This book was written by Luke, who was a doctor, and in spite of what is commonly understood among most Christians, Luke was most likely Jewish. Besides being a doctor and an evangelist and theologian, Luke was an excellent historian. He wrote this book, and the book of Acts – two of the most important and influential historical books ever written.

As a good historian, Luke carefully investigated the available information about Yeshua, including eyewitnesses, and wrote it down in consecutive order. Therefore this book is accurate, good, reliable, truthful history about the Most Important Man Who Ever Lived with the Most Important Life Ever Lived.

It is essential that we understand that Life, and line up our lives with that Life. Your life, your eternal life, are at stake here, so you had better understand what is going on with Yeshua, and understand who He is, and relate to Him in the right way, because your response to Him makes the difference between life and death, between ultimate success and ultimate failure, between eternal bliss in Heaven and eternal death in Hell!

In chapters 1 and 2 Luke has given us the angel Gabriel’s testimony about Yeshua – that He is the Son of the Most High, and the Messiah. He is the unique God-Man.

Luke has given us the understanding of Zachariah the priest, the father of John the Baptist – that Yeshua is the King Messiah who will bring salvation and redemption.

Luke has given us the testimony of the angel who was sent to the shepherds at the time of Yeshua’s birth, that Yeshua is the Lord Messiah, and the Savior of Israel.

Luke has given us old Shimon’s Holy-Spirit inspired declaration about Yeshua, that He is the Lord’s Anointed Ruler, a light of revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Israel – the source of greatest honor for Israel and the source of happiness and salvation for the other nations of the world.

Luke has given us Yeshua’s understanding about Himself, His self-awareness even from an early age, that God was His Father, and that He was the unique Son of God.

That brings us to Chapter 3. Luke skips another 18 years, when Yeshua is a fully adult man, in the prime of His life, around age 30.

Now is the time for the Messiah to begin His great work to accomplish the salvation of dying humanity. Now His public ministry, His service to the Jewish people, begins. But, before that happens, the Messiah’s very special forerunner, John the Immerser, one of the very greatest prophets to have ever lived, will try to prepare the nation of Israel to receive the ministry of Yeshua.

John, priest and the first great prophet who had come among us in 400 years, had been living a very austere, ascetic kind of life in the wilderness. Now he began telling the Jewish people that the Messiah was coming, and they needed to get themselves ready for His arrival; the Messiah would immerse those who welcome Him and believe in Him with the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God who enables human beings to get really close to God, the Spirit of God who is the source of life and blessing and joy; and John also began telling the Jewish people that judgment was coming because Messiah will punish those who reject and ignore Him, but bless and reward those who welcome and follow Him; and so it was time for Am Yisrael, the people of Israel, to turn away from our sins, and from our spiritual lethargy and indifference, and it was time to turn to God and His ways, and consistently do the right things, and then recognize and welcome the Messiah when He shortly made Himself known. And, it is obvious that Yeshua is that Messiah that John was telling us about.

If they were willing to do that, they were to be immersed in water, as a sign that they were preparing themselves for this new work of God, this new divine activity in salvation history; that they were seeking spiritual cleansing and a new beginning with God. And, many responded to John, and were immersed.

Now, Luke gives us God the Father’s very very very special declaration about Yeshua: 3:21-22: It took place at Yeshua’s baptism. Now when all the people were baptized, Yeshua was also baptized, and while He was praying, Heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of Heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased”.

It is extremely rare for Heaven to open like this.

It is extremely rare for the Holy Spirit to manifest Himself in some kind of form that is visible to us. In this rare instance, the invisible and all-present Spirit of God appeared in the form of a dove – a dove because doves are a symbol of atonement, since doves were used at the Temple as sacrifices for the poor; a dove because doves are a symbol of peace; a dove because, since doves fly in the heavens, they are a symbol of freedom and joy and closeness to God; a dove because doves are a symbol of innocence, since we are to be as wise as snakes and as innocent as doves.

