Now, if you're able, we're going to do our scripture reading. If you're able to stand, please join me as we read our scripture this morning. All right, we are in Luke 3, 15 through 17. As the people were in expectation and all were questioning in their hearts, concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, John answered them all saying, I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming. The strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to unite, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chafe he will burn with unquenchable fire. This is God's word. It is true. And it is given out of his love for us. You may be seated. Awesome. Thanks, Emily. Boy, we should plan better with this whole Horner birthday parties thing that we're doing for as a church here just talking about that partnership meeting. Again, even if you're not a partner of the church, it's going to be a very important meeting for us. We're going to go over a lot of important announcements and changes coming to our church. We're going to talk about the land that we put the offer in on. We're trying to purchase for a future home, get some updates there, all those kinds of things. So please make every effort to join us on October 26th for 30 here at the school. All right. As we get going here, I want to play a quick game for those of you who have ever helped a teenager with their math homework. OK, so here's what happens. You're they're struggling with their math. What is the first thing that they say in response to their math struggles? Well, this is stupid. That's one of them. There's the other one is when am I ever going to use this, right? When am I ever going to use this algebra is so stupid. When am I ever going to use this? And then you look up and you're like, I don't know, maybe like the load bearing beams on the ceiling. And there's like all kinds of reasons where math is actually important, right? Like it is actually helpful. My first response, usually when I'm helping our kids is like, probably tomorrow. Like you have a test tomorrow. You're going to use this tomorrow. So you really should learn this now, not wait until later. But that example, though, this question of when am I ever going to use this? It's we use it in situations where it feels like there's this, you know, this esoteric or this weird knowledge that we don't really need. But someone high up has determined that this is important for you to check the box in order to make sure you go through school correctly, those kinds of things. And that same approach, that same mindset oftentimes drifts into Christianity as well. Right. People approach Christianity with that same concept of, of when am I ever going to use this? All right. So there's some basic things we know we need for life and godliness as we follow Jesus. There's some certain things we're like, yeah, I understand prayer is probably important. I understand knowing some things about the Bible is probably important. And then you get to passages like we have this morning, right? We're going to go over an interesting section where, where Jesus is baptized. That's a really famous scene, right? The, the Jesus coming out of the water, the dove falling from heaven, all those kinds that were floating, probably not falling. It's not like a free fall kind of thing. There's just, it's a really famous scene. And you're like, that's cute, but when am I ever going to need that? Why does that matter? And then from there, we're going to get to even a more confusing section. It's the genealogy of Jesus. We're going to see dozens and dozens of names. And that is like the quintessential question of any section in the Bible. When am I ever going to use this? And so when we approach our faith and scripture and passages that are kind of weird like ones we have this morning, with this question of when am I ever going to use this, sometimes it's hard to have the answer to it. So we want to back up and say, you know, like ultimately the Bible is God's revelation for us of his character. And so anything that he thinks is important enough to include in the scriptures, obviously is going to be necessary for us in life and godliness and what it means to follow him, but there's a quote from A.W. Tozer, I think is helpful with this concept. It says, what comes to unto our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. OK, what Tozer is saying there is the most important thing about you is your conception of who God is and your conception of who God is must be shaped by the truths that we encounter in scripture. And so when we get to passages like this that are like, this is bizarre. What's this doing here? Those kinds of things. Well, we actually have to understand and to believe is that we're going to see an aspect of God's character that's unique in this section, unlike any other section of scripture. Yeah, that's what makes the Bible so amazing is any passage you pick to study and to dive deep in, you will see a facet of the beauty of God that you would not see anywhere else, right, that old illustration of a diamond, right? No matter how many times you turn it, it refracts the light in different ways that show a different angle of its beauty unlike anything else. So rather than looking at this section of Luke with the question, when am I ever going to use this? We want to look at this section of Luke and say, what an