Day 20 - Luke 3-4

The preaching of John the Baptist was a call to repentance. Not only was it a call to repentance, but it was a call to bear fruits in keeping with repentance (3:8). The people asked what those fruits were (3:10). He then lays out a list of things for specific groups of people to do. In general terms he tells them that the fruit of repentance is generosity, integrity, meekness and contentment (3:11-14). We must be careful to note that these are not the path to repentance (i.e. salvation), but they are the path that follows repentance. They are the fruit, not the root!

Luke's genealogy of Jesus is quite different from Matthew's. Matthew started with Abraham and descended to Jesus, pointing out some interesting connections along the way (see comments here). Luke starts with Jesus and in rapid fashion ascends all the way back to Adam. Some say the reason for the difference is that Matthew was written to the Jews to present Jesus as the King of the Jews, hence the direct connection with Abraham. Whereas Luke was written to Greeks to present Jesus as the perfect man, hence the connection all the way back to Adam, the first man. Once again, I'll let you weigh in with your thoughts on these differences.

The power of Jesus over temptation lies not only in His perfection as being the Son of God, but also in the weapon that he used. It is the same weapon that we have--the Word of God (4:1-12)! The power of Jesus continues to be put on display in ways that are certainly beyond us (e.g. healing, controlling demons). One of my favorite displays of power is when the people are trying to take Jesus and cast Him off the edge of a cliff and Jesus simply passed through their midst and then went away (4:30)! If there is "instant replay" in heaven, this is one that I would love to see!