John the Baptist Luke Chapter 1
A voice in the wilderness…
An elderly woman had just returned to her home from an evening of church services when she was startled by an intruder. She caught the man in the act of robbing her home of its valuables and yelled, "Stop! Acts 2:38 (Repent and be baptized, in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven.) The burglar stopped in his tracks. The woman calmly called the police and explained what she had done.
As the officer cuffed the man to take him in, he asked the burglar, "Why did you just stand there? All the old lady did was yell a scripture to you." "Scripture?" replied the burglar. "She said she had an ax and two 38’s!"
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Last week we talked a bit about the incarnation of Jesus Christ. We talked about what it looked like for Jesus to step away from His divine fellowship with the Holy Spirit and God the father to be born to Mary and live among men as a man.
We also briefly mentioned a fella by the name of John the Baptist. Today we will take a brief look at John the Baptist in the context of the interaction between Zechariah and the angel Gabriel.
We know from Scripture that the angel Gabriel is a messenger who is entrusted to deliver several important messages on God’s behalf. Gabriel appears to at least three people in the Bible, first to the prophet Daniel, referenced in Daniel 8:16; next to the priest Zechariah as we see here to foretell and announce the miraculous birth of John the Baptist (Luke 19:19); and finally to the virgin Mary to tell her that she would conceive and bear a son, referenced in Luke 1:26-28.
Now, after many years of not having a child, the angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah. Zechariah was a rather run of the mill priest in the temple he was married to Elizabeth who was from a family of priests. Luke tells us that they were both righteous in God’s eyes and had obeyed the Lord’s commandments and regulations. And at this point they were also very old.
Then one day while Zechariah was on duty at the Temple, he had been chosen by the casting of lots, to be the one to enter the Temple and burn incense. While he was in the sanctuary fulfilling his duties an angel of the Lord appeared to him.
Zechariah was shaken and overwhelmed with fear. In Luke 1:13-17 we read, “But the angel said, “Don’t be afraid Zechariah! God has heard your prayer. Your wife Elizabeth will give you a son, and you are to name him John. You will have great joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the eyes of the Lord. He must never touch wine or other alcoholic drinks. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before his birth. And he will turn many Israelites to the Lord their God. He will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah. He will prepare the people for the coming of the Lord. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and he will cause those who are rebellious to accept the wisdom of the godly.”
Wow!
First off….Does this remind you of anyone else? It should, in the book of Genesis Abraham and Sarah were also promised a son in their old age. There are other similarities.
Let’s continue on with scripture. Luke 1:18 Zechariah said to the angel, “How can I be sure this will happen? I’m an old man now, and my wife is also well along in years.”
Doesn’t this also remind you of the way things went for Abraham and Sarah. They were also having a hard time believing that they would have a baby so late in life…
In Genesis 18:10-15 we read, 10 Then one of them (an angel) said, “I will return to you about this time next year, and your wife, Sarah, will have a son!”
Sarah was listening to this conversation from the tent. 11 Abraham and Sarah were both very old by this time, and Sarah was long past the age of having children. 12 So she laughed silently to herself and said, “How could a worn-out woman like me enjoy such pleasure, especially when my master—my husband—is also so old?”
13 Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, ‘Can an old woman like me have a baby?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”
15 Sarah was afraid, so she denied it, saying, “I didn’t laugh.”
But the Lord said, “No, you did laugh.”
Arguing with the Lord? Not a great idea. Ha!
Zechariah found that out too. We read in Luke 1:19 “Then the angel said, “I am Gabriel! I stand in the very presence of God. It was He who sent me to bring you this good news! But now, since you didn’t believe what I said, you will be silent and unable to speak until the child is born. For my words will certainly be fulfilled at the proper time.”
Oh snap!
Basically here Gabriel is say….”Uh, dude…do you know who I am and who sent me?”
Now this brings back memories for me of being punished for saying things that I shouldn’t have or laughing when things were actually serious.
