Luke The Orderly Account of Truth - The Ultimate Endorsement - Luke 3:21-38

God, we thank you for tonight. We thank you for your word,

that you've already gone ahead of us, and you've opened up our hearts to

be able to receive it from you today. So God, give us ears

to hear you and what you have to say to us today from your word

God, that we receive it with open hearts. We're ready to apply it

to our lives. God, if it needs to be, if we need

to be challenged, God, allow us to be challenged by you, if

we need to be encouraged. God, we think that you've given us a

word to encourage us. But God, we just thank you that tonight is

a night all about bringing you glory and learning from your word. So we

think you for all this in Jesus name. Everybody said, Amen. Okay.

We've been in a series called Luke The Orderly Account of Truth. Luke

the Orderly Account of Truth. Luke investigated and wrote an orderly account so Theophilus

would have certainty about the things he's been taught, so that he would know

the exact truth. And I love those words, the exact truth about what

he had been told. The cherry on top is that from Luke's account,

we also can have certainty. Because of what he said, we can also

know the exact truth about who Jesus is and what he taught. So let's

look at Luke one one through four. Many have undertaken to draw up an

account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were

handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of

the word, the double word. Apparently with this that's not in the Bible,

this one's not there. With this in mind, since I myself have

carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account

for you, most excellent, the awful Us, so that you may know

the certainty of the things you have been taught. This right here is Luke's

purpose in writing the Gospel of Luke writing his book, and so far in

Luke's Gospel we have covered the prophecies and births of both John the Baptist and

Jesus. We've also talked about Jesus being young in the temple and amazing everyone

with his questions and his understanding regarding the scriptures, which is pretty cool,

And I think it was very important for Luke to start his gospel in this

way because it shows us how this Jesus guy who was prophesied about long ago,

and the circumstances of his arrival, they were exactly the way God said

it was going to be. It happened exactly the same way that God said

it would. And last week Pastor Jordan talked about John the Baptist starting his

ministry to get the people ready for Jesus. But the people when he started

his ministry, the people started to wonder, is this the Messiah? Is

this the one that was prophesied about long ago? But he corrects them,

which we read last week. So let's look at Luke three fifteen through eighteen.

The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John

might possibly be the Messiah. John answered them, all, baptize you with

water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps

of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with

the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear

his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn. But he will

burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Paws whose stuff is all of this.

There's a really important repeating where this isn't in my notes. So we're

just gonna go on a rabbit trail. Here. There's a really important word

that keeps getting repeated in here. His his his, his, he,

it's his. It's all Jesus' right. His winnowing fork is in his hand

to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat and day his barn.

But he will burn up, he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

He's over it all, Okay. Rabbit trail done verse eighteen, and

with many other words. John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to

them. John told the people that there's someone coming. It's not me that

there's someone coming who I'm not even worthy to do the lowest job for to

untie or tie people's sandals. That's like or even think about washing people's feet.

That was a servant's job. You'd show up at someone's house because you've

been walking in sandals all day. Your feet are disgusting. You're not walking

in my house with those disgusting feet, So someone would clean your feet.

He's saying, I'm not even worthy to take care of the sandal duties of

the guy who's to come. And guess what that guy actually showed up.

Surprise, it's Jesus, he shows up. So today what we're gonna do

is we're gonna talk about when Jesus shows up to be baptized by John.

We're gonna be in Luke chapter three, starting in verse twenty one. So

you guys can start turning there now. And if you don't have a Bible,

I'm not gonna be offended. Stand up, go to the back table.

We have them sitting back there. Grab one. We want you to

be following along with us as we read. And if you don't own a

Bible, it's your gift or it's a gift for you from us. Please,

we want you to have a Bible. Okay, let's read through our

texts for today. It's gonna be Luke chapter three, verses twenty one through

verse thirty eight. When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized

too, And as he was praying, Heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit

descended on him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came from

heaven. You are my son whom I love with you, I am well

pleased. Now. Jesus himself is about thirty years old. When he began

his ministry, he was the son. So it was thought of Joseph,

the son of Helai, the son of Mathat, the son of Levi,

the son of Melkie. Buckle up, guys, the son of Jenai,

the son of Joseph, the son of Mattathias. Mattathias, the son of

Amos, the son of Nahem, the son of Elsie, the son of

Nagai, the son of math or Maith, the son of matth That Thias,

the son of Simeon, the son of Josiph, the son of Jodah,

the cousin of Yodah, the son of Johannon, the son of Rasa,

the son of Zara Babel, the son of shayat Ael, the son

of Neierri, the son of Melki, the son of Adi, the son

of Kosam, the son of el Madam, the son of er There we

go, the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer, the son of

Joram, the son of Mathat, the son of Levi, the son of

Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of

Jonah, the son of that's still right. Thirty one DoD, we go

backwards. No Elia Kim, the son of Melia. I've been reading these

a lot, so, the son of Mena, the son of Mattatha,

the son of Nathan, the son of David, the son of Jesse,

I go back. The son of Obd, the son of Boaz, the

son of Salmon, and the son of Nashon, the son of Aminadab,

the son of Ram, the son of Hezron, the son of Peiz,

the son of Judah, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac,

the son of Abraham, the son of Tarah, the son of Nehor,

the son of Sarah, the son of Rheu, the son of Peleg,

the son of Eber, the son of Sheilah, the son of Canaan,

the son of Arpik, sad Yep, the son of Shem, the son

of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of Mathuselah, the son

of Enoch, the son of Jared. That's a good, thank you.

The son of Mahaleel Mahalalel, the son of Keenan, the son of Enosh,

the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

One more time from the top, I see out as give Greg all

the impossible names to say. Now that we've read through the text, I

have an important question. What kind of toothpaste do you guys use? Who

uses Coldgate? Got some Coldgate? And people like I don't know whatever's on

sale? Awqua fresh sense A nine for those sensitive teeth? Yeah, are

you a crust kid? There we go, charcoal anybody? There we go?

Come on, let's go, healthy teeth. How many dentists recommend your

toothpaste? Nine out of ten every time, every single company, doesn't matter

which one it is. Nine out of ten dentists recommend your toothpaste brand?

Right, But it's not just toothpaste. Companies are trying to get you to

buy their products, and they are always saying nine out of ten x berts

approve. They want to tell you that the professionals or the people that you

trust will recommend or even use their own specific products. Why do you think

these celebrities and commercials. I mean, look at all the NFL players.

It's not because they're great actors that they're in these commercials, right, No,

No, it's because they want you to see that someone you know or

that you like or that you trust, vouches for or endorses their product.

So what I call today's message is the ultimate endorsement, the ultimate endorsement.

And I called it this because I believe we just got gun reading in the

text the ultimate endorsement. You can't get a more trustworthy or reliable source to

vouch for you than God himself. There's no higher source. And we just

read that God vouch for Jesus and confirmed to everyone around that he is his

son, that Jesus is the son of God. And not only that,

but then Luke moves immediately into confirming through his investigative work that the genealogy of

the human side of Jesus leads back to David, Jacob, Abraham, Adam

and finally God. So is what point is Luke trying to make? Or

I think a better question is what point is God trying to make? Through

Luke? Jesus is the son of God. Jesus is the son of God.

I think this is the main argument that's being made in the text today.

Why would Luke record what God said and why would he include the genealogy.

It's all to prove the point that Jesus is the son of God.

And if that is true, then there are a ton of implications. If

Jesus is the son of God, there's a lot of implications that follow that.

But we're going to get into that later in the message. But I

want you to keep that in mind as we're breaking down the text today,

because we're going to see some other cool truth as we're kind of reading through

the text, as we're going through every single name on that genealogy list.

Just kidding, don't worry, we're gonna get out on time. But we're

going to see some cool truth. But I want truths, but I want

you to remember the main point that's being argued, and that is Jesus is

the son of God. Guys, ready, Okay, let's go back to

verse twenty one, when all the people were being baptized. Jesus was baptized

too, and as he was praying, heaven was opened. The verse ends

in the middle of a sentence. It's kind of weird, but we're just

going to stop there and talk about the first part him being baptized. But

the first thing I want us to see is that Jesus went to be baptized

by John when all the other people were doing it. And so I figure,

since we're doing baptism today, and it's in the text where we should

probably stop and talk about baptism a little bit. And baptism is a sign

of the new and that we have that God has with his people. It's

an outward sign this and we kind of just say this way. It's an

outward sign of the inward work that God has done in our hearts. And

it's how we show everyone with our actions that we are united with Christ.

