Bible Study series: Luke 3:7-14. John preached repentance and demanded the people show it. They just cannot mouth the words.
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In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Luke 3:7-14
7 And so he was saying to the crowds coming to be baptized by him, “You offspring of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance! And don’t begin to say among yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father!’ For I tell you that God is able to raise up children of Abraham from these stones! 9 Even now the axe is plied to the root of trees, and therefore every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into fire!”
10 And the crowds were asking him, saying, “And what then should we do?” 11 In reply, he began to say, “He who has two coats should give to the person who doesn’t have one. And the one who has food should do the same thing!”
12 And tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what should we do?” 13 He said to them, “Don’t collect more than what has been ordered to you!”
14 And even soldiers asked him, saying, “What should also we do?” He said to them, “Don’t extort and don’t oppress! Be satisfied with your wages!” (Luke 3:7-14)
Comments:
7:
John used harsh language to the crowds. Isaiah referred to ancient Israelites as reptiles (59:5), so John was fitting in with the OT prophets. Jesus himself called religious leaders a brood of vipers (Matt. 23:33). Be cautious about using such harsh language one-on-one in private conversations! I heard of someone on youtube standing up in a large church and rebuking a pastor who was not known for preaching Scripture as a fiery Baptist or Pentecostal would. That so-called “prophet” was completely out of order. Prophetic words must be done decently and orderly and in a community context of other people who can judge the prophecy or revelation; the context is a close-knit community, not some wandering prophet who rebukes publicly because he has a fiery temperament (1 Cor. 15:40). John the Baptist was speaking to a crowd of people and now a subset of them who came to his ministry. The crowd flow went to him. He did not break into a synagogue and interrupt and shout and piously hold up a Torah scroll.
“baptized”: the verb means “to dip in or under water”; it can refer to being “soaked in wine” (BDAG). It is related to the verb which means “to dip in water”; One can dip cloth in dye or a bucket in the well to draw water—those illustrate baptism. It can even be used of a ship that sank (Liddell and Scott).
The wrath of God is coming. Wrath means “judicial reckoning.” God does not fly off the handle and lose his temper. No, picture him as an English judge with a white wig on. Let’s learn a lesson. It took hundreds of years before God judged his people, the ancient Israelites. He sent numerous prophets to warn them about the coming judgment. But they refused to repent, except a remnant. His judgment-wrath came by deporting them, but he allowed a remnant to return to the land of Israel, seventy years later.
God’s wrath is judicial.
It is not like this:
(Source)
But like this:
(Source)
That is a picture of God in judgment.
The Wrath of God in the New Testament
Do I Really Know God? He Shows Wrath
The Wrath of God in the Old Testament
Everyone Shall Be Judged by Their Works and Words
Bible Basics about the Final Judgment
In this case, John is warning of the judgment of God, if God’s people reject their Messiah. They did—at least national Israel did in their leaders—and God placed them and Judaism (temple) under judgment (Luke 19:41-45; 21:20-24; 23:26-31; Matt. 21:33-45), though numerous individual priests (Acts 6:7) and thousands of Jews of Jerusalem and Judea converted (Acts 2:41; 4:4; 21:20). God loves people, but he is not enamored with systems. Now the gospel has been handed over to the Gentiles (and some Messianic Jews) to spread the gospel around the globe, well outside the tiny nation of Israel. The church—not Israel—is the main focus of God’s strategy to reach the planet with the gospel. Judaism cannot do this. Its days are (obviously) in the past.
8:
“fruit”: in so many cases with humans in Scripture, the noun means behavior. Repentance, must be a 180-degree turn around. Please do not believe the foolishness that says God does not require a change of heart that does not work out into righteous behavior. God requires righteous behavior. All the old things must drop off like dead leaves, and good leaves must grow. It can take time in some lives, but change must come. At times the new growth, new life, pushes off the dead leaves.
Bock on 3:8a: “The Baptist says there is an appropriate product of repentance. Submitting to baptism from John is a commitment before God to change one’s life, while awaiting the approach of God’s salvation” (vol. 1, p. 304)
8 Righteousness of the Kingdom
“in keeping” iProduce fruit worthy of the reality of repentance or God’s work in your life. He wants to work in you to look more like Christ (Rom. 8:29; Eph. 4:24; Phil. 3:10).
“stone” and “children” play on words: In Aramaic the word for children is bny’ and for stones ‘bny’ (Bock, on 3:6, p. 309). John was probably speaking Aramaic, though the pun would have been lost on Luke’s Greek readers.
In any case, the point is that we must not rest on your chosen status. Back in the Neo-charismatic days, young people walked around with T-shirts saying “the Chosen Generation.” Maybe, but it came across as arrogant, because generations come and go, and one is no better than the other, in God’s eternal perspective. He takes them in their own historical context. Yes, the Jews could claim they had Abraham as their father—and the Scriptures from Moses throughout all the devotional Psalms and the rest of the Wisdom Literature and histories, so they were enlightened with the true God’s truths. But God does not care one bit about the past when people get sloppy and lazy about their lives now. “My ancestry has five generation of preachers!” But if you don’t live righteously in the present, so what? God can raise up many preachers from the stones around you.
“repentance”: see v. 3 for more comments. As noted it means both a change of mind and an about face or 180 degrees turn around.
9:
Picture yourself as a tree. If you don’t produce good fruit, then it has to be cut down. Luke repeats this sobering truth in 6:43-45 and 13:6-9. Pray that God would pluck the bad fruit from your tree and cause good fruit to grow in your life.
Begin a series on the gifts of the Spirit:
1. Gifts of Spirit: Word of Wisdom
Begin a series on the fruit of the Spirit:
10-12:
John tells them what repentance looks like in practical terms. Don’t miss this truth. God will give you practical things to do, to show your repentance. You may have to sell your luxurious possessions that you bought to show off to your neighbors. You will have to leave behind your corrupt friends (and maybe when you grow up in him he may call you back to share your conversion story, as you went from darkness to light). You will have to give up your old life in the sex industry and addiction to porn. God will deliver you from chemical dependency.
“tax collectors”: Please read more about them at his link:
Quick Reference to Jewish Groups in Gospels and Acts
In addressing John as “teacher,” they were showing him deep respect (Bock on 3:12, vol. 1, p. 312).
13:
“ordered”: it means “order, direct, command, arranged.” So the tax collectors were ordered to collect this or that percentage, and they should not skim money from the top or misinform the people that the percentage was higher than it really was.
14:
“soldiers”: probably local law enforcement (or equivalent) and not member of the Roman army from foreign parts. However, if they were part of the Roman army, they may been taken from the local region; they might have been Jews (Liefeld and Pao, comments on v. 14).
“extort”: it literally means “a violent or thorough shaking.” So it could be translated “don’t shake down” the people.
“oppress”: In this context the verb means, “accuse falsely, annoy, harass, oppress.” In Luke 19:8 it means “extort.” The verb appears only here and in Luke 19:8.
“satisfied”: it means in the active sense “be enough, sufficient”; and in the passive voice it means, “be satisfied or content with.”
GrowApp for Luke 3:7-14
1. John spoke of an axe being laid to the roots of trees that don’t bear good fruit. What are some of the sins and habits that God has cut off from your life? How has his cutting activity benefitted you?
2. John told various classes of people how to show deeds of repentance. What are some visible, practical steps you have done to show the fruit or outworking of repentance?
RELATED
11. Eyewitness Testimony in Luke’s Gospel
3. Church Fathers and Luke’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES
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