amazing example of how beautiful our savior is. So let me say word of prayer and then we're going to study Luke chapter three together. Heavenly Father, we're so grateful for this morning. We love it that you have called us to yourself that you have created this space for us to encounter you. We're amazed that you loved us enough to send your word into our lives, that you have preserved the scriptures over centuries in order to show your people who you are. So I pray that this morning as we as we look at this passage, this would not just be a bizarre section of scripture, but rather it would be something that shows each of us how good and how beautiful you are, and it's your name we pray, amen. Amen. All right, so we are continuing our study through the book of Luke. If you don't have a, if you have your Bible, turn to Luke chapter three, we're going to begin in verse 21. If you don't have your Bibles on the table, Bibles, that's page 859. So some context of where we've been. So we've gone through all of the birth narrative of Jesus as a baby, the prophecies, the angelic presence before Jesus was born, the way that Mary was told that he was coming, that he would be a unique child, the virgin birth, all of those things. We saw Jesus as a little baby being dedicated in the temple and prophetic words from Simeon and Anna confirming his unique identity as the son of God, that he is unlike anyone else who has ever lived. And then we saw last week that the forerunner to Jesus, the one who went before Jesus as the herald to proclaim who he was, John the Baptist, that he came and did his ministry prior to Jesus ministry in order to, to introduce Jesus or to set the stage for who Jesus was. And this morning's passage is really going to, going to tee up right really well off of that. So, so last week we heard John's message, the passage that Emily read for us is John's proclamation that there is a, another one coming who is mightier than John. And so today we're going to get to meet this one in his adult form, the fully grown Jesus who is mightier than John the Baptist and see the ministry that he has. So we're mostly going to be in verses 21 and 22 today, and then we're going to quickly run through those names that genealogy versus 23 and following. So let's look at John, or Luke chapter three, beginning in verse 21, begins by saying, now when all the people were baptized, and I want to stop there for a little bit, because this is important relating to last week's message. So baptism is a key part of what it means to follow God. And that's not only true for us as New Testament Christians, but John the Baptist as the herald who was proclaiming the goodness of Jesus before he came set the stage for Jesus ministry through this sacrament of baptism. Now, obviously baptism in the, in the section where John is doing it is a little bit different than it is for us because John was baptizing people before the cross. When we get baptized as New Testament believers, it's after the cross. But the important thing is that baptism is a fruit of repentance. Okay. So John said last week that the reason he's baptizing is because he had called people to repentance to turn from their sin, to turn from their lives of rebellion against God, and to demonstrate that repentance through this act of baptism by going underwater and coming out and being washed clean or picturing what has happened to their souls of them being washed clean. And then so for the people before Jesus, it was acknowledging that their need for a Messiah. The reason they were baptized is that prepared the way for the Messiah to come. And so what we saw last week was that if repentance prepares the way for Jesus, then rather than running from repentance like it's something awful we should be afraid of or hide from, we need to run towards repentance because the more repentance people we are, the more our hearts are prepared for Jesus, right? If repentance prepares the way we should run to it not from it. That was John's message for us. And so he was saying to them, as this Messiah is coming, our repentance will prepare the way for Jesus to show up. For us now as New Testament Christians, if you are someone who has put your trust in Jesus, baptism is a reflection of what he has already done to your heart. We're living after the cross and after the resurrection. And so the difference for us is that when you come to Jesus in faith, God takes your dead heart and he gives you a new spirit. He gives you a new heart that beats for him. And so that transformation of regeneration is modeled in baptism. The reason all Christians in the New Testament are baptized is because all Christians have had their hearts transformed. And so when you go under the water, it's as if you're dying to yourself. And then when you come up out of the water, it's as if you've been raised to walk in newness of life as how Paul says that. It's the idea of baptism as an external proclamation of an internal transformation. And so if you're a follower of Christ and you have not been baptized, then like I said last week, let's do some baptisms. We would love to celebrate that transformation that God has done in your heart through this means of grace of baptism. Okay. So that's what baptism is. So now the question that's important for this morning's passage, he says, now when all the people were baptized, so that's the question