Let's look at Romans chapter six, a couple verses here, or don't you

know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his

death. We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that

just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father,

we too may live a new life. It's in baptism when we're lowered down

into the water, that is us symbolizing our old flesh and our sin dying

and being buried with Christ. It's no more it's dead, dead and buried.

And then as we come up out of the water. Because for those

who don't want baptism r it's just a simple submersion of someone underwater and then

bringing them back out when they're coming back up, that's us symbolizing our being

raised to new life as a new creature, all to the glory of God.

That's what we're doing. And everyone who has put faith in Jesus for

salvation is commanded by God to get baptized. That's just the next step.

That's what If you've put faith in Jesus, that's the next step. So

if you're a believer and you've never been baptized, we can dunk you today.

Do it. We'll do it. It's happened before. People are like,

God just did something in my heart and I can't explain it. And

we're like, well, he just gave you faith and you put it in

Jesus and you're telling me, Jesus is your Lord. That's the next step.

Let's do it. So if you haven't been baptized, we'll do it

today. What we should do is respond like the Ethiopian did with Philip.

When you heard the gospel and he believed, he said, look here is

water, what can stand in the way of meat of my being baptized?

He sais water right here. What can stand in the way. Let's do

it right now, that's the way we should respond after we put faith in

Jesus to being baptized. Let's do it. We did in the middle of

a week one time. Because someone's like, I don't want to wait till

the next baptism, I'm like, then fill up the tank. And we

did it right outside. It was awesome. It's amazing. And don't let

any excuse stop you. We literally have extra clothes and tells we got you

covered. If you are a Christian, have him been baptized. Don't wait.

But the baptism that John was doing was different than the baptism we just

talked about, okay, because what we're talking about is a baptism that is

after Jesus has died and resurrected. Right, it's us having our symbolizing our

association or our unification with Christ through baptism. John's baptism was different. He

was preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and Jesus went

to go get baptized by him. But wait a minute, wasn't Jesus sinless?

Yeah, Jesus was sinless, and Jesus had no sin, therefore that

why would he be going to do a baptism for repentance and for forgiveness of

sins? And I was reading a John MacArthur Common and Terry and actually loved

what he said. He just said that Jesus did the things that God calls

the righteous to do, even if he didn't have to do it. He

did the things that God called the righteous to do, even if he didn't

have to do it. So Jesus would show his submission and his commitment to

God the Father through his obedience, which is huge. Although Jesus was sinless,

he still went to get baptized by John because that is what God wanted

his people to do. So what does God the Father want from his children?

It's a big point. God the Father desires obedience from his children,

and Jesus modeled it perfectly. That's what God Father desires obedience from his children,

and Jesus is our perfect example of it. He's our perfect example of

obedience to the Father. And we've talked about this before in the past about

God wanting our obedience, and it's not just what he wants, but it's

actually what he commands, and we don't have time to go into all the

verses about it. But there's one specific place I want to go to,

and I want to go to first Samuel, chapter fifteen. But Samuel replied,

does the Lord delight and burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying

the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better

than the fat of rams. I mean, the fat of rams part might

not resonate with us today, but it definitely digsists the tasty part and great

aroma on a barbecue. What makes steak taste good? Fat? Now I

want steak? So what does the Lord actually want? We just read it?

What does he want? Obedience? God wants obedience. He wants us

to obey him. And that's what Jesus was modeling when he got baptized,

even though he didn't have to. But I want to point out that,

even though I'm the one who asked the question, and I'm assuming you all

asking the same question, it wasn't just us who were questioning why Jesus would

need to get baptized by John. John was questioning it too. And here's

the beautiful thing about having four gospel accounts, we get record of the same

event with different perspectives and different details. So we get to read another account

of the same event that happened, and we get more information about what happens.

