Luke 3:1 - Hey, some guy named Lysanias was tetrarch of a Texas town with a COC college. Never caught that before. :-D
Luke 3:3-6 - John comes saying prepare the way for the Lord. How does he call the people to get the way ready for Jesus to come? Repent and get their sins forgiven. Jesus is coming, return to him now (repent) and wash your sins away (baptised) to make way for his arrival.
Luke 3:7-9 - John lays it out here. Don't come here just to do the religious thing, the popular and accepted thing. If you are coming to be baptized, bear fruit in keeping with the repentance you are proclaiming. Jesus later would do the same thing, challenging those following to consider the life they are chosen in him before they commit to it. Where is this call today? We hear many cries for salvation, but few warnings like this accompany it.
Luke 3:15-16 - What sort of presence did John command to draw a crown that was wondering if he was the Christ? And he drew a crowd by calling them vipers and proclaiming the one who is coming with a winnowing fork to clean house. Not a message of wealth and prosperity, yet they flocked to him. He challenged their hearts and spoke the truth they knew they needed and had been desperate for.
Luke 4:1-2 - I know this has bee mentioned by countless people before, but the spirit led Jesus straight to the devil to be tempted. Does the spirit do that to us too? If so, why? Jesus came out of this and entered his ministry. Could he have started without it, I would thing so but the spirit decided this would be the best plan. What did that time with Satan give him? I would think confidence for one, but that was only after he overcame the temptation. I guess, just as God promises that we will not face more than we can bear, the spirit knew that of course Jesus was up to this. I bet he also came away stronger and ready to take on God's mission for him. I know that when I emerge from a time of challenge, I am ready to take on whatever God is ready to throw at me.
Luke 4:14 - He left lead by the spirit and returned in the power of the spirit.
Luke 4:24-28 - Reading this I can't help but think that Jesus seems to set them up. They are initially impressed (v.22) and speak well of him, but he chastises them before they react negatively. I wonder what I'm missing in the telling, it seems there must be something.