of who is baptism for? And the answer is baptism is for everybody. He's speaking a little bit hyperbolicly. He's exaggerating a little bit, not every single person in Israel was baptized by John. But he's saying when all of these people, there was not a single type of person that did not need to prepare the way for the Messiah through baptism. And so all of the people needed to be baptized. And I think that's something that was really difficult for the Jewish people to understand because in their day, I mentioned this last week as well, in their day, baptism was a way for a Gentile to enter the Jewish community. Right? And so Gentiles as non-Jewish people were dirty and sinful and the good Jewish people avoided the dirty Gentiles because they were worried about becoming unclean by being near them. And so the way that a Gentile became Jewish was entering this sacrament or this right of baptism. And so John the Baptist is proclaiming this message of repentance to the Jewish people though. That's the part that's astounding about this is he's saying it doesn't matter if you are a descendant of Abraham or not, you have to come out to the Jordan River and be baptized and repent as a way to prepare the way for the Messiah. You do not have a head start on anyone else. Okay? And here's why this is interesting. John is baptizing in the wilderness. Okay? He's on the other side of the Jordan River in what's called the wilderness. If you look at chapter three verses two and three, that's where we see that. And so if you've read the Old Testament, you know that the wilderness is a very significant place in the Old Testament, right? When Israel was freed from bondage in Egypt, where did they spend 40 years wandering before they entered the Promised Land, right? In the wilderness. And so in order to enter God's Promised Land, they had to spend time in the wilderness and then cross through the Jordan River into the Promised Land. All right. After they lived in the Promised Land for centuries and they had failed to obey God the way that they were called to, they were sent to exile in the nation of Babylon. Okay, on their return from Babylon, where did they pass through in order to re-enter the Promised Land? The wilderness from Babylon to Jerusalem and they had, again, cross through the Jordan River into the Promised Land. And so the reason John goes on the other side of the Jordan River is he's telling everyone there, "You are not already in because of who your parents were. You do not have a head start on anyone, Gentile or not. You have to enter the waters of the Jordan through repentance in order to be a part of the Promised Land and God's covenant people." Okay, so that's so important for us because even in our day and age, we don't have the Jewish Gentile debate like they did back in the first century. What we have instead is this notion that somehow some people have a head start in their relationship with God. Have you ever noticed that? We think that some people are naturally church people and other people aren't. Some people are naturally one of the good kids and other people naturally aren't. And so we think that some of us have a head start, we're a little bit closer to God. God probably likes us more because we're one of the nice people and others of us feel like we're further from God, like we have a farther way to go because of our past or our decisions or our parents or something like that. And so this section is important because John is showing us every single person needs to be baptized. All the people had to go out to the wilderness in order to be baptized by John. And so whether you look at God as someone that you're naturally closer to because you think you're a good person or whether you feel like you're further from God than other people because you feel like a sense of despair as if you're a bad person. The ground here is completely level because what John is showing us is that every single one of us needs to come to God's through repentance. Repentance is for all of us. I was reminded of this recently. We reconnected with one of my high school friends we hadn't had a meal with and forever our kids had never met him really. And he was sharing some, much to my horror, he was sharing some stories from our high school experience together. And we did some horrible things. We did not do some good decisions. There was a certain story involving dragging a dead cat behind a car that I was barely involved with. Don't worry. I was barely involved in that story. But he just kept telling all these stories and the punch line to each of them was, and we didn't even get in trouble because we were one of the good kids. And he told another story and he's like we didn't get in trouble for that one either because we were the good kids. And the more he said that, I was like were we the good kids though? I don't know if we're defining the good kids correctly, but what he meant by that is we had good grades, right? And so because we had good grades in a small school, discipline wasn't exactly something that came our way compared to other people. And that image of the way we were treated because of our grades, as opposed to the way some of our other peers were treated because of their grades, isn't that how we approach church in religion so often? It's like some people must be treated better because they're naturally one of the good kids. And