Luke, under the inspiration of God, calls the writing of this gospel a certainty. There were many writings in the first century but not all were deemed to be inspired Scripture. You hold in your hands this morning the certainty of what God desired for us to know and to grow thereby. Enjoy hearing from God today.
Who is Theophilus? Not sure. His name means “lover of God”, maybe it is written to all those who love the Lord. Others think like Dr. MacArthur shares, that it could be a well-known Roman dignitary.
The key to be blessed in and through this chapter is found in verse 37, “with God nothing will be impossible.” Did you really get that? Walk in the ways of God, trust God and nothing can stop us from bringing glory to His name as we advance His kingdom and His church.
Today we looked at the miraculous birth of John the Baptist and of Jesus Christ. Age, biology, physiology, or any other natural way created by God can be altered by God who is creator of all. We call them miracles, God calls it another day as creator.
Why did, or would the people surrender to the baptism of John the Baptist? Dr John Piper in a sermon back in 1981 made this statement about John’s Baptism: “This was a remarkable demand of John on his Jewish kinsmen. In the context in which John lived, baptism had one main significance among the Jews: it was the symbolic rite that proselytes had to go through to become Jewish. This made John’s baptism very offensive. It implied that unless the Jews were willing to repent, they were not really Jews and could not count on the promised blessings God had made to his chosen people. Or to put it another way, in calling Jews to accept a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, John was telling them that they cannot rely on their Jewishness for salvation; they have to be changed in their heart toward God.”
After a 400 year period of nothing from God, other than what had been written in the Old Testament, God sends John The Baptist to call the children of Israel to repent. With God it has always been about the heart and our need to be righteous inside and out. Come clean before God!
Tomorrow, Lord Willing, we will read Matthew 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38.
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