#2 Lu.
1:5-25; THE
ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE BIRTH OF JOHN THE
BAPTIST
Introduction:
In giving his account of the life and ministry of Jesus,
Luke first writes about someone other than
Jesus. He writes
about
the life and ministry of John the Baptist.
John was
the forerunner of Jesus. That is, the life and ministry of
prepared
the way for the ministry of Jesus Christ.
John was
not the Christ. But his life and ministry was intended to
prepare
the way for the one who is the Christ.
Jesus is the
Christ.
Without Jesus we would have no Savior.
Without
Jesus we would all be doomed to the fires
of hell. John had
the privilege of preparing the
way for the ministry of Jesus.
Out text today gives the announcement of the birth of
John the Baptist. There are some rather unusual
circumstances
surrounding the birth of John the Baptist.
There is one thing for certain. God had a hand in the birth
of this child. Of that there can be no doubt.
What I want you to see is that while this text has
nothing
to say about us. Yet there are some
vital spiritual
for our own lives in this
text. Let us ask God to speak to
our hearts through this text in
order that we may get the
lessons
that He would have us to get.
I. The parents of
John the Baptist
V. 5, "There was in the days of Herod, the king of
Judaea,
a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of
Abia: and his wife was of the
daughters of Aaron, and her
name was Elisabeth." The mention of Herod, king of
here in this verse is merely to
establish the time element
when the birth of John the
Baptist took place. It took place
in the days when Herod was
king of
However, the mention of his name is interesting from
another
point of view. Herod is a man who is to
be an enemy
of Jesus Christ. He is the man who will order the death of
all of the male children in
under.
The mention of Zacharias is to establish the name of the
father
of John the Baptist. The word,
Zacharias, is the New
Testament spelling of the Old Testament
word, Zechariah.
Zacharias was a priest.
Zacharias and Elizabeth were of the tribe
of Levi. A son
born to them would be eligible
to be a priest and to serve in
the
the Baptist to a special
calling, John would have been a
priest
in the temple at
V. 6,
"And they were both righteous before God, walking
in all the commandments and ordinances
of the Lord
blameless." The thing that stood out about this man and
this
woman
is that they were both very godly people.
Their hearts
were right with God and they
tried to live their lives right
with God. That is the kind of life that each of us
ought to
live.
They were not at all like the scribes and Pharisees.
The scribes and Pharisees tried to live a clean lives
outwardly. But within their hearts were not right with
God.
They lived right before men, but they did
not live right
before
God.
In sharp contrast here was this godly priest Zacharias
and his wife, Elizabeth and
they not only lived right before
men. They lived right before God.
That is the way the we who are Christians
should live.
We should not only live in such a way that
men may see our
good works and glorify God which
is in heaven, but we should
live in such a way that God
Himself is pleased with the way
we live.
V. 7, "And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was
barren,
and they both were now well stricken in years."
Zacharias and Elizabeth were in somewhat
the same boat that
Abraham and Sarah had been in. They had no children and by
all laws of nature it was not
to be expected that they would
have any at this late stage of
life. They were both well
past the childbearing age. However, their age was not to be
the deciding factor in their
case. God was to be the
deciding
factor in their case and they were to have a son.
II. The occasion when the birth
announcement came
V. 8-9, "And it came to pass, that while he executed the
priest's
office before God in the order of his course,
According to the custom of the priest's
office, his lot was
to burn incense when he went
into the temple of the Lord."
It is my understanding that the priests
did not serve in the
temple
on a continual basis. They rotated. One would go to
the temple and stay there and
serve for an entire week. Then
he would be relieved and
another priest would stay for a
week.
The event that Luke is about to tell us about took place
while
Zacharias was on duty at the temple. It
was his week
to serve. Not only that, but Zacharias was given a very
special
honor on this particular occasion. When
the lot was
drawn
to see who would officiate in the burning of the
incense,
the lot fell on Zacharias. Many priests
lived out a
lifetime
of service and never had this honor.
Other than
serving
as High Priest, this was the highest honor that could
be bestowed on a priest and it
was assigned to him by the
drawing
of lots. That is sort of like drawing
straws. But
once in a lifetime was all that
a priest was allowed to have
this honor. Once he officiated in this position, he was
never
eligible to draw again and to serve in that position
again.
V. 10, "And the whole multitude of the people were
praying
without at the time of incense."
The incense was
burned
twice each day. It was burned at both
the morning and
at the evening service. Luke does not tell us whether this
event
took place in the morning or whether it was evening.
