THE ROAD THAT JOHN BUILT
Luke 3:2-6
Charles e Whisnant, Pastor/Lumberjack/
Teacher/Historian
Rivers of Joy Baptist Church, February 10,
2013
Now
today we come to the man who is going to announce the Messiah to the world. And Luke as an historian is going to give us
some great facts. You know God is a God
of purpose. History is on purpose. God has a plan and He is working out that
plan in precision. God is the writer of history. History is unfolding step by step.
And as we have stated the purpose of history and its human population is
the salvation of sinners. As we have said, God brought into existence this
creation, this universal, this population of people for the express purpose
that He might redeem sinners. And
recorded history of the Bible is primarily His Story, it is the story of
redemption.
Last
time we talked about historical setting
of this prophecy than the geographical seating of this prophecy: where John
lived. We learned about John’s lifestyle and culture stands with the current
society at the time.
The
there is the theological setting. Luke
3:3
“When John came he came preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”
This
is the theology that every true preacher preaches. It is the message of repentance for the forgiveness
of sins. That is the message that God brings as good news into a world that is
cursed by sin and dammed to eternity punishment.
John
preached this message to the people of Israel. You would have thought that
would not be the right message. But it was.
John didn’t say “You know people you are doing so well in your faith in
God, you don’t need to repent you just need to increase a little in your
faith.” You are keeping the law, you are
keeping the Sabbath, you do the
sacrifices, you are serious about doing
a lot of the rules. Just kind of knock
it up a few notches.
So
the theology of very true preacher and was John’s is forgiveness comes from God
to those who truly repent.
Now
there are three elements in that statement:
Forgiveness of sin, repentance and baptism.
We
are transported back in John’s day, and in Israel and caught up in this
religion they had. First you were
trained to believe that if you do ceremonies and you do the sacrifices and you
do what you’re thought to do is right and you make great effort to keep the law
of God, and you are in the Temple each Sabbath, and you don’t take trips to
another city and you don’t carry your burden, you keep the law and all the
Jewish traditions as much as you can, and you believe that will get you into
the kingdom of God.
So
John preached forgiveness, and we read that “all Judea and Jerusalem went out
to hear about it.” They must have felt
this matter of sin, because they were always having to offer sacrifices
over and over again and again. And all
these laws to many of them were a burden to carry. And they would go and offer up these
sacrifices to show God that they did recognized their sin and they recognized
the price and the cost of their sin was death.
So they lived with ideas of sin and punishment and sacrifice.
Some
had read or heard read Jeremiah 31. They knew the only way that they could ever
receive the Abrahamic Covenant promise and Davidic Covenant promise would be
through the New Covenant salvation.
Jeremiah 31:31 “I’ll make a New Covenant,” vs. 34 ,
"I will forgive their iniquity and
their sin I will remember no more." And that was what their heart longed for. The sacrifices seemed so weary and
endless.
So then when were they going to experience that Jeremiah was talking about? Ezekiel 16:60-63 "I will remember My covenant
with you, the days of your youth I will establish an everlasting covenant with
you..." And then in verse 63 He says, "When I have forgiven you for
all that you have done." So they knew that there was forgiveness
out there. But how to get it? How to get it?
So here comes John and he’s preaching forgiveness and that is really the only message of hope to a people under such enormous heaviness.
And they knew God was a very forgive God. Micah 7 "Who is a God like Thee who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession?"
There's no God like You who forgives sin. They would have known the cry of David in Psalm 32, the cry of David in Psalm 51 that God would forgive him and wash him and make him clean.
They would have remembered Psalm I think it's 103:12 where God says I'll remove your transgressions as far as the east is from the west. They knew God was a forgiving God.
So the Day of Atonement was a picture that God forgives sin and sends it completely out of His presence. They would have understood that. They realized that God as a forgiving God by nature. A great attribute that we have been studying on Sunday in our Adult Bible Class in 2012-13
They (many) understood that there was forgivenss in atonement as indicated by what’s called the scape goat. The goat that takes away the sin to indicate that God removes it forever from his presence.
Zacharias knew this Luke 1:77 , "To give His people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins." That is the only way people are saved. That's the only possible way to have a right relationship to God or to get into heaven by the forgiveness of sin
And when they heard that was the message of John the people just flowed out to hear this sermon by John.
So know what brings
about “forgiveness?” That is the
question. Its in Luke 3:3 “REPENTANCE.”
