Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Well, it's good to be in church today. And it's always a privilege for myself to preach the word of God. I don't get a chance to do it too often. So when I do, once on every blue moon, I do appreciate it, but it really is a blessing and a privilege to do so. And what I'm going to do right now, don't get mad at me, because some people might not like this, but I'm going to put this Bible just right here. I know some people say, don't put the Bible on the floor, but there's not much room up here for me at the moment, so you'll have to forgive me. Okay? All right.
[00:00:26] You have to forgive me if you're a Christian.
[00:00:29] All right. All right. We're gonna do that now. I don't know if anybody here. Who here is fully ready for Christmas. You got all your gifts bought.
[00:00:36] You've done all the shopping. You're fully prepared. Great.
[00:00:40] Who here hasn't started?
[00:00:43] Well, I got a few hands.
[00:00:45] No, I've started.
[00:00:46] I barely started, but I've started.
[00:00:50] We do a lot of preparation for Christmas season sometimes, don't we? There's a lot of effort for some folks that go into Christmas. We got one awesome family here. I'm not going to say who it is, but they go all out in Christmas time, and they got the lights on the house set up in, like, in sync to music. And so when certain beats hit, certain lights are flashing and things are going off. Yeah, it's crazy. Put a lot of effort and time into that. Right. It's pretty awesome to look at. I would not want to do that, though.
[00:01:15] But some people go all out. And you know what? I've also learned that in Filipino culture. Do we have any Filipinos in the house here?
[00:01:21] Give me a whoop. Whoop. Filipinos in the house. All right. A few. All right.
[00:01:25] It's amazing to me, I've learned that in Filipino culture in the Philippines, they start preparing and celebrating Christmas in September.
[00:01:32] Is that true?
[00:01:34] Yeah. So if you were to go to the Filipinos in September, you're gonna hear Christmas music, you're gonna see decorations. Isn't that wild?
[00:01:42] I can barely get it together, you know, December, Right.
[00:01:47] But why am I saying all this? You know, we do a lot to prepare for Christmas season, but I wonder if there's some things that God would want us to do to prepare ourselves, maybe our hearts and our minds and our actions for Christmas season and really what it's all about. Okay. And I believe God does want us to consider a few things in preparation for Christmas as we endeavor to serve him and to be that example, that light that we were talking and praying about.
[00:02:15] And so today we're going to look into Luke chapter one. If you've got your Bibles, you can turn there. We'll get there in just a moment.
[00:02:21] But we're going to look into Luke chapter one, where the backstory to the birth of Jesus is told. And I believe that the narrative that we're going to read, the lessons from the life of Zachariah and Elizabeth and John the Baptist and all that surrounding that there'll be some key lessons for us as we look to prepare our hearts and minds for and our actions for the Christmas season. So before we go any further, I'm just going to pray real quickly. We've already done that a few times. But Father God, I thank you today for your presence that's in this place. God, I pray that you would help me to convey your heart this morning. Nothing more, nothing less. And Jesus, we would all be encouraged to be your servants, Lord, in this place today. Thank you and we praise you in Jesus name. All right? Amen. Amen.
[00:03:06] So the first thing that we need to look at in Luke chapter one as we prepare the way for Christmas is really the truth of the account of the gospel message. And as we are now in the Christmas season, you know, I do believe that we have a built in cultural opportunity to share the gospel with people all over the place. Our neighbors, our co workers, our families, random people that we might meet as we're out and about. You know what? There's a built in opportunity to share the gospel. Why? Because Christmas is all around us, right? The decorations, the music and stuff like this. And even if people don't serve Christ as Lord and Savior, they don't know him. I think a lot of people, even if they're not serving Christ, know that Christmas has something to do about Jesus. Right?
[00:03:49] You know, they may have done the whole Santa Claus thing, but they know something to do about Jesus even if they don't know quite what it's about.
[00:03:56] But the truth is, you know, that Christmas season can be a springboard to sharing the truth of Jesus Christ to all these people. Isn't that true? It's a great opportunity. There's been folks I know in this church who were saved during Christmas season. They come to a Christmas Eve service and wow, they gave their hearts to Christ and they're still serving God. Christmas is a wonderful opportunity to share the gospel is what I'm saying, but one of the barriers that people have to faith, one of them when it comes to faith in Christ, is some people simply don't believe that Jesus actually existed or that if he did, the stories of him are completely made up.
[00:04:31] I don't know if you've met anybody like that, or maybe you're here this morning and you would be in that camp that maybe you're not so sure Jesus even existed.
[00:04:38] You're not quite sold on that.
