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          Luke 3:1-6
   ( Sermon for the week of December 10th )

Lk 3:1-6

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,
   when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea,
   and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee,
   and his brother Philip 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 in the desert.
   John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan,
   proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,
   as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah:
   A voice of one crying out in the desert:


 “Prepare the way of the Lord,
   make straight his paths.
   Every valley shall be filled
   and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
   The winding roads shall be made straight,
   and the rough ways made smooth,
   and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”

SERMON:

This week we read from Luke and I want to start out by covering 
a few historical points about the way this reading starts out 
the way it does and about who this man, Luke was.

Luke was a historian, evangelist and a physician. Colossians 4:14: 
"Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you."

The Gospel according Luke was written in 60 A.D. Luke was a 
close friend and companion of Paul. Luke was not an eyewitness 
to the life of Jesus Christ and little is known of his conversion 
or his early life. Luke was an evangelist by calling and a 
physician by profession. He earned the historian title by 
writing works of testimony and history. Luke not only wrote 
the Gospel of Luke but also the book of Acts and he traveled 
with Paul as a missionary. Luke was probably with Paul when he 
was martyred (2Timothy chapter 4). As to the rest of Luke’s life, 
we know very little.

Luke the historian, emerges with verses like this one found 
in the beginning of Chapter 3. So, let's break down the verses 
to learn the purpose why Luke includes these words in the opening 
verses of chapter 3 as an introduction for John the Baptist.

"In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,
   when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea,
   and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee,
   and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region
   of Ituraea and Trachonitis,
   and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene,
   during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas,"

For the sake of historical knowledge let's look at the commentary 
found in The Book of Antiquities by Flavius Josephus who is a 
reliable and well known JEWISH historian.

"These {verses} establish the year of the appearance of 
John the Baptist, and hence of the subsequent public career 
of Jesus. The 15th year of Tiberius was 28/29 as he reigned 
for 22 years and some 5 or 6 months, from 14-37. Pontius Pilate 
was procurator from 26-36, and Caiaphas was high priest over 
almost the same period, 26-35. Herod Antipas ruled Galilee 
from 4 BCE to 40 CE, and Philip his assortment of lands from 
4 BCE to 34 CE As to "Lysanius", Luke is at variance with 
Josephus. Lysanius was killed by Marc Antony during the reign 
of Herod the Great.

The small territory of Lysanius was leased by Zenodorus 
(or "Zeno", War 1.20.4 398), and was later given by Caesar to 
Philip, as quoted above in one of the passages. After Philip's 
death this little region that had belonged to Lysanius, along 
with other pieces of Philip's territory, was given to Agrippa 
by the Emperor Claudius circa 40 CE (also cited above). This 
little territory never had a name; it was just referred to 
familiarly, something like "that piece of land that used to 
belong to Lysanius."

This is the only way Josephus refers to the property throughout 
his works. There is no evidence of a ruler named Lysanius at the 
time Luke speaks about in any case the land is too small for 
anyone to bother identifying its ruler as a means of specifying 
a moment in history.


Two explanations present themselves.The more interesting of these 
is that Luke worked from a written source he did not quite 
understand; he could have read about the time "when Herod was 
tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the 
region of Ituraea, and Trachonitis, and Abilene the tetrarchy 
of Lysanius." He could have misinterpreted the last clause as 
identifying another ruler of the time, rather than continuing 
the list of Philip's lands; particularly if the grammar had 
become a little garbled in transmission, perhaps during translation
from the Aramaic. This would indicate Luke did not know enough 
about Judea to recognize that the "tetrarchy of Lysanius" was 
the way the local inhabitants referred to a little piece of land. 
The second, more mundane explanation is that Luke originally wrote 
the version we just surmised, but his text has become slightly 
corrupted during transmission to us."

Now let's review some history on who John the Baptist was...

"the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert."

John the Baptist's father was Zechariah who was a priest, and 
John's mother was Elizabeth, the cousin of Mary, the mother of 
Jesus. John the Baptist has direct lineage to Aaron the first 
High Priest who was the brother of Moses. The lineage of Mary 
the mother of Jesus and Elizabeth is important as well as their 
family relation as cousins. St. Hippolytus gives us a quick 
lesson on how the lineage of Elizabeth as a daughter of Aaron 
is true:

According to St. Hippolytus, "Mathan had three daughters: 
Mary, Soba, and Ann. Mary, the oldest, married a man of Bethlehem 
and was the mother of Salome; Soba married at Bethlehem also, 
but a "son of Levi", by whom she had Elizabeth; Ann wedded a 
Galilean (Joachim) and bore Mary, the Mother of God. 
Thus Salome, Elizabeth, and Mary, the mother of Jesus were 
first cousins, and Elizabeth, "of the daughters of Aaron" on her 
father's side, was, on her mother's side, the cousin of Mary.