The Holy Spirit descended on Yeshua in the form of a dove, which tells us that Yeshua is the Messiah, approved of and anointed by the Spirit of God; and Yeshua is innocent and sinless and pure and holy and righteous and good. and Yeshua is the source of atonement and forgiveness for all of our sins; and Yeshua is the source of peace between alienated humanity and our wonderful Creator God; and Yeshua is the source of freedom and joy and closeness to God.

It is extremely rare for the Holy Spirit to come down on someone like this. The Holy Spirit, by descending on Yeshua, is communicating that He, the Spirit of God, the Third Person of the Trinity, is well-pleased with Yeshua, and that the Spirit will be with Him, and will empower Him, and teach and guide Him in all things for His work among the Jewish people, and for His work to provide salvation for lost and dying humanity.

It is extremely rare for the voice of God the Father to be heard among human beings. And, what was the message? Not the Ten Commandments uttered by the powerful and awesome voice of God from Mount Sinai, but You – Yeshua – are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.

Whenever the Creator says the least little thing, all of humanity should listen. When God the Father talks audibly like this, everyone should listen very very carefully. Everyone should pay the most careful attention! And, God really did speak! What did He communicate? That Yeshua really and truly is God’s beloved, well-loved, deeply appreciated Son, who shares the Father’s name and nature, deity and essence.

If you are not a fool, you had better listen to God! If you are not stupid, you should not ignore what God has said about Yeshua! And, if you are wise, you should agree with what God has said about Yeshua. If you value your life, you should not dare to contradict what God has said about Yeshua! That would be like calling God a liar!

The truth is that Yeshua is well-pleasing to God – because Yeshua is His Son, and Yeshua is good, wonderful, perfectly righteous, always obedient to the Father; and self-sacrificial in His love for us; and the only Savior and Redeemer of mankind, who are dead in trespasses and sins!

You had better have the same assessment about Yeshua that God the Father has! You too had better be well-pleased with Yeshua. You too had better acknowledge Yeshua as the Messiah, and the special beloved Son of God, and love Him like God loves Him, and speak well and approvingly of Him like God does – before you leave this life and face the Son of God on the Day of Judgment!

You had better agree with God, more than be concerned about the flawed opinions of fallen, far-from-God, dead-in-trespasses-and-sins, confused and darkened-in-understanding human beings.

It is extremely rare when the Three Persons of the Three-In-One God are clearly revealed together, like they were here. Here God the Father speaks about the Son; the Holy Spirit descends onto the Son, and the Son of God is praying to God the Father and anointed by the Spirit.

This extremely rare event is one of the most special, most important events in human history. You need to understand it. You need to believe it. You need to embrace its truth. You need to act on it. Please do so, for the sake of your own soul.

Luke ends this third chapter by giving us a genealogy – a list of fathers and their sons and their sons. Many people want a good genealogy. They want to be descended from an honorable and important line of people. Well, this is the most important genealogy in the world. It is the genealogy of the God-Man, the Messiah, the Seed of the Woman, the great Kinsman-Redeemer, the only Savior of Jews and Gentiles, the only hope of mankind, the coming King of kings and the Lord of lords.

This special genealogy is almost certainly the genealogy of Mary, who was a descendant of David, who was a descendant of Judah, who was a descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who were descendants of Shem, and Noah, and Adam.

By giving us this most important genealogy, Luke the historian and Bible scholar is telling us that Yeshua is qualified by genealogy to be the Messiah – something that only the tiniest percentage of human beings were qualified by genealogy to be.

You see, God, speaking through His specially chosen Jewish prophets, had made it clear that the Son of God would be the “Seed of the woman”. The Son of God would be a human being, and He must come from Shem. He must be a Shemite. Shem would bring HaShem – the Name, God, and God’s salvation – to the rest of humanity.

The descendants of Shem numbered in the thousands, but the Mighty God chose only one of them – Abraham. The Son of God would come from faithful Abraham.