other people have a further way to go because they're not one of the good kids. I think you can tell whether a community has truly encountered grace and truly understands the gospel by how we treat everyone. Is this a equal playing field? Do we all understand our need for Jesus grace? Or do you somehow in your own pride think you have a head start on other people because of your goodness? Okay, so that's, I think one of the key messages of this section is we all need baptism because we all need repentance. We all need to come to Jesus by confessing our need for him that we don't have it together, but that we are sinners in need of his grace. Okay, so that's the setup. Everyone needs to be baptized. Now look at how verse 21 continues. It says, "Now when all the people have were baptized and when Jesus also had been baptized as when and was praying," and this should make you question what's going on here, right? You should scratch your head a little bit and say, "I thought we just said baptism was a sign of people who have repented from their sin. Why is Jesus being baptized?" And I think this is really important to clarify. Jesus did not need to be baptized for repentance because Jesus has never had any sin he has had to repent from, right? The scriptures are completely clear from beginning to end. Jesus has never sinned. He never did anything wrong. He was perfectly obedient the entire time, so his baptism has nothing to do with repentance. I think it's important to even look at chapter 1 verse 35 in Luke when the angel Gabriel is telling Mary who her son will be. He says that the Holy Spirit will come upon you upon Mary and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called Holy the Son of God. He's saying that right from birth Jesus it will be holy. He will be sinless. He will be perfect. He will be set apart as God's son. Okay, so Jesus' baptism, whatever is happening here is not because he needed to repent from sin. The reason Jesus is being baptized is he is demonstrating that he is truly one of us. That he is truly a human. He is not merely human, but he is truly human. Luke is showing us that Jesus became one of us. I think that's the main thing we need to see from this section this morning. The reason this passage matters is because Jesus doing the things that humans do or have to do in baptism demonstrates that Jesus really became one of us. Jesus was one of us. In his humanity, he was prepared for ministry through this act of baptism, which this is a mind-blowing concept to think about. From chapter one all the way up to the middle of chapter four to verse 14 of chapter four, all of this is Jesus being prepared for ministry. What an amazing sign that Jesus, the perfect son of God who had never sinned, had to be prepared for the ministry he was going to do, and how often do we neglect the preparation that God puts in our hearts for the ministry he has for us. Preparation is not a bad thing because Jesus was being prepared too. We also see that Jesus was praying. Every time something significant happens in the book of Luke, Jesus is praying before that. Jesus, the perfect son of God, was praying in order to prepare his heart for the work that God was going to do through this act of baptism. And how often do I live a prayerless existence? If prayer is a sign of my dependence on God, my lack of prayerfulness is a sign of my self-reliance. I am way too prone to be a self-reliance person. Jesus baptism is, we'll get into why he was baptized in a little bit, but what we see first of all is that he was truly one of us. The reason he became one of us was so that he could save all of us. Jesus became one of us so that he could save all of us. So this idea of us needing baptism, Jesus in his love for us comes and stands next to us and goes through the same right of baptism to show his unity with all of humanity. St. Athanasius was one of the early church fathers and he has this awesome line that's worth memorizing, says he became what we are that we might become what he is. He became what we are that we might become what he is. We're going to tease out what that means as this morning goes on, but what he's basically saying is Jesus became one of us so that he could save all of us. That's what this section is about. So in this section of him getting baptized, that's where we see he is one of us. That question of so that he can save all of us is where the passage goes next. Keep reading at the end of verse 21. So after he is baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. When a voice came from heaven, you are my beloved son with you, I am well pleased. A voice came from heaven, you are my beloved son with you, I am well pleased. One of the commentaries I was reading said that this section of scripture is the most significant thing that has happened in the universe from this point all the way back to Genesis 3. And I can't tell you how often I have read over the baptism story and been like, yeah, yeah, this is nice. Let's keep moving. Let's keep the story going. Think about that section. This is the most significant event that has happened in the universe since Genesis 3, since sin entered the world. That's such a mind-blowing concept to think about. Because think of all the things that God has done up until this point, right? Don't you think fire on the top of Mount Sinai and God revealing his law to