some of the work had already been done. Not the work of our salvation, but the work of helping them understand who He was, so that some of them had a clue when He showed up.
We’re going to start in Luke 3:1 and look at verses 1 through 20:
Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. And he came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins; as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. Every ravine will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be brought low; the crooked will become straight, and the rough roads smooth; and all flesh will see the salvation of God.'” So he began saying to the crowds who were going out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. Indeed the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; so every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” And the crowds were questioning him, saying, “Then what shall we do?” And he would answer and say to them, “The man who has two tunics is to share with him who has none; and he who has food is to do likewise.” And some tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Collect no more than what you have been ordered to.” Some soldiers were questioning him, saying, “And what about us, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not take money from anyone by force, or accuse anyone falsely, and be content with your wages.” Now while the people were in a state of expectation and all were wondering in their hearts about John, as to whether he was the Christ, John answered and said to them all, “As for me, I baptize you with water; but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” So with many other exhortations he preached the gospel to the people. But when Herod the tetrarch was reprimanded by him because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and because of all the wicked things which Herod had done, Herod also added this to them all: he locked John up in prison.
What we see here in this opening section of the part of Luke we’re going to study is John drawing Israel’s attention to something. He was drawing their attention to the greatest news Israel would ever receive. That was his whole goal.
His goal was not to build a following for himself. His goal was not to make a name for himself. His goal was not to enact social change. His goal was not to preach his own message. His goal was to draw Israel’s attention to the greatest news it would ever receive: the One who came after him. We see this in the first six verses of the chapter.
John was the herald of Jesus’ coming. A herald is somebody who announces. That’s why at Christmastime we sing, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” The angels were announcing the birth of Jesus. When John comes, he comes as a herald, announcing that the Messiah is here.
He is not announcing Jesus’ birth. John and Jesus are about six months apart in age, so they’re grown men at this point. John is announcing that there is One in Israel who has come as the Messiah, and He’s about to appear to bring the nation back to a place where they can be right with God.
A Message Grounded in History
There is a maze of names and places in the first two verses. Luke mentions Tiberius Caesar and Pontius Pilate. He tells us that Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, Philip was tetrarch of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene. It was during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas.
There were not two high priests at the same time. Annas was the high priest who had been deposed by the Romans. He was the one the Jews would have regarded as the rightful high priest, but the man actually sitting in the seat was Caiaphas, his son-in-law. Yet Annas was behind the throne, whispering in his ear. As far as the Jews were concerned, one man was in the seat, but Annas was really the power behind the throne.
Luke gives us all these details about when John appeared, and he doesn’t do that just to bore the reader. I know some of you who aren’t into history see things like this and think, “Okay, this is where I zone out.” But Luke is doing this because he wants us to understand that this is not a fairy-tale story. This is something that happened in the actual world, in history.
There was a time when this man ruled here and that man ruled there. This is what was happening at the local level. Luke gives the reader enough information to pinpoint when it happened. Based on these details and some other clues in Luke’s Gospel, we can narrow this down to either AD 26 or AD 29. I tend to think it was about AD 29, but either timeline works. AD 26 would place Jesus’ crucifixion in AD 30. AD 29 would place it in AD 33.
Either way, Luke wants us to understand that this did not happen once upon a time in a land far, far away. This happened in actual history. There was a moment in time when God, who had been silent as far as speaking to the nation of Israel as a whole for four hundred years, suddenly broke that silence. He had not sent a prophet for four hundred years.
We know in hindsight that the silence was broken with the cries of Jesus being born. But as far as a message to the nation as a whole, John the Baptist was the first prophet in four hundred years. It says that the word of God came to John.
John didn’t simply arrive and say, “Hey, I’ve got some things to get off my chest about the way Israel has been acting.” Luke says the word of God came to John. It was a major event for Israel because, as we see in verse 15, they were eagerly awaiting something. They were in a state of expectation, waiting for the coming of the Messiah.
