Luke 3

THIS chapter begins with the date, as we've seen Luke use before. Luke locates the rulers who surround Jerusalem and the Jordan River where John will preach and baptize. Tiberias Caesar is in Rome, Pilate is in Judea north of Jerusalem, Herod is in Galilee northeast of Jerusalem, with his brother Philip in Ituraea and Lysanias in Abilene. Meanwhile, in Jerusalem Annas and Caiaphas were the high priests who ruled over the religious life of the city.

We notice the Word of God came to John. The angel had told Zacharias that John would be filled with the Holy Spirit, 1.15, and so he is. John comes to the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This in itself is significant because this means salvation comes to the Jews through repentance and forgiveness, not through just being born a Jew. John has thrown Israel out of a unique relationship to God, saying the Jews come to God as anyone else does, through forgiveness of sins.
John quotes Isaiah 40.3 as meaning that God is coming as a king comes, so that the people must make a way for Him. This will be fulfilled in the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem years from now. Then John says it plainly--all flesh shall see the salvation of God, 3.6. Salvation is not just for Israel, but for all flesh. God is showing Himself through Israel to all men and women.

John's sermon extract which Luke has preserved makes all of this obvious. It is not being one of the offspring of Abraham which commends a man to God, it is bringing forth fruit in keeping with repentance. Sin has alienated Israeal from God; they are outside the tabernacle, outside of God. Then John warns the people that the other side of forgiveness is judgment--the axe is already laid to the root of the trees, 3.9. This might remind some of those there at the Jordan of Deuteronomy 28.13-15, where God offers blessings for obedience but curses for disobedience. The axe is already laid at the root.

When those there question John honestly, he tells them what fruit of repentance to bring. This is the application of the Law to the individual, in the spirit of the Law. Many proverbs could be listed to show that John is speaking what God has said before. For instance, when John tells the tax-collectors to take no more than what they have been ordered to, we might recall Proverbs 20.4--

The king gives stability to the land by justice,but a man who takes bribes overthrows it.

Evidently the people took this to heart as fulfilling God's covenant with Israel through repentance and the forgiveness of sins because they became excited over John. They whispered among themselves as to whether John might be the Christ, the Messiah. They recognized that what John was preaching was what the Messiah was expected to say. But John has to tell them all who he is.