It is the reason that I spent a good deal of sixth grade sitting in the hallway at school. Mostly it was in Mrs. Dewald’s math class, but it wasn’t the only class. I found that there were consequences for my actions much like Zechariah did. As much as Mrs. Dewald would have loved it if the Lord had made me silent, He didn’t and I just kept ending up in the hall.
It was almost like every time my friend David Little and I would get our uncontrollable laughter going we’d look up and see Mrs. Dewald standing there as if to say, “I am your teacher, I stand in the very presence of the principal.”
Back to Zechariah…
So then he went out from the Temple and many people had been waiting on him and wondering why it was taking so long for him to exit. When he did come out and he wasn’t able to speak the people realized by his gestures that he must have seen a vision while he had been in the sanctuary.
Then later, after Zechariah’s week of service was over, and he returned home, and sure enough, things started to happen like the angel had said it would and Elizabeth became pregnant.
So what can we learn from what Zechariah and Elizabeth experienced?
Both Zechariah and Elizabeth and Abraham and Sarah had not been able to have the son that they so desperately wanted. In both the time of the Old Testament and the New it was very important to have a son to carry on the bloodline and the family name. If a woman was unable to have a son, or any child for that matter she would feel as if she were cursed. So this was a pretty big deal. And after so long it only makes sense to give up on the chance to have a child.
In the case of Abraham and Sarah they took matters into their own hands when Sarah gave Abraham her maidservant so that they could have a son. That led to a whole ‘nother bit of drama which is another sermon for another time.
But what is interesting here is what the angel Gabriel said to Zechariah. He told Zechariah not to be afraid. I see this as God saying be at peace, this is all going to workout. The angel had also called Zechariah by name. I imagine that after 400 years of silence from God that for an angel to appear to a common priest such as Zechariah who was not a member of the priestly elite and know is name?…it would certainly be a bit unnerving.
He said in verse 13 “God has heard your prayer.” This leads us to our next truth. God is listening. After all the time that Zechariah and Elizabeth must have been praying, God was hearing their prayers. I don’t know about you, but there are times when I wonder about that. God are you listening? I would imagine that both couples, Abraham and Sarah as well as Zechariah and Elizabeth were thinking that God had either not heard their prayers or had denied them.
Neither was true. What a great thing to come to understand. If we are hanging in there with God and living lives that point to Him, He does hear our prayers and we shouldn’t give up when it comes to what we have asked.
Because you see…God’s delays are not necessarily God’s denials. Both couples due to their advanced ages had more than likely stopped praying that they would have a child. In the case of Zechariah and Elizabeth, when Gabriel said that God had heard their prayers I think he was talking about prayers that had been prayers much earlier. I have to admit, I find that pretty encouraging to know that God continues to have prayers that I prayed some time ago still on the books.
Let’s look a little more at the things that Gabriel had to say about what was to come as far as John the Baptist was concerned.
Verse 14 says….You will have great joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth,
Here, it is God who is predicting that Zechariah and Elizabeth would have great joy and gladness which just by itself is such a terrific promise, but then He goes on to say that many will rejoice.
Sure sounds like a party to me! I’m pretty sure that there were not many who rejoiced at my birth, more than likely it would have been limited to close family and for sure my mom who said that when I was born I showed up at lunchtime and she missed her meal.
A good portion of the rejoicing may have come because of the fact that after such a long wait, Zechariah and Elizabeth were blessed with a son as well as the fact that it was evidence to all concerned of God answering prayer.
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Verse 15 says…for he will be great in the eyes of the Lord. He must never touch wine or other alcoholic drinks. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before his birth.
“Great in the eyes of the Lord.” Isn’t this something that every one of us would like to be able to say? Personally I think that if I were to be considered great in the eyes of the Lord and then to hear “Well done, good and faithful servant” I would consider my life a success. How about you? Sure! What believer wouldn’t? Not only that, but for the angel of the Lord to say that about your son? The one you haven’t even had yet…Wow! That sure would take a load off wouldn’t it?
