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Luke 3:21-38, "Looking at the Proof" · Clifford Baptist

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  Speaker A: Welcome to the March 1 sermon from Clifford Baptist Church, 635 Fletcher's Level Road in Amherst. Today's scripture is Luke, chapter three, verses 28 through 31. And the sermon is entitled Looking at the Proof delivered today by Pastor Jeffrey Campbell.
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  Speaker B: I pray today that every person sitting in this sanctuary, those joining us livestream, understand and know the truth, that Jesus does indeed love them. Take your Bibles, go to the book of Luke, and while you are turning there, I just want to start with a couple of things. Number one, I'm going to ask the church just to continue to pray for our country, for our nation, for other nation leaders, and what is going on around the world. We need to be in prayer for godly wisdom for our leaders. And so I call you to that, as there is serious undertaking going on. And so we need to be in prayer for those who make decisions. But also my prayer today is that you have come to church expecting, expecting to know, to grow and to go. And some of you are wondering, what in the world does that mean? My prayer is this, that you know Jesus, that you're growing in Jesus, and that you're going for Jesus in some way. And so as we gather around the word of God, this is one of those sermons I'm just gonna start out by saying I didn't want to preach it, but when you preach straight through the word of God, guess what? I've got no choice but to preach it. So here we go. And hold on. I'm grateful that we're working through the book of Luke in chapter three. We're going to wrap it up today. We're going to be finished with chapter three, and I'll give you a little insight. We will finish chapter four before Easter. I've already got that. All those are already done. So before Easter, we're going to finish chapters three and chapter four. But as we look through chapter three, we're reminded that Luke writes this letter to the most excellent Theophilus. Now, that could mean a man that was wealthy or a man that held a title or a man that held position, or it could be a man that held all three. And so as Luke is writing to Theophilus, he is putting together the collection and the proof that Jesus is the son of God. And so he started out with the stories that we've already studied, that Jesus coming in a miraculous way. And we have heard stories through Zacharias and Elizabeth and Mary and Joseph that point that Jesus was a miraculous birth and he was the son of God. We studied that together. We've seen a 12 year old that was in his father's house about his father's business. And today we pick up Jesus as a 30 year old man. As he begins earthly ministry. Luke continues to put out the word of God. But that the people need to know that this is proof that Jesus is the Messiah. He is the Son of God and he deserves to, to be worshiped. And so as we look at this third chapter, we are looking at the proof from the pen of Luke of who Jesus is. How many of you have a family Bible? Maybe it sits on your stand on your table there in the living room or maybe it's tucked away. But I remember, I don't know that I think I have a family Bible, but I don't know that it's filled out like my grandmother's family Bible. When I go to Granny's and look at Granny's family Bible and I open up the early pages of that Bible, there is in the beginning of it who all the children are. And it goes back on her side of the family, who her parents were and who their parents were. And it goes back on my grandfather's side to who his parents were and who his grandparents were. And so in that family Bible you can trace through five, six, seven generations of people. Now I know that we have modern day tools. Now I'm going to hit the fast forward button and some of you like ancestry.com or whatever, maybe you're a subscriber and you can trace your ancestors back for generations. But I'm grateful that as we think about that, it puts us, it identifies us to who we are connected to. And so today is a lesson of ancestry. And if that's not your thing, I'm sorry, right, but here's what Luke is going to do. Luke is going to take and show us Jesus is connected to David and Abraham and Adam as the son of God. He is going to give us the proof that Jesus is the promised Messiah. So today as we open God's word, look at Luke, chapter 3, verse number 21. Luke 3, verse number 21. Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also being baptized and praying the heaven was open. Point number one today in looking at the proof is simply this. Jesus obedience of baptism, the obedience of baptism. Why is that proof that Jesus is
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  Speaker C: the son of God?
