The Good News According To Luke
Part 1
Pastor: Rollan Fisher
Focus: We have to drop the facades and embrace ongoing repentance to grow into the people Jesus intends for us to be.
John Prepares the Way
What Should We Do?
Jesus for the Masses
John Prepares the Way
God calls us to himself as others give testimony of what Jesus is trying to do In our lives (Romans 10:14,15).
Luke 3:1-9
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming 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: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. ’” He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
The first thing of note that we need to appreciate and celebrate is that in the account that Luke gives of Jesus’ life and ministry, Luke is meticulous with recorded details to ensure historical accuracy that can be verified extra-biblically.
Luke makes it a point to identify five different Roman rulers and the territories they governed to demonstrate that his account would not fit into the genre of myth, nor historic fiction, but must be considered verifiable fact - a researched testimony that could be corroborated.
God had John call people to a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of their sins - the starting block for beginning a life fueled by the grace, involvement and intervention of Jesus Christ.
“If you are renewed by grace, and were to meet your old self, I am sure you would be very anxious to get out of his company.”
Charles H. Spurgeon
God’s grace frees us from our wretched lives when we, by faith, drop the facades and live a life of ongoing repentance.
No one can claim that they are right with God simply because they had a cultural background in the church or a natural pedigree of those who’ve belonged to God.
The deception of such living will have people cut down and thrown into the fires of hell.
If we’ve truly repented of something, we will bear fruit in that area by the power of the Holy Spirit - meaning we will grow.
*One of the things that prevents us from bearing the fruit that God desires in our lives is the facades which we live behind.
*Our generation has an obsession with image that prevents us from being humble and honest enough to allow God to do what he wants to in our lives.
In fulfillment of all that the Lord had the prophet Isaiah predict (Isaiah 40:3-5), God sent John into the wilderness (the dry place) saying that he would:
make his (Christ’s) paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
Amongst other things, here is what God was promising and what it means for us today:
“Every valley shall be filled” - meaning through the help of others (like John the Baptist), God wants to expedite the work of the Lord in your life.
“…every mountain and hill shall be made low” - meaning the places of pride in our lives will be dealt with, humbled and brought down, whether voluntarily or involuntarily.
“…the crooked shall become straight” - meaning that which is off-center in regards to God’s design for your life shall be corrected and reoriented.
“…the rough places shall become level ways” - meaning the dysfunctional areas of your life that were hard to touch and travel upon will become healthy, productive and functional.
“….all flesh will see the salvation of God” - meaning that in Jesus, God offers his rescue, healing and deliverance to all people.
God sends people to prepare the work of the Lord in your life.
“Low self-esteem causes me to believe that I have so little worth that my response does not matter. With repentance, however, I understand that being worth so much to God is why my response is so important. Repentance is remedial work to mend our minds and hearts, which get bent by sin.”
John Ortberg, The Me I Want to Be: Becoming God's Best Version of You
We all need help to grow - in things like our marriages, in our parenting, in how we build lives and careers to honor the Lord.
*THE TRUTH IS THAT IT IS NOT SHAMEFUL TO NEED HELP - IT IS SHAMEFUL NOT TO ASK GOD AND HIS PEOPLE FOR THAT HELP.
Matthew 3:5,6
Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
Confession involves coming into agreement with God and his higher way (Isaiah 55).
We often don’t have a posture of confession, so God in his mercy sends people into our lives to track us down.
It may be your spouse, your friend, your community group leader or parent that God is using to point out sin - to help you take responsibility for shortcomings and grow.
But we can not stay there.
We must be like the Psalmist who asked God to search him and try him to see if there was any offensive way in them so that they might be led in God’s everlasting way.
Psalm 139:23,24
Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me,and lead me in the way everlasting!
*WE HAVE TO DROP THE FACADES TO EMBRACE AN EMPOWERING LIFESTYLE OF CONFESSION AND REPENTANCE.
How are you hiding behind an image that you’ve created for yourself?
How does God really see you?