For four hundred years, they had been without a message from the prophets. God had spoken through the prophets about the judgment of Israel and about how the Messiah was going to come, and then He went silent. When God sent word to John, this was the first time in four hundred years that the nation of Israel had heard from God. Verse 3 says John then began to preach throughout the Jordan Valley.
The Fulfillment of Isaiah’s Prophecy
When we get to verse 4, Luke—the historian, the doctor, the man who interviewed eyewitnesses so he could record this for us—says John was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. The Messiah was prophesied, yes. There are all kinds of prophecies in the Old Testament. We talked about some of them at the end of last year. There are all kinds of prophecies pointing to the coming of the Messiah.
One of those prophecies was that the forerunner, the herald, would also come. Luke goes back to Isaiah 40:3–5 and applies it to John in verses 4 through 6. John was “the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.'” Basically: prepare the way for the Lord.
“Every ravine will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be brought low; the crooked will become straight, and the rough roads smooth; and all flesh will see the salvation of God.” In your Bible, that may not be an exact quotation of Isaiah 40:3–5. When I turn there in my Bible, the wording is a little different. The meaning is there, but some of the phrasing differs.
When you look at the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, which they would have had in Luke’s day, it is an exact quotation. Luke is quoting from the Greek translation of the Old Testament. I mention that in case anybody looks at it and says, “It doesn’t even say the same thing.” It depends on which translation they were quoting from.
Luke’s point is that the Messiah would have a forerunner who would come and prepare the way for Him. When you read about the valleys being filled, the mountains being smoothed out, and the roads being straightened, that is something people would actually do. When a king was coming through with his caravan and the local people knew he was coming, they would make preparations.
I don’t know whether you’ve ever watched, as I have, any of those documentaries about the most dangerous roads in the world. Have you ever seen the ones where somebody is driving a bus with a hundred people along a narrow road on the side of a mountain? Some of you are saying, “No, I don’t watch those on purpose.” I watch them and enjoy them from the safety of being on the ground here in Oklahoma and not having to drive those roads.
They didn’t want the king to have to travel on a road like that. So they would smooth out the valleys and the mountains. They would straighten and widen the roads and get the rocks out of the way. This is something they would do in the eastern world to prepare for kings and their entourages to travel through.
When Isaiah says that’s what John is going to do, and when John says that’s what he is doing, he means that he has come to prepare Israel spiritually for the Messiah. John wasn’t literally out there like ODOT working on the roads. The hills and valleys he was smoothing and the roads he was straightening represented the people. He was preparing the way for the King.
Notice verse 6. Matthew, Mark, and Luke each quote this passage from Isaiah. But Matthew and Mark, writing to a Jewish audience, stop before the end of the quotation. That’s not an error; that’s simply all they quoted. Luke includes the next phrase from Isaiah because he was most likely a Gentile writing to a Gentile audience. He makes it clear that even Isaiah said that when the forerunner came and prepared the way for the Messiah, “all flesh will see the salvation of God.”
Luke is saying, “Yes, John came to prepare Israel to receive the Messiah, but not so that Israel alone could be saved.” John came to prepare Israel to receive the Messiah so that when the Messiah came to Israel, all mankind—people from every nation, tribe, and tongue, people from every background, people from every conceivable walk of life—could experience the salvation God had sent.
Even in his treatment of Isaiah, Luke is saying that John’s ministry laid the groundwork for Jesus to come as the Savior of all mankind. That’s what he means by “all flesh.”
A Call to Repentance
We see the heart of John’s message when we go back to verse 3. Luke says John came throughout the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. He was calling people to repent and follow the Messiah.
John’s whole message was, “You need to repent,” not because John said so, but because he was pointing to One who was coming who was greater than he was. That’s part of preparing the way. The people needed to recognize who was coming. In light of that, and in light of the fact that they needed to follow Him, they needed to repent.
Baptism was a sign of this repentance. It was a sign of their commitment to follow the Messiah. Many of John’s followers—many of those he baptized—actually followed through with this. Early in John 1:35–42, John is standing with some of his followers and says, “There He is. Behold the Lamb.” Some of those people, including Andrew the apostle, had been baptized by John and then turned and followed Jesus.