So I want to look at Matthew three. How we get some more

details on how John responded to Jesus coming to be baptized by him. Then

Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John

tried to deter him, saying I need to be baptized by you, and

do you come to me. Jesus replied, let it be so, now

it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness. Then John

consented, I mean, could you imagine Jesus coming to you and say,

hey, can you baptize me? I mean, Kirk's doing the baptisms today.

Jesus walks up to you, Kirk, and it's like, I need

you to baptize me. I would have felt the same way as John.

Jesus, you got this backwards. You need to baptize me. That's how

I would have responded. That makes sense why John would respond that way.

But Jesus tells John that it is right that he would do it. It

is right, it is proper to fulfill all righteousness. And all of this

makes sense because when Jesus came to be baptized by John, John the baptizer

knew exactly who Jesus was. Let's look at the same account in the Gospel

of John and Chapter one, verse twenty nine. The next day, John

saw Jesus coming toward him and said, look, the Lamb of God who

takes away the sin of the world. John. When this moment happened,

John knew who Jesus was, so it makes sense why he'd say, whoa

me baptize you? No, no, no, you need to baptize me,

the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This

is the one I meant when I said, a man who comes after me

has surpassed me because he was before me. That's a good math problem to

figure out. Thirty one. I myself did not know him, but the

reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.

Okay, now we're uncovering a little bit more of the greater purpose behind John

baptizing Jesus. This is how God chose to reveal Jesus to Israel. This

is how he chose to say. This is Jesus, my son. John

is announcing that this Jesus who showed up to be baptized, is the Lamb

of God who takes away the sins of sin of the world. But he

is the Holy One of God. He is the Messiah, the one sent

to save Israel. So put all those pieces together and make sense. Why

John would hesitate right makes sense, But still, out of obedience to God,

the Father, Jesus submitted himself to being baptized by John. Okay,

let's go back to verse twenty one in Luke three, when all the people

were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying,

Heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like

a dove, and a voice came from heaven. You are my son,

whom I love, and with you I am well pleased. What And as

he was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him

like in bodily form, like a dove, and a voice came from heaven.

You are my son, whom I love. With you, I am

well, pleased, pleased. Just picture that for a moment. Just imagine

what that would be like to see you're there as another person just getting baptized,

or just seeing what's going on, because lots of people are starting to

congregate and being like, what the heck is going on out here? And

then you see this happen That blows my mind that Heaven would be opened up,

the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus and bodily form like a dove, and

then God the Father audibly speaking from Heaven audibly speaking. And I want to

talk about that for talk about this for a second, because what this is

is it's a beautiful picture of the triune headship of God or the Trinitarian Godhead.

We see all three distinct persons of the Trinity at work at the same

time. We see Jesus the Son, we see the Holy Spirit and bodily

form like a dove, and we see God the Father or hear God the

Father speaking from heaven. One being God, three persons, Father, Son,

and Holy Spirit. We see this depiction or I say example, of

all three parts. But I do want to say that there is no perfect

example to explain how this works. There's nothing that we could say. That's

a perfect example to help us understand it. There's things we can try to

say to help us wrap our brains around it, given the limitations of our

three to minus world that we live in. So it's basically something you're just

gonna have to wrestle with to note that it is true and that it's impossible

fully understand. Makes sense. It's a trinity. Welcome to one of the

hardest things. I understand. Okay, let's look back at the verse.

No, let's go back back one. Yeah, and the Holy Spirit descended

on him in bodily form, Laika Dove. I want to stop and talk

about that, because we see the Holy Spirit descend down upon him and we

hear God the Father speak from heaven, and there aren't many times in scripture

where we see God audibly speak from heaven. There's just a few times,

and even less still when he speaks from heaven directly and specifically regarding his son

Jesus, or as I say, giving the ultimate endorsement that he said it.

It's the title of the message. God audibly speaks from Heaven regarding Jesus

twice that we see in scripture, and we see it here, and we

also see it during the transfiguration. So we're now we're gonna go to that

Matthew seventeen verse. After six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James,

and John, the brother of James, and led them up to a

high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured. Before them, his face

shone like the sun, and his clothes became clothes became as white as the

light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus.

Peter said to Jesus, which is a great question, Lord, is it

good for us to be here? And then he doesn't know what to do,

so he's like, if you wish, I could put up three shelters,

one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. While

he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from

the cloud said something that's going to sound really familiar. This is my son

whom I love. With him, I am well pleased listen to him.

