Wednesday Huddle – Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 | WH2025-0108

The theme this week is demonstrations of God’s power.

• In our call to worship Psalm, Psalm 29:1-11, the psalmist declares the power of God’s voice.
• In Isaiah 43:1-7, the prophet looks to a time when God’s power would be present in the lives of His people in miraculous ways.
• In Acts 8:14-17, we see Peter and John lay hands on the believing Samaritans to receive the Holy Spirit.
• And in Luke 3:15-17 and 21-22, John the Baptizer informs the people of the power of the Christ, who is coming soon.

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22  NRSVue

¹⁵ As the people were filled with expectation and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah,^[a]16 John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with^[b] the Holy Spirit and fire.  ¹⁷ His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

²¹ Now when all the people were baptized and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, ²² and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved;^[c] with you I am well pleased.”^[d]

PASSAGE FOR DISCUSSION

Footnotes

1. 3.15  Or the Christ
2. 3.16  Or in
3. 3.22  Or my beloved Son
4. 3.22  Other ancient authorities read You are my Son, today I have begotten you

MAIN MESSAGE

A Baptism of Purification

Luke 3:15-17, 21-21 NIV

Have you ever purchased a product and wondered just how “pure” that product is?  Hundreds of products on the market these days claim to be 100% pure — from bottled water to skin care.  The makers of these products can rarely back up their claims.  In the U.S., the Department of Agriculture’s Natural Organic Program has no problem with labels stating 100% organic even when they know that these products unavoidably contain some element of chemicals including pesticides.¹  It makes you wonder if there is really anything that is “pure” in this world, doesn’t it?

On the Christian calendar today, we remember the baptism of Jesus.  Through this story we are going to highlight the theme of God’s purifying work in our lives.  Luke’s account of the baptism of Jesus provides us with a framework to understand the need for our purification, how this is accomplished, and what this means for us today.

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22  NIV

¹⁵ The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah.  ¹⁶ John answered them all, “I baptize you with^[a] water.  But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.  He will baptize you with^[b] the Holy Spirit and fire.  ¹⁷ His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”  ¹⁸ And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them.   

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 begins this section sharing that people were flocking in droves to see who many likely assumed was the Messiah.  The other Gospel accounts make it clear that these were Jews who were traveling from all over.  The prophets of Israel foretold the coming of the Messiah for centuries.  The Jews (as the descendants of the nation of Israel later became known) had been waiting a long time for their Messiah.  Many, no doubt, walked there on foot for several days to reach the Jordan where John is performing his ministry.  News had gotten out about this bizarre looking preacher out in the wilderness telling people to repent of their sins and baptizing them.

You can imagine how the people might have been processing this scene.  “Is this the return of the prophet Isaiah?”  “He’s surely dressing and acting like him.”  “Is this the Messiah we have waited so long for?”  “Is He going to rid the land of our oppressors and restore Israel to its former glory?”

When you think about it, there had been a prophetic dry spell for more than 400 years.  It was as if God had forgotten the nation, and it seemed He had forgotten all the promises He had made to them through the prophets.  Could there be deliverance once again?  The truth is that God had not forgotten them, even as they had rejected or forgotten him.

The people were moved by John’s preaching.  They were repenting of their sins and were being baptized.  But what were they anticipating would come next?  Do you suppose they felt that they had performed their part and now it was time for God to perform His?  Had they even considered that God might be less interested in changing their circumstances (such as oppression under the Roman Empire), and more interested in the purifying and changing of their hearts?

We prefer our messiahs to have the appearance of strength.  But if they cannot be physically imposing, at least they should be able to speak with power and authority.  We are so eager to prop up a president, prime minister, or king as the solution to all our problems.  Our messiahs are supposed to lower our taxes, fix our infrastructure, and be against all the same people that we’re against.  But while we expect our messiahs to fix our circumstances, we would rather not have them meddling with the interior of our hearts.  God forbid that there be a change in us.

John answered them all, “I baptize you with water.  But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.  His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Luke 3:16,17 NIV

What John does here is take the focus off himself and place it on Jesus.  Malachi 3:1 is the prophecy regarding John the Baptist.  John grew up realizing he was to be the messenger sent to prepare the way of Jesus and His ministry.  His father, Zechariah, prophesied it at John’s birth (Luke 1:67).  Malachi 3 also speaks of the purification that will take place by the Lord when He shows up — a refining, purifying fire.

John the Baptist’s speech takes us back to images used in the book of Malachi.  A baptism of fire is how John puts it.  In this passage we see metaphorical references to a winnowing fork,  wheat,  chaff,  a granary, and of course, unquenchable fire.  Many passages in the Bible contain metaphors and symbols.  Also, the Bible includes texts that can have literal, figurative, or hyperbolic meanings.  Humility in our interpretations is encouraged.

