The Last OT Prophet

Luke 3:1

Onto center stage comes John, the first prophet in over 400 years, the last of the Old Testament prophets.  We haven't heard anything from John since the brief comment in chapter 1 verse 80 that said he was growing, becoming strong in spirit and living in the desert until his ministry began.  But then, look at verse 2, the end of the verse, "The word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness."

Isaiah had prophesied about this forerunner.

Isaiah 40:3

³ The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

And Gabriel confirmed it. Let’s go back to chapter 1 to review. [vv. 5-25; 39-44; 57-80]

Zacharias knew his son was the forerunner, and Elizabeth did too, and certainly they conveyed that to John.  And for years this man, John, grew and developed and lived in the wilderness.  He was from his mother's womb filled with the Holy Spirit and we can ascertain from that that he was a godly man, a true prophet of God, but had to wait thirty years for his prophetic ministry to begin.  And then it was in chapter 3, verse 2 that at that time the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.

Now the wilderness referred to here is defined in Matthew 3:1 as the wilderness of Judea.  The wilderness of Judea would be from the north end of the Dead Sea, about half way up the Jordan River to the Sea of Galilee.  Jerusalem is on a plateau and there's mountains and hills and then it sinks down into a valley 1,500 feet below sea level.  That area coming down into the Jordan Valley into that desert area is the wilderness of Judea.  It is a barren area.  That would be a very difficult place to live and the difficulty of it is demonstrated by his diet of locusts and wild honey.

So here is this wilderness man, this prophet called by God, born by a miracle conception between two people who were barren and past child bearing capability, this one who is to prepare the people for the Messiah and present the Messiah to the people when He arrives.  And with the launch of John in his ministry, the privacy is over. The privacy is over and the whole presentation of John becomes very public.  In fact, the whole country was going out eventually to hear John preach. John steps on to center stage to get people ready for the Messiah and present Him about six months later when He arrives.

Now to understand the ministry of Jesus, to understand His difficulties as He ministered, to understand the hostility, His execution, to understand the hostility toward John who eventually got his head chopped off, to understand the whole drama recorded in Luke's gospel, we need to get the setting.  We don't want to just look at the actors on a bare stage, and so Luke in his wonderful way sets the scenery for us, and he does it in verses 1 and 2.

These were desperate times for Israel.  These were dark times.  These were oppressive times.  They were apostate times, hypocritical times, times when the promises to Abraham, to David, and to Jeremiah in the New Covenant were not being realized.  They had been under oppression for a long, long time by Gentile powers.  They fought against that.  They resented that.  The Gentiles had brought idols in, they had desecrated Israel, desecrated the temple.  They continued to do that even under the Roman rule as they had done it under the Greeks.  There was no true king in Israel.  There was no true land given to them as had been promised to Abraham. 

And Luke wants us to get a feel for this and that's why he gives us these seven names.  And these are names that we know about in history so we can reconstruct the scene.  Seven names help us with the historical setting.

Now, first of all, let's look at the first name, Tiberius Caesar. It is the year 26.  Remember, Jesus was born in 4 BC by our calendar.

In his latter years he descended into a dementia, to one degree or another.  His mental abilities were so severely hindered that the last part of his rule has been called "a reign of terror," a combination of his wickedness unchecked because of his irrationality.  He was in many ways the worse possible kind of ruler.

He is oppressive and he at any time can rain down all the evil of the Roman purpose on their heads.  To be ruled by a Gentile, pagan, uncircumcised idolater is the worst possible scenario for the Jewish people.

And then in addition to that, one more name, Pontius Pilate, familiar to all of us, and just reading his name heightens the drama, doesn't it, because we know how he plays such an important role in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.  And it says, "Pontius Pilate being governor." 

We know about him because in 1961 there was a plaque discovered, a dedicatory statement discovered in Caesarea.  Caesarea was the center of Roman occupation. You can visit the ruins today and still see some of the original Roman ruins there.  But in Caesarea, where the Romans had their main occupation center in the land of Palestine, apparently there is a building built there called the Tiberium, named for Tiberius.  They did a lot of that.  The city of Tiberius, which you can visit in Israel today, was named for Tiberius.  It's on the west shore of the Sea of Galilee.  But in 1961 there was discovered there a dedicatory plaque on a building called the Tiberium and on that dedicatory plaque is the name “Pontius Pilate.”  Pontius Pilate is a real person.  He has the dedicatory plaque because he built the building in honor of Tiberius and called it Tiberium.

Now Pilate ruled over the land of Palestine in Israel from 26 to 36, so he came into power when John came into his prophetic office. 

He had a deserved reputation of being inflexible, self-willed, and wicked.  His rule was characterized by briberies, insults, robberies, frequent executions without trial, and endless savage ferocity.  And, as you know, it was under Pontius Pilate that Jesus was executed by the Romans.

Then we see Herod the tetrarch of Galilee.  This was Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great.  He ruled until 39 A.D., so from now on in the story of Jesus whenever you read Herod, it's this Herod.  Herod the Great is dead. He dies just after the birth of Jesus in 4 B.C. and now Herod Antipas rules through the whole life of Jesus.  He also is a part of the execution of Jesus.  He received Jesus from Annas and Caiaphas [v. 2] to hold a sort of a mock trial as the petty king and mocked Jesus in really frighteningly blasphemous ways, as the story unfolds at the end of the account of the life of Jesus.  He incensed the Jews. He built a capital city. He built Tiberius only he built it on a Jewish cemetery.  And then he put idols in public places.  They hated him.  He just flaunted idolatry in their face. He flaunted their traditions and their sacred ground.

His devotion to Rome was so strong and he was such a wicked man that it was Herod Antipas who chopped John's head off because he made a promise to a girl who seduced him with a dance and said I'd give her anything she wanted and she wanted John's head on a platter, and he served it up. 

And then there is mentioned his brother Philip, and Philip was tetrarch of the region of Iturea and Trachonitis. That's northeast of the Sea of Galilee.  And he ruled from 4 B.C. to 34 A.D.  The capital of that region is a city way up at the headwaters of the Jordan River called Caesarea Philippi, another city named after Caesar.  Philip was a brother, a member of the Herod family.

One other person is named: Lysanias, tetrarch of Abilene.  He's the only Texan in the group!  I don't know if you people realize that Abilene is a Bible name, but it is. 

And they're all Gentiles.  And they're all to one degree or another wicked.  And they all have power over the Holy Land that was promised to Abraham.  The word "tetrarch" is repeated here three times, tetrarch, tetrarch, tetrarch.  And it's repeated, I think, to make a point.  You know what a tetrarch was?  A tetrarch was a low-level, low-ranking king, a petty king, a small-time king, a petty prince.  And here is Israel under the dominating power of the Gentile Caesar and being ruled by a quartet of petty princes, all Gentiles, all uncircumcised pagans, all idolaters, and there is no fulfillment and there is no freedom and things couldn't have been worse.  They are occupied. They are oppressed.  They're in bondage to the most powerful, most perverse, and most petty of idolatrous Gentiles, far from having the promises of God through Abraham and David and Jeremiah fulfilled.  With all that Gentile heathen cloud ominously hanging over them, their life was very fragile. They had really no freedom to enjoy.  And worse — and this is for next time — it was also, verse 2 says, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas.  And if you think the Gentiles were bad, you haven't seen anything yet.  These were far worse because they were corrupt in the name of God, and we'll see that next time.