Luke 3:7-20

Harsh truth can be good truth none-the-less. John the Baptist, the forerunner to Jesus, confronts his audience with some of the most significant truth we can hear. It is hard hitting and designed to elicit a response. Apart from God’s grace we are lost in sin and prone to judgement. More than being a harbinger of hard truth, John is a prophet who passionately points to Jesus; the One who can save.

Luke 3:7-20

John the Baptist comes out swinging in this text, warning the crowd of coming wrath and unquenchable fire. Why? Because he longs for his audience to demonstrate transformed lives that bear fruit and point others to Christ. True repentance is the path to that transformation.

James 1:27

On Compassion Sunday we hear Eric’s story of how being sponsored by Compassion as a child changed his life; and Pastor Matt shares that when James 1 tells us that pure religion cares for widows and orphans in their affliction it is a direct outworking of the gospel.

Luke 3:1-6

Today's passage describes the way in which John the baptist came in fulfillment of OT prophecy declaring the way to salvation in Jesus. This short, historical text might seem easy to pass over, but it’s full of lessons about God’s calling on our lives to proclaim the gospel, the importance of repentance and the difference Jesus makes in the salvation of all peoples.

Luke 3:1-6

John the Baptist was born for one reason – to be a prophetic voice in the wilderness to prepare people for God’s salvation in Christ through repentance and faith, making a straight, yet narrow, path to Jesus.

Luke 3:1-20

John the Baptist lived in the wilderness, wore a garment of camel’s hair, and ate locusts and wild honey and Jesus said that he was the greatest person who had ever lived to that point. He is a fascinating character that we can learn a lot from, especially his passionate for pointing people to the supremacy of Jesus.

Luke 2:41-52

The Gospel writer Luke records for us the only childhood story between the events surrounding the miraculous birth of Christ and our Lord’s baptism at the outset of his public ministry as an adult. The story recounts the time when Jesus was left behind in Jerusalem, in his Father’s House, at only twelve years of age. This unique account offers a profound glimpse into the Lord Jesus’ self-understanding of his person and work and demands us come to the same crisis moment as our Lord’s earthly parents: Have we lost Jesus and do we know how to find him? Do we see him as we ought to, do we understand who he is and what he has come to do? Do we gaze upon his beauty and are we being transformed as a result? May we enter the New Year with a renewed sense of commitment to laying hold of the true Christ in all his glory and splendour.

Luke starts off his gospel by telling us that he is writing so that we can have certainty about what we believe. Luke 2:41–52 gives us a powerful foundation for that certainty. We see Jesus as fully human, fully divine, and fully committed to the Father’s will—making the gospel good news for all people.