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The Birth of John

December 16, 2018 Speaker: Brian Wilbur Series: Advent 2018

Topic: Advent Passage: Luke 1:57–80

THE BIRTH OF JOHN

An Exposition of Luke 1:57-80

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date:   December 16, 2018 (Third Sunday of Advent)

Series: Advent 2018

Note:   Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard   Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

INTRODUCTION

The attitude and outlook that befit the Advent Season is the same attitude and outlook that we ought to have at all times. It is the attitude and outlook captured in the words of the apostles: “Our Lord, come!” (1 Corinthians 16:24) and “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20) Even as we look forward to our Lord’s second coming, we remember that our entire life is to be characterized by leaning into the Lord and trusting Him to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

In the early chapters of Exodus, the children of Israel suffered under the cruelty of the Egyptians. The Israelites were subjugated as slaves and treated unfairly. Scripture tells us that “the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning…” (Exodus 2:23-24). They needed the Redeemer to come and save them, and He came.

The Lord visited His people. “He sent Moses, his servant, and Aaron, whom he had chosen. They performed his signs among them…” (Psalm 105:26-27). In due course “he brought out Israel with silver and gold (Psalm 105:37), “he brought his people out with joy, his chosen ones with singing. And he gave them the lands of the nations, and they took possession of the fruit of the peoples’ toil, that they might keep his statutes and observe his laws” (Psalm 105:43-45).

God plants us in the soil of His redemption so that we will bear the fruit of heartfelt obedience. Tragically, however, Israel did not “keep his statutes” and they failed to “observe his laws.” Consequently, the nation that had been created by God and received His blessing instead fell under His curse.

As I mentioned two Sundays ago, Israel had become a divided nation: the northern kingdom was called ‘Israel’ and the southern kingdom was called ‘Judah’. Israel continued in disobedience until they were defeated by the Assyrians in 722 BC. Judah also continued in disobedience until they were defeated by the Babylonians in 586 BC. Israel’s original redemption from the tyranny of the Egyptians was a redemption from the hand of God. The same hand that had redeemed them now judged them: their original redemption was un-done, so to speak, and they were re-subjugated under foreign powers. Sin always leads to ruin. It is only a matter of time.

But even though the people of Israel were in bondage again, the Lord promised the wayward nation another deliverance, a better redemption, a new exodus. A new day would come, a new covenant would be established, and a renewed people would be formed in the hand of God. But when?

Time went on, some of the exiled Israelites returned to their homeland, and some rebuilding and restoring efforts took place. But Israel was nothing special on the world stage. The Assyrian and Babylonian Empires had already their day in the sun; then came the Media-Persian Empire; then came the Grecian Empire; and then came the Roman Empire.

The Roman Empire was in the ascendancy at the turn of the ages, when history passed from BC to AD, and it ruled over Judea. Geographically, Judea was part of the land of Israel, but politically it was ruled by Rome. The Jewish people lived in the shadow of the glory of the Roman Empire: Caesar Augustus was the emperor over the whole empire and, under Caesar, Herod was the ruler or king of Judea. The glory of Israel was long gone, the glory of the throne of David was long gone, the glory of a golden age of peace and prosperity was long gone. Sin always leads to the loss of true glory. In fact, this is what sin is: we exchange the glory of God for the glory of things (Romans 1:22-25), and the result is the un-glory and shame of life without God.

But even so, there was a faithful remnant who remembered the Lord and walked in His ways. This faithful remnant had the same faith as Isaiah the prophet: they were resolved to wait for the Lord and put their hope in Him (Isaiah 8:17). They had names like Simeon, Anna, Mary, Joseph, Zechariah and Elizabeth.

They lived a certain way: “walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord” (Luke 1:6), being “righteous and devout” (Luke 2:25; see also Matthew 1:19), “worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day” (Luke 2:37), and submitting to God’s Word (Luke 1:38). In all this, they showed that they loved the Lord God and delighted in His ways.  

Though they lived a certain way, their vision was not confined to the present. They hadn’t given up hope, and the Roman occupation of their homeland hadn’t made them cynics. They may have been disappointed, they may have mourned, but they were looking for the redemption that had been promised. Simeon was “waiting for the consolation of Israel” (Luke 2:25). Anna spoke to a number of people “who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38). Mary’s prayer and Zechariah’s prophesy show that they had stored up in their hearts the hope that one day the God of Israel would remember His mercy (Luke 1:54), that He would remember His holy covenant (Luke 1:72), and that the blessing promised to Abraham (Luke 1:55, 73) would break forth afresh and anew upon His people. They lived at the turn of the ages; they lived on the cusp of promises fulfilled; they lived at the dawn of a new day; they lived on the edge of the new covenant. “The true light… was coming into the world” (John 1:9), and they could see the sun rising in the eastern sky, because they believed the Word of the Lord.

THE SCRIPTURAL TEXT

Our Scriptural passage for this sermon is Luke 1:57-80. This passage tells us about the events surrounding the birth of John the Baptist, whom we might also call John the Prophet (Luke 1:76), not to be confused with John the Apostle. Let us direct our attention to the life-giving words of God:

57 Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. 58 And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. 59 And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, 60 but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.” 61 And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.” 62 And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called. 63 And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all wondered. 64 And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. 65 And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea, 66 and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him.

67 And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,

68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
    for he has visited and redeemed his people
69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us
    in the house of his servant David,
70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
71 that we should be saved from our enemies
    and from the hand of all who hate us;
72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers
    and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
74     that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
might serve him without fear,
75     in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
    for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people
    in the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
    whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
    to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel. (Luke 1:57-80)

BACKGROUND: LUKE 1:5-25

Zechariah had been literally and physically speechless for a period of about ten months. This is why “they made signs to [him]” and this is why “he asked for a writing tablet,” because he couldn’t speak. And the reason he couldn’t speak was because the Lord had disciplined him for his unbelief. Do you remember?

Zechariah and Elizabeth lived under the Lord’s gracious smile. For “they were both righteous before God” (Luke 1:6) and walked according to the instructions of God’s Word. But they had a distinctive sorrow, namely, “they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years” (Luke 1:7). In any time and any place where a married couple would like to have children but are unable to conceive, there is sorrow. But in some times and some places that sorrow is compounded by public shame: if the general public regards having a child as the mark of respectability and, beyond that, as the mark of divine favor, then childlessness not only means sorrow in the heart, but reproach in the community. Such was Elizabeth’s experience in Judea in the first century BC (Luke 1:25). But that was all about to change.

Zechariah was a priest and, on a particular occasion “while he was serving as priest before God” (Luke 1:8) and burning incense on the altar (Luke 1:9-11), “an angel of the Lord” (Luke 1:11) showed up, “standing on the right side of the altar of incense” (Luke 1:11). Angels, as a matter of fact, are not cute little cherub babies who make you smile; they are holy messengers of heaven’s King and they make your knees knock and your boots shake. This was not a light moment! With the angel before him, “Zechariah was troubled… and fear fell upon him” (Luke 1:12). Then the angel spoke and promised a son to the old man:

“Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” (Luke 1:13-17)

The measure of true greatness is not social capital or material wealth, but the Lord. John would “be great before the Lord.” He would be the Lord’s mouthpiece for a great spiritual awakening in the hearts and homes of the people, so that the people would be ready to receive their King. Against all expectation, this prophet named John would be born to Zechariah and Elizabeth in their old age. All this was promised to Zechariah and, to his shame, he couldn’t believe it (Luke 1:18). He couldn’t believe that he and his wife would have a child at this late stage in the game, and for that He was reproved by the angel:

“I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” (Luke 1:19-20)

Thus Zechariah was speechless for ten whole months – a fitting form of discipline under the tenderhearted Father who sanctifies His people. And when the lid over his mouth was opened after “these things [took] place,” Zechariah showed himself to be full of faith, and eager to rejoice in God’s work.

JOHN IS BORN

After the angel departed and Zechariah returned home, “[Zechariah’s] wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”” (Luke 1:24-25) She savored the mercy that God was showing her.

Sometime between Elizabeth conceiving and her giving birth, she had a remarkable interaction with her relative Mary, the young woman who was carrying the Incarnate Lord in her womb. Elizabeth knew and rejoiced in the fact that Mary was “the mother of my Lord” (Luke 1:43). She knew that Mary’s Son was far greater than her own son, and that didn’t bother her a bit. She was glad that the Lord was coming, and she was glad to have a small part in the divine drama. Elizabeth’s joy was just like John’s joy. When Mary greeted Elizabeth, John – still in her mother’s womb – “leaped for joy” (Luke 1:44). And why? Because the Lord, though still in Mary’s womb, had drawn near. And when the Lord draws near, there is joy for God’s Spirit-filled people. As an adult, John rejoiced at the excellence and superiority of Jesus and said, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30) Therein is found the greatness of John: He loved the Lord and was glad to play the role of supporting cast. Are you glad to be supporting cast? Or are you always maneuvering for the lead spot?

In due course, “the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son” (v. 57). The neighborhood and extended family “rejoiced with [Elizabeth]” because of this “great mercy” that she had received from the Lord (v. 58). Life was good!

But the joy notwithstanding, the child still needed to be officially named. The official naming of the boy was to happen in conjunction with the boy’s circumcision “on the eighth day” (v. 59), circumcision being a standard Jewish religious practice for all male children. The conventional wisdom was that this newborn boy would be named Zechariah, Jr. “after his father” (v. 59). If his name wasn’t going to be Zechariah, then it would make sense to name him after some other relative (v. 61). But Elizabeth insisted that the boy was to be named John (v. 60). At this point the good folks who had come to this circumcision and naming ceremony really wanted the speechless Dad to weigh in. What did he think?

Well, Zechariah thought better than he did when he had encountered the angel ten months earlier and had disbelieved the angel’s word. Between then and now his heart had been sobered up, his faith had been deepened, he had experienced the trustworthiness of God’s promise in the conception and now recent birth of their son, and he wasn’t about to disbelieve the angel a second time. The angel had said, “… you shall call his name John” (Luke 1:13). By this time Zechariah had fully embraced the angelic announcement, and he was fully onboard. Still unable to speak, “he asked for a writing table and wrote, “His name is John.”” (v. 63) When Zechariah wrote these words, he expressed faith and obedience to the divine word that the angel had delivered to him. And in that climactic moment, the adoration for God that he carried in his heart was uncorked – “his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed” (v. 64) – and words of praise and prophesy came gushing forth.

If you can’t speak for ten long months, and then finally you have the opportunity to speak to your heart’s content, what will you say? You will say what is in your heart, because Jesus taught us that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). And what was in his heart was praise and thanksgiving to the Lord God, gratitude and gladness for the mercies of God streaming into their little lives in Roman-occupied Judea.

The people roundabout were overwhelmed by all this. Zechariah and Elizabeth had insight into what the Lord was doing, but others didn’t know – although Zechariah was about to tell them. But in the moment of the naming of John, the people were perplexed that John was the assigned name (v. 63). Then when the cork popped off Zechariah’s mouth and his speech poured forth, people were afraid: “fear came on all their neighbors” (v. 64). What happened there became the talk of the town and the chatter of the countryside (v. 65). And the people were asking themselves a very good question: “What then will this child be?” (v. 66). This is the right question to ask, when you consider the unusual circumstances surrounding his birth: the parents’ old age, the father’s ten months without speaking a word, the unexpected name, and the now untamed exuberance of the Dad who got his voice back. Who is this child? What will he become? What will he do?

Keep in mind that the most important circumstance of all is that “the hand of the Lord was with him” (v. 66). I don’t know if the relatives and townsfolk knew this, though perhaps they had a sense. But even if the people didn’t know it yet, the objective reality is that the Lord’s favor was upon this child for good, and Zechariah and Elizabeth knew. As we ourselves are reading through Luke 1, we do well to understand that when the Lord’s hand is with a child in order to bless a child, great things should be expected from the child, because the Lord’s hand does great and mighty things.   

ZECHARIAH PROCLAIMS THE SALVATION OF GOD

When God Almighty is with someone in this way, the Spirit of God is near. John was “filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15). “Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit” (Luke 1:41) when she received Mary into her home some weeks earlier. Now it was Zechariah’s time to be “filled with the Holy Spirit” (v. 67). The Holy Spirit fills His people and produces all kinds of good fruit in and through His people, and one of these good fruits is the fruit of prophesying. In this case, Zechariah explains and exults in what the Lord God is doing at the present time in the birth of his son John and in the soon-to-be birth of Jesus. In this way, Zechariah proclaims the salvation of God.

As we look at this glad proclamation, we need to pay attention to the question that was raised in verse 66 and how it is answered in verses 68-79. Here is the interesting and very telling thing: the question in verse 66 was about the identity and significance of John, and this question is indeed answered in Zechariah’s utterance. But we need to realize how it is answered: John’s role is clearly secondary and subservient to what the God of Israel is doing through Jesus. Here again we learn that John’s significance is bound up with the fact that he is a servant of the King. Take away the greatness of the King, and the greatness of the King’s servant is completely lost. Zechariah sees clearly: he sees the big thing that God is doing, he sees the overarching drama of salvation, he sees God’s holy covenant and covenant mercy past and present, and in that context – and only in that context – he sees the honorable calling upon his son John to be a prophet who points people to the Savior.

Let’s look at Zechariah’s prophetic utterance in three parts.

GOD HAS SENT A SAVIOR-KING TO SAVE HIS PEOPLE

The first part of Zechariah’s prophetic utterance is in verses 68-75. Here we see that the God of Israel has sent a Savior-King to save His people from their enemies. Let’s follow the train of thought:

1) God has drawn near to save His people (v. 68): “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people.” Over and over again we must remind ourselves that we need help from the outside, and ultimately the only help worth having – and the help that we must have, if we would be saved – is the redeeming grace that God lavishes upon His people. We ought to be humbled by the fact that God would pay us a visit, and not to lay us low but to lift us up.

2) God saves His people through the Savior-King that He has raised up (v. 69): “and [he] has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.” The metaphor of “a horn of salvation” points to a strong warrior-savior who would accomplish a great victory for God’s people. He would go forth to the battle and on the battlefield deal a death blow to the enemy. This warrior-savior would in fact be a king within the royal house of David.

If we are going to understand the Bible – if we are going to understand who God is and how He relates to this world – then we must learn that God does His work through a mediator who represents Him and acts on His behalf. In the Old Testament, God chose certain men for the role of mediator: Moses and Joshua, David and Solomon, the kings, the priests, and the prophets. But every man was flawed, which means that every man was an imperfect mediator. However, God appointed these imperfect mediators as a signpost pointing forward to the perfect mediator that He would one day send. This perfect mediator is a man but not a mere man. This perfect mediator is God’s Son who became a Man (Galatians 4:4-6), the Word who became flesh (John 1:14), the Lord of heaven who became a servant on earth (Philippians 2:6-11. And this perfect mediator is the faithful prophet who speaks on the Father’s behalf, the faithful priest who offers Himself as a sacrifice for sin, the faithful king who wins the victory for His people. The Father saves His people through His faithful Son, and it is only by trusting in the Father’s faithful Son that a sinner is saved.

3) God saves His people through the Savior-King that He has raised up in fulfillment of His Old Testament promises (v. 70, 72-73). When God sent His faithful Son to be the perfect Mediator and Savior-King, He didn’t do it on a whim. He didn’t decide on it at the last minute. It wasn’t Plan B that had to be adopted because Plan A had failed. This was always Plan A, and when the Father sent His Son into the world, He was keeping His promise: “as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old…; to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham.” Do you see? God had sworn an oath to Abraham; God had made a covenant with Abraham and the sons of promise; God had promised mercy to the patriarchs; God had continued to speak about these things through the prophets.

God had promised Abraham, “I will make of you a great nation” and “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:2, 3). God had promised David that his throne – his kingdom – would last forever: “Your throne shall be established forever” (2 Samuel 7:16). Last Sunday we heard the words of Isaiah the prophet, namely, that the true King will sit “on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore” (Isaiah 9:7). When the angel appeared to Mary in Luke 1, he promised her that she would carry in her virgin womb “the Son of the Most High” who will receive “the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:32, 33). This is why the Spirit-filled Zechariah is so stoked: his eyes scanned the horizon of God’s promises and he saw the promise of a Savior-King coming to fruition, and he rejoiced in the goodness of God.

Brothers and sisters, our God always keeps His promises. One of our problems is that we expect His promises to get fulfilled on our timetable and in ways that we expect, and that gets us into real trouble. God made promises to Abraham in 1800 BC, God made promises to David in 1000 BC, God made promises to His people through the prophet Isaiah in 800 BC, God made promises to His people through the prophet Malachi in 400 BC, and then Zechariah had the privilege to stand on the edge of fulfillment in 5 BC, but Zechariah and Elizabeth and their son John all died before Jesus made atonement for the sins of His people and thereby ratified the new covenant in 30 AD.[1] And here we are in 2018, still looking forward to Jesus’s Second Coming and the final fulfillment of God’s promise for a new heaven and a new earth. God always makes good on His promises, but He typically works out their fulfillment not over years and decades, but over centuries and millennia. So don’t get impatient because you have to face 30 or 40 years of difficulty, but rather stand up, trust your God, and walk by faith. Do what Zechariah did, and look to Jesus as the fulfillment and guarantee of God’s promise. In the end, your heavenly Father will always do “as he spoke” and will keep “his holy covenant."

4) God saves His people, through the Savior-King that He has raised up, in accordance with His promises, so that His people will live godly lives (v. 71, 73-74). God’s purpose in salvation is always to bring about godliness in the lives of the people that He has saved. Notice the word “that” in verses 71 and 74. That is a word that indicates purpose and aim. The Lord God has visited His people and raised up a Savior-King, “that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.” In Israel’s case, it was not good to be under the thumb of pagan oppressors, whether Egypt or Assyria or Babylon or Rome. Those who would live free as worshipers of the true God must be set free from oppressive powers. The most significant oppressive power from which we must be set free is spiritual darkness and sin, and we’ll get to that shortly. But at a most basic level, verses 71-74 are showing us that having oppressors, haters, and enemy powers who stand against us makes it difficult for us to serve the Lord. Thus we see that God’s purpose in saving us “from our enemies” is to bring about our unhindered devotion to His kingdom: “to grant us that we, being delivered from our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.”

Although the Lord will not completely remove the powers of this world until His Second Coming, He so works in our hearts that He makes us unafraid of them. The powers of this world might dislike us, oppose us, threaten us, slander us, fine us, imprison us, or kill us, but we know that they don’t have the last word. And the reason we can have this confidence in the face of opposition is because the Lord has defeated the powers of spiritual darkness: at the cross the power of sin was broken, the demonic powers were dealt a fatal blow, and the fear of death was taken away – for those who believe and belong to Christ. Having been delivered, we now devote ourselves to serving the Lord, and living upright and holy lives. 

The Lord God Almighty saves His people, through His faithful Son, in accordance with His promises “from of old”, so that we who are saved would be characterized by holy, righteous, and fearless service.

JOHN WILL PREPARE PEOPLE FOR THE KING’S ARRIVAL

The second part of Zechariah’s prophetic utterance is in verses 76-77. Here we see that Zechariah’s son John will be a prophet who prepares people for the coming of the Savior-King. In these two verses we see John’s title, his main purpose, and the content of his message.

1) The newborn John will hold the title of prophet (v. 76): “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High.” True prophets are not self-chosen, but chosen by God. A prophet stands in the presence of God, receives the message from God, and then delivers that message to the prophet. Like all faithful prophets, John will proclaim God’s message to the people.

2) But unlike his predecessors, John will have a unique role. John’s main purpose will be to prepare the people for the King’s arrival (v. 76): “for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways.” The Lord Jesus Christ, the true King, was coming into the world, and the Father appointed John as the advance team. Do you know what an advance team is? When the President of the United States travels to another city, he doesn’t just show up. The President’s arrival is preceded by preparations in the host city. The government sends an advance team to go to the city beforehand in order to make preparations for the President’s arrival. The goal is to make the President’s arrival secure and smooth.[2]

When the Lord of the universe was sent to planet earth, an advance team was established, and his name was John. His mission was to make the people spiritually ready to receive their King. How do you get people spiritually ready to receive their King? By urging the people to repent of their sins (Matthew 3:2) and then to “[bear] fruits in keeping with repentance” (Luke 3:8). In other words, John urged the people to get their lives aligned with the King’s holiness and righteousness agenda.

When a President visits a city, protesters may be among his greeters. Protesters are people whose mindset is not aligned with the mindset of the President. Since the President is a fallible human being, the protest may be appropriate – and in any case, peaceful protest is a protected liberty under the United States Constitution. But the issue that concerns us is not the United States of America, but the kingdom of God. When it comes to the kingdom of God, it is the essence of sin to protest the mindset of the King. Repentance means quieting your protest, embracing the King’s policies (all of them!), and welcoming Him with a glad heart.

3) As such, John’s preparations for the King’s arrival wasn’t about hotel accommodations and secure travel routes, but had to do with the things that pertain to salvation. Verse 77 summarizes the content of his message: “to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins.” Sins are a far greater oppressor than the Egyptians or Romans: they bind us in guilt and lead us to death. Our great need is a salvation powerful enough to rescue us from our sin, remove our guilt, and restore us to God. John, often called “John the Baptist” (Matthew 3:1), preached “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 3:3). As he did so, many people came to him “confessing their sins” (Matthew 3:6) and desiring to turn over a new leaf, and John would baptize them in the river Jordan. These baptisms were a symbol of the cleansing, the turnaround and fresh start, that we all need. But it was only a symbol, and a deeper reality was needed – and John knew it. For John, “[giving] knowledge of salvation” ultimately meant giving knowledge of the Savior. Here was the heart of his message: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)  

GOD’S TENDER MERCY

The third part of Zechariah’s prophetic utterance is in verses 78-79. Here we see the divine grace behind John’s message; here we see God’s mercy in action. The reason that there is a salvation – and indeed a Savior! – to know, the reason that there is a forgiveness to receive, is because God is merciful and, in mercy, has drawn near to His people. The “knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins” is proclaimed “because of the tender mercy of our God.”

1) God is full of “tender mercy.” It is very true, of course, that God will judge the ungodly, and consequently people who continue in their sin will face everlasting punishment. But do you know what? God doesn’t delight “in the death of the wicked” (Ezekiel 33:11); He would much rather see the wicked turn from their sins and take hold of life and righteousness in the kingdom of God (Ezekiel 33:11). And why? Because our God and Father has a tender heart that is full of mercy, and He delights to show mercy to sinners.

Let me ask you a question. What do you perceive when you look upward to heaven? Do you perceive a Faraway One who is indifferent and unfeeling toward you? Or do you perceive the Just One who is ready to lower the boom? To be sure, if you have not been born again, then you really should fear the approaching judgment of God. But if you are a redeemed child of God through faith in Jesus, then when you look upward to heaven you ought to perceive your graciously heavenly Father who treats you with “tender mercy.” Do you live under the gracious smile of God?

2) God doesn’t just feel “tender mercy,” He acts on it. God’s work of salvation is His mercy in action. The message of the gospel is the message of God’s grace in action. Remarkably, this grace and mercy in action as set forth in verses 78-79 is exactly what we saw last Sunday in Isaiah 9:1-7. God, in mercy, sends the sunrise into our dark world: “whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high.” The sunrise is not a thing, but a Person: the King of verse 69; the Lord of verse 76; the “Savior, who is Christ the Lord” of Luke 2:11; the “light” and the “glory” of Luke 2:32. Jesus is the “sunrise… from on high.”

This heavenly sunrise does two things, according to verse 79. First, it brings light and life into the confusing, chaotic, cemetery-filled world that we live in: “to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.” Second, it brings peace to the conflicted world that we live in: “to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Jesus Christ, the Light of the world, enables us to see clearly and, seeing clearly, to live righteously. Everyone who receives Christ enters into His kingdom of light, life, and peace; everyone who refuses Christ remains in the darkness.

A FINAL WORD

Our passage concludes by telling us that John, the one whose birth we learned about back in verse 57, grew up and became a man: “And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel” (v. 80). God was with him, and at the right time John stepped into his God-appointed role and spoke to all who would listen. He was faithful to the message and he always stayed on point. On a certain day “John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and the followed Jesus.” (John 1:35-37) He wasn’t seeking followers of his own, but followers of Jesus.

Are you one of Jesus’ followers?

Let us pray.

  

ENDNOTES

[1] These dates – 1800 BC, 1000 BC, 800 BC, 400 BC, 5 BC, and 30 AD – are intended as ballpark figures.

[2] Here is the summary of one article as it showed up after a Google search: “Scheduling and advance teams need an eye for detail to ensure events run smoothly.” The article itself is titled “The Art of Advance,” August 21, 2012, written by Ben Donahower and published by Campaign & Elections. Available online: https://www.campaignsandelections.com/campaign-insider/the-art-of-advance.

More in Advent 2018

December 23, 2018

The Greatest Gift

December 9, 2018

Behold The Everlasting Light!

December 2, 2018

Hope in the Lord!