Luke 3

The Pulpit Commentary - Luke 3:1-18

The forerunner, and his ministry. Some thirty years have passed since the birth of a son of the old age had filled the house of the good priest Eacharias with the voice of rejoicing. The blameless priest and his blameless wife are dead. The son who, when an unconscious babe, was called "the prophet of the Highest," has lived the life of a recluse, receiving his inspirations wholly from the study of the Law of the Lord, from lonely communings with God and truth in the great temple of... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Luke 3:1-20

The ministry of the Baptist. We left Jesus, when last we studied Luke's narrative, in Nazareth, subject to his parents and realizing a gracious development in subjection. We have now to pass over about eighteen years, of which we know only that during them he had become a carpenter, that we may contemplate the preparatory movement under John the Baptist. In these verses we find Luke entering upon the description with the hand of a true artist. He summarizes for us a whole life in fewer... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Luke 3:1-22

THE BAPTISM OF JOHN . read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Luke 3:2

Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests . The older authorities read, "in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas." The mention of two high priests arises from the fact of the legitimate high priest, Annas, having been deposed some fifteen years previously by the action of the then Roman procurator, Valerius Gratus In spite of this official deposition, he still apparently continued to be regarded as the legitimate high priest by the great majority of his countrymen. His great position... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Luke 3:3

And he came into all the country about Jordan . The reputation of John probably preceded the Divine summons. His family—the son of a well-known priestly family—the marvellous circumstances attendant on his birth, his ascetic manner of life from the beginning,—all this had contributed to make him a marked personage; so, when he left his solitude, we read in the other evangelists how multitudes came forth to hear the strange burning words, the Divine eloquence of one long looked upon by the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Luke 3:3-6

John before Jesus; repentance before salvation. We may view this subject— I. HISTORICALLY . Jesus, as his name indicated, came to be a Savior; but he came to bring a very different salvation from that which was expected of him. His contemporaries were not aware that they themselves were in any need of salvation. They supposed it was their political condition which needed to undergo a change. They were full of a fatal self-sufficiency so far as their own character was concerned;... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Luke 3:4

As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, voice of one crying in the wilderness . The prophet quoted ( Isaiah 40:3 ) had been writing in his solitude, or more probably in some great popular assembly preaching to the people. There was doubtless at that time much national trouble threatening Israel; the future of the chosen race looked very dark and gloomy, within and without. We can hear the man of God speaking with intense earnestness, and looking on to... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Luke 3:5

Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth . Godet and other commentators suggest, though they do not press, a particular application to each of the details of the picture. "For instance, the mountains that must be levelled may be referred to the pride of the Pharisees; the valleys to filled up, to the moral and religious indifference of such as the Sadducees; the crooked... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Luke 3:6

And all flesh shall see the salvation of God . And when this preparation is complete, then shall Messiah publicly appear. And the Baptist faithfully performed his work as pioneer of the Christ. He awoke men's slumbering consciences; his note of alarm aroused through Palestine multitudes of men and women who afterwards, no doubt, formed the nucleus at least of the crowds who thronged round Jesus as he preached in the cities washed by the Lake of Galilee, or in the streets and temple courts of... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Luke 3:7

Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him. The following grave cutting rebukes, the burning reminders, must not be read as an extract from any one particular sermon of the Baptist, or even as a report of any of his discourses, but rather as a general sketch of the line of argument the great prophet adopted in his teaching. O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? In St. Matthew's account of John's work such scathing words as... read more

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