This is twice that God, the Father from heaven audibly confirms that Jesus is

his son. Twice. Here he's validating to those who are listening, or

to those who were with Jesus. And back in our text, in Luke,

he's validating to those excuse me, he's vowing to Jesus himself, because

he's speaking directly to Jesus while everyone else heard he's saying, you are my

son, and Luke and here he's saying, this is my son. But

God either way is making it super duper clear that this is Jesus. The

one right in front of you is his son. And again that has some

huge implications. So if we're going to talk about in just a moment and

is I'm convinced after all of this, I'm already convinced. But Luke found

it important to continue on right to prove the point even further. So let's

keep reading in our text. Let's go back to verse twenty three of Luke.

Now, Jesus himself is about thirty years old when he began his ministry.

He was the son, so it was thought of Joseph, the son

of Heli or Helly, however you want to say it. But Luke's pointing

out that Jesus was about thirty when he started his mission. And then he

moves right into the supposed genealogy, which I know you guys, have been

looking forward to going into it's amazing. Unfortunately, we're not gonna go name

by name that would be I do absolutely think there's tons to be learned from

doing that, so I highly recommend you do that at some point. But

that's basically a survey of the entire Old Testament, so we don't have time

to do that right now, but I do recommend doing it. And if

you look at some of the people in this genealogy, there's some really messed

up people in this line. So what does that say to me? That

says that God uses whoever he wants. It doesn't matter who you are,

doesn't matter what family line you came from. The Lord chooses to use whomever

he will. Amen, So don't think you screwed it up too much.

Turn obey and follow the Lord. He will use you anyway. Back on

top of okay, today, I want to focus more on the point of

why Luke would even decide to include the genealogy, because genealogies were very,

very important to the Jewish people. They're very important. I think they're important

to us as well, but there seems to be a bigger emphasis on it

here. It was one of the ways that they kept historical record of events

in the past and where people came from. It's also how you knew who

certain people were because if everyone was named Joshua, you're like, which Joshua,

who's your daddy? Like, where'd you come from? That's how they

figured out who who was who. It helped them keep the historical record,

and I think that Luke's point was to make sure that we know that no

matter how you look at it, Jesus is God's son. No matter which

angle you look at it, Jesus is God's son. If you're looking at

it through the virgin birth, he has no earthly father, which means God's

father. Okay, son of God. If you're looking at it through God

validating his sonship audibly, that's again him saying, okay, God is validating

that Jesus is the son of God. And now he's going through the half

adopted I call the half adopted family lineage to again prove and if people were

to assume that Jesus, excuse me, that Joseph was Jesus's father, and

they would end up following Joseph's family line his lineage for legal reasons, because

that's what she would do, and I assume that most Jews would assume that.

Then Luke found value in tracing Joseph's lineage. There's a reason why he

did it. There was value to that, And we actually operate the same

way because more often than not, the wife will take the husband's last name.

Right, So which line are you following? You're following the male's lineage,

which is what the Jewish people would do. They would track the male's

lineage. But let's see what Luke found. We're going to spend just a

couple of minutes looking at what Luke found when he did start going through the

lineage. We're gonna take just a few spots from the genealogy to start in

verse thirty one. The son of Melia, the son of Menna, the

son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David. Okay,

that last name there, I stopped on that one on purpose. The

last name is David. That's King David. Like the line the Messiah was

to come from, the one whose throne would be an everlasting throne would come

from David. From King David, the Jews would follow the father's line as

the legal lineage from someone So Luke is showing here that jesus legal lineage was

through David, which is really important because all the prophecies that were said about

Jesus or the Messiah. So this is confirming further that Jesus is the savior

that God prophesied about. But Luke goes a little bit further back. Let's

go to verse thirty four. The son of Jacob, the son of Isaac,

the son of Abraham, the son of Tara, the son of Nahor

who is Jacob. Jacob is Israel. Jacob is Israel. Lucas showing that

Jesus came from the tribes of Israel. Actually, if you go back to

verse you don't have it up there, but if you go back to verse

thirty four says he also came from Judah, which is the tribe of Judah.