[00:04:41] But I want to speak to that right now before we kind of go on to the account of Luke.
[00:04:46] Now, if you remove the Bible. Remove the Bible from the picture just for a moment.
[00:04:51] Just from secular and historic Jewish historians, secular and Jewish historians of Josephus, Tacitus and Pliny the Younger, you get the following information regarding the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Okay? Take this into account. Jesus, he was crucified by Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius Caesar. We see that in the scripture. We see that outside of scripture. We see outside of scripture that he was a wise teacher and purportedly worked miracles. We see that he had many followers from both Jewish and Gentile communities and that Christians actually work, worshiped Jesus as God and sang hymns to him.
[00:05:27] Some people mistakenly say, well, they didn't believe he was God until like the third century or something. No, they worshiped God. This was, you know, again, secular and Jewish historians during the time of Christ, they wrote about this. Okay? People worshiped him then.
[00:05:41] So it's very important to note. Now, I don't know if this shocks you or not, but if you include these things that we see from extra biblical sources, and then you take the New Testament's account, the Gospel accounts, the life of Jesus, we actually have more historical documentation and corroborating evidence for Jesus than any other person in all of ancient history.
[00:06:04] Do you realize that?
[00:06:05] Why am I saying all this? It's important to know the truth of the matter of the Gospel accounts. Okay? It actually happened.
[00:06:13] Christmas time, I know, for some of us is a very magical season for some people, you know, oh, we drink the eggnog. We've gone through two cartons of eggnog already. That big carton's already gone. I mean, amazing, crazy, two cartons of eggnogs gone, you know, and we enjoy our time. We give gifts and presents and we talk about a Santa Claus maybe, you know, and it's this magical time. No, the truth and the historical fact of what the Gospels present is very important for us.
[00:06:39] Because if it weren't true, all of this is a waste of time.
[00:06:43] Hello.
[00:06:45] We can all go home. We can all have another social club somewhere else. Church is not just a social club.
[00:06:51] We're here to worship the true and living God. Okay? Amen.
[00:06:55] Yeah. Very important.
[00:06:57] Now, as we look at Luke's gospel, we get a sense that historical accuracy was of the most importance for him. And based on his accurate description of towns, cities, islands, and as well as correctly naming various official titles, archaeologists William Mitchell Ramsey wrote this, that Luke is a historian of the first rank. He's not merely. Not merely are his statements of fact trustworthy. He should be placed along with the very greatest of historians.
[00:07:29] So this is how accurate he was and how much care he took to present this historical account.
[00:07:36] Now, some of us already know as well that Luke was not just a historian, he was a medical doctor. He was no dummy.
[00:07:42] He was a smart guy, an educated person who was very concerned about presenting truth in factual matters. This is who Luke was, which is, again, I think, very important to understand.
[00:07:54] And simultaneously, though, it's good to understand as well that Luke wasn't actually there with Jesus when he was doing his ministry. Say what? No, he wasn't one of the apostles. He got saved somewhere after the resurrection of Jesus, as far as we can tell.
[00:08:09] Okay, but somewhere. We don't know what happened, but he was a gentile convert to following, to worshiping Christ. He was a companion of Paul.
[00:08:16] Right, Companion Apostle Luke. Most of us know. Some of us know he also wrote what book in the Bible?
[00:08:23] Acts. He wrote the Gospel of Luke and Acts. And Acts, by the way, is what, a historical account of the early church history. It's what Acts is. It's a history book of the early church. Okay, so Luke now. Okay, well, he wasn't there with Jesus, so how can he write about the life of Jesus? Well, let me tell you how.
[00:08:42] If you've ever seen in a movie or maybe yourself, been unfortunate to go in a court of law situation, maybe you've been there, maybe you watched a movie or read a book or something in a courtroom, they get to the point of, you know, someone's innocent or guilty. There could be all kinds of evidence. But one of the most strongest points of evidence, what they use is what, eyewitness testimony. They bring incredible witnesses to say this is what happened. And they do cross examination to make sure the witness is credible. Right. But if it's a credible testimony, they can help determine whether whatever happened is true. Did this thing actually happen? Yes. No.
[00:09:17] All right, you get the point. Right? So Luke, what he did Was he actually investigated? We're going to read here in just a second. He investigated carefully the eyewitnesses to all the things that happened. And he. And he did so to preserve this documentation of what, you know, what actually happened here. Now, not every gospel is like that. We know some of the other gospels. They were there. They were eyewitnesses. Okay, but Luke, this is not the case with him. But he was a very educated, concerned, historical documentation person. All right, so we're going to read here Luke, chapter one.
