Dan Herold | Luke 3:1-6 | December 4, 2016
(Sermons begins at 2:33)
Wouldn’t it be great if we could see into the future? Wouldn’t it be great if we knew what was coming? If you knew what sort of challenges you would face in life ahead of time it would be great! If you knew how everything was going to work out for your good, like God promises that it will, life would be so much easier! Unfortunately, there isn’t a way, that I know of at least, to know for certain what the future will hold for us in this lifetime. However, there is a way that we can be prepared for it. Looking back can help you see what the future will hold.
As you might know, I really enjoy studying history. I think that there is immense value in understanding the past, and not just knowing trivial facts like names and dates, but really studying and understanding historical events in context. I know a lot of people just don’t get excited about history, though, and I’m not going to try to convince you to become a history scholar today. What I do want to show you though, is something God shows us in Luke 3. He shows us that we can be prepared for what is coming in the future by understanding what has happened in the past.
People usually have one of two reactions to history—either they ignore it or they obsess over it. Either they spend all their time living in the past or they pretend there is no past. Neither of those extremes is particularly beneficial. We need to know the past. We need to know the past because God has done and said some extremely significant things in the past. If we have a solid foundation in that history—in God’s history—then we will be well prepared to face what is ahead of us.
Our gospel lesson this morning told us about John the Baptist. John’s lifetime included one of those pivotal moments in history—in world history, but also in the history of how God reveals himself to his people. John’s lifetime and ministry are the points of God’s history where we see the shift from how God interacted with people in the Old Testament to how he interacts with New Testament believers. John was prepared for that crucial time by knowing the past. John knew his Old Testament well. His father being a priest in the temple provided John with a unique upbringing that prepared him for his job as the one who would announce the coming of the Messiah.
In our Gospel reading Luke made us aware of the history leading up to John’s life by giving us a brief record of history. He wrote,
“In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert.”
Luke set the historical stage for us so that we could get a glimpse into John’s world. Tiberius was ruling in Rome. He wasn’t a weak emperor by any means, but he was just the second man to rule the newly founded Roman Empire and he was following his much more famous adoptive father Caesar Augustus. Pontus Pilate was governor of Judea. The Herod family was very powerful and their reach extended beyond just Jerusalem into what is Jordan and Syria today—and we know from other parts of Scripture what kinds of rulers the Herods were. That was the historical context of John’s life.
But there was spiritual historical context as well. John was the son of a faithful priest. Undoubtedly John knew the writings of Moses and the prophets very well. By being aware of those things in the past—of God’s promises recorded in Scripture—John knew to look forward to the coming of God’s promised Savior. He also knew that God would send a messenger to go ahead of the promised Savior and preach a message of repentance to the people of Israel. By looking back and being aware of that history John was prepared for the day when,
“The word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert.”
You’ve heard about John’s life before. He lived alone in the desert. He wore a garment made from camel hair and he ate wild locusts and honey. Picture yourself living like that. If you spent all your time in the desert alone and then suddenly one day you heard God speak to you—the honest-to-goodness undeniable voice of God—what would you think? If you had no idea that it might happen—no preparation for that event—how would you respond? If you had no preparation and no idea that God might speak to you like that we wouldn’t be able to handle it. John was prepared, though, and he was prepared because he knew what was in the past.
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John knew that over 700 years before that day when God spoke to him in the desert the prophet Isaiah had written these words;
“A voice of one calling in the desert,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all mankind will see God’s salvation.’ ”
That was also the message that the angel Gabriel told to John’s father when the angel visited him and told him that he would have a son. We don’t know for sure that Zechariah told John about that, but seeing as how Zechariah burst out into song and told everyone what the angel had told him after John was born I think it’s safe to assume that Zechariah shared that information with his son as well. John had a very solid foundation and preparation through history for the life he would lead.
As far as I know, though, there aren’t any direct prophesies in the Old Testament that tell us specifics about what our future will be like. Each of us individually needs to lead his own life as we seek God’s will for our lives using the tools and means through which God tells us about himself. But while there aren’t prophecies for each of us individually, there are prophecies and past events that give guidance for all of us now and into the future. The message that John the Baptist preached is one of those. John,
“went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”
John went around preaching about forgiveness and baptizing people to prepare them to meet their Savior. John was the one whom Isaiah had written about—the one who would prepare the way for the Lord.
John’s message prepared the people of Israel for Jesus’ birth. His message of repentance showed them that their sins were numerous and that they desperately needed a Savior. John prepared people for the shift from Old Testament to New Testament. John’s message is also valuable for us today. It is still of utmost importance for us to be aware of our past so that we have an idea of where our future will take us. John knew more details about his future than we do about our own, but he still didn’t have all the details. What he did know was that his Lord had made promises and his Lord would fulfill those promises. That led John to be looking for and anticipating the fulfillment of those promises.
John was looking forward to the Savior whom God promised to send to take away the sins of the world. What was in the future for John is now our past. But that doesn’t make it any less significant. Our past equips us for our future just like John’s past equipped him. The question is, how will you deal with your past. How do you handle God’s promise to send a Savior to take away the sins of the world. Will you try to live in the past? Do you find yourself searching for a Savior? Or wishing that God would finally come through on that promise? Will you try to run from the past? When you look at all the trouble in the world—all the poverty, and disease, and violence—do you wonder how that carpenter’s son who was born in stable could really have been the Savior of the world?
We all face temptations to join one of those extremes, but there’s a middle ground as well. The middle ground is where we find men like John the Baptist who had an appropriate and well-informed picture of the past that helped him deal with the future. The truth of our past is that our Savior has come. Jesus—who was born of the Virgin Mary, died on the cross at Calvary, and rose from the dead three days later—is the Savior God promised to send us. That history guides our future. It guides our lives now and gives us purpose. We aren’t hopelessly drifting through this life trying to find meaning. Our lives have meaning because they were bought with the innocent blood of Christ. That past also guides our future as we look forward to the fulfillment of God’s promises that are yet to come. Just like John looked to the past for guidance for his future, we can always turn to the message of our Savior as we anticipate his return at the end of time.
Looking back can help us see what’s ahead. Our history provides us with the foundation we need to face challenges like life in a sinful world and the coming of God’s day of judgment. The only thing that can give us the strength that we need to face those challenges is our Savior. So whenever you feel uneasy about the future look at your past! Look at God’s promises and how he has faithfully fulfilled his promises. If the sinfulness of this world and Judgment Day seem like too much to handle, turn back to your Savior who conquered sin and took all the fear out of that last day by setting you free and promising you eternal life in heaven. When you feel lost and alone there’s always a place you can turn. In a world that is constantly changing you can always rely on what’s in your past—you can always go back to the basics for comfort. Your Savior loves you—he lived for you and died for you and will never leave you. So, as we all look forward to what’s ahead don’t forget about what’s behind you—understanding the past will make the future much brighter and clearer. Amen.