Luke 3:15-20

Butler's Comments

SECTION 3

The Baptizer's Meekness (Luke 3:15-20)

15 As the people were in expectation, and all men questioned in their hearts concerning John, whether perhaps he were the Christ, 16John answered them all, I baptize you with water; but he who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 17His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into his granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

18 So, with many other exhortations, he preached good news to the people. 19But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother's wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, 20added this to them all, that he shut up John in prison.

Luke 3:15-17 Subordination: The fervor and frankness of John's preaching excited the multitudes of Judea. No religious teacher for hundreds of years had so effectively stirred individual consciences and so thoroughly exposed religious hypocrisy. John stirred up a revival! He was saying things and doing things (immersing for the forgiveness of sins) that only Elijah or the Messiah would have authority to do (cf. John 1:24-28). John the Baptizer might have been tempted to bask in the limelight of fame and popularity, but he overcame it and subordinated himself to the One Coming after him, the Messiah. One of the things that made John the Baptist such a great man was his unfeigned humility. He was great because he was a servant. John answers the expectations of the multitudes that no matter how important his preparatory works may seem, they are very much subordinate to the ultimate work of the One Comingthe Messiah. The Messiah will immerse some in the Holy Spirit and some in fire. This statement of John does not mean that all believers are to be immersed in the Holy Spirit, for the following reasons:

a.

The context does not demand such an interpretation. We do not know who the you is in either the case of the Holy Spirit or fire. It is altogether possible that he simply means some of you. Peter and John were very early disciples of John the Baptist and were probably standing there at that moment.

b.

John's primary purpose in this statement is to make a contrast between himself and the Messiah in importance of ministries.

c.

There are only four distinct references to the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the N.T.

John's first prediction (with parallels); Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16 John's second prediction, John 1:33

Jesus-' promise, Acts 1:5 (Acts 2:1-21 is the stated fulfillment of this). The experience of Cornelius and his household, Acts 11:15-17. This lone event upon Gentiles seems to indicate the phrase all flesh of Joel 2:28 and Acts 2:17 was intended as representative or general, (i.e., the baptism of the Holy Spirit upon some Jews and some Gentiles signified God was opening the kingdom to the whole world).

d.

Baptizo means immerse, overwhelm. The supernatural powers exercised by the apostles (cast out demons, raise the dead, punish some with judgments) were never exercised by any others.

(This has caused some to think Cornelius did not receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but only a miraculous gift momentarily in order to signify somethingnot to empower himcertainly not to save him.)

If we are going to call Bible things by Bible names, it is readily apparent that John's announcement that the Messiah would immerse in the Holy Spirit did not infer that all believers were to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

The immersion with fire is very evidently (from Luke 3:17) the eternal judgment since it is an unquenchable fire. As Fowler points out in Matthew, Vol. I, pg. 107, John has done here what many Old Testament prophets do; he views great, widely-separated events in the scheme of God's redemptive program without giving any of the historical details between such events. John the Baptist predicts the immersion in the Holy Spirit (the day of Pentecost) and the immersion in unquenchable fire (the final judgment) without regard to the great time interval between these events, (see our comments, Minor Prophets, Butler, College Press, pg. 32, and 184-188).

Luke 3:18-20 Suffering: It is clear from Luke 3:18 that we do not have all the words or sermons preached by John the Baptist recorded for us. There are a few typical exhortations preserved in the gospel records. Luke 3:19-20 are Luke's brief account of the results of some of John's preaching. Luke digresses here from chronological order. Matthew and Mark give account in more detail and in chronological order (Mark 6:17 ff; Matthew 14:3 ff). Some of John's exhortations had to do with the adulterous living of Herod Antipas and Herodias. John the Baptist condemned all the evils Herod had done. And they were many! Herod imprisoned him. Josephus says that Herod imprisoned John the Baptist because of his popularity with the multitudes. The very fact that Josephus records the event serves to give historical confirmation to the accuracy and authenticity of the gospel records.