[00:09:51] He reads. He says this.
[00:09:53] Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the Word.
[00:10:05] With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things that you have been taught.
[00:10:19] We need to know with certainty these things. I think. Come on now. Right, friends, you know what? We cannot please God without faith. Don't get me wrong, there's a faith element, but I'm glad that my faith is not rooted in some kind of weird.
[00:10:32] No, it's rooted in reality, by faith, in God's. Rooted in fact, in history and reality. These events happened. Now, Luke is writing to some fellow named Theophilus. We don't really know who that is, but we get the sense that he was kind of a person of nobility. He addresses him as your most excellent Theophilus. Right, your excellency, kind of a thing. So he's probably an important person. But of course, Luke writes it.
[00:10:55] These accounts for anybody who reads his gospel as well.
[00:10:59] So we see that Luke is saying, number one, that he. He investigated carefully. All right? He carefully investigated.
[00:11:08] He. And all the information is gathered from the eyewitnesses. It's an orderly account. That's what he said, an orderly account for the information gathered. And his goal was to convince his readers of the truth of the life of Christ. Okay, so with all that being said, we move to the meat of the narrative here today, which starts off with the angelic proclamation. And Luke, being the historian that he is, he doesn't just introduce his gospel the same way as everybody else. I don't know if you read through the four gospels, but they're all a little different, aren't they? Right, Some of them. There's some similarities. Matthew, Mark and Luke, there's some similarities. John is very different, but all four of them There are differences. And one of the key differences is that Luke starts his gospel not just with the angelic proclamation to Mary and Joseph, but rather a couple of folks named Zachariah and Elizabeth. Very interesting.
[00:12:01] And that he would do that. Now I've lost my notes already. Oh, here we go. All right.
[00:12:07] And of course, Zachariah and Elizabeth, they. Elizabeth was Mary, the mother of Jesus, her cousin. Okay, so this is all very interesting. And they were the parents of. Some of us know this. John the Baptist.
[00:12:20] Parents of John the Baptist. So Luke decides to not just give, you know, an account of the birth of Jesus, but an account of John the Baptist, the circumstances surrounding his birth. Why is that important for the Christmas story? Well, we'll get into that. All right. Now, some of us know that John was the one chosen by God to help prepare people, or help prepare the. To pave the way, if you will, for the coming of the Messiah.
[00:12:44] And of course, yes, I said he was the cousin of Jesus. So we're going to pick it up in verse five of Luke, chapter one. We're going to read about this.
[00:12:52] In the time of Herod, the king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah who belonged to the priestly division of Abja. His wife, Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. And both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commands and decrees blamelessly. So they're blameless and righteous in the sight of God. But there was a problem, right? They were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive. And they were both very old.
[00:13:21] Very, very old.
[00:13:24] Once Zachariah's division was on duty, he was serving as a priest before God. And he was chosen by Lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and to burn incense.
[00:13:36] And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside. And then the angel of the Lord appeared to him, Zechariah, standing at the right side of the altar of incense.
[00:13:47] When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him, do not be afraid, Zechariah. Your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John.
[00:14:01] He will be a joy and delight to you. And many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink. And he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before.
[00:14:13] Excuse me, he is born. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord in the spirit in power of Elijah and turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Wow. It's a lot there, isn't there? A lot of good stuff. So what I want to do for a couple of minutes is to speak on briefly some lessons from Zachariah and Elizabeth.
[00:14:45] And I don't think, you know, anything is in scripture, just, you know, for no good reason. There's always a good reason for anything in Scripture. Amen. When God puts it in there for a purpose.
[00:14:55] And I think this story, this narrative of Zechariah and Elizabeth, there's some key things that we can understand here today that I think can help some of us.
[00:15:03] And firstly, number one, righteousness can lead to unexpected blessings.
[00:15:10] Unexpected blessings.
[00:15:12] Scripture tells us that Zechariah and Elizabeth were outstanding people in the eyes of God. Right? Again, they were considered righteousness or righteous and blameless. Of course, they had that major problem. They were childless and they were, what, Very old.
[00:15:25] Obviously we understand that there's a biological clock when it comes to having children. You know, for married couples, for women to have to give birth to a son or daughter.
[00:15:36] They were beyond the age of being able to have children like this.
[00:15:41] And we actually read that Elizabeth says that she was full of disgrace because they were not able to have children.