In the context of this passage, we’ve already seen that the people are turning from sin and are being baptized.  John then describes a ministry that will be performed through Christ — the ministry of baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire.  Both must be understood with God’s redemptive plans in mind.  This fire, then, must serve a redemptive purpose in our lives.  Wheat gets sifted by the winnowing fork and the chaff separates.  It’s this useless stuff (chaff) that has to be burned up.  When this occurs, it is we ourselves who feel as if we have been on fire.

In Luke 22:31, Jesus says to Peter, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you like wheat.” (NIV).  Although the enemy of our souls seeks our destruction, God is the one who holds the winnowing fork.  His work in our lives separates out what is good, right, and worthy from what is useless or even destructive.  He carefully discards and burns away all that has been holding us back.  We all go through this purification.

Let’s not for one minute pretend that this sifting and burning away of the chaff in our lives will be pleasant, but when we go through this necessary purifying by the baptism of fire, we are assured that we don’t go through it by our own resources.  We have been baptized with the Holy Spirit.  And it is by the Spirit that we are being helped in and through all our weaknesses and trials toward this necessary purification.

Hebrews 12:29 says that our God is a consuming fire.   And Isaiah 33:10-16 asked the question of who can dwell with the consuming fire?  Not sinners, only the righteous.  Thomas Merton concluded:

Our God also is a consuming fire.  And if we, by love, become transformed into Him and burn as He burns, His fire will be our everlasting joy.   But if we refuse His love and remain in the coldness of sin and opposition to Him and to other men, then will His fire (by our own choice, rather than His) become our everlasting enemy, and Love, instead of being our joy, will become our torment and our destruction.²    

In other words, it is how we relate to God’s consuming fire that determines our joy or torment.

Let us now look at the closing section of this passage.  Note how all three persons of the Trinity is involved here in the baptism of Jesus.

When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too.  And as he was praying, heaven was opened, 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 3:21, 22 NIV

We have already discussed that the people were coming to repent of their sins, and we’re being washed through the act of baptism.  But why would Jesus, who had no sin, go through baptism as well?   Here’s another question: Could any of us offer a perfect repentance for our sins?  The rhetorical answer to this question is no.  Just as Jesus was fully God, He was also fully man.  Although without sin, He offers, as a human, humanity’s perfect repentance to the Father on our behalf.

We must also note the significance of where Jesus is being baptized.  John is performing these baptisms in the Jordan River.  This is the same river that the Israelites passed through to enter the promised land as mentioned in Joshua 3.

This promised land was a land flowing with milk and honey — a land of super abundance.  This quest to find the promised land had been going on for more than 600 years.  This was their mandate.  But entering the physical promised land was not the fulfillment of God’s ultimate promise.

Notice what the author of Hebrews writes about this promised land – this place of rest:

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day.  There remains then, a Sabbath rest for the people of God.  Hebrews 4:8-9 NIV

Jesus has taken up our humanity through the waters of baptism and has purified us.  He has become for us the rest that was promised long ago.  He himself is the promised land.  And we now live in His super abundance as a free people in God’s presence.

It’s significant that the Holy Spirit here takes the form of a dove.   Again, think of what is happening through baptism.  Jesus was baptized for our purification.  In the Old Testament, the dove was a symbol for purity, peace, and restoration.  So, in Genesis 8:8-12, Noah sends out a dove to see if the flood waters have receded.  The dove returns with an olive branch, which is universally recognized in our world today as the symbol for peace.  Also, it pointed to purification — no more sin in the land.  And with that purification, Noah and his family will be able to live in a land that has been restored.

When the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in the form of a dove, it is made clear that Jesus is our peace.  Through Him, we live as God’s forgiven and purified children.  The Spirit we have received from the Father through the Son reminds us that we are restored new creations made after the image of our promised land, Christ Jesus.

The most beautiful part of this Gospel story are the words of the Father to Jesus, “You are my Son, whom I love. With you I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:22 NIV).  What kind of world would we be living in now if every child could hear their earthly parent tell them that they are pleased with them?

Too many of us have never heard these words.  And yet, through Christ, those words have become an echo from the Father, passing through the Son, and into our lives.  In Him, we have the perfect repentance.  In Him, we have gone through the waters of purification.  And in Him we now dwell in the promised land into God’s love and delight.  Let us walk as the beloved and purified children of God that we are.

1. Industry Insights: Putting “Pure” Claims in Context | Food & Consumer Packaged Goods Litigation (foodlitigationnews.com)
2. Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation (New York: New Directions, 1961), 124

Small Group Discussion Questions