The angel alludes to the tradition of Numbers 6:1-12, indicating that John will be a Prophet dedicated to the Lord as a Nazirite. He will thus refrain from intoxicating beverages, cutting his hair, and all contact with the dead. He actually couldn’t eat anything that came from grapes, whether fermented or not; he couldn’t even eat raisins. All in accordance with the Angel who announced his birth.
And how absolutely amazing to be chosen of God in such a way as to be Spirit-filled even before birth. This is certainly a very special baby to be born.
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Verse 16 says… And he will turn many Israelites to the Lord their God.
John was coming to explain to the Jews that the Messiah that they had been waiting for, for generations was coming. This would have been very welcome news to those who would believe it. To explain that to the non-Jewish crowd would have meant very little or nothing as they were not expecting a messiah in the first place. Gentiles would be brought into the fold later. Peter and Paul would play significant roles in leading Gentiles to a relationship with Jesus.
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Verse 17 says….He will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah. He will prepare the people for the coming of the Lord. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and he will cause those who are rebellious to accept the wisdom of the godly.”
Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary on the Bible says about John, “He shall be carried on in his work, as Elijah was, by a divine spirit and power, which shall crown his ministry with wonderful success.’
It also goes on to say that in turning hearts of the fathers to their children that, that statement is in reference to the Jews as the fathers and the Gentiles as children.
Hereby he shall make ready a people prepared for the Lord, shall dispose the minds of people to receive the doctrine of Christ, that thereby they may be prepared for the comforts of his coming. Note, First, All that are to be devoted to the Lord, and made happy in him, must first be prepared and made ready for him. We must be prepared by grace in this world for the glory in the other, by the terrors of the law for the comforts of the gospel, by the spirit of bondage for the Spirit of adoption. Secondly, Nothing has a more direct tendency to prepare people for Christ than the doctrine of repentance received and submitted to. When sin is thereby made grievous, Christ will become very precious.
And in reference to the rebellious the commentary says, “And he shall turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that is, he shall introduce the gospel, by which the Gentiles, who are now disobedient, shall be turned, not so much to their fathers the Jews, but to the faith of Christ, here called the wisdom of the godly.”
Gabriel is explaining that John has been selected by God to herald the coming of the Messiah. Maybe not on the same level as John, but haven’t we been called to work to point our lives to the cross?
Here’s a story about one guy who does just that…
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VIDEO….Fox Surprise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-35IxePoZ0
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While Greg Zanis may not be exactly like John the Baptist, there are similarities that I want to point to. He travels all over the country going to communities where tragedies have occurred and when he arrives he brings the cross.
In the clip Mr. Zanis said that he wants to shed a light on a dark time by bringing the hope of the cross to those who are hurting.
He opened his heart to those who are hurting by saying I will put up a cross for anyone anywhere, all you have to do is ask….people started asking.
Zanis said “I’m a man on a mission, bringing the hope of the cross and that God is in America, God hasn’t abandoned us.”
Greg Zanis is pointing people to Jesus. That’s what the Angel Gabriel was telling Zechariah that John the Baptist would be doing. He proclaimed that the Lord was coming and that it was going to change everything.
If we look at Isaiah 40:3-5 we see that the angel Gabriel wasn’t the only one who was predicting what John the Baptist would be doing… 700 years earlier the arrival of John the Baptist had been foretold through the prophet Isaiah.
We read…
Isaiah 40:3-5
3
Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting,
“Clear the way through the wilderness
for the Lord!
Make a straight highway through the wasteland
for our God!
4
Fill in the valleys,
and level the mountains and hills.
Straighten the curves,
and smooth out the rough places.
5
Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
The Lord has spoken!”
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So what does all this say to us?
Shouldn’t we live in a way to clear the way for the return of the Lord? How can we do that? What does that look like?
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