[00:15:50] Right. Some of us understand that in these biblical times, in that culture, and maybe even for some folks in some other cultures today, believe that God is upset with people if they're not able to conceive and have a baby. Now, guys, we know that's not true, right? We understand that God isn't punishing someone for some kind of thing just because they're not able to conceive. Okay? There's all kinds of things that go on with that. But they truly believed that not having. And we see this in the scripture all over the place, right? There's numerous examples of this where someone was in disgrace. So someone felt kind of like a second class citizen because they weren't able to have a child. And God, you know, didn't enable them to do that.
[00:16:30] So they had this problem, even though the Bible says that they were righteous and blameless.
[00:16:36] And so they had this issue right?
[00:16:39] Now, of course, God shows up, you know, the angel Gabriel shows up, I should say, and tells them, you're going to have this baby, he's going to be a blessing to many, right?
[00:16:50] And why am I saying this? Righteousness leads to unexpected blessings.
[00:16:55] Have you ever gone, you know, just in your life, you're trying your best to do the right things before God, you're waiting on God, you're living for him, you're trying to do the right thing, serve him faithfully, praying, but you're not seeing the answers to the prayer. But you just keep on doing the right thing because, you know, that's what we do, I guess, for some of us. And we just keep trying to be faithful to God. And then maybe months or years later, maybe even decades later, maybe you still didn't get necessarily what you thought was gonna happen, but God, somewhere along the line just kind of did this unexpected blessing that just kind of came out of nowhere. And you know what does anyone ever happen like an unexpected blessing in your life as you're faithfully trying to serve God, even in a moment of waiting, other than me, you know what I'm talking about some people here, I mean, why am I saying this, right?
[00:17:38] Some of the biggest blessings that come just as we're waiting on God, maybe for years, but God sometimes will just surprise us with a wonderful blessing in a way that we never saw coming.
[00:17:50] Isn't that true? I think God's much smarter than us and he blesses us.
[00:17:56] And for Zechariah and Elizabeth, I think as well that, you know, they were waiting so long for this child, they probably appreciated having the child a whole lot more than if they had a child. Maybe when they were, wasn't the way they designed it right, wasn't the way they thought it up.
[00:18:11] But God comes at the right time for them to bless them, to show them his goodness and his grace. And I pray he's done that in your life.
[00:18:22] At the right time, God will exhibit his grace and his blessing towards us.
[00:18:28] But we know that Zechariah and Elizabeth's son John was not just a blessing to them.
[00:18:35] But I also believe that righteousness and in this case for John, brings a generational influence, you know, sometimes by us just doing the right things. Being faithful to God has very little to do with how God is going to bless me, but very much how he's going to bless those who come after us.
[00:18:50] Isn't that true by you doing the right things, it's setting an example for people around you all the time.
[00:18:58] All the time.
[00:19:00] For people that you work with, your co workers, for your family, that you connect with, for your children, those who Are parents right? My prayer, of course, is that my example, my wife's example isn't just for them. Yeah, it's for them. But I want this example to go on for generation for their kids and that there's a heritage that's built. Amen. So as we righteously, you know, faithfully walk out our faith in God and try to our best with God's help and grace among us, to do the right things, to live a faithful and righteous and obedient life, that it brings an influence that's greater than it could ever have been.
[00:19:33] And guess what? As you're faithful before God, what does the Bible say? That you know, who was ever faithful in the little God will give more.
[00:19:40] So if you're faithful just to do what God has asked and requiring you to do, God's going to give you greater influence, a greater ability to do more for his glory, for his kingdom.
[00:19:52] Amen.
[00:19:55] I think with Zechariah and Elizabeth probably.
[00:19:58] Well, we know that they were, you know, certainly without children, that there would have been a lot of times to be very much confused and discouraged and frustrated about God. Why? Why are we in this state? Especially when they were, you know, in a culture where this was, you know, so looked down upon. Right. But they kept serving God anyways, even without the answers.
[00:20:21] Amen. Wow. Even without answers from God as to why they kept serving, kept doing the right things, keep doing what's right before the eyes of God.
[00:20:35] So my obedience to God sometimes actually has little to do about me and more what he might want to do through the lives, in the lives of others if I remain faithful to Him.
[00:20:45] Next thing to note is that we can be righteous even while doubting.
[00:20:51] Isn't that interesting?
[00:20:53] Who here among us, if we're being honest, would say, I've never doubted anything ever about God?
[00:21:02] Okay, I'm glad we're all good here. Okay, okay, trick question. Look, every. I don't care who, how faithful you are, how holy you are, how close to God you are, there's been moments when you've doubted something about God and what he's doing in your life.
[00:21:13] Right? That's true.
[00:21:15] Right. We have these doubts. I'm believing for this, but I'm not saying it. Oh, Lord, help me to have faith. You know, Lord, I trust you, but I don't know what you're doing.
[00:21:26] Right. It's kind of the way it goes.
[00:21:29] So we're going to pick it up. In verse 18 of Luke, chapter 1, it says, Zechariah asked the angel, how can I be sure of this. Sure of what? About the child that you're promising that we're going to have. How can I be sure of this? I'm an old man and my wife is well along in years.
[00:21:47] And the angel said to him, I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God. And I've been sent.
[00:21:54] Sorry, I'm going to bring it up there for you. I've been sent to speak to you, to tell you about this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens because you did not believe my words. Now, pause here for a moment. I'm thankful that every time I have a little bit of doubt that God doesn't zip up my mouth and I can't talk.
[00:22:12] All right? Because I'd be mute most of the time then. Well, not most of the time, but some of the time.
[00:22:17] This is what happened here. We're going to talk about that.
[00:22:21] Because you did not believe my words, which will come true. At their appointed time. Verse 21. Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple.
[00:22:32] When he came out, he could not speak to them.
[00:22:34] They realized that he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them, but remained unable to speak.
[00:22:41] And when his time of service was completed, he returned home. After this.
[00:22:46] Sorry. After this, his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. The Lord has done this for me, she said. And these days, he has shown us favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.
[00:22:59] Not only was Zachariah and Elizabeth just trying to do the right thing and, you know, be faithful to God. Zachariah was a priest. He was a minister. He was ministering before the Lord. His life was actually dedicated to the service of God and which is really about helping other people, too, right?
[00:23:18] How many ever felt like, man, I got nothing to give. Someone's asking me to serve someone else and give someone give to someone else. But we feel so depleted. I mean, we've all been there maybe to some degree, but they not. They serve God in a ministry type of way, boy.
[00:23:34] Right? That tells me we can push past things to actually help bless other people.
[00:23:39] Even if you're feeling a little bit depleted, even if you're feeling a little foot of doubt, even if your life isn't lining up the way you think it should line up, we could always serve other people and actually make a difference.
[00:23:49] Amen.
[00:23:50] All right, now, biblical commentator Darrell Bock expounds on this text of Scripture. He says sometimes even good people have doubts about God's promise. We just said that.
[00:24:01] The angel tells Zechariah, in effect, just be quiet for a while and watch God work.
[00:24:06] I like that. Just be quiet. Just trust God. Look. Look and watch and see what God's going to do. Right.
[00:24:13] He says the sign being muted is a pointer to the major lesson of this passage. God will bring his promise to pass. Amen. He will do it. He will perform his word.
[00:24:24] And Zachariah must listen to God and trust that he will do what he has promised.
[00:24:30] Now, our pain. He goes on to say, our pain may not be the absence of a child, but there are a myriad of things that can bring disappointment in life. We know that's true. Yet one thing neither Zachariah nor Elizabeth succumbed to was bitterness. Even though Elizabeth felt disgrace. Quote, unquote.
[00:24:48] Oh, pause there. They didn't get bitter. How easy it is to get into a state of bitterness. When God doesn't do the things that we're hoping and praying and believing for him to do.
[00:24:59] Right. It's easy to get bitter. They didn't get better. They kept trusting God and serving him faithfully. Friends, that's what we need to do.
[00:25:06] Because at the right time, God brought an unexpected blessing.
[00:25:10] Come on now. Right. He wants to do that for each one of us. I believe.
[00:25:16] Where do we leave off here?
[00:25:17] Maybe that's one reason God. Okay. It says sorry. Zechariah and Elizabeth succumbed to. They didn't succumb to bitterness even though Elizabeth felt disgrace. Maybe that is one reason God called them upright and blameless to begin with. I guess. Right?
[00:25:31] Maybe that's part of it. Because they didn't get bitter. But good people need to learn to rely on God even more on God. Sometimes the answer to their disappointment is not clear. That's true. We. Whether it be the loss of a child to premature death, a financial collapse, dealing with a child who falls into calamity or serious sin or an unfortunate accident. Hard times are not always self explanatory.
[00:25:54] Very true. God never guarantees that life will come without pain.
[00:26:00] We understand that's true.
[00:26:02] The central issue is how we handle it.
[00:26:05] Bitterness will yield the fruit of anger and frustration, sapping the joy of life. Have you ever been there when things weren't working out the way that you thought they should and it kind of sucked the joy out of life for you?
[00:26:15] I've actually been there.
[00:26:18] Lord help us. Because at the right time he will bring that blessing.
[00:26:23] Trust and dependence will cause us to find fulfillment in Ways we would not even considered otherwise.
[00:26:29] That's good. We should also note that what had been a long term void in this couple's life was part of God's sovereign plan, where he stepped in late, so to speak, into the game, to change the direction of past disappointments. The blessing was sweeter once it came. Because when the child arrived, he was not taken for granted.
[00:26:48] Wow. There's something about that.
[00:26:51] You appreciate the blessings more after a battle, isn't that true?
[00:26:55] Right.
[00:26:56] And by the way, I said this in the first service. I think that's. That's kind of life, isn't it? It's full of battles and full of blessings. If you're walking with God, there's blessings in their battles, there's blessings in their battles, and sometimes at the exact same time you got a battle. But there's also a blessing that's just life. Isn't that true?
[00:27:15] The blessing was sweeter once it came because when the child arrived, he was not taken for granted. The child was clearly what all children are, a gift from God. The seemingly random falling of the lot to Zechariah was actually designed to set the stage for this fresh entry of God into this couple's life and into the nation's life.
[00:27:31] Well, basically, say, look, this was not just a blessing for Zechariah and Elizabeth. This was a blessing for the nation of Israel, for the people of Israel.
[00:27:41] Oh, man. I mean, you don't know what God is going to do in someone's life or through someone's life when we're obedient to Him. Right.
[00:27:49] Sometimes God's timing, though different from ours, is infinitely wiser.
[00:27:54] That's an understatement. I think God is gracious in seemingly mysterious ways. Sometimes we are deprived of something because God has better things awaiting us down the road. When we wait patiently on the Lord, he often gives us more than we imagine possible.
[00:28:09] Zechariah and Elizabeth wanted a child. What they got was a prophet.
[00:28:13] God's ways are set to his clock, and they are often filled with things that cause us to wonder as we rejoice at his surprises.
[00:28:21] Has anybody been surprised by the goodness of God in your life? And you say, you know what? His grace and his mercy is more than I deserve. And he's given me more than I deserve.
[00:28:28] Anybody here? Come on. Amen.
[00:28:31] Yeah.
[00:28:32] Praise God.
[00:28:34] Praise God.
[00:28:36] So Luke again takes this interesting route before we even get to the birth of Christ and emphasizing John's story.
[00:28:43] But why does he emphasize John's story? Well, we're going to Pick it up again in verse 57 in just a moment. But between what we just read in verse 57, we then get this interlude of the angel Gabriel coming to Mary to now tell her that she's going to give birth, you know, as a virgin, give birth to this son, and he's going to be, you know, the Messiah. And, okay, we see that. But he also tells Mary that your cousin Elizabeth is also six months pregnant as well.
[00:29:11] Whoa. Okay. So she's pretty excited about this.
[00:29:14] And. And then we.
[00:29:17] And then we hear. Sorry, in that text as well, that when Elizabeth heard Mary. When Mary goes to visit Elizabeth. When Elizabeth hears Mary's voice for the first time, the baby inside of her leaps, it says, and then was filled with the Holy Spirit.
[00:29:30] And remember, we read the promise from the angel Gabriel earlier that your baby is going to be filled with the Spirit before he's even born.
[00:29:36] So now we actually see this. Right. It's quite remarkable. So we're going to pick up the story in verse 57 of Luke, chapter 1.
[00:29:45] When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy. On the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father, Zechariah. But his mother spoke up and said, no, he is to be called John. And they said to her, there is no one among your relatives who has that name.
[00:30:09] Then they made signs to his father to find out what he would like to name the child.
[00:30:14] And he asked for a writing tablet. And to everyone's astonishment, he wrote, his name is John.
[00:30:21] And immediately his mouth was open. Wow. And his tongue set free. And he began to speak, praising God.
[00:30:27] And all the neighbors were filled with awe. And throughout the hill country of Judea, people were talking about all these things. And everybody who heard this wondered about it, asking, what then is this child going to be for the Lord's hand, I mean, clearly was with him, right? So they didn't know, but Zechariah and Elizabeth knew. And really, what was the promise? We read it earlier, right? That he was going to bring back people, the people of Israel to God. He was going to go before the Lord. The spirit and power of Elijah turn the hearts of the parents to their children, you know, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. That's who John the Baptist was, right? That's who he turned out to be. He had a high calling to do this work for The Lord to do this work of the Lord.
[00:31:08] And so really, the first reason why Luke really takes emphasis on the story of John the Baptist, because it fulfills promises. Promises. What promises of the Scripture in the Old Testament, prophecies being fulfilled. We know that the person of Christ. For the skeptic here, if you're a skeptic or you're online watching, we already gave the historical account of the Gospels and how accurate it is. We also need to know that there's in the old Testament over 300 prophecies concerning the life of Jesus that was fulfilled by Jesus in his lifetime that we read about in the New Testament.