We see the result of John’s ministry. His whole message was: repent and follow the Messiah. One way they identified themselves as willing and committed to do this was by undergoing baptism.
Baptism was not unknown in the Jewish world at that time, but it was usually something foreigners did. Those “filthy Gentiles,” as the Jews thought of them, would be baptized when they converted to Judaism and began following the one true God. Baptism was part of that conversion.
So imagine taking somebody who was Jewish, who was outwardly following the law and doing all these religious things, and telling that person, “You need to be baptized.” To them, that was inconceivable. John’s baptism was a mark of repentance and a willingness to follow the Messiah.
Understanding John’s Baptism
We also need to understand that what John was doing in baptism was not exactly the same as our baptism today. They looked alike, but their purposes and meanings were not exactly the same. I say that because Acts 19 tells us so.
There was a group of people who had been baptized by John. That baptism did not make them right with God. Being baptized by John was not the beginning of their relationship with Jesus, because there was a gap between the time John began ministering and baptizing and the time he finally introduced people to Jesus.
Acts 19 tells us that some people had been baptized by John and then left the area. Later, they encountered the apostles in Ephesus. They were asked, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit?”—which we do at the moment we are born again. They replied, “We didn’t even know there was a Holy Spirit.”
The point of the story is that they were baptized by John and then left before ever knowing who the Messiah was. Once they trusted in Christ, they were baptized as believers. We can learn some things about baptism from John, but we also have to understand that John’s baptism and Christian baptism are two different things. One was a baptism of repentance in preparation for the coming of the Messiah. Later, we are baptized as believers in Jesus Christ.
As we look at John’s preaching, his confrontations, his baptizing, and everything else he was doing, his mission was to prepare Israel for the greatest news it would ever receive. His job was to focus their attention on Jesus. Incidentally, that’s not a bad job for us today. It doesn’t matter what else we do if we don’t focus on Jesus.
The Bad News Before the Good News
We come to John’s preaching in verse 7, and it is not a feel-good message. There is a lot of bad news in what he shares, at least at the beginning. But that reminds me of something I learned long ago: the good news is better after we’ve heard the bad news.
I don’t know whether you’ve ever tried to talk to somebody about the gospel and, without any preparation, simply told them that Jesus died for them, only to have them respond, “Well, that’s nice. Thanks, I guess.” The good news that Jesus died for them and rose again doesn’t mean much to them unless they understand the bad news: we have been separated from God because of our sin. There is an element of bad news that prepares us for the gospel.
The same thing is true here. The message of the coming Messiah is good news. But if you don’t recognize your need for the Messiah, you will be indifferent to that good news at best. One of the things John had to do was tell them the bad news.
One of my children recently had what appeared to be an ear infection. Medicine would be good news in that situation, but she wouldn’t care much about taking it if her ear weren’t hurting. We could tell her, “You’re experiencing this pain”—that’s the bad news—and that makes receiving the medicine a very good thing.
The bad news for Israel was that they weren’t right with God. It didn’t matter how right with God they thought they were or how religious they were. Even going through baptism was not going to make them right with God. They came out to be baptized, and John said, “Whoa, hold up here.”
That’s where verse 7 and the vipers come in. I really had to dig into this to understand why in the world John responded this way. If I preached and gave an invitation and people started coming out of the woodwork, I would love that. I also don’t try to manipulate that into happening. But John seems to have the opposite reaction. He calls them a bunch of snakes.
Why does he do that? One of the commentators I read this week, Robert Gundry, says they were seeking forgiveness without repentance. John was preaching, and they came out saying, in effect, “Yes, baptize me. I want that forgiveness.” But John was saying, “You’re not repentant.”
How did he know their hearts? I don’t know whether God told him or whether he could see the fruit of their lives. That’s why he talks about fruits in keeping with repentance. He was telling them, “You’re not coming to get right with God.”
