Al's Devotional

Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened,  And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.  Luk 3:21 -22   Jesus baptized I.   1. The preaching of John the Baptist was the sign that the active ministry of the Messiah was now to begin. The Incarnate Word had been hidden among men. His presence must now be manifested and His kingdom set up.     2. His first act in passing from His hidden to His active life, is to identify Himself with that sinning race in whose likeness He had come.     3. This humiliation was temporary and voluntary—" Suffer it to be so now ," i.e. , "for the present time"; " for thus it becometh us "—not "it is necessary"—" to fulfil all righteousness ."   4. Notice how He who in His boyhoo...

Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened,  And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased . Luk 3:21-22    The baptism of Christ I. St. Matthew gives us THE REASON WHY THIS BAPTISM TOOK PLACE. " Suffer it to be so now ," He said to John, " for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness ." He was anxious to obey every Divine law, to conform to every Divine institution, to work out and complete a righteousness extensive as the Divine commands. And this answer exhibits the Savior to us in two characters, each illustrating the propriety of His baptism. 1. He stands here as the Representative of His people. Now they are an unclean people. We argue from His appearing in their form, that He was the Representative of His sinful people; and t...

Beloved,   Enclosed are two very good comments on Luke 3:9 for your consideration.   But first,   Do you realize that Israel, at the time of the Messiah's coming, had been under occupation by a foreign force for three generations?  Do you realize that the Temple had been desecrated by the Romans in 63B.C. and, as Josephus described,   " Pompey and his offices entered the holy of holies and gazed in astonishment at a sacred shrine that had no visual representation of the God who was worshiped there ." (see Josephus  War  i. 7. 6 [152])?   Do you realize that the first sermons to the oppressed of Israel were not words of encouragement, but of Repentance?  There was nothing to reform in the Roman world, because they never had God with them in the first place.   The only revelation of God to man at that time was the oracle of God's Word to Moses, and that which was set down by the prophets. ...