Moses? Don't you think that was pretty significant, right? Or like God speaking through the prophets saying, this is the word of the Lord. That feels pretty significant to me. The presence of God being seen in the form of fire inside the temple, like that seems pretty significant. Same thing with the tabernacle while the people of Israel were wandering through the wilderness. All of those things seem significant to me. But the reason this theologian is saying this is the most significant moment is because every one of those other incidents had a barrier between God and the people. Okay, so think about like God on the mountain showing Moses, his character, and revealing himself through the word. If another Israelite touched the foot of the mountain, they would have died from God's holiness, right? The manifest presence of God in the temple, in the form of the pillar of fire, if anyone but the high priest entered into that holy of holies, they would have died instantly. So what we're seeing is all those other significant moments was God giving a little glimpse of his glory, but he was holding his power back because he couldn't give the whole thing. The images like the before the Kentucky Derby, when all those powerful horses are in their shoots getting ready to go out and there's so much power contained there, but it hasn't been released yet. It's like a sports car revving his engine at the stoplight. You know there's so much more power there, but it hasn't been released yet. And so what you see here when the Trinity is revealed in this moment, God the Father is speaking from heaven, God the Spirit is descending like a dove, and God the Son is receiving this blessing from his Father. What we have is God in his entirety, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit in tri-unity, all demonstrating his bodily presence with his people. So what happened in Genesis 3? Sin entered the world, Adam and Eve rebelled from God's good plan for them, and because of that, God created a barrier because of their sin between humanity and himself. Because without that barrier, God in his holiness would overwhelm humanity and we would die from our sin on the spot. God in his mercy and his kindness created this divide between us so that we would be safe in our sin from his holiness. But now here we get to the baptism of Jesus when God in his full self, right? God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit is all present, where? On the face of the earth, in the form of Jesus, in the form of the Spirit descending like a dove, in the form of the voice from heaven, declaring his blessing over God. Like what an amazing concept that the barrier that had been existing for centuries and for millennia has now been pulled back and God has returned to his people. All right, Genesis 3 is God has left the building, Luke 3 is the king has returned. But here's the amazing thing about that. No one really realizes what's going on, right? Isn't that just how you see Jesus acting in the gospels? He's doing all these magnificent, marvelous things, but he's revealing himself in this slow, steady process to those who have eyes to see, right? To the humble at heart who are looking for what he is doing among them. And so while that's happening, this voice from heaven, this blessing is crazy. It says that this is my son, right, Jesus is the son of God. He is the beloved, he is loved by God, and in Jesus, he is pleased. Jesus, God the Father is pleased. He delights in the work that God is doing through Jesus. And so what we're saying is that Jesus became one of us so that he could save all of us, right? This moment of baptism is God pulling back the curtain and showing that the son of God will be the redeemer of all humanity through this. What's happening here is it's a reference or an allusion to Isaiah, chapter 42, and in Isaiah 42, 1, the prophet says, "Behold my servants," he's prophesying about Jesus, "whom I uphold my chosen, in whom my soul delights," he's saying, "He is my beloved. I have put my spirit upon him, and he will bring forth justice to the nations," that bringing forth justice is the ministry of the Messiah in which God the Father delights, right? He is well pleased in that work. Okay, so this question, right, the math question, "When am I ever going to use this?" I think we see lots of things here we could kind of tease out of why this passage matters. The first reason why this passage matters is Jesus and the spirits and the Father are all together affirming the ministry of John the Baptist, all right? So John the Baptist was the forerunner, and now Jesus is tied to John the Baptist by being baptized by John. Okay, what an amazing concept, right? The perfect Son of God agreed to be baptized by this sinful human being, John. Right, if you read the Gospel of Matthew, it's actually John the Baptist is saying, "What are you doing? I need to be baptized by you, you shouldn't be baptized by me." And Jesus in his humility says, "No, this is necessary to fulfill all righteousness. I am one with humanity, I am becoming one of you so I can save all of you." Okay, so that's what he is doing in this process, and so if Jesus affirms the ministry of John the Baptist, what an amazing concept of how Jesus affirms the ministry that he has given each of us. Okay, like we said a little bit ago before we prayed for Noah and Regina, God has made each of us