Reflective Bible Study

As we continue moving through Luke’s gospel, we discover that after Luke describes Jesus’ childhood, Luke then transitions back to talking about Jesus’ forerunner in ministry, John the Baptist. However, to set the stage for the rest of his gospel, Luke gives us a historical overview of the state of the empire and the state of Judea by letting us know exactly when the events in the rest of his gospel occurred.

Let’s read this passage, and discover how Luke sets the stage for Jesus beginning His ministry. Our passage for this episode is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 3, and we will read from the New Living Translation. Starting in verse 1, Luke tells us that:

¹ It was now the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, the Roman emperor. Pontius Pilate was governor over Judea; Herod Antipas was ruler over Galilee; his brother Philip was ruler over Iturea and Traconitis; Lysanias was ruler over Abilene. ² Annas and Caiaphas were the high priests. At this time a message from God came to John son of Zechariah, who was living in the wilderness. ³ Then John went from place to place on both sides of the Jordan River, preaching that people should be baptized to show that they had repented of their sins and turned to God to be forgiven. ⁴ Isaiah had spoken of John when he said,

“He is a voice shouting in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming!
    Clear the road for him!
⁵ The valleys will be filled,
    and the mountains and hills made level.
The curves will be straightened,
    and the rough places made smooth.
⁶ And then all people will see
    the salvation sent from God.’”

⁷ When the crowds came to John for baptism, he said, “You brood of snakes! Who warned you to flee the coming wrath? ⁸ Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. Don’t just say to each other, ‘We’re safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.’ That means nothing, for I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones. ⁹ Even now the ax of God’s judgment is poised, ready to sever the roots of the trees. Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire.”

¹⁰ The crowds asked, “What should we do?”

¹¹ John replied, “If you have two shirts, give one to the poor. If you have food, share it with those who are hungry.”

¹² Even corrupt tax collectors came to be baptized and asked, “Teacher, what should we do?”

¹³ He replied, “Collect no more taxes than the government requires.”

¹⁴ “What should we do?” asked some soldiers.

John replied, “Don’t extort money or make false accusations. And be content with your pay.”

¹⁵ Everyone was expecting the Messiah to come soon, and they were eager to know whether John might be the Messiah. ¹⁶ John answered their questions by saying, “I baptize you with water; but someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not even worthy to be his slave and untie the straps of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. ¹⁷ He is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn but burning the chaff with never-ending fire.” ¹⁸ John used many such warnings as he announced the Good News to the people.

In this passage, we discover that John was not a pushover preacher, but he also was not a judgmental preacher either. John’s preaching cut straight to the heart of God’s message and intent for His people.

While reading Luke’s description of John’s message to the people, three verses stood out in my mind and these three verses together paint a powerful picture of what God’s ideal is for those who want to turn away from sin and return to Him.

A surface reading of John’s preaching might make John sound like the first angry street preacher. However, John’s message is different. John subtly assumed something about those who came to listen to him that might be easy to miss if we aren’t paying attention. In verse 7, when the crowds of people came to John to be baptized, John challenges them by calling them snakes before saying, “Who warned you to flee the coming wrath?” John assumed that those coming to listen to him and those who wanted to be baptized were coming because God was drawing them to him. I doubt John responded well to passive listeners to his preaching.

At the heart of John’s message was a message of returning to God before it was too late. While John might sound extreme in what he challenges the people by saying, nothing John tells the people is impossible or outside of God’s will. John’s message is summarized with two phrases found in verses 8 and 9, “Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God…Every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire.”

When asked by specific people what God would want them to do, John has a clear, practical response. In John’s response to those present, we discover that God desires to see compassion for others above saving for the future, about working honestly and uprightly even if we are in a work environment that is full of corruption, and to be content with what God has blessed us with.

This summary is found in John’s response to the crowds, the tax collectors, and to the soldiers who asked what God wanted from them. If we choose to live lives that are defined by showing compassion for others above saving for our own future and lives that are lived honestly while also being content, then we will be living lives in alignment with John’s message to the people. Living like John describes proves to the world that we are living for God and not for ourselves and that we have repented.

The last phrase I want to focus briefly on in John’s message is found in verse 17. After describing that the Messiah God is sending will baptize the people with fire while he only baptizes with water, John brings a visual illustration into this warning, saying the coming Messiah “is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn but burning the chaff with never-ending fire.”

While some people understand the fire in this verse to literally never end, as this translation frames this idea, a better way to describe it would probably be an unstoppable fire. This fire is reserved for the chaff which was separated from the wheat. While some might consider this illustration describing different groups of people, with one group representing the wheat and another group representing the chaff, there is a different way we can understand this illustration.

On a stalk of wheat, there is grain and there is chaff. The grain is useful while the chaff is not. In our own lives, there are things that are valuable and things that are valueless. When we return to God, I believe He wants to separate the valuable parts of our lives from the valueless parts of our lives. God wants to redeem the parts of our lives that are significant, important, and special, while He wants to completely remove and eliminate the parts of our lives that are worthless.

