The World That Missed the Messiah

If that is the backdrop, Luke is telling us what the world is like, who seems to be ruling the world, and it's into this world, notice verse 2 again, during this time, I love this, the word of the Lord came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. What a terrible day to stand for God.

No, no, no, no. This is the perfect time. When politics and religion are in the sewer, this is the best time to speak to the world the truth about salvation.

Welcome to Wisdom for the Heart. In this current teaching series, Stephen Davey has been working his way through the first three chapters of Luke. Today, we come to Luke 3 and the beginning of Jesus' adult ministry. I'm glad you tuned in because this message sets the stage concerning the political and religious climate that Jesus ministered in. Despite the hostile political situation, and the corrupt religious scene, God knew the time was perfect for a true religious revival.

Keep listening to discover that no matter the earthly circumstances, and regardless of who has earthly power, our Great Commission never changes. In the late 1400s, a Dominican friar by the name of Savonarola would raise a solitary voice in Italy to confront the church of corruption and call the church leaders and congregations alike to genuine spiritual renewal. For the most part, he would be rejected, ignored, vilified, and persecuted. But he persisted in preaching the gospel of repentance and faith in Christ alone, which we sang so wonderfully earlier. In his day, the offices from Pope to Cardinal to Bishop were for the most part sold to the highest bidder.

Immorality was commonplace among clergy, openly flaunted in the congregations of the day and community at large. Savonarola preached against all of this, pleading for a return to God. Eventually, church leaders ordered his arrest. He was interrupted one morning in his prayers and in prison. After languishing for a season in prison, when he finally came to trial, the Pope sent a message through his commissioner which read, and I quote, put Savonarola to death, even if he is another John the Baptist.

On May 23rd, 1498, he was hanged. His body then set on fire and his ashes thrown into the river. Today, his legacy considers him one of the forerunners of the Reformation. In the light of history and now approaching the text that introduces John the Baptist, I don't think Savonarola would have minded being in the company and compared to this man. In fact, it struck me that in a similar context, John the Baptist is going to appear. He's going to step out on the stage of an incredibly complex, divisive, explosive, political and religious scene. He will begin preaching.

He will introduce what we could call the original Reformation, the ultimate Reformation and the introduction of the Redeemer. If you haven't already, take your Bibles and let's go back to where we left off. We're now in Luke chapter 3.

Luke changes the scenery here in chapter 3. Instead of diving immediately into John's message and his manuscript, the content of his preaching, Luke will give us the names of five Gentile political leaders and two Jewish leaders. He will essentially give us a picture of what the world was like when John began his ministry. Let me tell you ahead of time, and I'm sure this won't surprise you, the world has not changed one bit because the nature of man hasn't changed. In fact, the greater tragedy here, as we'll see, is that all of these men and the world at large will essentially miss the Messiah.

They will completely ignore the message of John and the Messiah to come. There's so much here, by the way, in this political and religious setting that can encourage us and really instruct us today. Let's take time.

We're going to slow down a little bit and do a little digging. First, what Luke does is reveal the political scenery by giving us the names of five men here who would be considered the power brokers of the first century world. These were the movers and shakers. These were the men who made it happen. He introduces them in verse one.

Look there. In the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Eduria, and Traconites, and then Lucinius, who was tetrarch of Abilene. Now let's just sort of start at the bottom of the food chain here politically and work our way up to the top.

So we'll work our way backwards. Lucinius is mentioned last in this list. He's called a tetrarch that literally means governor of a fourth. He's going to be a governor over a small portion of the kingdom. His biography is for the most part blurred over time. There is no record of any accomplishment.

He seems to have been somewhat mediocre in his leadership. The next two tetrarchs are sons of Herod of the great. You may remember that Herod the great was the one who ordered the death of all the little boys in the region of Bethlehem, hoping to kill the baby boy identified to him by the Magi as the king of the Jews. Well, when Herod the great dies during the childhood of Jesus, and by the way realizes that he wasn't that great after all, Caesar Augustus divided Herod's rule or his little kingdom into sections, and some of them were ruled over by Herod's three sons. One of his sons is not mentioned in this list more than likely because he was soon fired from his job and exiled by the emperor for his cruelty to his subject.

Nothing more is heard of him after his banishment. Another son is mentioned of Herod the great by Luke here. His name is Philip. You might see him as Herod Philip. He rules for nearly thirty years.

He has a taste for beautiful palaces and entertainment. He built the town of Caesarea Philippi, which he named in honor of himself and all his humility. Another son mentioned here by Luke is simply referred to as Herod. His fuller title is Herod Antipas.