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  Speaker B: Now remember, John the Baptist has been the focus of our study for most of chapter number three. But as that changes, we understand that that John the Baptist has been calling people to be baptized, to turn their lives to God to show fruit that is worthy of repentance and to come to God and faithfully follow him. Now, remember, he's rattled the palace, he's shaking up even Herod by pointing out that Herod's marriage was not a correct marriage in God's eyes. And so John the Baptist will go to prison for that, and he will lose his life for that. But what we see here as Jesus comes to the water, John is a marked man by Herod, but he is trying to get people to turn their lives over and live for God, not just say it, but their actions match up. The words and their actions match up. And so that's why he's calling for fruit that is worthy of repentance. And here was the warning that we studied in chapter number three. There is an ax that lays out at the root of the tree. And if the tree doesn't produce fruit, it will not only be cut down, but it will be thrown in the fire. As we come to this word today, we see people flocking, wanting this baptism, wanting to change their lives, desiring that their lives would show fruit that is worthy of repentance. And then there is an interesting thing that happens. Jesus comes to be baptized. Now, let me ask you this church, why does Jesus need to be baptized? He's perfect. He's sinless. Why is he being baptized? Well, we're gonna look at that in just a second. But what Luke shows us in verse number 21 of chapter number three, that everybody's being baptized, and Jesus also comes to. To be baptized. If you look in the Gospel of John, his account says that Jesus comes, and John the Baptist identifies him by saying, behold, this is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. So John, as Jesus has come into the water, John identifies Jesus, that this is the Lamb of God, this is the man that will take away the sin of. Of the world. And we also see in Matthew's record in chapter three of Matthew that John actually pushes back and says, jesus, I don't need to baptize you, you need to baptize me. And so we see a battle there even in John's own heart, as he is the forerunner of Christ, that he is not worthy to unlatch the sandal of Jesus, but also that he is unworthy to baptize Jesus as Jesus comes as the perfect son of God. So why does Jesus need to be baptized? I think you can find your answer in Matthew, chapter three, verse number 15, which Jesus says this. Suffer it to be so. Now for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. So Jesus baptism really does three things. Okay, if you want to write these down, you can. Number one, it supports God's call on John the Baptist's life. So as he comes, he is just being obedient to what God is doing in John the Baptist's life. As he's calling for people to come, he is being obedient to that, and it is supporting that call. If you want to Write down Malachi 3 1, it validates John as the forerunner of Jesus. So as Jesus comes to those waters, he is saying, the ministry of John the Baptist is real. The ministry of John the Baptist has been a forerunner to what is about to happen. So he is validating the call on John the Baptist's life. But the second thing it does, it begins Jesus earthly ministry. So as Jesus comes In Luke chapter three, it is beginning his earthly ministry. You see, he's 30 years old. According to verse number 23, if you jump down and you read that, it says that he's 30 years of age. So at 30 years old, that is the time frame that men begin their public ministry. If you read in Numbers, chapter four, verses two and three, that's the age that priests began their ministry, the age of 30. So Jesus is coming and he is beginning his public ministry. But it's important here that we understand that John says that I'm not worthy of this honor because this is the Messiah. So not only does he start ministry, he's starting his earthly proclamation that he is the Son of God. He. He is the promised Messiah. Now, there is a third reason. It serves as our example. And maybe you say, jeffrey, that's just so simple. It is our example as far as our baptism. When we come to Jesus in faith, we should desire to be baptized just like Jesus was. And we understand that Jesus was immersed and he was obedient to. To God's will in his life. We need to be obedient to God's will in our lives. So those three reasons give us a little example of why Jesus was baptized. And this. As Jesus comes, John the Baptist is still pointing to him. This is the Messiah. This is the Son of God. That's proof. There's a second look at verses. The end of verse 21 into verse number 22, it says this and Jesus also being baptized and praying that the heaven was opened and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him. And a voice came from heaven which said, thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well. Pleased. So point number two. The proof that we need that Jesus is the son of God. The heavens open up. Has anybody in here ever saw the heavens open up? Praise be to God. I'm glad. Thank you. I haven't either. Because here's what you need to know. When the heavens open up, God