That's kind of a big one when you're talking about prophecies. He came

from the tribe of specifically the tribe of Judah. And this also means that

he's a descendant of Abraham. And we know how serious the Jews took their

ancestry with Abraham. Father Abraham had many sons, many sons had Father Abraham.

Yeah, Wow, I did not expect that to keep going. I'm

not mad. I'm impressed. That was great. Of course it was the

worship team doing that. Yes, they took their ancestry with Father Abram very

serious. So God's first covenant with his people was through who Abraham. That's

what he set the covenant through, was through Abraham. So Luke is hitting

all the marks to make sure that Jews understood that Jesus is the Messiah.

They've been waiting for it, that Jesus is God's son, which makes it

even I mean, just reading the book of Luke, you're like, how

could anyone still be like, follow the Jewish beliefs and think that Jesus wasn't

the Savior. They have to ignore a lot of evidence that's put there,

put out there. Jesus is God's son. But Luke goes back even further

than Abraham. Let's look at verse thirty eight, the son of Enosh,

the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of who God.

Luke goes all the way back to Adam and then God himself, and

most scholars believe that he wasn't. He wasn't writing to specifically to a Jewish

audience like Matthew seemed to be that he's writing to a non Jewish audience,

which is why it was so important for him to go back this far,

just to show that Jesus wasn't just the savior of the Jews, he was

savior of the non Jews, also the Gentiles, which is something God's been

prophesying about in the Old Testament forever. No matter how you follow the line

connected to Jesus, whether it be his actual father God or his adopted father

Joseph, it all goes back to God, all of it. So what

is Luke's main point in talking about the baptism and the genealogy. No matter

which line you trace, Jesus is God's son. You guys are expecting my

points to be a little varied, weren't you. It's basically all the same

thing, because it's a very clear argument being made in this text. No

matter which line you trace, Jesus is God's son. No matter how you

look at it, he is God's son. God said it himself, he

gave the ultimate endorsement. And then Luke says, if that wasn't enough,

let's look at his legal family line, which all the prophecies had a lot

to say about Jesus is the son of God. You guys still tracking?

Okay? Can I have the band come up please? So we've just we

set the foundation. We rent through all the evidence and the proof for the

argument we're making. It sounds like we're in court class. Is that a

class? Court class? It is? Now? So we know that Jesus

is the son of God? What do we do with that information? Okay?

Here, now we got to start talking about the implication pieces that I

was talking about earlier. What do we do with the information if Jesus is

the son of God? What does that mean for us? And I want

to go to the most famous verse in the Bible, John three sixteen.

For God's so loved the world that he gave his one and only son,

that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For

God did not send his son into the wars. So we usually stop at

sixteen, but we're gonna keep going. For God did not send his son

into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Whoever believes in Him is not condemned. But whoever does not believe Stan's

condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only

son. Those three verses jam packed with theological understanding. Those some thick verses

with three c's, that was a bad joke. They're full of things for

us to understand. God sent his son to save the world. Those who

believe receive forgiveness. Those who don't believe stand condemned already. There's no reason

for him him to condemn because you stand condemned already for not having believed.

The reason that God sent his son into the world was out of the overflow

of his love for us, because he definitely didn't have to so, out

of the overflow of his love for us. That those who believe in Jesus

don't experience eternal death and punishment, but they experience eternal life, eternal grace,

and eternal peace with God. Eternal peace with God. That's why God

sent his son Jesus. And that Jesus who showed up to be baptized,

that's the one he's talking about. Luke's proven it to us right here.

And just to make the point even more clear, let's flip the towards the

end of John in chapter twenty, Jesus perform many other signs in the presence

of his disciples which are not recorded in this book. Means he did a

whole lot more, and John's a preview big book. But these are written

that you may what believe that what Jesus is the Messiah. That's why they

were written, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the

Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Jesus life, all the miracles he did, the teachings, fulfilling,

all the prophecies, which for a lot of them are also that you would

believe that Jesus is the Messiah, that he is the Son of God,

and that those who believe they have life in his name. So we should

always ask the question when we learn something in scripture, how should I apply

this to my life or what can I apply to my life today? So

the application for today is to believe in the name of Jesus, pretty straightforward,

