Luke 3

Again, you see Luke place Jesus in real history at the start of this chapter. Luke sees John the Baptist as the person Isaiah spoke of as preparing the way for the Messiah. John's message is pretty clear. Change your actions to meet your faith. Repent means to turn around and go in the direction you wanted to go. Notice in this gospel, John says what "to repent" means before he gets to baptism. Baptism is a sign of repentance. Baptism is the outward showing that you have turned over a new leaf. Only changing your actions actually turns over the new leaf. Luke has a big concern about how we, as Christians, treat other people.

 

John flatly says he is not the Messiah. The Messiah will also burn (prove) away all falsehood, leaving only the real person and who he or she really is left.

 

Notice that when Jesus is baptized, it seems more private this time. God say "you" rather than declaring to all "This is my Son." Luke then gives Jesus' pedigree back to Adam rather than Abraham. Luke sees Jesus as not the consummate Jew but as "everyman."