# 5 Lu.
Introduction
In our text last Sunday Mary, who was to give birth to
Jesus Christ the Son of God, went to visit
with her cousin,
Elisabeth, who was already six months
pregnant with John the
Baptist. Elisabeth's son was to be the forerunner of
Jesus.
In our text today Mary has left the home
of Elisabeth and has
returned
to her home. The focus of Luke's
attention is no
longer
on Mary, but on Elisabeth and the birth of her son,
John the Baptist.
I.
The birth of Elisabeth's child
V. 57, "Now Elisabeth's full time came that she should
be delivered..." For the
first six months of her pregnancy
Elisabeth had been unable to carry on
conversation with her
husband. He had been unable to speak a word since the
time
that the angel appeared to him
in the temple. That must
have been a very trying
experience for Elisabeth. It must
have been a great help to have
Mary to visit with her and to
stay with her for the last three
months. However, now Mary
is gone and it is time for
Elisabeth's child to be born.
(V. 57), "...and she brought forth a son." Just as the
angel
had promised her husband, Elisabeth brought forth her
son. It seems a little bit strange to me that
Luke, the
physician,
does not comment one way or the other about
whether
or not she had an easy delivery. I would
have
thought
that Luke, being a medical doctor, would have given
special
attention to that information. No doubt
he did, but
he said nothing about it in
his writing.
V. 58, "And her neighbours and her
cousins heard how the
Lord had showed great mercy upon her; and
they rejoiced with
her." Once the baby was
born it did not take long for the
news to spread. I am sure that even if these had been normal
circumstances,
the news of a new baby would have spread
quickly
anyway. But these were no ordinary
circumstances.
Elisabeth was old. She was very old, well past the
childbearing
age. Her husband Zacharias likewise was
old.
He, too, was very old. He was well past the normal age for
fathering
a child. So when Elisabeth's baby was
born, this
was hot news and it did not
take it long to spread around
among
all the neighbors nearby and to all the relatives far
and near. All who heard rejoiced with Elisabeth and they
took special notice that God had
blessed her in giving her
this baby.
II. The problem in naming the baby
V. 59, "And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they
came to circumcise the
child..." The law
of Moses required
all Israelite families to
circumcise all of their male
children
on the eighth day after they were born.
The
gathering
of the friends and family for this occasion was not
only to be of assistance to the
aged parents in this task but
to join in the religious
worship of God in connection with
the act of circumcision. You see, with the Jews,
circumcision
was not done for medical reasons. It was
done
for religious reasons. It was done because God had commanded
them to do it and it was done
with a great measure of
religious
ceremony.
A second reason for the gathering of all the friends and
family
was because it had become customary that on the eighth
day, the day of the
circumcision, the new baby would be
named. This, too, had become an occasion for
celebration
among
the Israelite people. So this gathering
of friends and
relatives
was done in a spirit of celebration.
(V. 59), "...and they called him Zacharias, after the
name of his father." Still another tradition among the
Israelite people that had developed by
this time, was that
the oldest son of a family was
to be named after his father.
He was to be a junior. Other sons that would follow would be
given
other family names. It was almost
unthinkable that any
firstborn
son would not be named after his father.
And,
likewise,
it was unthinkable for any son to be given a name
that was not common within the
family. So it was quite
natural
that all of the neighbors and family expected this
first-born
son of Zacharias to be named Zacharias after his
father. That is what they were expecting and that is
what
they started calling him. I can just hear one of them say,
"Oh, look at little Zacharias. He is such a little darling."
I'm sure that both Elisabeth and Zacharias must have
heard
what they were calling the baby, but since Zacharias
could
not talk, it was Elisabeth who spoke up.
V. 60, "And
his mother answered and said,
Not so; but he shall be called
John."
Now this just about shocked them all out of their boots.
They immediately began to argue with her
and to point out
what they thought was a good
reason not to name him "John."
V. 61, And they
said unto her, There is none of thy kindred
that is called by this
name." The idea is, "If you
don't
want to name him after his
father, at least give him one of
the traditional family
names. There is nobody in your family
named
John. For heaven's sake pick out a name
that is
already
in the family."
These were proud people. They
were proud of their
family
and they wanted every descendant to be identified with
the family by the name that he
wore.
V. 62, "And they made signs to his father, how he would
have him called." This verse indicates that there is a
possibility
that, in addition to being unable to speak,
Zacharias was also unable to hear. There is not clear-cut
statement
to that effect, but those signing to Zacharias
instead
of speaking to him does indicate that he could not
hear. At any rate, they got their message across to
Zacharias that they wanted him to indicate
what he wanted the
baby to be named. Whatever Zacharias said, that would be
final.
