Birth of John
Notes
Transcript
Good Morning,
Today, we are looking at the birth of John the Baptist in our study of Luke. This is found in Luke 1 and it is verses 57-66, if you are using a pew Bible this is found on page 948 going into 949. But before we begin lets open with a word of prayer.
Pray 3+.
2 Timothy 3:16–17 “16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” And as we study the Bible we will see these areas that without some work and connecting them back to the rest of the narrative it is easy to overlook their importance to our lives. Today’s passage is like that to some degree, we have to remember passages we studied earlier to get some of the principles found here.
Just a couple of things we have to remember before looking at today’s passage are the fact that Zechariah was being disciplined by God for his doubt. He upon asking Gabriel for a sign that would allow him to trust the words of Gabriel, was made mute and has been unable to speak for 9 months maybe a little more because he had to finish his temple service. This was in fact discipline, we saw that in Luke 1:20, when Gabriel says, “20 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.””
We also need to remember that Elizabeth had hid herself when she became pregnant. Here we are not given all of the details, rather we are just told that she kept herself hidden for five months. She separated herself from her community and family especially in the first 5 months but the language of our passage today, seems to indicate that much of this continued until she gave birth. If you haven’t already turn in your Bible’s with me to Luke chapter 1 and I will start reading in verse 57.
Luke 1:57–66 “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.”
After the birth of the son, the first thing we notice is that Elizabeth and Zechariah are part of a community. We don’t entirely know why, but Elizabeth had for a time separated herself from this community and family. Some have speculated it was related to the oddity of someone her age becoming pregnant, others based on Luke 1:25 “25 “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.””, seem to indicate that it was because of her faith and a desire to prevent others from diminishing the work of God here by worrying about the possibility of miscarriage or harm due to her age. However, eventually the community as a whole finds out and she ends up being more blessed because of it.
In verse 58, it tells us that when they heard what the Lord had done they rejoiced with her. They came together and celebrated alongside Elizabeth. What we see is a glimpse of the community God intended his people to be. They come together and rejoice as one in how God is working in this, however in some ways they were denied the ability to minster to Elizabeth in this time. We have been well trained to believe we are meant to do things on our own by our own power, pull ourselves up by our bootstraps if you will. This is never the picture given to us in Scripture. We are meant to work, we are meant to have times of solitude with God, however, look at one of the first things God says about man in scripture. Turn with me to Genesis 2 and I will start in verse 15.
Genesis 2:15–18 “15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” 18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”” So often we skip this fact, but God says it is not good for man alone, immediately after telling him not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Sin had not yet entered the world yet God knew that the most likely time for sin is when we are alone and isolated.
Beyond that we see in 1 Corinthians 12, we actually need each other to function properly as the Church. Each person brings a unique ability and gift to the body that each other part needs. Is this how we are living out our christian walks?
Are we part of a community?
Are we part of a community?
In our passage today, we get to see just a small part of what it is to be the community. They rejoice with Elizabeth, but then they are also there for the circumcision and naming of John as well. We see them participating in the lives of this couple beyond just a Sunday morning service and fellowship.
We are called to stimulate one another to love and good works, turn with me to Hebrews 10 and I will start reading in verse 23.
Hebrews 10:23–25“23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” The author of Hebrews tells us to hold fast to the confession of our hope, but we do that together as a community and really it tells us we should be meeting together more and more. Just a quick show of hands how many of us think we are closer now to the return of Christ than when the author here wrote this. So this is something we ought to be doing more not less.
If you could turn back to Luke with me, we will jump down to verses 63 and 64, because these will help us answer the second question on the bulletin, but that question is, what is the purpose of discipline?
What is the purpose of discipline?
What is the purpose of discipline?
Verses 63 and 64 read: Luke 1:63–64 “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.” Now we will come back to the people questioning John’s naming, but here Zechariah tells them his name is John and his mouth is opened and his tongue is loosed. The first words out of his mouth here are blessing God. The best definition for the the purpose of discipline if found in the passage Marc read for us in Hebrews 12. If you could turn there with me
Hebrews 12:5–11 “5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” 7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
We have to make a distinction between discipline and punishment here, discipline can include punishment, however discipline is a much broader term and I will quote John MacArthur, he said, “[discipline] it speaks of whatever adults use toward their children to cultivate their souls, to correct their mistakes, to curb their passions that they might mature in the most positive, effective, mature, disciplined way. It is a very broad word. It speaks of instruction that will increase virtue. It’s not just punishment.” It is part of raising up a child in the way they should go and it’s purpose is to increase some virtue in the child. If you are a parent you very much understand this, sometimes this includes punishments other times this is chores, but we do this out of our love for our children. God does the same for His children, if you are disciplined by God, you are in-fact His child. Those who are not His children He gives over to one day face His wrath, but the purpose of His discipline is to produce in us the fruit of righteousness.
Zechariah just spent 9 months unable to speak for his doubt, do you think there was any doubt left in him about this child? God’s discipline strengthened his faith and his obedience. I would argue that generally speaking if you are being disciplined, you are going to know why. He much more than the best earthly father loves His children and like the good earthly father whose reason for discipline is given to the child, so to is our heavenly father. If he is disciplining us he is trying to change something in us to make us more in the image of His Son and with prayer he will make that known to us.
Now his mouth is again opened which brings us back to verse 59 of Luke 1. In verse 59 of our passage we see the community come together again to celebrate the circumcision and naming of the child. At this point in Israel’s history, we see that they had developed a tradition of naming the son on the same day of his circumcision. This was never a command, but never-the-less at some point developed into tradition. Those who were gathered were going to name the child Zechariah after his father. Elizabeth’s immediate response in verse 60 is “No, his name is John.” Which causes some confusion and some concern because of another tradition that had formed. This tradition was giving the children family names. This was such a problem for the people that they went to Zechariah to get his opinion on it and he confirms that yes the child’s name would be John.
So in these verses, we see first a command of God being followed, circumcision on the eighth day. Then we see two separate traditions, and generally speaking there is nothing wrong with either of these. It is still a very common practice to give children family names. My middle name is my father’s middle name, my son’s middle name is his grandfather’s first name, and my middle daughter is her aunt’s middle name. There is nothing wrong with this. The other tradition is less common, but is not a problem either, waiting to name the child. God never gave a law when a child had to be named in the Old Testament and we have friends whose kids almost never had names for at least a week or two after the birth.
But here Zechariah and Elizabeth break a cultural tradition, and name the child John and they do it out of obedience, which leads us to our final question, and this question seems rather easy to answer,
Is obedience worth breaking tradition?
Is obedience worth breaking tradition?
In our passage today it is a very easy question to answer, because what happens when they break the tradition, Zechariah’s mouth is opened again and look what happens from verse 64 to the end of our passage.
Luke 1:64–66 “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.”
Fear came on all their neighbors, but this wasn’t just random fear, it was the fear of the Lord. They understood God was at work in this situation and news spread about what was happening and it spread not just in this little town but it spread to the whole region. They saw God’s hand in this and they wanted to know what this child would be. This obedience to God and break from tradition demonstrated God’s work and God was glorified by it.
The easy answer is yes it is worth breaking tradition for obedience, but here the consequences for breaking the tradition weren’t that sever. What about when the stakes are more ominous or bad? What if the cultural traditions we have to break cause us to loose our jobs, get us ostracized from our families, or worse put in prison or killed? It it worth it then?
Our culture has shifted on us, faster than any other time in human history and God can still do something to change that, but it is looking more and more like Christianity is going to eventually be banned throughout the world. The western world today is more and more telling us that the message of Jesus Christ being the way to salvation is hateful and evil. In Canada, it is a punishable offence to speak say that the LGPTQ+ lifestyle is sinful and against God’s design for marriage. Those who say an abortion is murder are portrayed as the bad guys. Christianity is becoming the bad guy in our culture and we are quickly coming to a point when it will again be a punishable offense to be Christian. Is it worth breaking cultural traditions to be obedient then?
Turn with me to 1 Peter 4 and I will start reading in verse 12. Here in 1 Peter 4 it reads:
1 Peter 4:12–16 “12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. 16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.”
We are living in a world system that hates God, Peter tells us that we should expect to be persecuted if we are living for Christ. In the book of Acts, Peter has this interesting interaction with the Jewish priests and pharisees. They had commanded the apostles not to speak about Jesus, however they were caught doing it again and beaten for it. What makes it interesting is they were celebrating for the opportunity to suffer in the name of Christ.
This should be our attitude. We obviously don’t want to suffer but we should count it joy when we do because God is glorified through our suffering.
Needs something
Let us close with a word of prayer.