The reading schedule includes Matthew 4 today. But since Matthew 4 and Luke 4 have a lot of overlapping content, I will cover them together in the next post.
JOHN THE BAPTIST
John was the last of the OT prophets. He continued to preach and baptize after he had baptized Jesus. And he was not “seeker sensitive.”
“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?”
Luke 3:7 ESV
Most preachers don’t call their audience a “brood of vipers.” John is not messing around. There’s no time for that. His call to repentance is urgent. The wrath is coming. (He’s a prophet, but God has not revealed to him all the details.)
His preaching is a lot like Jeremiah’s and Joel’s right before the destruction of Jerusalem. And that’s no coincidence. The destruction of the SECOND temple is only about 40 years in the future.
Which reminds me… time for a new timeline.
No wonder the atmosphere is tense and the air humming with expectation for the Messiah to appear. The Essenes believed that all of human history was a millennial week of 7000 years: 3 Ages of 2000 years each followed by a Sabbath Age of 1000 years in the reign of Messiah. Roughly lfike this:
- Age of Creation (4000-2000 BC)
- Age of Torah (2000 BC to 75 AD)
- Age of Grace (75 AD to 2075 AD)
- Age of the Kingdom (2076-3075 AD)
Click here for a link to Dr. Ken Johnson’s Dead Sea Scroll Calendar information.
John’s preaching is different from the prior prophets because, this time, the people are not practicing idolatry.
Remember before how the prophets railed against the idols set up inside the very temple? And how murder and injustice was common? It’s not like that now. But John is shouting about “wrath to come!” Why? I think he tells us why.
“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.”
Luke 3:8-9 ESV
John’s preaching is meant to make the hearers realize that, just because they don’t live like pagans, doesn’t mean that their hearts are right with God. John is trying to help them see that just being a descendant of Abraham will not save them. They are in grave danger. The axe is within a few decades of coming down hard. They are at the end of the Age. The people who heard John probably wondered if the world were about to end in the final judgment.
As we approach the end of THIS Age, it’s important that church-going people understand that just being raised in a Christian home does not automatically make you a Christian. Having Christian parents will not save you. Only by grace are you saved through faith. YOU must repent and believe the Gospel.
It’s more difficult to see the sinfulness of the people in John’s time than in Jeremiah’s where the idolatry was overt. Now, the outside looks pretty decent, but they’re still doing things their own way. What they needed was genuine repentance to be ready to receive the Gospel. And many of the people (the early disciples included), went from listening to John preach and being baptized by him, to following Jesus – the One that John pointed out as The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
JESUS’ GENEALOGY
The genealogy in Luke is very different than Matthew’s. Some believe that Luke is tracing Mary’s ancestry through her father. And that seems very logical to me – to trace Jesus’ humanity all the way back to Adam. I also read once that there is a possibility that Joseph’s biological father died when he was young and he was adopted and so Luke’s genealogy was Joseph’s biological ancestry while Matthew’s was his legal ancestry.
The lists diverge at David. Luke traces the line through Nathan, a brother of Solomon by Bathsheba (1 Chron. 3:5), while Matthew stays with the line of the kings of Judah.
Jesus was the seed (DNA) of the woman. Did He even have any DNA from the men in either list? His physical body was made supernaturally from chromosomes uncorrupted by the Fall (cuz He sure didn’t get a Y chromosome from Mary). He was fully human, yet without sin.
Paul calls Jesus “the second Adam.” That’s probably more literal than figurative. Jesus is only the 2nd man directly created by God. Adam was the first.
Hmm… Maybe that’s why God was so keen on having “the elder serve the younger” and the birthright blessing going to the 2nd son.
The first woman made by God was Eve, the bride of Adam. She was made to be Adam’s counterpart, companion, and co-ruler.
The second woman made by God is the Church, the bride of Christ. She is made to be his counterpart, companion, and co-ruler.
The glory of the latter house is greater than the former.
The former house (Solomon’s temple) was like Adam & Eve. Glorious and beautiful, shining and perfect. Then it fell into sin and death.
The latter house is Christ and His Church. Zerubbabel’s temple was humble at the beginning, then attacked and desecrated but afterward built up and edified. Ultimately, the physical building was abandoned as if a soul shuffled off its mortal coil and the corruptible put on incorruption.
To The Reader 