Abraham had many sons, but God chose Isaac, not the oldest son, Ishmael, or the other sons that came from Abraham’s other wife, Keturah, to further His plan to bring redemption to humanity. Adonai Tzidkaynu – the Lord our Righteousness, would come from Isaac. He would not be an Ishmaelite or from one of the Arab tribes.

Isaac had two sons, but God who often saves by the small and the few, chose the younger son Jacob, not the older son Esav. The Son of God would come from Israel, and not be an Edomite.

Jacob had twelve sons, but only Judah was chosen. The Messiah, the One approved by God to have the leadership of Israel, would come from the tribe of Judah.

The tribe of Judah had many families within it, but only the family of David was chosen. The One who is rightly called Immanuel, God With Us, would come from king David’s royal family.

Based on genealogical considerations alone, only a minute percentage of humanity could qualify to be the Messiah, the One Anointed and chosen to meet our deepest needs – reconciling the world of lost and fallen human beings to God, ending our alienation and estrangement with the great Creator; reversing the Fall; bringing blessing instead of the curse, giving life in place of death.

Yeshua is that Messiah, that most special, that most important human being, the ultimate prophet, priest and king, and the only true Savior of Jews and Gentiles, the only genuine source of help for Israel and the rest of mankind’s most serious problems. Is He your Messiah and Lord and King and Savior?

Chapter 4

Luke, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wants us to know that Yeshua is the long awaited Messiah. He came from Heaven to Earth, and was born to a specially prepared people, and to a very special woman. Angels and holy men and women and prophets recognized Yeshua’s uniqueness. John, His great forerunner, acknowledged Yeshua as the Messiah. Yeshua understood that He Himself was the Son of God. God the Father acknowledged Yeshua as His Son. The Holy Spirit approved of Him by descending and remaining on Him.

In chapter 4, Luke continues telling us that Yeshua is So Very Special, and So Very Important, and So Worthy Of Our Confidence, Faith, Trust, Obedience and Devotion. He starts off by telling us that after His baptism, and right before His public ministry began, Yeshua experienced a long and difficult time of testing by the head tempter himself, the most powerful evil being in the universe.

Yeshua, full of the Holy Spirit (Yeshua was and is full of the Spirit, which means that He is alive and real and holy and close to God. So, the closer we are to Yeshua, the more full of the Spirit we will be too, and the holier we will be too, and the closer to God we will be too!) …

Yeshua, full of the Holy Spirit , returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days (forty is the number of testing and judgment. This is a long, hard, difficult time of testing), being tempted by the devil.

There is an ancient and cosmic war going on between God and Satan, and good and evil. The temptation of Yeshua was a battle between the highest levels of good and evil, between the Champion of Good and the Eminence of Evil. If the Champion of Good failed, humanity could never be redeemed. Our salvation, our eternal well-being, our everlasting life, was at stake here! For us, the stakes couldn’t have been higher!

And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry. I once fasted for ten days, and at the end of ten days, I was hungry. How much hungrier must Yeshua have been!

And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Just as the angel Gabriel knew that Yeshua was the Son of the Most High, so the Adversary also knew that Yeshua was the Son of God. And, the Adversary used that knowledge to tempt Yeshua. The temptation was for Yeshua, who was the Son of God, but also the Son of Man, to use His divine powers which He had temporarily laid aside, to satisfy His needs.

Understand that it was God’s will for His Son to live as a human being, and as a man to fully depend on God to meet all of His needs. The Son of Man needed to live like a man, constantly depending on His Father to meet all of His needs. To use His divine powers which He had temporarily laid down and do a miracle in His own power would be to bypass the will of God.

Yeshua understood God’s plan for Him to live as a human being. And so Yeshua answered the Adversary with a quote from the Torah, which He had obviously memorized, and therefore was there within Him and available to help Him when He really needed it: “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone’”.

The Son of God resisted this temptation by reminding Himself and the Adversary the Torah-truth, and teaching us that human beings are to realize there are more important things than even having our physical needs immediately met.

Human beings are to know those things that are even more important than their daily bread, things like the Word of God, and the will of God, and then live their lives dependant on the will and Word of God.