[00:31:41] Over 300. Okay.
[00:31:43] Some of them. We read one earlier this morning in Isaiah 9, 6. Right. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given. He will be called wonderful God, Mighty God, you know? Sorry. Wonderful counselor. Mighty God.
[00:31:54] That's a. That's a prophetic utterance of the coming Messiah, Jesus. Right. We read in Isaiah 7:14 that he would be born of a virgin.
[00:32:04] This is 700 years before Christ was born.
[00:32:08] He'd be born of a virgin and he will be called Emmanuel. Which means what?
[00:32:13] God with us.
[00:32:14] So the Messiah is not just a Messiah, which means anointed one and coming to deliver people from the Roman occupation or whatever.
[00:32:22] No, no, no. The Messiah is actually God with us. God in the flesh. Okay. Very important.
[00:32:28] Some people say, oh, well, Jesus, you know, he just kind of rearranged his life to fulfill prophecy so that he could be seen as important. Well, it also says in Micah chapter 5, verse 2 that he'd be born in Bethlehem.
[00:32:39] Now, Jesus couldn't arrange the location of his birth. I can guarantee you that. All right.
[00:32:44] None of us can do that. Right.
[00:32:47] Why am I saying all this? Very important. The person of Christ fulfilling prophecy. But we see John the Baptist fulfilled the prophetic role talked about in Isaiah 40, verse 3 regarding the coming of the Messiah, as Isaiah wrote that he was to be a voice calling in the wilderness to prepare a way for the Lord. And we see this confirmed in Matthew's Gospel in chapter three, that this is who Isaiah was talking about, preparing a way for the Messiah, for the coming of the Lord. Now, okay, this sounds significant, but how did John prepare the way for the Lord? That's a great question that I see is burning on your mind and heart. So we're going to answer that right now.
[00:33:25] How did John prepare the way for the Lord and what can we learn from it?
[00:33:28] Okay, so I'm going to read this from. It's gotquestions.org it's actually a pretty handy website if you don't have biblical commentaries like myself or Pastor Mark or Pastor Paul has. It's a great source. I don't agree with everything all the time, but it's a great place. So this is what they say about John the Baptist in how he prepared the way for the Lord. It says John the Baptist.
[00:33:48] Oh, right here. John the Baptist beckoned the Jewish people to repent their sins and be baptized. An act that outwardly demonstrated the inward dedication of their lives to God through the immersion in water.
[00:34:04] Stop there. He's talking about the Jewish people, right? They weren't baptizing people in the name of Jesus at this time. He was baptizing God fearing Jewish people. Right?
[00:34:15] Repentance is the inescapable beginning of faith. And baptism represented a new way of doing things for the Jews.
[00:34:21] As a religious practice, baptism was generally only done by outsiders, Gentiles who were converting to Judaism. I don't know if you knew this. We talk about this in our baptism class here.
[00:34:30] We used to anyways, a few years back, basically saying that if someone was a Gentile, they weren't Jewish, but they wanted to serve God, they wanted to give their hearts to God. How they went about that was baptism, right? So that they're buried in this water, that their old life has gone. They come up, they're new, they're going to live a new life. The symbolism is still there, right? In many ways at least. And then he goes on to say, to prepare the way. Whoops. Go back. End of slides. Nope. To prepare the way of the Lord and to make his path straight. To prepare the way of the Lord to make his path straight. John needed the Jews to understand that their ancestral heritage would not save them. Faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior would require a personal commitment, a turning away from sin, and a new life of devotion to God. John's baptism called for repentance from sin, meaning real life change as well as belief in Jesus Christ.
[00:35:24] So what are we saying?
[00:35:26] Basically, in a nutshell, John comes on the scene to baptize people to people who had hard hearts. To say, look, just your heritage, your cultural background, your, you know, your Jewishness, if you will.
[00:35:42] You're a descendant of Abraham. That's nice, but that doesn't make you right before God. There's a repentance of sin. God's more concerned with your heart and he's trying to tell the Jewish people that this is what the case is. Because how many know that's exactly what Jesus will represent. Right. When he comes.
[00:35:59] So he's preparing the way to say, God cares more about the heart, more about the inward than the outward. So he's doing that. But he then goes on to say, look. And we read in the Scripture, there's the Lamb of God. He's pointing to Jesus to say, look, there he is. Who's worthy? I'm not even worthy enough to tie the laces on his sandals, Right?