shows up. That's what the Bible teaches us. The heavens open up. God himself always shows up. And so we understand. The opening of heaven gives us proof that Jesus is, is a special man. He's a special person in the eyes of God. But notice, and I want to go back to this verse number 21, how Jesus comes to be baptized. Luke is the only person out of the four gospels that records this. That as Jesus comes to be baptized, he's also praying. He's praying. Why would Jesus need to be prayed? Because he was about to embark on, on about a three year giving his life, laying his life down not only to the Father's will, but for the sin of the world. But he wanted to be in step with the Father. Friends, our prayer life should not just happen. Once we come to the waters of baptism. Prayer should be a continual practice in our lives that we are connected to the Heavenly Father's will. We see the heavens open up. And as these heavens open up, it is a picture that God has shown up during the baptism. If you read in the book of Ezekiel, you see the heavens open up there. And Ezekiel saw visions from God in Acts chapter 7, verses 55 and 56. You know that the heavens open. Stephen is getting stoned. The heavens open up. And what does Stephen see? Stephen sees Jesus standing at the right hand of God. So again God shows up. In Revelation chapter 4 and Revelation chapter 19, John is given a glimpse into heaven as it is open up. And here's what I want you to understand. When heaven opens up, God always shows up. But there are three things that God does here that you need to understand that, that are important. And listen, just because they happen to Jesus doesn't mean they're going to happen for you. Jesus was a special man. But there are three things that happen during Jesus baptism. The first thing that we read in verse number 22, it says this. The Holy Ghost descended in the bodily shape like a dove upon him. The Holy Spirit descends onto Jesus. I believe this is a physical form where others can see and others witness this baptism. That something godly and divine is happening in Jesus life. But what you also need to see here, this is an instance where the triune God, all three parts are there. You see God the Son. There in Jesus, you see God the Father looking down. You see the voice there, and you see the Holy Spirit descending. Now, here's what you need to know. I believe if you are saved, that the Holy Spirit rests on you and in you. He lives in your heart. That's what God's word teaches. So we can claim this, but we cannot see it. People were able to see the Holy Spirit descending like a dove as they witnessed Jesus baptism. It only happened to Jesus. But remember that the dove represents a lot. And I could go down a rabbit trail here, but I'm not. Okay, listen real quickly. That dove represents an animal that is clean, that is pure, that is holy. And so as that image of the Holy Spirit in the form of the dove descends, it is descending on Jesus to show that he is a man of peace and gentleness. But also, as that dove descends on Jesus, the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus. It also means that he is going to be a carrier of a message. He will carry the message of salvation. He will carry miracles. And we're going to see some of that as we get into chapter number four. Also, as this Holy Spirit descends in the form of the dove, you also need to know this. A dove was an animal of sacrifice. And so as that dove descends, it is the picture that Jesus would indeed one day lay down his life in sacrifice for sin. We understand today. The first thing that you need to understand is that visible descent of the Holy Ghost on Jesus. The second thing is the voice of God from heaven. Now, we all long to hear that. And I'm going to be 100% honest with you. There are times I cried out, God, tell me what to do. And I didn't hear a thing. I longed to hear the voice of God. And here's what I've come at 40, almost in my 40s, that number's getting higher. Y' all know that, right? In my 40s, I've come content God. It's okay if I don't hear your audible voice. I don't know that I ever will hear the audible voice of God until one day I stand in his presence. But until then, I'm content that God will direct my life. And we all long for the audible voice. But here's the reality. You probably will never hear the audible voice of God, but Jesus did. And that voice, as it rings out in verse number 22, it says a voice came came from heaven, which said, thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased. Jesus himself only heard the audible voice of His Father. Three times in his entire earthly ministry. Three times. So what makes us think that we're going to hear the audible voice? I know Jesus. Jesus heard the voice of God at the transfiguration he heard. And you can find that in Luke, chapter 9, verse 35, the last week of Jesus life. In John, chapter 12:28, that voice of God rang out to Jesus. And then here as we read at his baptism, those are the three times that the audible voice of God came to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. But as that voice came, I believe it was audible from heaven. As it opened up, not only Jesus could hear it, but those around him could. And as that voice directed Jesus, it had a message.
