Luke 3:15 - Meaning and Application

We are now getting close to the public appearance of our Lord Jesus. The morning star has risen, and the sun will soon follow. Here we are told how the people, through John’s ministry and baptism, began to think about the Messiah and to see that his coming was near.

In this way, John prepared the Lord’s way, and the people were prepared to welcome Christ. When people are expecting something, it often seems twice as good when it comes. As the people saw John the Baptist’s excellent teaching, the power that went with it, and its effect in changing lives, they began to think that the time for the Messiah had come. The royal line was no longer ruling in full strength, since they had no king but Caesar. Even the lawgiver was gone from between Judah’s feet, because Herod had recently destroyed the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council. Daniel’s seventy weeks were nearly finished, so it was only a few years later that they expected the kingdom of heaven to appear at once (Luke 19:11).

They also began to ask, “Could John himself be the Christ?” Serious-minded people kept wondering about John in their hearts, whether he might be the Messiah. He did not have the outward display and royal splendor they usually expected in the Messiah. But his life was holy and strict, and his preaching was powerful and carried authority. So they reasoned, “Why should we not think he is the Messiah, and that he will soon drop this disguise and appear in greater glory?” When people are led to think carefully and reason within themselves, that often prepares the way for Christ.

John did not allow any thought that he himself was the Messiah, but he did confirm the people’s hope in the one who truly was the Messiah (Luke 3:16, 17). John’s work, like that of a herald, was to announce that God’s kingdom and its King were near. After telling each kind of person what they must do, he tells them one more thing that all of them must do: they must look for the Messiah, who would soon appear. This also answers their thoughts about John himself, even though he did not hear them.

He says that all he could do was baptize with water. He had no power to give the Spirit, and he could not command the Spirit to come. He could call people to repent and promise forgiveness if they did repent, but he could not create repentance in them or grant pardon himself. Then he turns them over, so to speak, to Jesus Christ, whom he was sent to prepare for. He was ready to hand over all the influence he had on the people, and he wanted them to stop debating whether John was the Messiah and instead look for the one who truly was.

John says the Messiah is greater than he is and better in every way. He is not worthy to unfasten even the strap of his sandal. He does not think himself fit to be the lowest servant of Christ, helping him on and off with his shoes. John was a prophet, even more than a prophet, and greater than any of the Old Testament prophets. Yet Christ was greater than John, because all the prophets, John included, spoke by the Spirit of Christ and the grace of Christ (1 Peter 1:10-11). John was speaking a great truth, but the way he said it showed his humility. He honored the Lord Jesus, and he also lowered himself in a proper way. It is right for us to speak highly of Christ and humbly of ourselves.

John also says Christ has greater power than he does. “He is mightier than I,” and he does what John cannot do, both to comfort true believers and to terrify hypocrites and pretenders. People thought John’s ministry showed great power, but that was nothing compared with the power Jesus would bring. John can only baptize with water, as a sign that people ought to cleanse themselves. Christ can and will baptize with the Holy Spirit. He can give the Spirit to cleanse the heart, not only washing away dirt on the outside like water does, but burning away the inside corruption like fire, melting and remaking the metal into a new shape.

John can only preach a dividing message, using his words and actions to separate the precious from the worthless. But Christ has his winnowing fork in his hand, and he will perfectly separate the wheat from the chaff. He will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor. It belongs to him, so he will cleanse it. He will drive unbelieving and unrepentant Jews out of his church, and he will confirm in his church all who truly follow him.

John can only speak comfort to those who receive the gospel, saying, like the other prophets, that it will go well with the righteous. But Jesus Christ will actually give them that comfort. John can only promise that they will be safe, but Christ will make them safe. He will gather the wheat into his storehouse. Serious, sound, godly people he will gather now into his church on earth, which is made up of people like that. Soon he will gather them into his church in heaven, where they will be safe forever.

John can only warn hypocrites and tell the barren trees that they will be cut down and thrown into the fire. But Christ can carry out that warning. Those who are like chaff, light, empty, and worthless, he will burn with unquenchable fire. John is referring here to (Malachi 3:18; Malachi 4:1, 2). Then, when the floor is cleaned, people will see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, for the day is coming that will burn like an oven.

The evangelist ends his account of John’s preaching with a brief summary: John preached many other things to the people that are not recorded here (Luke 3:18). First, John was a warm-hearted preacher. He was exhorting and pleading with people, pressing his message home as one who meant it. Second, he was a practical preacher. Much of what he said called people to duty and showed them how to live, rather than drawing them into fine points of debate. Third, he was a preacher for ordinary people. Even though scribes and Pharisees, who were learned, and Sadducees, who claimed to think freely, came to hear him, he spoke mainly to the people at large and suited his teaching to their understanding, because he expected the best result among them.

Fourth, John was an evangelistic preacher, for that is what the word here means. He preached the good news to the people. In all his urging, he pointed people to Christ and stirred up their hope in him. When we press duty on people, we must also direct them to Christ, both for right standing with God and for strength to obey.

Fifth, he was a rich and varied preacher. He taught many other things, many kinds of truth. He preached a great deal and did not fail to declare the whole counsel of God, that is, all that God wanted people to hear. He also varied his teaching, so that people who were not moved by one truth might be reached by another.

Then comes a sudden stop to John’s preaching. When he was at the height of his usefulness and was succeeding so well, Herod’s hatred put him in prison (Luke 3:19, Luke 3:20). Herod the tetrarch, a ruler under Rome, was rebuked by John not only for living in incest with his brother Philip’s wife, but also for the many other evils he had done. Wicked people in one matter are often wicked in many. Herod could not bear John’s plain speech, so he took this added sin upon himself and shut John up in prison, putting that burning and shining light under a basket.

Because Herod could not endure John’s rebukes, others were kept from the benefit of his teaching and wise counsel. He may have still done some good to those who could reach him in prison, but not nearly what he could have done if he had been free to go through the whole country, as before. We should think of Herod’s act with deep pity and sorrow, and we should also stand in awe of God’s hidden wisdom in allowing it, though we cannot explain it fully.

Must the man who was the voice crying in the wilderness be silenced? Must such a preacher be shut in prison when he should have been standing in the courts of the temple? Yet this was how the faith of his disciples would be tested, and how the unbelief of those who rejected him would be punished. In this way, too, John became Christ’s forerunner in suffering as well as in preaching. After about a year and a half of preparing the people for Christ, he now had to give way to him. When the Sun had risen, the morning star had to fade.