Wednesday Study 5-19-2021 ’ baptism and Genealogy

Scripture Reading: :21-22 Luke’s description of Jesus’ baptism by was quite simple. Luke is the only writer however that has Jesus praying during His baptism. As He prayed the heavens opened and the descended. The Holy Spirit comes down in bodily form like a dove. This simile does not mean that the Spirit took on the form of a dove, but that He did take on the form of something like a dove. As the Holy Spirit rests on Jesus, a voice from heaven makes a declaration of Jesus’ divinity. Remember Jesus was fully man and fully . The Father was pleased with the Son, for all that He had done and all that He was purposed to do (Isaiah 42:1). What is baptism? What is the purpose of baptism? Why do you think the Holy Spirit and Father God made an active showing at Jesus’ baptism? Scripture Reading: Luke 3:23-38 Luke being very historic in nature was careful to mention Jesus’ age of thirty. Thirty was the age when a Levite undertook service and when a man in Jewish culture was considered mature (Number 4:47). Luke is careful to trace Jesus’ lineage back to to show His relationship with the whole human race, unlike Matthew who traced Jesus’ lineage back to and the Jewish people (:2-16). Luke’s genealogy also differs from Matthew’s in that Luke traces Jesus’ ancestry through the line of ’s son . This may represent another line of descent from David to Joseph, or it may represent the line of David to Mary. It could be that Matthew traces Jesus’ lineage through the royal line () and Luke traces Jesus’ lineage through the physical line with the lines converging at some point with Joseph. Luke also points to Jesus’ virgin birth story by mentioning that Joseph was His legal father, but not his natural Father (v. 23). What is the purpose specifically of Jesus’ genealogy being mentioned in Scripture? Why would Matthew just go to Abraham and Luke go all the way to Adam while writing out the genealogy of Jesus? What is the significance of Luke pointing out the fact of Jesus being born of virgin birth?