LUKE-The Preparation for Christ's Ministry
We find in Luke 4:1 that Jesus was “led by the Spirit” of God to go out into the wilderness. We want to focus our attention this morning on what did and did not happen while Jesus was out there. We also want to analyze Jesus’ behavior to see how we might imitate Him in order to conquer the power of the sinful urges we all experience in our lives. Temptations surround us everywhere we turn. How will we overcome these things to honor God with our lives? Let’s look at Jesus’ example for conquering the power of temptation
If you’ve been keeping up with our study in the Gospel of Luke, you know that we have made our way through the nativity narrative and Jesus’ childhood adventures. Last week, John the Baptist declared, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” And so now we are about to encounter Jesus for the first time as an adult—He is being presented to the world out in the middle of nowhere by “Creepy John.” This presentation was spectacular—but I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s see what happens in Luke 3:21-22.
As we jump into the third chapter of Luke this morning, we are re-introduced to Zechariah’s son, John, who became known as John the Baptizer (or John the Baptist). John’s ministry was eccentric and unconventional. He did not teach in the synagogues like the other rabbis (or teachers) of his day. He did not dress like them or even eat the same kinds of food. He was definitely different! The message that John proclaimed was also different. It’s not that it had never been preached before, but no one at that time was preaching it. In fact, it had been centuries since any of the Lord’s prophets or leaders had focused on the truth of this message. John’s message was a message of repentance. He focused his teaching on an individual’s need for repentance and personal, spiritual transformation.