*Do you have ears to hear how God is making his appeal to you through others (your family, friends, spouses, neighbors, co-workers, etc.)?
What Should We Do?
We walk with God through an ongoing lifestyle of repentance and faith.
Luke 3:10-17
And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?”
And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.”And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?”Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?”Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.”As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people. But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother's wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done,added this to them all, that he locked up John in prison.
*Just as we ask God about the ways that we need to grow, so it is invaluable to ask those God has sent to help shape your life how you need to grow in Christ as well.
You need to give the people who love and surround you permission to speak the Word of God to you and offer you areas of improvement based on that Word.
This is what John did for the Israelites when they asked, “What then shall we do?”
*This question follows the conviction of the Holy Spirit and proceeds all positive, godly change in our lives (Acts 2).
The baptism of the Holy Spirit empowers us to live godly lives, burns up our chaff and gives us gifts of the Spirit that we might be witnesses for Christ in power (I Corinthians 12).
Our desire should be to have the directives of God established to move in power in every area of our lives.
This is the essence of Jesus being Lord of our lives.
God commands nothing except that which is loving and good - that which is best for you, your family and the world around you (Genesis 1).
Deuteronomy 10:12,13
“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?
Sin is not only lawlessness, breaking the commands of God; but is also missing the mark of God’s best for your life.
To come into God’s best for your life requires a lifestyle of ongoing repentance.
Repentance means a change of mind and a corresponding movement in a different direction.
It means falling out of agreement with your former self-identification or lifestyle and coming into agreement with God’s ways which are higher and better for you (Isaiah 55).
Repentance begins with confession of sin.
Jonah 2:8
Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.
Confession brings freedom because it ushers you into the light to get the help that you need from God and others.
So the question then becomes:
How are you growing in the Lord?
When was the last time you allowed the Lord to identify the things from which you need to repent?
When is the last time you asked a God-given relationship, ““What then shall I do?”
How are you now living differently based on what God pointed out to you, by himself or through others?
C.S. Lewis accurately described what it is like when we merely give lip service to God - having sin pointed out, but not acting.
“As long as [man] does not convert it into action, it does not matter how much he thinks about this new repentance... Wallow in it... Write a book about it; that is often an excellent way of sterilising the seeds which [Heavenly Father] plants in a human soul... Do anything but act. No amount of piety in his imagination and affections will harm [the cause of evil] if [it is kept] out of his will... The more often he feels without acting, the less he will ever be able to act, and, in the long run, the less he will be able to feel.”
C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
Jesus for the Masses
God brings us into his family to see Christ and his Kingdom purposes formed in us.
Luke 3:21-38
Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph,the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai,the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri,the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josech, the son of Joda,the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi,the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Er,the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim,the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David,the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Sala, the son of Nahshon,the son of Amminadab, the son of Admin, the son of Arni, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah,the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor,the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah,the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech,the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan,the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
Whereas Matthew’s genealogy, written to a Jewish audience, helped establish the prophesied Abrahamic, Judean and Davidic lineage of the Messiah, Luke’s genealogy for a gentile audience went all the way back to God to show Christ’s unique salvific identity for all of humanity.
Note that God’s eternal purposes in Christ came about through a family line of faith, not through individuals acting alone.
Through repentance and faith in Jesus’ sacrificial work for us at the cross, we are forgiven of our sins and adopted into the family of God (John 1).
We then proactively interact with that family to grow in the knowledge of God and become like Christ, bearing fruit as we together commit to lifestyles of transparency, humility and ongoing repentance.
*This is the reason God calls us to be devoted to church gatherings for worship and environments of discipleship like our community groups that we might in unison fulfill God’s Kingdom purposes.
“The church is not a theological classroom. It is a conversion, confession, repentance, reconciliation, forgiveness and sanctification center, where flawed people place their faith in Christ, gather to know and love him better, and learn to love others as he designed.”
Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands: People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change
We would say that the church is not only a theological classroom, but God’s “plan A” for us meeting Christ to grow into all that he’s called us to be and do as a part of his eternal Kingdom.
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher