RAP SHEET Luke 3:23

SERIES: The Chosen King

SERMON: Assumed or Ascribed?

SCRIPTURE: Luke 3:23a

REVIEW

This week, we slowed down to focus on one short verse in Luke’s Gospel:

“As he began his ministry, Jesus was about thirty years old and was thought to be the son of Joseph…”(Luke 3:23a)

Luke places Jesus’ genealogy here—between His baptism and His temptation—to highlight a deeper tension: people assumed Jesus was just Joseph’s son, while God ascribed Him as His beloved Son.

• At His baptism, God declared: “You are my beloved Son.” (Luke 3:22)

• In the wilderness, Satan questioned: “If you are the Son of God…” (Luke 4:3, 9)

• Luke wedges the genealogy between these two moments to underline the battle of identity.

For 30 years, people saw Jesus as an ordinary carpenter from Nazareth, “thought to be” Joseph’s son. But His true identity was so much greater—Son of God, the last and final Chosen King.

The same tension applies to us: the world may assume certain things about us, and we may even assume false things about ourselves, but in Christ our identity is not assumed—it’s ascribed by our Father in Heaven.

APPLY

What are the false assumptions shaping your life? Maybe others see your past mistakes, your family history, or your appearance and assume that defines you. Maybe your own inner critic tells you that you aren’t enough.

But if you belong to Jesus, you have been given a new identity: a son or daughter of God.

• What is ONE false assumption you’ve believed about yourself that you need to lay down?

• What is ONE truth God has spoken over you that you need to pick up and live out?

PRAY

• Thank God that in Christ your identity is secure and not based on what others assume about you.

• Ask God to silence the lies of the enemy that question “Are you really God’s child?”

• Pray for courage to live from the identity God has given you—as His beloved son or daughter.

• Take time to ask God to help you see others not by worldly assumptions, but by who He says they are.