He says they’re like snakes that come slithering out when there is a grass fire. Every spring I light up the burn pile out in my pasture, and I never know what’s going to come flying out of there. John is saying, “You’re not coming to get right with God. You’re just fleeing the judgment.” They needed to repent.
Repentance does not mean cleaning up your life. It does not mean feeling sorry for your sins. Now, I think that if we’re repentant, our lives will become cleaner as a result. I think that if we’re repentant, we will grieve over our sins as a result. But repentance, in the original language, means changing our minds.
It is a change of heart and mind in which we go from loving our sin and hating God because of it to loving God and hating our sin because of it. As believers, we still sin, but a repentant person hates that sin. There is a difference between wallowing in our sin and saying, “Lord, why did I do that? Please forgive me,” and hating that sin within us.
That is repentance. John said, “You need to repent. You need to get right with God in your hearts and minds. You need to think rightly about God and about your sin.”
He tells them that genuine repentance will show up in their actions. That’s why he talks about fruit in verse 8. Then he warns them in verse 9 that judgment for sin is imminent. That’s what he’s talking about with the axe at the root of the trees.
Judgment is coming. The Messiah already has the axe at the root of the tree, ready to chop it down. “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
This is not saying that today you have to work and produce good fruit to earn salvation. It means that an unrepentant heart that is not right with God will not produce the right fruit. That tree will be cut down in judgment because it is not right with God.
Sin Must Be Confronted
John warns them that judgment is imminent, and they become afraid. Verse 10 says they were questioning him: “What shall we do?” They wanted to know what needed to be done.
John identifies some of the sins they were clinging to. This is all part of the bad news: “You’re not right with God. Judgment is coming. It is unavoidable.” He identifies sins they were clinging to that would keep them from embracing the Messiah.
Part of the bad news is that we all have things we want to hold on to, and if we hold on to them, they will keep us from embracing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Even as believers, they can keep us from embracing Him to the extent that we ought to.
In verse 8, John addresses their pride and self-righteousness. He stops them before they can even object: “Don’t even start telling me that you’re children of Abraham.” Their response was essentially, “Because we’re Israelites, because we’re children of promise, because we’re part of this covenant with God, we’re good with God.”
They missed the point. John says, “Don’t brag to me that you’re children of Abraham. God could raise up children of Abraham from these dead, lifeless stones.” Their heritage meant nothing if they neglected to do what Abraham’s covenant taught them to do. They took pride in where they came from and in their roots, thinking that made them right with God. John said it wasn’t enough.
In verse 11, he tells them that if they have two tunics or extra food, they should share with those who have none. Selfishness will keep us from embracing Jesus.
In verses 12 and 13, he addresses greed. The tax collectors ask, “What shall we do?” He tells them, “Collect no more than what you have been ordered to. Start being honest with people.”
Will honesty and charity earn us heaven? No. But we will refuse to follow Jesus if we’re too attached to our pride, dishonesty, selfishness, and all these other things.
In verse 14, John addresses the soldiers’ lack of self-control: “Do not take money from anyone by force, or accuse anyone falsely, and be content with your wages.” Again, none of these are things he tells them to do in order to earn forgiveness.
But I’ve met people—and some of you probably have too—who would say, “I understand that I need to be right with God. I understand that I need Jesus as my Savior, but I don’t want to do that because it would require me to give up…” and you can fill in the blank.
Here is another variation: “I’ll follow Jesus someday, when I’m done having my fun with…” and again, fill in the blank. There are sins we cling to and love that keep us from following Jesus because we don’t want to give them up when He calls us to.
Those are the things John is addressing. It is bad news for them because it shows how far their hearts were from God. When we think about the things that might keep us from embracing Jesus and following Him, it is bad news for us as well because it shows how far our hearts are from Him.
But when we finally understand how sinful we are, when we finally understand how wicked our hearts are, that bad news makes the good news that much better. Not because we should rejoice in our sin, but because when we recognize how sinful we are and how infested we are with sin, we realize that it is hopeless for us to save ourselves. Suddenly, the fact that Jesus came to save us becomes that much more incredible.