V. 63, "And he asked for a writing table..." The word,
table,
here could have been translated "tablet." Some of the
translations
read that way. He asked for a writing
tablet.
It might be of interest to you to know
that a writing tablet
in that day was a slate or
board with a heavy coat of wax on
it. They would then write in the wax with a sharp
pointed
instrument. When they wanted to erase the board, all they
had to do was to smooth out the
wax and they were ready to
start
all over again.
(V. 63), "...and wrote, saying, His name is John. And
they marvelled
all." Zacharias took the writing
tablet and
wrote
very emphatically, "His name is John."
This must have come as a surprise to all except
Elisabeth.
But this was in keeping with what the angel of
God had told him. The angel told him to name the child John.
In all probability it was through
Zacharias that Elisabeth
knew that the son's name was to
be John. No doubt, Zacharias
had long ago used the writing
tablet and informed Elisabeth
that the angel had instructed
that they should name the baby
"John."
III. The miracle of the father's speech
V. 64, "And his mouth was opened immediately, and his
tongue
loosed, and he spake, and praised God."
Just as soon
as Zacharias wrote that his
name is John, his ability to
speak
returned to him and he began to speak.
He spoke and
praised
God for His blessings. He praised God
for giving him
and Elisabeth a child at this
great age. He praised God for
giving
his speech back to him. He especially
praised God for
the Christ-child, whom he knew
was already in the womb of
Mary, Elisabeth's cousin. Mary had been in his home for the
last three months and so he
knew. All of his life he had
prayed
for the coming of the Christ. Now he
praised the Lord
that the Christ was finally
about to be born.
IV. The question about the child's future
V. 65, "And fear came on all that dwelt round about
them..." When Zacharias began to speak and to praise
the
Lord, a fear came on all who were
present. Yet it was not a
dreadful
fear. Rather it was a reverential
fear. They were
able to know that God was at
work here in a special way and
they stood in reverential
awe. They were spell-bound. It
was an exciting time for
them. They felt about the same way
at that time that you and I
would feel if we knew that Christ
was about to come in the next
few minutes. They had a great
amount
of respect and awe at the presence of God among them
and at the work that God was
doing among them.
(V. 65), "...and all these sayings were noised abroad
throughout
all the hill country of
days the news of this wonderful
event had spread far and near
throughout
all the hill country of
what most people like to do
most. They talked and told what
they knew to somebody else and
that somebody told it to
somebody
else and so on until it was spread throughout all
the area around.
V. 66, "And all they that heard them laid them up in
their
hearts, saying, What manner of child shall this be! And
the hand of the Lord was with
him." Wherever the news
traveled
the people were astounded. They knew
that the hand
of the Lord was upon this
child. They knew that God had some
special
purpose in his life.
What they didn't know was just what plans God had for
the child. They puzzled within their minds, "What
manner of
child
shall this be? We wonder if he is going
to be a great
prophet
of the Lord? We wonder if he is actually
going to be
the Christ? We wonder if he will be prophet like Moses? We
wonder
if he will be like Elijah? We don't know
just what
God has planned for him, but we are sure
of one thing. We
are sure that God has His hand
on this child for some special
purpose."
V.
The meaning of the name, John
Now listen! For a few minutes I want to zero in on the
name that was given to this
child. His name is, "Jehovah is
gracious." This is the meaning of the word, John. It means,
"Jehovah is gracious" or
"Jehovah is full of grace."
And He
is. Jehovah is one of the Old Testament names for
God.
Therefore the name means "God is gracious." And He is.
God was gracious to even consider saving a
man in the first
place
who is steeped in sin. God was gracious
to have such a
strong
to save man. God was specially gracious
to come to a
decision
that He would provide a way of salvation for all
mankind. God was extra super gracious in being willing
to
send His own Son to die on the
cross for us that we might be
saved. God was full of grace in sending the Holy
Spirit to
Mary and conceiving the Christ-child in
her womb.
God was
full of grace when He sent Jesus
to the cross to die for us.
God was gracious when He sent the gospel
to me back in the
city of
gospel
to you that you might be saved. God is
gracious right
now right here in this service
in that He knocks at the
heart's
door of some unsaved person and tries to get that
person
to trust Jesus and be saved. Let me tell
you, my
friend,
if you will only repent of your sin and trust in
Jesus Christ to save your soul, God will
be gracious to you
and save your soul. He will cleanse you of every stain of
sin. He will produce the new birth within and make
you ready
for heaven.
Conclusion:
Won't you turn to Him today?
Won't you acknowledge you
sin to God. Won't you ask Him to save you and to cleans
you
from your sin? Then won't you come and publicly acknowledge
Jesus as your Savior and give yourself to
follow Him?