Why all the history? First, we need to learn from the Scriptures, 
for understanding builds our faith. Instead of reading past the 
names and disregarding them as just "words" we need to acknowledge 
that the books of the New Testament tell us information for a 
reason. This all relates in this week's reading in an important 
way....

Luke, supplants the reality of John the Baptist's life in 
historical fact. Luke also shows us that John the Baptist is in 
direct lineage to Aaron as well as the Mother of Our Lord, Mary 
is also in the family lineage of Aaron. Elizabeth and Zacharias 
could not bear children, and an angel appeared to Zacharias to 
tell him about the coming of their son, John the Baptist. 
This event happened BEFORE the Immaculate Conception of Jesus.

Let's reflect again on one part of this weeks reading:

"during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas,
 the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert."

The "high priests" at the time of John the Baptist were Annas 
and then Caiaphas. Did the word of God come to them? NO! 
The Word of God came to an unknown man in the desert named John.
God chooses who He wants! The coming of the Lord must be prepared 
and this honor was given to John.

So how did John preapre the way of the coming of our Lord Jesus?

"John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan,
 proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins."

John BAPTISED using water to renew the people who REPENTED and 
were thus REBORN in a new life led by the King of kings. 
They awaited the Savior who would serve as the final price paid 
for our slavery to sin through sacrafice in order for God to forgive
 our sins. We may know the Father through the Son...the Son who 
is Jesus, serves as a mediator between God and us as long as we 
have faith which is an active living spiritual relationship 
with Jesus.

John became the "Baptist" who paved the way for Jesus to grant 
us salvation and this process began with BAPTISM.

Now we need to reflect on the meaning of Baptism, repentance, 
and the forgiveness of sins.

Baptism is: the sinning, worldly human dying and a new spiritual
being rising. In other words, it is the death of one's earthly, 
sinning self and the rising of a new person of Spirit. 
Water is a symbol of life and death. By standing in the river, 
the sinning, worldly person is "drowned" by dunking their head. 
Out of the water rises a new person, born of the Spirit. 
How do you become a new person? By killing the old one and this 
is done by drowning the old person in the living, flowing 
Spiritual water and a new life is created, a life of the Spirit. 
John's baptism is for the body becasue the fleshly body is the 
source of sin.

Repentance is: the acknowledgement of the need to be cleansed 
from sin. It is acknowledging the sinner and the need for a Savior. 
It is the realization that you cannot live life YOUR way and the 
need for your old way's to die. Repentance is giving up control 
of your life to Jesus. It is not about the human who is "sorry" 
and it is not saying: "I am sorry, I won't do it again". 
Repentance is about saying "I can't control myself...
you take control Lord!"

A new creature is born by baptism and has repented by giving 
up control to Jesus.

Forgiveness of sins is: the forgiveness of all worldly, fleshly 
sins through Jesus. If you commit 3,000 sins the first day and 
on the second day committed 1,000 sins, and on the third day 
committed 1 sin....you are the bigger sinner on the third day 
then on the second day because sins add up. The older you get, 
the worse sinner you become.

BUT

The very first sin you committed in your life is the one sin 
that kills you!
The 4001 sin doesn't kill you because you are already dead from 
the first sin you committed. You are just a worse sinner!

Jesus did not and cannot sin. If you are living in Jesus by 
repenting and giving over control of your life to Him, then 
the Spirit cannot sin! The flesh continues to sin, but the 
born again person who has a new life in Spirit cannot sin.

This is rock of truth that the Word of God brings forth for 
you to rejoice and be thankful for! 
Whom the Son sets free is free indeed!

The Gospel reading in Luke ends with the same words as found 
in Isaiah 40:3-5 and is a perfect way to end this sermon...
hear the words again:

“Prepare the way of the Lord,
   make straight his paths.
   Every valley shall be filled
   and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
   The winding roads shall be made straight,
   and the rough ways made smooth,
   and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”

God bless you and your families this week!






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