missionaries. We all have an assignment from him to show the world of his goodness. And so in Luke chapter 7, we're going to see this in a few weeks, John, Jesus is talking about John and he says, "I tell you, among those born of women, none is greater than John." Right, from the entire history of the human race, John the Baptist is the greatest person who has ever lived. But then he goes on to say, "Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he." Right? You and I, even if we feel like the very least among every person here, we are greater than John the Baptist because we get to point back to a resurrected Messiah, not just point forward to the Messiah that's coming. And so if each of us is greater than John the Baptist in Jesus' eyes, then that means that the work he is going to do through us matters deeply. Right? The baptism of Jesus matters because it affirms God uses broken, sinful people like me and like you and like John the Baptist. Okay? Another reason I think this section is important is because it demonstrates Jesus' solidarity with sinners unlike any other section. So if you think about the companionship that we have with Jesus is what we are saying here. Okay? So why do we need to be baptized? What do we just say? We need to be baptized because it's a fruit of repentance in our lives. We recognize that we're sinners in need of God's grace and once we repent and we turn to Him, that baptism demonstrates that we have turned from our sin. But think about those moments where you're most aware of your need for baptism. Right? Think about the sin that exists in your life, the pain that exists in your life, the things that you have done and have been done to you. Here's the thing about sin. Sin always has an isolating effect, right? The hard moments of your life, no matter how many people are around you, you always feel like you're alone. Isn't that a crazy concept of how sin works? It isolates you and it makes you feel as if you're the only one in this. And now imagine in the first century Palestine by the Jordan River, a line of people waiting to be baptized by John the Baptist and in the middle of that line somewhere, you have the perfect Son of God waiting His turn in line to be baptized. What a powerful picture of God's fellowship with us, Jesus' solidarity with us. He is walking with you, His arm around you down into the Jordan River for your baptism because He sees a group of sinners and where does Jesus' heart get drawn when He sees a group of sinners is towards them, not away from them. The baptism of Jesus shows His solidarity with us. And the other thing that we see here that's super important is this is the clearest picture in the New Testament of the Trinity, right? The triune God that we worship is unlike any other doctrine that humanity has ever seen. The idea of God existing from all time and in three distinct persons in one essence. We worship one God who exists in three persons. And so if that doctrine is true and we see that here in the baptism where all three persons are working in unity, then that changes what the type of God we worship, first of all, it's important to understand who God is. But it also means that the God we worship has eternally existed in loving fellowship with Himself, right? Our God is a God of love unlike any other religion because our God has always existed loving Himself in His threeness and oneness together. Now here's the crazy thing, right? If you look at John 15 verse 9, Jesus says, "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you abide in my love," right? So the more you study the Trinity, the more you see the way that the Trinity is working in unity here and loving Himself, Himself, God in unity, loving Himself. What God is saying through Jesus is that that same love exists for you and I. We are somehow caught up into the exact same affection and love that God has for Himself is extended to us through the love of Jesus. Okay? And so the reason Jesus became one of us was so He could save all of us. And in saving us, He uses us for His kingdom like John the Baptist. He stands in solidarity with us even when we are sinful and He invites us into that loving relationship that He has with His Father. All three of those things I think are really important for what it means to follow Him. But that phrase I've been using, He became one of us so that He could save all of us. I want to tease out some more as we wrap up this morning what He means by all of us. And so if you look down at verse 23, this section from 23 all the way to 38 is one of those genealogies, right? It's all the hard names. So I'm going to ask for a volunteer to read each of these names. And if you say it correctly, you get a point if you don't, you lose. That would be awful, right? We're just creating a space for people to feel loved by being ridiculed over pronouncing Old Testament names. Right? No, so what's happening here? Look at verse 23. It says, "Jesus when He began His ministry was about 30 years of age, being the Son as was supposed of Joseph." Okay? So this is the only place in the New Testament we see that Jesus was 30 when He began. There's some debate about why that is. Most likely it's because in order to serve as a priest you had to be 30 years of age. King David began reigning when he was 30. And then another example is Ezekiel the prophet began his ministry when he was 30. I