Luke 3:21-38 Beloved Son
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: June 25, 2018 Luke 3:21-38
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph, the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai, the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josech, the son of Joda, the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri, the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Er, the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim, the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Sala, the son of Nahshon, the son of Amminadab, the son of Admin, the son of Arni, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah, the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan, the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
(Understanding the Text / Revelation of God) John had the privilege of baptizing God. I doubt that John truly realized the exalted personage that Jesus was, but John knew enough to realize that Jesus was more than simply a man fulfilling prophecy. John’s humility enabled him to balance out the position of authority he had with the position of respect to Jesus that was needed. I don’t think any other person dealing with Jesus realized how far apart we humans were from the level of Jesus. Even if Jesus were just a perfect sinless man, we would not even be close to His level, but Jesus is God. His condescension to become human was amazing, but it was only after His resurrection that no one called Him anything lower than Lord. Even His brothers referred to Him as Lord after His resurrection where they tried to order Him around before His death.
It says that after Jesus was baptized, He prayed. The Father spoke to Him in a voice that could be heard by others saying that Jesus was beloved, God’s Son, and greatly pleasing to the Father. It’s interesting that God the Father did not just want people to know that Jesus was His Son and that Jesus was in favor with and acting according to the Father’s wishes. The Father also wanted everyone to know that He loved Jesus a lot. It was important for Jesus and the witnesses to hear that Jesus was beloved by God in a special way. We skip over parts that seem less important to us, but a lot of parts are extremely important to God. Expressing His love is extremely important to God. It’s high priority.
Jesus was about 30 years old when He was baptized. The SDA commentary says that Jesus was probably born in the autumn of 5 B.C. which meant that He would have been 30 years old from the fall of A.D. 25 until the fall of A.D. 26. He began his ministry sometime between the fall of A.D. 26-29 depending on the sources I saw on the internet.
He was about to begin His public ministry. There was only one more accomplishment that needed to be done before He began–His fasting, prayer, and temptation in the wilderness. Then, He would begin gathering followers and select twelve men out of those who chose to be with Him. He would train those twelve men extensively to be the beginning of His new nation which would include people from all nations. He would train 70 others (and probably more) to assist in that mission. Then, He would perform His last earthly service for mankind by dying for them. After that He would be our High Priest in heaven. We always think of Jesus as having one mission-to die, but in reality, He had more. He had to become the second Adam, a man who without resorting to His own divine powers, but depending solely on the Father’s divine powers as any man not only can, but needs to whether sinless or sinful, led a sinless life. After living sinlessly, He had to go through the temptation experience that Adam and Even had failed. Then, He had to set up a totally new system to replace the old stopgap system and train those who would implement it. Then, came His death. His death did not finish His work though. He is now working as our representative in heaven connecting our sinful selves to the Father’s love and creative power. The day will come when He will be the king of a sinless renewed world of those who are connected with the Father through Him.
(Understanding the Text) The only thing I want to write about the genealogy is that Luke takes it all the way to Adam while Matthew only takes it to Abraham. Pastors that I have listened to point out that Luke, as a Gentile, was pointing out that Jesus is connected to every human, not just Jewish people. Also, according to the SDA commentary, there are discrepancies between Matthew’s and Luke’s genealogies. Matthew may have left out some generations. There may have been differences based on adoption versus blood relationship. This actually may have led to Luke’s genealogy actually being of Mary rather than Joseph. Levitical adoption was where the wife’s family had died out and so the husband was adopted at marriage into her family and their children were the heirs to both family lines. If Mary’s parents were dead and Mary was the only heir, then Joseph may have been adopted at marriage and thus his genealogy through adoption would have been Mary’s. Luke gets his older genealogy from the Septuagint while Matthew doesn’t.
(Application / Prayer) I want the Father to look at me and always smile and be able to say to anyone, “She is my beloved daughter in whom I am well pleased.” I want Jesus to always be able to look at me with a smile in His eyes as He says, “This is my beloved sister who pleases me very much.” I want that loving relationship where I am always pleasing to God in everything I do. One of Jesus’ jobs on earth was also to give us an example of what our relationship to the Father should be. I want that. Lord, give me that relationship. I want to know that I am beloved and that You are pleased with me.