Luke 3 – Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part, verse-by-verse approach, to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Luke 3:1-6: The Coming of the Baptist

A. Find Out:    

1. How many historical characters are mentioned by Luke? v.1,2a
   • In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar – when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene – during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas,
2. What happened then? v.2b
   • the word of God came to John, son of Zechariah, in the wilderness.
3. Where did he go and what did he do? v.3
   • He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
4. How did Luke see this? v.4a
   • As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:
5. So what did he see John doing? v.4b
   • A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
     “Prepare the way for the Lord,
         make straight paths for him.
6. What did that require? v.5
   • Every valley shall be filled in,
         every mountain and hill made low.
     The crooked roads shall become straight,
         the rough ways smooth.
7. With what outcome? v.6
   • And all people will see God’s salvation.”’

B. Think:

1. How does Luke seek to show us the Gospel is based in history?
2. How does that also include prophetic history?
3. How would John be preparing the way for Jesus?

C. Comment:

For anyone who thinks the Gospel is just a bunch of bright ideas dreamt up by someone, these verses come as an antidote! Luke wants us to be quite clear that what he is writing about took place in time-space history. He gives is names of historical people and geographical places. Into this time and this place, he says, came John the Baptist.

Why? Because God’s word came to John and his response was to go into the Jordan area and preach and baptise. His preaching was for a clear and set purpose: to bring people to repentance.

Why did he do this? Well we’ve already said that it was because God spoke to him, but it was also because this was the working out of God’s plan spoken about through the prophet Isaiah centuries before. Every now and then in the Old Testament period, it seems, was a man who clearly heard God, not only for his own time but also for the future. Luke understands this; he realises that God had spoken about what had recently happened, centuries before.

So what was John doing? Preparing the way for Jesus. How was he doing it? We’ll see in the next studies. Basically though, he was touching the hearts of men and women to make them more receptive to God so that when Jesus came, they were open to receive him.

D. Application:

1. A Factual Gospel: The Gospel is founded in historical fact. Have I studied my Bible to ensure my faith is thus founded?
2. A Prophetic Gospel: God spoke of His plan centuries before it cme into being. Do I realise i am living in God’s long term plan?
3. Receptive heart? Our hearts need preparing to receive God coming to us. Is my heart open to the Lord to receive Him?

Passage: Luke 3:7-14: John’s Challenges

A. Find Out:

1. How did John address the crowds and what did he ask them? v.7
   • John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
2. What did he tell them to do? v.8a
   • Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.
3. Why did he imply they should not do? v.8b
   • And do not begin to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our father.”
4. What did he say was just about to happen? v.9
   • The axe has been laid to the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.’
5. What response did he get? v.10
   •  ‘What should we do then?’ the crowd asked.
6. What instructions did he give to what 3 groups? v.11-14
   • 11 John answered, ‘Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.’ 12 Even tax collectors came to be baptized. ‘Teacher,’ they asked, ‘what should we do?’ 13 ‘Don’t collect any more than you are required to,’ he told them. 14 Then some soldiers asked him, ‘And what should we do?’ He replied, ‘Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely – be content with your pay.’

B. Think:

1. What do you think the fruit was that John referred t o?
2. What was Israel ‘s danger?
3. How would you summarise his instructions to the people?

C. Comment:

Luke moves on to show us what it was that John was actually preaching. In this he is the most complete of the Gospels. He starts out with a general instruction: let your repentance have a practical outworking. Repentance means acknowledging your shortcomings and determining, with God’s help, to go the opposite way to that which you have been going, but this isn’t just a fine idea, it is to be practically expressed.

Israel were relying on their name and their past history and assumed they were all right because of that. Wrong, says John. God wants faith people (children of Abraham), people relating to Him and if you won’t be that, He can raise up a new people, even from these stones if necessary!

This produces a cry of “What should we do then”, which is always a good response to preaching. He starts with a general instruction that could apply to any of them: share with the needy, show you are God’s merciful and compassionate children. To the tax collectors he instructs not to take more than they should, i.e. be honest! Then to the soldiers, don’t use your position of power wrongly. Don’t take advantage of your position to do down others. In other words, in each case, let you heart attitude towards God be seen in the way you relate to other people. Righteousness is practical.

