Luke 3:1-6 Advent 2
Pastor Ron Koehler
Grace—Tucson, AZ
December 8, 2024
Listen to the Call to Repent 1. It’s Tough to Hear 2. But It Brings Incredible Blessings
“I’ll kiss your feet under the bell tower if you can prove it to me!” You probably shouldn’t say things like that to an A+++ college student over a point of grammar, even if you are an English professor. But he was so certain he was right. With red-faced emotion, he fiercely defended his docking of the student’s grade. And then he said it. Right in front of the whole class. You can guess what that student spent his weekend doing. A complete paper defending his position was submitted on Monday…and an apology from the professor followed. Those of you who know me, know that I was certainly not that A+++ student. But I was one of his best friends—the one who thought all of this was especially entertaining. Pick the student or pick the professor—both remind us that no one likes to be told they are wrong. We bristle at being told that we can’t think the way we think or say the things we say or do the things we do. But don’t come around John the Baptist with that attitude! John was God’s “voice” that told people that they were wrong in their thinking and talking and the way they were living their lives. But he was no preacher of doom; he was a preacher of repentance—and with that call to repent came a message of hope! Next Sunday we get to hear some very specific things John said to others about what repentance looks like in a person life. But first, today, God tells us exactly who John was, what repentance is, and why it is vital for us. I hope you can appreciate the way Luke writes—it is definitely a little different from the other gospel writers. Luke was not one of the 12 Apostles, but he was a missionary companion of the Apostle Paul and many believe he must have known maybe Peter, John, and others, given the detail in his gospel. Perhaps you picked up on what makes Luke’s writing unique when you heard this. In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar— while Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene— during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah I count 8 names—5 political and 3 religious—along with 6 places. Why does Luke do that, and why am I taking a minute to point it out? Because it shows that the arrivals of John the Baptist and Jesus, established by prophecy, came to fulfillment at a certain moment in history. The prophets told about both of them and what they would do—Jesus, the Messiah who would pay for sins and bring salvation, and John, the forerunner to Jesus, the messenger who ran ahead to tell people the Savior was coming—the “Voice” sent by God.