Luke 3:15-17

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Luke 3:15-17

It would have been normal for the people to question if John the Baptist was in fact the Messiah. But notice how John the Baptist reacts without any hint of arrogance or pride. He puts the focus directly on Jesus as the entirety of his ministry is to prepare for the coming ministry of Jesus, not his own ministry, which is only a small prelude to what is to come.

Luke 3:17 is in reference to the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 13:24-30, which Jesus explains to His disciples in Matthew 13:36-43 (NKJV) which states,

“Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, ‘Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.’

“He answered and said to them: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!””

 

This is John the Baptist humbling himself and his ministry to Jesus and His ministry.

This is John the Baptist doing his part in fulfilling his calling to prepare the way for the Lord.

This is John the Baptist removing the focus of the people from himself and putting it on Jesus, which is where it rightfully should be.

 

God designed us in His own image as we are told in Genesis 1:27-28 which states, “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”

Being created in the image of God, we desire to possess the attributes of God and to have dominion over everything, including our lives. We desire to tell God what we want and expect of Him in our desire for dominion over our lives. The Lord speaks through the Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 45:9 “Woe to him who strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ Or shall your handiwork say, ‘He has no hands’?” Revelation 4:9-11 states, “Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying:

 

‘You are worthy, O Lord,

To receive glory and honor and power;

For You created all things,

And by Your will they exist and were

created.’”

 

We were created to give praise to God. We were created to glorify God. Lucifer (Satan) was cast from heaven because in his reflecting of God’s glory throughout all of heaven, he began to believe that he could be greater than God in all His glory. We were created to reflect God’s glory and fill the void left by Lucifer when he was cast out of heaven. But God is a just God and has given Lucifer (Satan) an opportunity to prove himself.

Satan has proven that he is more powerful than man as he tricked Adam and Eve to allow sin into their lives, and he strives to keep us away from having a relationship with God through the sin that is present in our lives. Satan tries to force us through his dominance over us (the same dominance that is present in the sinful nature of man) to control our lives in his efforts to attempt to be greater than God. But God is Love (1 John 4:8), and Love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8a).

Love cannot be forced on anyone but must be freely given and freely received. God freely gave His only begotten Son out of His great love for us (His created beings in His own image) that if we would freely receive Him and make the choice to freely discard the sinful nature that Satan is forcing on us out of his dominance over us, Jesus will break the chains of Satan over us and set us free from the sinful nature that Satan is forcing us to live in. Then, once we are freed from the sinful nature, we are filled with God’s Holy Spirit and are being able to reflect God’s glory through Christ Jesus in our lives.

When we die the physical death we will then enter into God’s glory, and in heaven, be God’s glory. Lucifer was never allowed to be God’s glory but only to reflect it throughout all of heaven (Ezekiel 28:14). Our spiritual reward in heaven for believing in and accepting Jesus is that we will be or become God’s glory for being a reflection of Jesus in this earthly world that has been set aside as a place to cast Lucifer from heaven.

Jesus came to this sinful world and gave Himself freely to die (undeservingly) to defeat Lucifer and remove his forceful hold on our lives; Jesus did the work, we just have to believe that He did it for each of us personally, and invite Him into our lives personally, and be to the praise of His glory.

 

 

Dear Lord,

Thank You! In Jesus name, Thank You!  In Jesus name I pray, amen!