The challenge for us then is to align ourselves with God and let Him work in our lives discarding the things that He knows are worthless. If we want to hold on to something that God is planning on throwing into the unstoppable fire, we run the risk of choosing to be consumed by the fire with something that is worthless. While God won’t stop us from making this choice, God is much more interested in helping us give up the things in our lives that are worthless from eternity’s perspective.

John the Baptist warned the crowds about the coming judgment, but far from being judgmental, John challenged people to return to God before it was too late! While we don’t have to be as forward or direct as John was, let’s live our lives in a way that proves we have returned to God and in a way that doesn’t let any worthless things in life steal our focus away from that which is priceless. The most valuable thing God has blessed us with is our hearts, and while our hearts are stained with sin, God wants to clean, fix, and recreate new hearts within us that reflect His heart for us!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and purposefully give your heart to Him. Let God clean your life and discard what He knows is worthless while letting Him redeem the things in your life He knows are valuable. God knows your life better than you do, and God has a plan for your life that is bigger than you could ever imagine! Discover what God has in mind for you by letting Him lead and direct your life moving forward into the future.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to grow and discover what God wants to teach you. Through the pages of the Bible, discover how we can open our hearts to God and invite Him into our lives!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or walk away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

In our last episode, we focused on the first of two prophecies found within one verse in the Old Testament book of Isaiah. Let’s pick back up where we left off and look at the other amazing prophecy found within this verse.

However, to give us a little more context for this prophecy, let’s read some surrounding verses in our time together. Our passage and prophecy is found in the book of Isaiah, chapter 7, and we will read it using the New American Standard Bible. Starting in verse 10:

¹⁰ Then the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, ¹¹ “Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; make it deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” ¹² But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!” ¹³ Then he said, “Listen now, O house of David! Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God as well? ¹⁴ Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel. ¹⁵ He will eat curds and honey at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good. ¹⁶ For before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken.

In our last episode, we focused in on the virgin becoming pregnant with a son, and in this episode, let’s focus our attention onto the last portion of this prophecy, specifically that the name this virgin would give her son would be the name Immanuel.

This prophecy is fascinating in my mind, because throughout the entire Bible, the only time I can see Jesus being called Immanuel is prior to His birth, specifically within a quotation of Isaiah’s prophecy that we find in Matthew’s gospel. In Matthew’s gospel, as Matthew transitions away from Jesus’ genealogy, he shifts to describing Joseph’s perspective after learning that his fiancée was pregnant, and not by him.

In Matthew, chapter 1, starting in verse 18, Matthew writes:

¹⁸ Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. ²⁰ But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” ²² Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ²³ “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.” ²⁴ And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, ²⁵ but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.

In a strange twist, the angel Gabriel tells Joseph and Mary to name their baby Jesus, but this doesn’t seem to be aligned with Isaiah’s prophecy about the name of the Messiah being Immanuel.

I wonder whether this was one such prophecy the religious leaders used to discredit Jesus in their minds. With a clear name given in the writings of Isaiah, we don’t see a straight-line fulfillment in the naming of Jesus. Throughout the gospels, Jesus is often called Jesus Christ, or Jesus Messiah, but I don’t believe Jesus is ever called Jesus Immanuel.

While this distinction might be a reason for a skeptic to discredit Jesus, this discrepancy is only visible on a shallow reading of the text.

To dig a little deeper, let’s look back at how Matthew interprets the name Immanuel to get an idea of how best to understand this prophecy. In Matthew, chapter 1, verse 23, Matthew tells us the name Immanuel means “God with us.”

While we don’t see Jesus being directly called, God with us, or Immanuel, we do see an amazing fulfillment of this concept within Jesus’ ministry. Throughout Jesus’ ministry, we discover what God is like through how Jesus lived and interacted with people.

In one event that is found in Luke’s gospel, Jesus, His disciples, and a crowd approach the town of Nain, and they meet a funeral processional leaving the town. Against all socially accepted norms, Jesus stops the funeral processional, touches the coffin, and resurrects the child.

Luke’s gospel describes the crowd’s reaction in chapter 7, verse 16 by saying: The people were all filled with wonder and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.”

While we might not have a clear, direct, or repeated use of the name Immanuel within the gospels to describe Jesus, every time He healed, helped, or moved God’s kingdom forward, He fulfills this prophecy being God’s representative to humanity.

In a similar but less profound way, when we step into the life and plan God has placed before us, we can fulfill a tiny portion of God being with us. When we help other people and show God’s love in the world, we are God’s representatives and we are able to lead people in exclaiming that God is willing to be with and help His people!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always open these challenges by saying, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose today to live your life in a way that brings God glory, and in a way that show’s God’s love in the world around you. The closer you draw to God and lean on Him for help living in the world today, the better you will be able to show others His love for you and His love for them.

To do this, continue to regularly pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn what God is like, and to realign your life with Jesus’ life. When we open our lives and hearts to Jesus in prayer and Bible study, we allow God to send His Holy Spirit into our hearts and transform us from the inside. When we let God work through us, and when we let Him use us to draw people to Jesus, don’t be surprised when the Holy Spirit shows up in your life in amazing ways.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!