“Preaching” (Luke 3:18)

 

MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/28/2026 8:55 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                            Focus:  “Preaching”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                       Reference:  Luke 3:18

            Message of the verse:  “So with many other exhortations he preached the gospel to the people.”

            There are many things going on in my life today as I have to go to the hospital to get a test, which they must put me to sleep.  Due to her cancer my wife is in pain this morning and is suppose to drive me home, so we are praying that she will be able to do that.

            John MacArthur writes:  “As noted in the previous chapter of this volume, John ministered for many months in the Judean wilderness near the Jordan River.  Large crowds flocked to hear him, and speculation was rampant that he might be Israel’s long-awaited Messiah.  John was not the Messiah, but he preached the gospel to the people, calling them to repent and baptizing those who did so in preparation for the Messiah’s coming.  His exhortation exposed the wickedness of their hearts, condemned heir reliance on ritual and their Abrahamic heritage for salvation, and warned them that they would face God’s wrath and judgment if they did not truly  and evidently repent. His message was not confined to the Jewish people, however, as his condemnation of Herod, a non-Jew, indicates.

            “John’s ministry overlapped that of Jesus, continuing for as long as six months after he baptized Him.  But as Jesus came to the forefront, His ministry eclipsed John’s.  In John 3:22-36, the apostle John recorded John the Baptist’s final testimony to Jesus, as his ministry wound down to its conclusion.  Verses 22-23 not that both Jesus (through His disciples; cf.4:2) and John were baptizing, indicating the overlap in their ministries from Christ’s temptation to John’s imprisonment.  John’s gospel supplements the account of the Synoptic Gospels by revealing what took place between those two events.

            “Disturbed by their master’s declining popularity, John’s disciples ‘said to him, ‘Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him’”(v.26).  Though his disciples may have lost sight of the purpose of John’s ministry, which was to point Israel to the Messiah, John had not.  ‘A man can receive nothing,’ he reminded them, ‘unless it has been given him from heaven.  You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him’’(vv. 27-28).  John saw Jesus’ increasing popularity not as a threat to his ministry, but as its fulfillment.  To make his point perfectly clear, John told his disciples, ‘He [Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease’ (v. 30).  Then in verses 31-36 John gave six reasons why Jesus was superior to him.

            “First, Jesus had a heavenly origin.  He is the one ‘who comes from above [and] is above all’ (v. 31; cf. 6:33, 38-50-51, 58; 8:42; 13:3; 16:28; 17:8; 1 Cor. 15:47; Eph. 4:10), which affirms His deity.

            “Second, Jesus is omniscient.  His teaching is superior to anyone else’s because He is the source of divine revelation.  ‘What He has seen and heard’ in the heavenly realm, of that He testifies’ (v. 32).

            “Third, what Jesus said was always in complete harmony with God the Father, so that ‘he who has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true’ (v.33).  Conversely, to reject Jesus is to call God a liar (1 John 5:10).

            “Forth, Jesus experienced the power of the Holy Spirit in an unlimited way; God gave Jesus ‘the Spirit without measure’ (v. 34).  That is in contrast to all others who spoke for God, even the prophets and the inspired writers of Scripture.  Their ability to receive the Spirit’s power was limited by their sinful, fallen human natures.  But since in Christ ‘all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form ‘(Col. 2:9), there was no limits on the Spirit’s power working in Him.

            “Fifth, Jesus has received all authority from the Father, who ‘has given all things into His hand (v. 35).  The Father’s granting Him supreme authority over everything in heaven and earth.  (Matt. 11:27; 28:18; 1 Cor. 15:27; Eph. 1:22; Phil. 2:9-11; Heb. 1:2; 1 Peter 3:22) is a clear testimony to the Son’s deity.

            “Finally, Jesus alone is the Savior (Acts 4:12), and ‘he who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him’ (36).  Since in Isaiah 43:11 God declared, ‘I, even I, am the Lord and there is no savior besides Me,’ to say that Jesus is Savior is to say that He is God.

            “Having given this final testimony to the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, John faded from the scene.  The work of the great prophet was over.”

4/28/2026 9:40 AM