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  Speaker C: And that's the third part, is the
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  Speaker B: message that God says. That message is at the end of verse number 22. Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased, pleased. This voice announces an approval over Jesus over his life, over his obedience. And it identifies Jesus as the Son of God. I'm going to read that one more time. The end of verse number 22. That voice that says, thou art my beloved Son, that is the voice of God coming straight from heaven, identifying Jesus as Jesus, his Son. This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased. That voice rings out for all to hear. Heaven opens up and we hear that voice, but we hear the message that that voice speaks. This is my Son, and he is following and obeying my will. So the second means of proof today is as the heavens open up, God himself speaks. God Himself shows that Jesus is his Son. So that's two points, as we see now. There's a third point. And y' all better pray for me. Right now. We're Gonna read verses 23 through 38. Look at me, Church. Look at me. Look at me. This can be painful, but listen for the nuggets. I just want you to listen for the nuggets that are in here. Verse number 23. And Jesus himself began to be about 30 years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, which was
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  Speaker C: the son of Eli, which was the son of Matthat, which was the son of Levi, which was the son of Melchi, which was the son of Jannah, which was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Mattathias, which was the son of Amos, which was the son of Nahum, which was the son of Esli, which was the son of Nege, which was the son of Maath, which was the son of Mattathus, which was the son of Simei, which was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Judah, which was the son of Joanna, which was the son of Rhesa, which was the son of Zerubbabel, which was the son of Salithiel, which was the son of Neri, which was the son of Malachi, which was the son of Adi, which was the son of Qasim, which was the son of Elmoadam, which was the son of Er, which was the son of Jose, which was the son of Eliezer, which was the son of Joram, which was the son of Matthat, which was the son of Levi, which was the son of Simeon, which was the son of Judah, which was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Jonan, which was the son of Eliakim, which was the son of Malaiah, which was the son of Manan, which was the son of Mattatha, which was the son of Nathan, which was the son of David, which was the son of Jesse, which was the son of Obed, which was the son of Buz, which was the son of Salmon, which was the son of Nason, which was the son of Amminadab, which was the son of Aram, which was the son of Ezra, which which was the son of Pharaoh which was the son of Judah, which was the son of Jacob, which was the son of Isaac, which was the son of Abraham, which was the son of Tharah which was the son of Nacor, which was the son of Sarak, which was the son of Rago, which was the son of Phalek, which was the son of Aber, which was the son of Salah, which was the son of Canaan, which was the son of Arphaxad, which was the son of SEM, which was the son of no. Which was the son of Lamech, which was the son of Methuselah, which was the son of Enoch, which was the son of Jared, which was the son of Mahaliel, which was the son of Canaan, which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was
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  Speaker B: the son of God. My wife prayed for me last night. 77 names. Why does Luke record them? As we think of these 77 names that include people that we know, like Jesus, Abraham, David, Adam. Maybe you could identify with Methuselah because we all know that Methuselah is the oldest man in in the Bible. We know those names. Some of them jump off the pages, but some of them do not. And here's the truth for some of them, this is the only time their name is mentioned in Scripture. But there's an orderly connection. That's point number three. As we're looking for proof, there's an orderly connection that Jesus is indeed the son of God. As we look at this, maybe if I was reading it on my own, I'd have just skipped right over this part. But as we study it together, and I'm not going to go through and pick out every name, but genealogy shows us something. Here's what you need to know about Luke's list of 77 names. Number one, it is not exhaustive. This is not everybody. From Jesus to Adam, there are some generations that are skipped, but sometimes, and I'll use my own life as an example, if you are connecting my son, my sons, Levi and Ethan, you might skip their dad, Jeffrey and their mama to get to their grandfather, Cowboy Campbell. Because everybody knows Cowboy, right? A lot of Amherst county does anyway. So you can say that my children are kin to my grandfather, but you can skip a few names, and that's what they did here. But the connection and the lineage does not change. You will know that. Secondly, it is different than Matthew's gospel. And the list that you can find there, Matthew traces from Abraham forward to Jesus and in three groups of 14, because it is a primarily Jewish audience that he is writing to, he is connecting Abraham to Jesus. Because the people that will hear this and the people that will receive his letter are Jews and Abraham is their father. So he's connecting Jesus and Abraham. Whereas when we look at that list in Matthew, it's not exhaustive at. Well, Matthew traces Joseph's lineage, but whereas Luke, as he writes to the Gentiles, he takes it from Jesus and he works backwards all the way to Adam. And Luke traces the lineage through the line of Mary. So what you. What we just read is Mary's lineage.
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  Speaker A: Okay?
