Preaching Truth Regardless of the Consequences

Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.

My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist.

Today we're going to be looking at Luke chapter three.

Now there's three things I wanna point out in this chapter and I'm gonna focus mainly on the third thing.

So let me get through the first two relatively quickly.

The first thing I want you to notice when you're studying Luke chapter three is just how much of a superior historian that we have in Luke.

He tells us so much information.

He tells us beginning in verse one, I'll look over here, he begins to tell us about what year it was, the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar.

He began to tell us about Pontius Pilate and about Herod and he tells us about several other people.

He tells us who was the high priest and he goes into this very long detailed description and then if you go to the end of the chapter, you'll notice that he mentions a genealogy of Jesus Christ.

Now this genealogy is different than the one in Matthew.

Historically, Christian scholars have noted that the belief is that the one from Matthew, because it traces it back to Abraham, is actually the genealogy through the earthly father Joseph and Luke is giving us the genealogy of the mother.

This would be Jesus' line through Mary and it takes us all the way back to Adam.

Why would Luke take us back to Adam? Because Luke is focused on the humanity of Christ and so he's not so concerned with the Jewishness of Christ, which is the focus of Matthew because he wants to prove that Jesus is the king of the Jews, but Luke is focusing on the humanity of Christ.

It takes us all the way back to Adam.

The other thing I wanna point out here, as I said, there's three things.

The second thing is that this chapter is mainly about John the Baptist and we see John the Baptist preaching the truth and he's preaching strong truth and a lot of what he says is very similar to things that we hear Jesus saying in other places.

He talks about if someone has two tunics, be willing to share if you have food.

Be willing to share with those who don't, but the two people that come to him that are really remarkable are tax collectors and soldiers and the one that always gets my attention is the soldier.

There's an interesting truth that we find in this passage is that when they ask him what they should do, John doesn't tell them to stop being soldiers, but rather he says, don't exhort money from anyone, don't accuse anyone falsely and be content with your wages.

Essentially, be good soldiers and there are certain denominations and there are certain movements within Christian history that have demanded that all Christians must be pacifists and they would say that Christians can't serve in any type of position that would put them in where they would have to be combative, such as military or police or anything like that and I think this passage sort of speaks to that because when John is given the opportunity to speak to soldiers, they ask what should we do.

He doesn't say stop being soldiers.

He says be good soldiers, be noble soldiers, do what's right and so I think that there is a place, of course, for Christians who serve in the military, Christians who serve as policemen and one of the greatest commendations ever given by the Lord Jesus Christ was this is greater faith than I've seen in all of Israel and he gave that to a soldier.

So I would encourage you to just look at that passage as you're reading through today and think about the fact of what John says but the main focus is the third thing I wanna point out and is that in this passage, it tells us down in verse 20 that John went to prison.

John went to prison for what he preached and ultimately, he went to prison because he upset the king.

He was willing to preach something that the king did not like.

He preached about the king who had taken his brother's wife and that, of course, was a sin so John called him out for his sin and John was punished for it and this, I really think, is so relevant to today because we live in a time and in a place where political corruption and mishandling of offices and people in authority is rampant and we need to be willing to speak the truth but understand that when we speak the truth, that there may be consequences.

Speaking the truth can have a very severe consequence and that's what happened to John.

We know the story.

We know how his story ends.

He was ultimately beheaded for preaching and upsetting not only Philip but Philip's mistress, excuse me, not only Herod but Herod's mistress, the wife of his brother Philip and so we know the story of John the Baptist.

We know what happened but here's the thing.

Here's the thing that really should not be forgotten and that is that they could take his life and they did take his life but they could not take his eternal life.

They could not take the true life that he had in God.

I think of it like this.

When they took his head, all they did was give him, all they did was hasten his arrival to the throne room of God and oftentimes I think as Christians, there is a sense that we get so caught up in this world, so caught up in the comforts of this world that we forget that we may have to suffer for our faith.

There are brothers and sisters around the world today who are suffering for their faith.

Beloved, are we willing? Are we willing to stand and speak the truth even if it means that there are consequences? I can already see some consequences that could be coming for the church.

I can already, I'm not a prophet nor am I the son of a prophet but I can look and see that there are going to be days ahead that may become very difficult and it may take standing up and speaking out and if we're willing to stand up and speak out, we may be punished but as we see with John the Baptist, he was not afraid because he knew who God was and he knew who he was in God.

The Bible tells us, do not fear the one who can kill the body but fear the one who can cast both body and soul into hell.

Men may persecute us but God is our mighty fortress.

In fact, I love that hymn and I love what it reminds us.

It reminds us that even though we may have to suffer, even though we may be punished for our faith, God is a mighty fortress, a bulwark that never fails.

May we be bold in the Lord.

Thank you for watching this episode of Coffee with a Calvinist.

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Also wanna again thank Micah Burke of Burke Photography for the beautiful backdrop that he's letting me use this week and he is a sponsor of this week's episode and I appreciate the participation in our program that he has given to us.

Again, thank you for watching today.

Thank you for being a part of this program.

I pray that it has been an encouragement to you.

My name is Keith Foskey.

I am a Calvinist and may God bless your day.