He was a wicked ruler over Galilee. This is the Herod before whom Jesus will eventually stand trial, so he will come up later. One more thing to mention to set the stage here regarding Herod. About the time John the Baptist is beginning his ministry, this particular Herod Antipas visits his brother Philip, who is mentioned here. At the time, Herod is married to the daughter of an Arabian king, but while visiting Philip, Herod begins an affair with Philip's wife, eventually banishes his wife, the daughter of this Arabian king, and marries Philip's wife. John the Baptist will publicly condemn Herod as an adulterer, which will, you may know if you're older in the faith, land John in jail for two years before Herod's new wife will get her revenge by having John executed.

If all of this sounds like a sordid soap opera, it is, and it only gets worse. Luke mentions next, you'll notice Pontius Pilate. He's a familiar political leader. To those of you that have read through the New Testament, Pontius Pilate becomes the governor of Judea around the time Jesus is in his early 20s. He's a weak leader.

He's more interested in popularity than character. Now finally, listed first in the list and at the top of the food chain here in Luke chapter three and verse one is Tiberius. He's the Roman emperor. Seneca is rising. He's a young man during Tiberius' reign and he writes that there was a frenzied passion for bringing accusation. Informants were everywhere.

Safety was nowhere. And the accused, Seneca wrote, most often took their lives rather than await a trial they knew would be meaningless. So this is a terrible political scene into which John the prophet is about to enter and it's frankly easy to forget that John will die in his early to mid 30s. His ministry is only going to last 36 months before he's put to death. Now it'd be one thing to enter that kind of corrupt political world and tell the truth about political leaders, to call one of them an adulterer. It'd be wonderful if at the same time he had the comfort of the backing and support of men in the religious world.

But John isn't going to have that either. Luke wants us to know that. In fact, Luke now moves from the political scene to give us the religious scene. Notice the opening phrase of verse two. This is all happening during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas.

And I gotta tell you, this is where it really begins to smell like a dead fish. There are not two high priests serving at the same time, so immediately you're told something's rotten here. And it was. In the old days, the high priest who led the community and the religious system, it was hereditary and it was lifelong. But with the Romans coming into power, this office became a gift of power by the Roman governor to whoever would get along the best with him. Annas had used his position as a means to power and personal wealth.

He was incredibly wealthy by this time. In fact, the business enterprises of the temple court had become known as the bazaar of Annas, the marketplace belonging to Annas. Together, Annas and Caiaphas were effectively running, one author wrote, a religious mafia. Annas is the power behind the scenes and Caiaphas is doing the dirty work. In fact, it'll be Caiaphas who leads the Sanhedrin to condemn Jesus. But now maybe you can understand a little better why it was sort of like a nuclear bomb dropping when Jesus goes into the temple and does what?

He turns over those tables and he kicks them all out with their animals. They're not going to allow anybody to ruin the system, interrupt the biggest thing going on. Why? Because they love the people who come to worship God? No. It was supposed to be their heart because they love God and they wanted to lead people correctly in worship. That was their job. No.

No, no. They wanted the power and they wanted the prestige. Let me tell you, they wanted the money. What Luke is doing here is pulling the mask off and telling us that Annas was the godfather and Caiaphas was the enforcer. With that as the backdrop, Luke is telling us what the world is like, who seems to be ruling the world. And it's into this world, notice verse 2 again, during this time, I love this, the word of the Lord came to John, the son of Zachariah in the wilderness. What a terrible day to stand for God.

No, no, no, no, no. This is the perfect time. When politics and religion are in the sewer, this is the best time to speak to the world the truth about salvation. His message will have three components.

Let's look at it briefly. You can circle three words in your Bible that reflect the major components of his preaching. Baptism, repentance, and forgiveness, and more on all of those later.

But I want you to notice verse 3. He went into all the region around the Jordan proclaiming a baptism of repentance for, that is in view of, that Greek word ice, in view of the forgiveness of sins. Now keep in mind this baptism is not the baptism of the New Testament Christian. John is an Old Testament prophet. Even though you're in the New Testament portion of your Bibles, the New Testament has not yet begun. It begins with the ascension of Christ and the descent of the Holy Spirit. He's an Old Testament prophet and his unique sign of ministry is that if someone is inwardly repenting of their sin and believing his message of repentance, they're to prove their humility by being, as it were, ceremonially cleansed. And this is why it was so shocking and frankly so infuriating to the Jewish leaders who were scandalized by this.

Why? Because Gentiles were the ones immersed in water when they became a proselyte to Judaism. You know, the Gentile dogs, we dunked them to represent their ceremonial cleansing. The Jewish people baptized. The Gentile people.

Jews weren't baptized. And John says, oh no, no, no. Line up with them. You're on the same level as everybody else.

You're not already in, as it were. You have to demonstrate your humility and repentance by following this sign of this Old Testament prophet. To them, it was astonishing. To them, it was entirely demeaning. But John assures them, did you notice here with that word perhaps you circled, that forgiveness was actually unthinkable.