think it's probably indicative of each of those offices, right? Prophet, priest, king, all began when those those officeholders were 30 and we're seeing that Jesus is able to embody each of those things, prophet, priest, and king. But the more important thing that we get to see is how this lineage develops. If you look at the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew's genealogy and Luke's genealogy are different. There's lots of different theories for why that is. Most likely Matthew's genealogy is showing the royal line, how kings were chosen. And then Luke's genealogy here is showing the biological line of Jesus and so, or supposedly through Joseph, his father. And so what we see though, the reason this section is here is because it highlights three names in particular that are important. If you look at verse 31, it says that Jesus is the son of this person, the son of this person all the way down till you get to the son of Nathan, the son of David, right? And so Luke is showing us that Jesus comes from the kingly line of David. And so if you go back to 2 Samuel 7, God makes his covenant with King David saying, "Through your offspring, I will rule in justice for eternity." All right, this prophecy is saying that through the offspring of David, the kingdom will be ruled justly. If you go down to verse 34, it says, "The son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham." Okay, so that's the next name that really matters, is that Jesus is a descendant of Abraham. So when God chose Abraham, it wasn't because Abraham was any great dude or anything, it's because God was kind and merciful and he said, "Through your offspring, I'm going to bless the entire world. I will make you my chosen nation and your descendants will be my people for eternity." Okay, and so what we're seeing here is that Jesus as a descendant of Abraham is part of the people of God. But the difference between Matthew's genealogy and Luke's genealogy is Abraham is where Matthew begins. He stops there. Luke, however, keeps going and he goes all the way back till you get to verse 38. It says, "The son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God." All right, Luke is the one who takes us all the way back to the beginning to Jesus being a descendant of Adam. And that's why this genealogy is important because if he had stopped at Abraham, what he would be saying is Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. By going all the way back to Adam, what he's showing is that Jesus became one of us, he became a human so that he could save all of us. No matter whether you're Jewish or not, no matter what your background is, no matter what your ethnicity is, no matter why you think you're far from God, Jesus became one of us so that he can save all of us. And here's the neat thing of how we see this unfold even more. Adam, the son of God, he didn't have a biological father. He was not the son of God in the same way that Jesus is, but he didn't have a father on earth because he was the first human. Adam as that type of son of God failed to live up to his sonship. He sinned because of that there was a division between God and humanity. You keep going. Abraham chosen his people, the nation Israel, is called the son of God in the book of Exodus. But Israel doesn't live up to the things God has called them to do. They rebel. That son of God Israel fails. David says that God delights in him, that he's a man after his own heart. David's son Solomon doesn't live up to the commands of what it means to be ruling in God's kingdom. That son fails as well. Every single name on this list is a sinner who has failed to live up to the standards that God has for us. So that's why when Luke takes us all the way back to Adam, what he's doing is saying Jesus is the one who at the very beginning is able to make us all sons of God through his perfect obedience. We're going to see this teased out a lot more next week with the temptation of Jesus. But I want to end this morning with this. Our need for a Savior is because our first parent Adam did not do what he was supposed to do. Our ability to find a Savior in Jesus is because Jesus as the second Adam obeyed in all the ways that we have failed. So Romans 5, 17, Paul says, "For if because of one man's trespass, if because of Adam's sin, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ." What Adam is teasing out in that section is that Jesus is the second Adam. He's going all the way back to the beginning and unlike the first Adam, he will obey perfectly and by his obedience we will find salvation. He became one of us so that he could save all of us. And I think this is the last, I've said we're going to end like four times now. This is really how we're going to end 1 John 3 verses 1 and 3. So as we read this, be thinking through that blessing that God the Father spoke over Jesus. This is my son, whom I love, the beloved, in him I am well pleased. Now listen what offer is extended to us when we come to Jesus in repentance for our sins and trusting him to be our Savior. See what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved we are God's children now and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure, that if hoping in Jesus means you're running to Jesus, you're repenting of your sin, you're asking him to be your Savior, you're surrendering your life to him and in doing that, verse 