D. Application:

1. Repentance First: Have I come to that necessary place of repentance that faces my shortcomings and my need of God. My life will not be properly founded if I have never come to this place.
2. Don’t trust in a name:  Do I trust in a family name or family history, or even in just being called a Christian? I am called to a life of faith. Do I live it?
3. Practical Outworkings: Not saved by good works, but saved to do good works. Is my faith transforming my morals and ethics?

Passage: Luke 3:15-20: John speaks of the Coming One

A. Find Out:

1. What were the people wondering? v.15
   •  The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah.
2. How did John refer to Jesus? v.16b
   • But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.
3. What did he say Jesus would do? v.16c
   • He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
4. What further did he say Jesus will do? v.17
   • His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.’
5. What did John do about Herod? v.19
   • John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of his marriage to Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the other evil things he had done,
6. What happened as a result? v.20
   • Herod added this to them all: he locked John up in prison.

B. Think:

1. Why do you think the people wondered if John was the Christ?
2. What essential difference did John make between himself & Christ?
3. How did John’s ministry come to an end?

C. Comment:

Israel was in a spiritually dry condition at this time and a prophet had not been known in the land for centuries. Suddenly John appears and the people wonder if, after all these centuries, John is the Promised One of God, written about in the Old Testament prophecies. This gives John the opportunity to speak about Jesus. No, he says, when the expected one comes he will be far more powerful than me.

Here, we should note is the essential difference between John’s ministry and that of Jesus – power! John simply spoke the word of God like a good prophet-teacher. Jesus did that but he also backed up his words by miracles, signs and wonders, healings, raising people from the dead. His was essentially a power ministry.

Look, says John, I baptise you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit so you will be immersed in the Spirit in a new way, and the work of the Spirit will be like fire coming and burning up all the wrong in you. The end product of his ministry, he goes on, will be a dividing out – the righteous from the unrighteous, and the unrighteous will be destroyed. In this John’s message, and later Jesus’ ministry, is no different from the Old Testament prophecies, that at the end people will either be followers of God or they will perish. That was the message then and it’s still the message now.

D. Application:

1. A Messenger: Do we share in John’s ministry and share the word of God? Do we take opportunities that come up to share our faith?
2. A Power Ministry:  We are called by Jesus to become like him, not John (Jn 14:12) Do we enter into Jesus’ ministry and know his power?

Passage: Luke 3:21-23: Jesus’ Baptism

A. Find Out:

1. What does Luke now move on to cover? v.21a
   • When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too.
2. What happened when Jesus was doing what? v.21b,22a
   • Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove.
3. What was heard at the same time? v.22b Look up Luke 9:34-35
   • And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’
4. How old was Jesus when he started his ministry? v.23
   • Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph, the son of Heli,
5. Bonus: read verses 23-37 What do they tell you?

B. Think:

1. What do verses 21-22 tell us about Jesus?
2. What do verses 23-37 tell us about him?
3. Why do you think the two things are important?

C. Comment:

Luke’s version of the circumstances of Jesus’ baptism is shorter than Matthew’s. Luke simply wants to ensure he records God’s testimony to His Son. Twice in each of the Synoptic Gospels, God’s voice is heard from heaven speaking out His approval of His Son, the other time being when Jesus was transfigured. Here Luke simply records that Jesus was praying – communing with his Father – when the Spirit came down as a dove on Jesus. Did Jesus not have the Spirit? Yes, he already was the divine Son of God from conception. So why did the Spirit come like this? We’re not told! However we may speculate that it was as part of a twofold sign of approval from heaven, like heaven and earth joining in perfect unity.

The Spirit came as a dove –a sign of peace – not as fire to burn up as at Pentecost. The voice from heaven confirms that this is God’s Son, affirmed and approved. That is God’s testimony, that this being is perfectly part of the Godhead.

Then Luke records the family tree running from Joseph right back to Adam. Why is this different from Matthew’s tree? Because this is specifically from Joseph and goes back past Abraham to Adam. Having just recorded that this man is perfectly God, he also now records that he is perfectly human. That is the point of Luke’s tree. Matthews seeks to show he was part of the family of David, a king. Luke shows him as a perfect man who has come to serve His Father.

D. Application:

1. My Divine Saviour. Do I see Jesus as God in the flesh, God come to save me?
2. My Human Example. Do I see Jesus as the perfect man, my example, who shared humanity?