On Line Bible Study - For the week January 25-31, 2010

Lesson 424
Luke 3: ¹⁵The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. ¹⁶John answered them all, "I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. ¹⁷His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." ¹⁸And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them.

¹⁹But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of Herodias, his brother's wife, and all the other evil things he had done, ²⁰Herod added this to them all: He locked John up in prison.

Two things to be aware of right off the bat in this text: First, the question as to whether John the Baptist was the Christ is asked rhetorically by Luke. From the way it is put it is obvious the answer is "No". The second thing is to acknowledge that the fact the issue comes up at all indicates some were hopeful that perhaps John was the "one".

John fends off their wondering by letting people know there were three things that were different between himself and Jesus:

1. Jesus is more powerful than John.
2. John's baptism is with water; Jesus will baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit.
3. Jesus has the authority to judge.

Luke tells the story with much the same language as Mark and Matthew - Mark does not have the judgment piece and makes no mention of 'fire'. John's teaching, says scholar Darrell Bock, is to prepare for rather than run parallel to the teaching of Jesus.

There are some interesting challenges as far as the text is concerned here. Some scholars wonder if John actually said anything about the "Holy Spirit" just prior to Jesus' baptism. When he arrived at Ephesus, Paul found "disciples" who had been baptized with John's baptism, and claimed to never have even heard there was a Holy Spirit". How is it, that that long after the crucifixion and resurrection "disciples" were still being baptized with John's baptism?

Chronology can really trip us up here. And so can the use of imagery. When we get to the Book of Acts we will run into some powerful imagery with regard to the work of the Holy Spirit. Care has to be taken not to try to make a literal picture out of metaphorical imagery.

The main point of John's teaching and baptism are summarized in verse 18 - John exhorted the people and preached good news to them.

The closing verses in this passage provide a brief summary with regard to the demise of John the baptist. The moral weight of John's message was for everyone - including the king. An interesting point here: apparently John was vocal not only with regard to Herod's adultery, but with regard to all the other evil Herod was responsible for.

Next time we will wade into the waters of Luke's genealogy.