1, we see the love that God has shown us. Jesus is the beloved son of God, we are invited into that same belovedness. That we should become children of God, Jesus as the son of God through his sacrifice has adopted us into his family. You are a son of God because of the ministry of Jesus. You are a daughter of God because of the ministry of Jesus. And then he goes on to say in verse 3, that when he appears we shall be like him. Okay, when Jesus appears we will be just like him in his perfect humanity. We will no longer have any sin, Jesus will look at us, God the Father will say to us, this is my son in whom I delight, you are my servant and in you, I am well pleased. Not because of our work, but because of what Jesus has done on our behalf, right? Because he became one of us so that he could save all of us. Let's pray. Lord, we're so grateful for this section of Scripture. Something as boring as a list of names is just another reminder that you have worked through history in order to bring salvation to us. I pray that we would not take lightly the fact that you have offered us this gift of salvation. I pray that we would not run from repentance, but we would run towards it knowing that in repentance we get more of you. So in our discussion tables now, would you encourage us through your spirit, would we be used to edify one another through our words? It's in your name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right. What we're going to do now for the next eight minutes or so is turn to our discussion tables and process some questions. The questions I have are on the screen behind me, they should be on the bulletin as well. What stood out in the passage today that you haven't seen before and how might that show the importance of theology? Here's why I like this question. If you're not a church person, if this is your first time coming to a church, this is your first time hearing this, that's great. Just share your perspective. What stood out on this section today that you heard? Secondly, why do we tend to think that some people have a head start with Jesus? Why is it important to reject that false idea? And then lastly, I want you to think beyond your table to your neighbors and say if what this passage told us is true, how is this good news for your neighbors? What good news of the love of God do we see here for our neighbors? And we'll do that for a little bit and then we'll continue worshiping today. Thanks. Well, thanks everyone for engaging your discussion tables. I love that we get to do this as a church, right? We get a process what God is showing us with one another. I need to hear your perspective. We need to hear your table mate's perspective, such a good practice for us to remind that we all hear from God together. So, I feel a little bit like my own dining room table. I'm trying to talk and all the kids are talking over me kind of thing. So, one, two, three eyes on me, isn't that what the teacher says? No. What we're going to do now is communion. We're going to do communion, a corporate communion today, where we all partake of the elements together. So, some logistics and how this is going to work. We're going to stand and sing a song together during that first song. If you are a follower of Jesus, we serve open communion here. So, as long as you have trusted Jesus as your Savior, go grab some of the elements. We have three tables around the room, get a cracker and some juice together, and we'll go back to the table, and then we'll take of the elements together. And the reason we want to do this together is because, like that discussion question was showing us, no one has a head start. When we all partake of the one loaf together symbolically, what we're saying is we are all dependent on the same Savior, we all drink from the same cup, we are all sinners in need of the same grace. And so, that's what we're trying to communicate through that. If you're not yet a follower of Jesus, we would ask that you abstain from the elements, not because we're trying to be a leadist or anything, but because we're told in 1 Corinthians that partaking of communion is a way of proclaiming the gospel. And so, you cannot proclaim the gospel that you don't yet understand yourself. At the same time, we would invite you to the table for the first time today. If you have never put your trust in Jesus, this is a perfect day to do it because Jesus grace is extended for you today as it is every day. And so, if that is you, if this is the first time you come to communion as after putting your trust in Jesus, I'd love to pray with you after church today. What we're going to do though, like I said, sing the one song and then I will introduce communion and we'll pray over that. So if you can stand with me, let me say a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we're grateful for this moment that we get to partake of these elements as the means of grace that shows us your goodness, a prayer that we would see in them, not a religious duty or an act that somehow makes you love us more, but we would be reminded that we are all sinners in need of your body to be broken and your blood to be shed. So be glorified here in our worship, both through the worship of singing, the worship of giving of our ties and offerings, the worship of prayer, and the worship of communion. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. (music)
