18 And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them. 19 But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of his marriage to Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the other evil things he had done, 20 Herod added this to them all: He locked John up in prison. 21 When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” ~ Luke 3:18-22
John the Baptist's preaching was bold, strong, and confrontative. He called on all people to repent from depending upon themselves to depending upon God. He told them if they would repent from their sin, God would forgive their sins, and they would enter a personal relationship with God. John's boldness cost him his life, and he became the first martyr for Christ.
The Jews were tired of the Roman oppression and they wanted the Messiah to arrive and deliver them and liberate them from the Roman rule. And, when they heard that the forerunner of the Messiah was there, they clamored to hear him. John was preaching the message of repentance and he was baptizing people as an outward symbol of their inward repentance and this was going on for about six months before the Lord Jesus actually showed up to be identified as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
John was the last representation of the law which spiritually crushes us. John used the law to reveal to the people their wickedness and the reality of eternal judgment. He preached the reality of eternal hell. And he preached that men would go there if they didn't repent and believe in the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. He warned people to flee from the wrath to come.
At the end of about six months of John's ministry, the Lord Jesus came on the scene. John the Baptist baptized the Lord Jesus. At that point, God was officially identifying Jesus as the Messiah, but that did not end, as I said, John's ministry. It continued for about six months longer.
At the end of v.18 we read, "John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them." The people, of course, were the Jews. But John's message. In v.19 we read, "But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of his marriage to Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the other evil things he had done."
Herod was not a Jew, he was an Edomite. This one fact proves John didn't limit his preaching to the Jews. John's ministry overlapped the ministry of the Lord Jesus until Herod put him in jail. John thrived upon preaching the Gospel, the Good News of a personal relationship with God.
Luke 3:19-20 is a parenthetical idea. In these two verses Luke describes the circumstances of John's death. Luke is not chronological here, Herod didn't put him in prison at this point. That came some time later. Luke is just wrapping up the story of John the Baptist, so he reaches forward to tell you how that story ends.
Luke records the imprisonment of John the Baptist before he records Jesus' baptism because he wants to emphasize the break between John's ministry and the Lord Jesus' ministry. This was a tremendous turning point in redemptive history because the Lord Jesus started preaching in Luke 16:16 says, "The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it."
In v.21 we read, "When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened." From this point on, the spotlight is on the Lord Jesus and His teaching. John's ministry overlapped the ministry of the Lord Jesus about six months. He was in prison for up to a year at which time he was executed.
According to v. 21 the baptism of the Lord Jesus was not just a part of John's work, but its climax. The coming of the Lord Jesus meant the going of John who said in John 3:30, "He must increase, but I must decrease."
The Lord Jesus was baptized by John not due to His need to repent, He was perfect. The Lord Jesus was baptized by John even though John, in Matthew's gospel, tried to prevent the Lord Jesus from being baptized by saying, "'I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?' But Jesus answered him, 'Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.'" He was baptized because it was fitting for Him to do everything that is right.
According to v.21, the Lord Jesus was praying when the heavens opened and the Spirit came and God spoke? Luke loves to picture the Lord Jesus in prayer. He shows Him praying at all the crucial turning points of His life: here at the baptism, at the selection of the twelve apostles (6:12), at Peter's confession (9:18), at the transfiguration (9:28), in Gethsemane (22:41), on the cross (23:34). He tells us that Jesus went repeatedly to the wilderness to pray (5:16) and that he spent whole nights in prayer (6:12). The point of all this must be to show that even in Jesus' life there is a correlation between earnest prayer and the blessing of God.
Then, according to v.22, God answers the Lord Jesus' prayer by sending His Spirit in a visible form and then declaring verbally His delight in His Son by saying, "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." The dove suggests Jesus purity, meekness, and innocence. It was not majestic like the eagle or fierce like the hawk. It was simple, common, innocent, the kind of bird poor people could offer for a sacrifice.
Finally, notice the words from the Father to the Son: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." This is one of two times the audible voice of God was heard. The other was at the Transfiguration in Luke 9:35 which reads, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” In Luke 9 the Father speaks for the benefit of Peter, James and John who were with the Lord Jesus. In our text today, the Father speaks to the Son for His encouragement as He starts this three and a half year journey.