But Zacharias has now gone into the holy
place with two
assistants. The two assistants have already rendered
their
part in the service and have
already come out leaving
Zacharias alone in the
alone
there with God. He is alone in this Holy
room with
God. And while he is not able to see God or even
to hear
God, he is very much aware that God is
there in that room
with him.
While there in the
about
half a pound of powdered incense over a pan of hot
coals
which have been brought in from the brazen altar. As
this incense burn on the hot
coals there will be cloud of
smoke
that will rise up and into the air and will be visible
in the light that shines from
the candlestick. This smoke
smells
very sweet. This very sweet smelling
cloud of smoke
pictures
or represents the prayers of God's people as they
rise to God. The smoke of the incense will rise in the air
and go up and the prayers of
God's people go up. But the
point
is that God considers the prayers of His people as
though
they were a very sweet smell to Him.
God loves to hear the prayers of people who call on His
holy name. He loves to hear and answer prayer. He loves to
answer
prayer. It is not a burden to God to
answer the
prayers
of His people. It is a pleasure to God
to answer the
prayers
of His people.
Now God does not want you to go to Him with a list of
requests
that are made purely out of selfishness and greed.
God has not even promised to answer that
kind of prayer.
James said that God does not answer when
we ask amiss. But
when we ask out of the right
purpose, the right motive, God
takes
pleasure in answering our prayers.
At this particular time Zacharias was inside the Holy
Place all alone with God with the smoke of
the incense which
represented
the prayers of God's people and Zacharias was
praying. He was really praying. He was praying not for his
own personal benefit. He was not praying for a child for
himself. No doubt down through the years he had prayed
for
such a child. But considering his age and the age of his
wife, he had molt likely stopped
praying for a child for
himself
long ago. He was the priest of God
pleading for the
people
of his nation. He was thanking God for
His blessing
upon the nation of
leadership,
for guidance, for help in time of need, for
wisdom
and strength for the people of the nation of
But there was one prayer that stood out
above all the others.
He was praying for the coming of the
Deliverer. He was
praying
for the coming of the promised Messiah.
Then while Zacharias was inside the
for
in the court of the
things. They, too, were thanking God for His blessing
on the
nation
of
for guidance, for help in time
of need, for wisdom and
strength
for the people of the nation of
Zacharias, they, too, were
praying for a Deliverer. They
were praying for the coming of
the promised Messiah.
III. The announcement that was made
V. 11, "And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord
standing
on the right side of the altar of incense." Right
while
Zacharias was praying and while the people were outside
praying,
an angel of the Lord appeared there in the Holy
Place with Zacharias.
V. 12, "And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and
fear fell upon him." It scared Zacharias. The whole room
must have lit up with the
brilliant light that came from the
angel. There was no way of misunderstanding who he
was. He
was an angel from the
Lord. Did he come in anger or did he
come in peace? Did he come to bless or did he come to
administer
judgment? Those are questions that must
have gone
through
the mind of Zacharias.
V. 13, "But the angel said unto him, Fear not,
Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and
thy wife Elisabeth
shall
bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John."
Now at first, it would appear that all the angel is telling
Zacharias is that the prayers he and
Elizabeth had prayed for
a child for so many years
were finally going to be answered.
And it is true that they had prayed for a
child and they are
now finally going to have that
child. That is all true. But
that is not all that the angel
is saying here. In fact, that
is not the main thing that the
angel is telling him. The
angel
is telling Zacharias that his prayers on behalf of his
nation
Elizabeth are indeed going to have a
child, but that child is
not going to be just an
ordinary child. This child is going
to grow up to be a special
servant of the Lord. He is going
to have the privilege and
responsibility of preparing the way
for the Redeemer that Zacharias
has been praying for. He
would
prepare the way for the Messiah that Zacharias has been
praying
for. That means that the Redeemer
Himself will soon
come on the scene. Listen, God does hear and answer prayer.
V. 14, "And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many
shall
rejoice at his birth." The angel is
talking, of
course,
about the birth of John the Baptist.
V. 15, "For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord,
and shall drink neither wine
nor strong drink..." This child
all the days of his life is to
be a Nazarite dedicated to the
service
of the Lord. He is to be a special
servant unto the
Lord.
In addition to not drinking wine nor strong
drink
neither
would a razor ever touch his head. His
hair would
grow long. He would not let it grow long in protest to
society. He would let it grow long as a sign that
he was a
Nazarite unto the Lord.
(V. 15), "...and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost,
even from his mother's
womb." God had special plans for
this
child
and even from his earliest childhood the Holy Spirit of
God would lead him and guide him. This doe not mean that he
was saved from his mother's
womb. He wasn't. God only has
one plan of salvation. He had to be saved just like anybody
else and he had to wait until he
was old enough to understand
to choose to trust in the
Lord. But because God knew that he
would
trust the Lord and because God already had a special
work for him to do, and God have
him special leadership of
the Spirit of God even from his
birth.
V. 16, "And many of the children of
to the Lord their
God." Once this child grows into
manhood
he will be a great voice for
God. He will speak for God. He
will preach the gospel of
God. He will turn many of the
children
of
V. 17, "And he shall go before him in the spirit and
power
of Elias..." The word, Elias, is
the New Testament
word for Elijah. John the Baptist would be like Elijah. He
would
be a great prophet of God like Elijah was.
He would
be so much like Elijah that he
would be virtually a second
Elijah.
(17), "...to turn the hearts of the fathers to the
children,
and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just..."
He would not only turn many people of
he would strengthen the family
life in
the hearts of the fathers back
to their children. Whenever
people
get saved and whenever the saved are seeking to live
as God would have them to
live, it will strengthen the homes
involved. It will bring a better relationship between
husband
and wife and between father and children.
But the key to the whole thing is in the latter part of
this verse. (V. 17), "...to make ready a people
prepared for
the Lord." The primary purpose of the life and ministry
of
the son that would be born to
Zacharias was to call a people
to repentance and salvation
and to get them ready for the
coming
of the Lord. His job was to get people
ready for the
first
coming of the Lord. Our job is to get
people ready for
the second coming of the Lord.
IV. The doubt in the mind of Zacharias
V. 18-20, "And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby
shall
I know this? for
I am an old man, and my wife well
stricken
in years.? And the angel answering said
unto him, I
am Gabriel, that stand in the
presence of God; and am sent to
speak
unto thee, and to show thee these glad tidings.
And,
behold,
thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the
day that these things shall be
performed, because thou
believest
not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their
season. And the people waited for Zacharias, and marvelled
that he tarried so long in the
temple." Zacharias had a
problem
believing what God through the angel told him and God
punished
him for not believing. Listen, my friend. When the
Word of God is presented to us, God holds
us responsible for
believing
His word. And when we fail to believe
God's word,
we will suffer the
consequences.
V. 22, "And when he came out, he could not speak unto
them: and they perceived that he
had seen a vision in the
temple:
for he beckoned unto them, and remained speechless."
Zacharias was a saved man. He was a very godly man. But
even the most godly do wrong in
some way or other and even
the most godly are chastised
for their wrongdoing.
V.
The fulfillment of the promise
I speak of the fulfillment of the promise. Actually the
child
is not born in this text at all. But the
child is
conceived
and this gives every assurance that he will be born
as promised.
V. 23, "And it came to pass, that, as soon as the days
of his ministration were
accomplished, he departed to his own
house." Zacharias served out his appointed week of
service
and they he was relieved by
some other priest and he was
allowed
to go home for a while.
In due time God kept the promise that was made to him
there
in the temple. V. 24-25, "And after
those days his
wife Elisabeth conceived, and
hid herself five months,
saying,
Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein
he looked on me, to take away
my reproach among men."
please
do not misunderstand. She did not go
into seclusion
because
she thought there was some stigma attached to being
with child at such an old
age. Rather, she went into
seclusion
because she wanted to devote herself to the worship
of her God who had taken away
the stigma of being childless.
Conclusion:
Today the good news is not the forerunner of the Christ
will be born and that the birth
of the Christ will soon
follow. Today the good news is not that Zacharias is
in the
Holy Place praying for the people of
news
is that the Christ has already come and that
He has
made it possible for all men to
be saved. Today the good
news is not that Zacharias is
inside the
that Jesus Christ is within the
very Holy of Holies in heaven
praying
for us. The good news is also that He is
although He
may delay there for a little
while, yet He will come out
again.
What each and every one of us ought to do is to make
sure that we are saved. We need to repent of our sins and to
trust
in the promises that God has made concerning Jesus
Christ His Son.
Then after we are saved, we need to live a godly life
like Zacharias and Elizabeth
did. God will bless you for
doing
His will. Let me tell you that it is not
the people
who are living for God who are
getting short-changed in life.
It is those who are living for self who
are getting short-
changed. Nobody who is truly living for God has ever
had
reason
to regret it. Everybody who is not
living for God
will regret it. There are some people who are truly saved
who will regret that they did
not live their lives for God.
May God help you to make up your mind to
devote your life to
the Lord who died for you and
saved your soul.