Israel had to recognize its need for the Messiah before it could appreciate the Messiah.
The Good News of the Messiah
That brings us to the good news. The bad news helped them understand why they needed the good news. The good news is that Jesus will judge sinners, but He gives us room to repent first. That’s why John kept calling them to repent.
Beginning in verse 15, John points them to a Messiah who was greater than he was, One who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. John says, “I’m here to baptize you with water as a symbol of repentance. He is coming to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”
He would truly cleanse His people through the Holy Spirit, but, as the next verse makes clear, He would also bring the fire of judgment upon those who refused to repent. His coming would bring salvation to the repentant and judgment to the unrepentant.
Verse 17 says, “His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor.” This is probably not something most of us do every day. They would have grain they had harvested spread out on the threshing floor, and then they had to separate it.
They would take the winnowing fork and throw the grain into the air. The chaff, the bad stuff, would blow away because it was lighter. The heavy wheat would fall back to the floor. But John says the Messiah will clear the entire floor.
He will separate the wheat from the chaff. He will gather the wheat—those who repent, those who turn to Him—into His barn like the treasure He considers them to be. Then He will take the chaff—those who refuse to repent and turn to Him, those who are content with their sins—and burn it with unquenchable fire.
He is coming in judgment, and He is coming to separate the wheat from the chaff. This is John’s message to them. But wrapped up in it is the good news that, even as John speaks, there is still time to repent.
All throughout the Bible, God teaches us about His judgment and how He will stand in judgment over us. Sometimes we look at how rotten the world can be and think, “Why hasn’t He judged it yet?” Peter tells us that it is because He is not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.
He gives one more chance—one more chance to repent, one more chance to turn back to Him. God is far more merciful than we deserve.
Israel was called to repent, knowing that the wheat would be saved and the chaff would not. The same thing is true today. Even though John preached before the crucifixion and resurrection, we are called to repent and trust in Jesus because a day is coming when we will stand before the God of this universe and give an answer for everything we have done.
The only answer that will save us is that Christ died for us. The reason God’s judgment has not come yet is that He is giving space to repent.
A Response Is Required
At the end of this passage, in verses 18 through 20, we see that the call to repentance demands a response. John preaches to the people, and they respond. What do they do? They come out to be baptized.
They are confronted with hard truth, and they come out to be baptized, committing themselves to follow the Messiah. They come out repentant.
Then John preaches hard truth to Herod, who was having an affair with his brother’s wife. How does Herod respond to the call to repent? He puts John in jail.
The call to repent demands a response. When we look at these two reactions, we see that when we’re confronted with this message, we will do one of two things. Either our hearts will be softened, we will repent toward God, and we will be broken over our sin, or our hearts will harden.
Many of the people at the Jordan River softened. Herod and many others hardened. The same thing happens today.
When the message is proclaimed that sin is dark, God’s judgment is coming, but Jesus Christ died for our sins so we could be forgiven, and that the only escape is to turn to Him, that message demands a response. Sometimes the response is hard: “I don’t want to hear that. I don’t want to hear any more about it. I don’t want to think about it.”
But sometimes a person’s heart is soft, and that person is willing to repent and receive the salvation He provides.
The Choice Before Us
The realization that we need to be right with God confronts us with a choice. Israel was confronted with a choice. On this side of the crucifixion and resurrection, we’re confronted with a choice as well.
We can embrace our sin and lash out at God, or we can recognize that our sin is killing us and turn to God instead. That doesn’t mean we’ll be perfect. But if we trust Christ as our Savior and are repentant over our sin, God will work in us. The Holy Spirit whom Jesus promised will sanctify and cleanse us, and God will transform us from the inside out.
It all begins with recognizing that we have sinned, that Jesus paid for our sin in full on the cross, and that He rose again to prove it. All we have to do is acknowledge what is wrong with our sin and ask God for the forgiveness that Jesus paid for. And we will have it.