That was just as astonishing. That would have been unthinkable to the average Jew and Gentile. And encouraging that God will forgive them if they come with repented hearts. I mean, what about all the sacrifices and all the rituals and all the temples and all the gods and goddesses and all the rules and everything that religion had imposed. The religions of this day oppressed the people with terrible fear.

The Roman gods of the pantheon were just as immoral, just as cruel, just as vindictive. The religion of the Jewish people had become this long list of impossible rules and regulations. And they agonized over how heavy a spoon could be to lift it to their mouth on the Sabbath day without offending God.

It was oppressive. They were staggering under the weight of guilt and shame. And they knew absolutely nothing of peace with God and the forgiveness of sin. And John says, you can have forgiveness.

Wow! By the way, beloved, our world today is staggering under the weight of guilt and shame and knowing nothing of the peace of God and the forgiveness of sin. This is why, we'll get to it later, but in verse 18, Luke says that John is preaching goodness. And this is greatness. This is what people need to hear today. Forgiveness is possible through repentance and obedience to the word of God as God lays it out through Christ alone.

Now let me stop here. Let me wrap up our study with three brief reminders that come from this setting politically and religiously. Number one, remember this, the progress of the gospel does not depend on the aid of world governance.

John is not going to get any help from his political leaders. In fact, you know what? None of us today would even imagine that John would have expected help from Tiberius or Pontius Pilate or Herod. Why do we? Why do we? I'm troubled over the years of listening to the church speak as if it needs religious freedoms in order to be spiritually fruitful.

One of our problems as believers, especially in a free country, is that we forget so easily. We are in exile here. We think we're home. We're trying to get comfortable in this house.

We are headed for the Father's house. And in the meantime, as citizens of heaven, we're signed by God to our particular embassy on earth, whether God has called you into the political world, into the legislature, on the school board, on the town council, in the classroom, in the operating room, in the shop, in the boardroom, etc. Remember why you have been commissioned by God to that assignment. It is sacred for you to serve there. Serve God. You're serving with integrity. You're salt and light.

You're representing him. Why? So that you can ultimately deliver to them the good news that their hope is not here. It is in him. Let's remember that. Secondly, remember the darkness and depravity in our culture can be the perfect setting for another reformation. You might think that over these last few years, these are the worst of times to live for Christ and God's saying, boy, what a perfect time. What a perfect time for you to deliver the truth.

Third, remember this. The great tragedy is not that believers suffer temporarily but that unbelievers will suffer eternally. Paul reminds the church in 1 Timothy 2 to pray for kings and authorities.

Why? Because they're all headed for an appointment with God for an eternal destiny in which there are no parliaments, there are no senates, there are no political parties. There is only the king above all kings and the Lord above all lords who will reign forever. We're all heading to an appointment with him.

So he tells the church, Paul does through Timothy, to pray that they will be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth so that they can eventually worship this king of kings. One more comment. By the time Luke writes this Gospel account, all seven men listed here have died. All seven.

All seven men. The Messiah. Lucinius is unheard of again. Annas and Caiaphas will die opposed to the work of Christ. Pontius Pilate will oversee the trial of Christ and his execution. He'll try to wash his hands of it all but he will never be able to forget that innocent one he condemned. He will grow. Historians tell us bitter and resentful and cruel and he will eventually be deposed by the emperor and then take his own life.

And the Emperor Tiberius? He will live out the remaining years secluded in his island palace named after his favorite god, Jupiter. He will surround himself with astrologers. He will be terrified of the future. In his brief biography, the biography of Tiberius, which I read in order to understand better the setting here, David Grant, a secular historian, wrote this at the end of the biography of Tiberius, quote, for years, in his final years, the Emperor Tiberius had prayed that the gods would grant him peace of mind until the end of his life and his prayer was not granted.

Period. At the age of 79, imagine he's the emperor during the entire ministry of Jesus. He will die unhappy, afraid, and without peace from any of his gods.

All seven men died. All of them missed the Messiah. How about you? Are you missing him, ignoring him, rejecting him today? Only you know that answer. If you know him and you're following him, are you ready and available with a sense of joy and anticipation to stand for him? Who knows?

Who knows? He just might be ready to begin a new reformation. I'm so glad you were with us today here on Wisdom for the Heart. Our daily Bible teacher is Stephen Davey. Our ministry, Wisdom International, publishes a monthly magazine. Each month Stephen offers important insight into topics and issues that will help you think biblically. For example, he's dealt with things such as politics, pain and suffering, the death of infants, marriage, and more. In addition to these articles, there's a daily devotional guide.

Even though each day's devotional will only take you a few minutes to read, they are rich in theological truth. We call the magazine Heart to Heart. If you've been missing out, we'd love to send you the next three issues that go out. Sign up on our website. We can also help you over the phone if you call us at 866-48-BIBLE. I'm Scott Wiley, and for Stephen and the Wisdom team, thanks for listening. Join us again next time for our next Bible message here on Wisdom for the Heart.