Human beings are to live knowing that times of testing and wilderness experience and hardship and hunger may be God’s plan for their life, and they are not to get angry or bitter with God, or short-circuit those times of testing and hardship, but try to cooperate with God in those times and learn the lessons that the Lord has for us from those times.

Next came the second temptation: And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.”

When the first son of God and his wife, Adam and Eve, failed their time of testing, they lost lordship over the Earth. Their authority was transferred to the Adversary. Satan is the god of this world. The world and its values and political structures are under the influence of the domain of darkness. The world lies under the power of the Evil One.

Satan knew that Yeshua was meant to be the King of the Earth. He offered Him the rulership of the world, but in a way that would eliminate suffering and rejection, and bypass the cross. And what was the price Messiah had to pay to gain the world and the honor of mankind? Messiah had to give His allegiance to the Enemy, and make Satan His lord, and do things the Devil’s way.

Yeshua answered him, again with a quote from the Torah, which He had obviously memorized, which was there within Him and available to help Him when He needed it most: “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”

God and God’s will and God’s ways must come before the honor and praise of men, even if it means dishonor by men, rejection, suffering and crucifixion. Honor and glory and power will come later for those who do not cut moral and spiritual corners, and do things the world’s and the devil’s way. Those who chose short term successes by cutting religious and ethical corners transform themselves into devil worshipers!

Finally, we come to the last temptation: And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the Temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you,’ and, ‘on their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

Note well that Satan knows the Scriptures. He is able to quote them, and use them to his advantage. Which means that his servants will do that too. Quoting the Bible to make a point is not enough. The Bible must be properly interpreted and applied! And, that is something that each one of us should learn how to do – otherwise we can be mislead.

Jerusalem was the center of the world, and the center of the Chosen Nation. The Temple was the center of Jerusalem. I like what Charles Ryrie wrote about this temptation: “If Yeshua had cast Himself off and landed unharmed among the crowds below, He surely would have been acclaimed the Messiah”. This would have given Him honor among the Jewish people, but again, it would have eliminated the rejection and suffering that was necessary to atone for sin. It would have violated God’s plan for Yeshua’s life.

And Yeshua answered and said to him , again with a quote from the Torah, which He had obviously memorized, which was there within Him and available to help Him when He needed it: “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

We are not to do something foolish, unnecessarily risky, or out of the will of God, and then demand that the Lord rescue us from our foolishness. We are to careful and wise the way we conduct ourselves, and the way we apply His Word.

Yeshua was and is full of the Spirit, and close to God. So, the closer we are to Him, the more full of the Spirit we will be too!

Yeshua is fully knowledgeable about the Word of God, and how to apply it. The closer we are to Him, the more we will be able to properly interpret and apply it too!

Yeshua is able to withstand all temptations and testings. He is the only human being who withstood them all. We will go through many testings and trials and temptations in this life – longer one and shorter ones, easier ones and harder ones. The closer we are to Yeshua, the more we will be able to successfully withstand all of our testings too!

Israel is the son of God, and saved and then immersed in the Red Sea, and led into the wilderness. Israel repeated failed our testings in the wilderness. But Yeshua is also the Son of God, and is also Israel, and was also immersed, and also led into the wilderness, but passed every test! So, where Israel failed, Yeshua, the King of Israel, succeeded! So, the closer we get to Yeshua, who represents perfect Israel, the closer we get to true Israel.

Yeshua is so important! You must know about Him, learn to trust Him, get connected to and stay connected to Him. You must be focused on Him, and be learning from Him, and continually be following Him. You must get close to Him and stay close to Him. Is that you? Good! If it is not you, meet with me, talk with me, and let’s make sure that it is! You have too much to lose not to!

And, if you know Messiah, won’t you make it one of your very highest priorities to communicate to the rest of a lost and dying world this saving knowledge about Him?

And, won’t you give yourself to build up and strengthen His Community of Jew and Gentiles who know Him, love Him, serve Him and proclaim Him?