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  Speaker B: Okay. And that's why in verse number 23, you said you read, Jesus himself began to be about 30 years of age, being as was supposed. You see that? As was supposed, the son of Joseph. But then he goes to Heli. Heli is not connected to Joseph. Heli is connected to Mary. And so that is Mary's dead. So as we look at this lineage, maybe I bored you with history today. If history is not your thing, I'm sorry, but what is the importance of 77 names? And why does Luke record them that we would read them in 20, 26 and sit here and scratch our head like, who are even 3/4 of these people that we don't know? Listen here, number one. Many of these people are normal, insignificant people just like you and me, I don't desire my name to be recorded anywhere. Don't write my name. Next time somebody writes my name, just put it on my headstone and just put that he's a servant of God. And that's all we need to know. Insignificant people like you and like me, they didn't live their lives boasting of what they did. They didn't probably live anything miraculous in their life. They were just normal, obedient, godly people that are connected in Jesus family. The second thing we need to know, that God is a God of order. I love sticky notes. If you come visit my office, on my desk you'll find a few sticky notes. Some of them have people's names. When I get to my office on Monday morning, I write a list of names of people who I intend to visit that week. And by Thursday or Friday, I. I visit every one of those names. As I write down, I have to be orderly because guess what? My mind's going 100 different directions. And if I don't write it down, it will be gone. But as we think about God as a God of order, the lines that you need to understand is this. We need to connect Jesus to David because he is the Messiah that comes from the line of David. That's where Scripture tells us the Messiah will come from. It will come from the root of Jesse, it will come out of David's line. And what Luke shows us, Jesus checks that box. You need to connect Jesus to Abraham because it is through Abraham that that seed is promised. And what Luke has done has shown us that yes indeed, Jesus is connected to Abraham and he fulfills that prophecy that he is the promised seed. You need to see that Jesus is connected to Adam. Why? Because the first Adam was the son of God that fell in sin. And Jesus is the second Adam that was sin free, the perfect son of God that Adam was not. As we look at this order, my prayer today is that reading these 77 names allows us to understand that God wants every person to know that Jesus is the promised Messiah. And if you need proof, the word of God is proof and the lineage is proof that Jesus is that promised seed through Abraham and the promised Son that comes through David's lineage. And he is my son in whom I am well pleased. Jesus now begins his earthly ministry. As we close the pages on Luke chapter three. Maybe today you need a little more proof. Maybe today you look at these three things and you say, pastor Jeffrey, I don't know if that's enough proof that I will Believe that Jesus is the Son of God. I don't know how much more I can give you, but you call me this week and we will sit down and talk. If you need more proof that Jesus. Jesus is the Son of God, and I will sit down with you. But maybe you're here and you're a believer today, here's what you need to know. Jesus is not done recording names. As we look at all of these names that ultimately God had Luke record to show that indeed Jesus is the Son of God. We understand that in the Book of Revelation, God is a God of order and only the ones whose names are written in the Lambs. But Book of Life will be in his new city. And so you may sit here today and say, I'm insignificant. My life doesn't matter. My life. I'm not much. I don't have much to offer God. Here's what God's saying. Continue to be faithful and I will write your name and my Lamb's Book of Life and you will be with me forever. Today it's not about promoting our name. It's about promoting our Lord. And it's about showing that we can connect ourself to Him. Not by anything we can do or anything that we can say, but simply by. By having faith. Jesus has recorded our name in the Lamb's Book of Life and it will be there forever. Maybe today you know that your name's not recorded by the heavenly pen. You need to understand this. Jesus Christ came as the perfect sinless Son of God, that he would go to a cross and die for your sin and for my sin. And on that oring cross as he shed his blood, he would be laid in a barred tomb. And on the third day he would rise again to give us hope and life and the promise of a future if we will just place our faith in him. So today maybe you're here and you've seen the proof. Maybe you just need to come and receive Jesus as your Savior. I'm grateful for the word of God. And I'm grateful that through these connections that we can truly see Jesus is the Son of God. And as children of God today church we leave to take this message into a world. Oh, we have proof. Now will we go and live for our Father? Let's pray, Father. God. Lord, today as we submit this time to you, Lord, and we look to you to lead a time of response. Oh God, I pray that you would search each heart, Lord, that you will draw near to our heart. That you will know, Lord, who in this room belongs to you, Lord, and who doesn't? Maybe today there's a child of God that just needs to fall down before you say, I'm a son or a daughter of the King. I want to live like that. I want to bear those fruits that are worthy. Maybe there's somebody here today that knows without a shadow of doubt their name's not in the Lamb's book of life. Oh God, I pray that your Holy Spirit would be at work in that life, Lord. That your spirit will draw them and your spirit will work, Lord, to bring them to salvation. Oh God, today thank you for the great hope that we have in Jesus. And as your children, Lord, we simply want to point others to you and we want to live lives worthy to be called your children. Oh God, give us that strength. Give us direction. Today we pray in Jesus name. Amen.
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  Speaker A: Clifford Baptist Church invites you to join us for worship every Sunday morning at 11am for more information about our church, please call our church office at 434-946-0555.