to believe in the name of Jesus. And if you're not a believer

in here today that my prayer, and this is always my prayer, is

that through the reading of God's Word, that he awakens something in you that

he reveals to you who Jesus truly is, or even if you're just like

on the fence a little bit and like I don't know. My prayer is

always that it's painfully obvious in your heart who Jesus is. And I'm praying

that right now that we're all being drawn to him, that we feel him

drawing us to himself. So if you're like feeling weird stirring in your heart

or in your guts, you can't really explain, or it might be something

as simple as I think this is actually true that Jesus is the son of

God. It could be something as simple as that. Then I want you

to do what God commands you to do, and that is repent of your

sins and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, because that's what he

commands us to do. When we believe, we repent of our sins and

confess with our mouth that Jesus Lord. We believe in the name of Jesus.

And if that is you today, myself and the other elders would love

to talk to you about that. We'd love to talk with you and pray

with you through all of that so shame in that game. I mean,

you may have been in church your entire life, and all of a sudden

you're like, I wasn't safe before, and all of a sudden something changed

in you, and you're like, Okay, now I actually believe something changed.

Something is real. God saves from near, and he staves from far.

He might pull people from way off who are wandering off in the deserts,

but he also saves people who are sitting in church chairs every Sunday,

from near and far. Believing in the name of Jesus is what gets you

forgiveness from all of your sins, past, present and future. There's no

other promise like that anywhere. And the only one we need to be forgiven,

or the only one whose forgiveness we need, is God's because he's the

only one who've crossed it actually eternally matters. He'll work on cleaning us up

the rest of the way. But that's the one that actually matters, is

that we are right with God. Belief in the name of Jesus is how

we get to live for eternity with Jesus in his grace and peace. We

must believe to receive eternal life. You must believe. And if today you're

like I believe for the first time, the next step is to get baptized,

and we're ready for you. We have towels and clothes. I'm trying

to get rid of every excuse you might have. That's if you're not a

believer. Now, if you are a believer, how do we apply today's

text. If you've already put faith in Jesus, then I want you to

take today's message as a reminder, don't doubt who Jesus is. Don't doubt

God himself gave the ultimate endorsement of who Jesus is. Luke confirmed it through

his genealogy. Jesus is the son of God, and we have nothing to

doubt about that. We have nothing to doubt about that our foundation of faith

and who Jesus is should be the most sure thing we have to stand on.

Why Because God said it, God did. God's not a liar.

God is truth, and he's sure he does not change. He is the

only thing we can take full assurance is God. That means that we can

walk forward with confidence knowing that our salvation is secure in Him. And that's

amazing. God gave us everything we need to have a strong foundation of faith.

So just don't forget it. And when you do forget it, because

we all have moments of doubt, go back to Luke three and read the

genealogy. Who thought? Who would have thought a genealogy can bring faith strengthening.

Now there's a reason all those names are there, because it's beyond a

shadow of the doubt that Jesus is who God said he was, and he

proved it time and time again through all of the prophecies, through the Old

Testament. He said, this is who's coming. And guess what. Who

showed up? Jesus showed up, right, He said, this is what

he's going to come to do. And what did he come to do?

What did he do? He did exactly what God said he was going to

come to do. Zero doubt, not a single stitch of doubt. But

we all forget. That's why we need each other and God's word. Jesus

is God and Jesus is God's son. Trinity talk hard to understand, but

is truth. So what I want us to do this week if we are

already a believer, so I want you to spend some time thanking him for

that, thanking him for the assurance that we have. But I want you

to actually set aside sometime in prayer. Not just like okay, i'm driving,

thanks God, whatever. No, actually set aside sometime, turn your

phone off, put it off with the side, and actually focus on him.

And I know it's the holiday season, you have a million things to

do. And I say this in love, I don't care. I don't

The most important thing in your life is your relationship with the Creator. There's

nothing more important than that. What do you think this whole holiday season's about.

That's what's most important. So set aside some time to actually pray and

thank him for what he's done, Thank him for his goodness, his love

in sending Jesus, the fact that he would give us confirmation, to give

us confirmation of the things we're told that we believed. He didn't have to

do that, but he did, So thank him for that. This week, Amen,