[00:36:22] Go to him.
[00:36:24] So John's ministry goes from baptizing people to pointing people to Christ.
[00:36:29] So this is how he's preparing the way for the Messiah, for Jesus to come and to begin his earthly ministry.
[00:36:37] In fact, John, he wasn't. I mean, John's a very interesting guy, but the thing that I love about him is that he wasn't interested in building his own ministry. He wasn't interested in really collecting a number of followers. But he goes on to say, in John's gospel, we read it, I believe in chapter three, he says that he must increase. Talking about Jesus. Look, there he is. In fact, he must increase and I must decrease.
[00:37:03] Right? He needs the attention and the accolades. I need to just kind of step aside. He's the focal point. He's the reason. He's the reason why I'm here. Y' all worship and follow him.
[00:37:14] I love that about John because we have a tendency as people to. We don't realize it.
[00:37:21] Hello. Right? Pastors can be guilty of this, to want the attention.
[00:37:26] Oof.
[00:37:28] Want to be on the spotlight.
[00:37:30] Worship leaders. Hello.
[00:37:34] You know, it's not American Idol up here, Right.
[00:37:37] We have a tendency to want accolades, to want the attention. But John said, no, my life isn't about me. My life is about him.
[00:37:47] It's about Christ.
[00:37:50] That's the question I have for each one of us here today.
[00:37:53] Is this our testimony that life isn't all about me and what I can get out of it?
[00:37:59] Is it about how I can serve Jesus?
[00:38:02] Is it about how can I point other people to Christ?
[00:38:06] How can I prepare the way for Christ in someone else's life?
[00:38:10] Right?
[00:38:11] So Luke is talking about all of this. And sometimes we gloss over it, but it's very important, certainly in this Christmas season, where, again, I certainly believe that it's an opportunistic time to share the gospel, to point people to Christ because of the season.
[00:38:28] Do we take on an attitude of John the Baptist saying, he must increase, I must decrease? Look, there's the Lamb of God.
[00:38:34] Worship him.
[00:38:36] So the question, I guess that as we're kind of gearing down this service and I'll be done here in about five minutes, I think, give or take, you know, we need to understand that life isn't all about you or all about me.
[00:38:52] How are we serving others is a question.
[00:38:56] How are we lifting up someone else?
[00:39:00] It's curious to me. Even Jesus, who we'd all hopefully, if you're a believer here today, would agree that he deserves all of our praise and adoration and worship. What did he say? What was his attitude? He said the Son of man didn't come to serve. Or sorry, didn't come to be served, but to serve.
[00:39:16] In fact, when you read the Gospels, you see that everything Jesus did was for the betterment of other people.
[00:39:22] Like everything, right?
[00:39:25] And yet sometimes we're so selfish and so self oriented that we don't even see the needs of other people. How we can serve them, how we can help benefit them, how we can help them come closer to God, how he can meet their needs.
[00:39:39] But sometimes, maybe oftentimes, or maybe even always, God calls us to lay down our self interest and serve, support and bless others. Amen.
[00:39:52] That's what God is calling us to do.
[00:39:55] And how are we going to do that this Christmas season?
[00:39:58] Good question.
[00:40:01] You know, I guess in kind of conclusion here, Talking about preparing the way for the Lord. How are we doing that this Christmas season with our own lives?
[00:40:16] Are we making preparation for the Lord, for his presence, for his reality? Maybe in our homes, our families? How are we preparing the way for the Lord in our workplaces, in our relationships, in our own hearts?
[00:40:29] The reality is John the Baptist, yeah, he had a mission from God. But you know, we've all been bought with a price.
[00:40:34] Do you guys know that if you're in Christ, your life does not just belong to you anymore?
[00:40:38] You don't just get to do what you want, when you want because you want to do it.
[00:40:42] I mean, God does give us autonomy, he gives us free will. Absolutely. Not like you have to pray about what kind of socks I'm gonna put on this morning, right?
[00:40:51] If you've done that this morning, that's okay, I forgive you. You can go ahead and do that if you want. I don't think God requires you to do that.
[00:40:57] He does give us some autonomy, don't get me wrong.
[00:41:00] But your life, you do need to be consulting with God. Amen. You do need to be checking in with him. Lord, is this what you want me to do, God? Would you lead me? Would you guide me, God? How can I help someone else in need, Lord, how can I bless that person? How can I show your love to that person? God, give me an opportunity to share your truth with this person.
[00:41:19] Life isn't all about you or me. It's about what God wants to do in us and through us. Usually for the benefit of others.
[00:41:27] Every one of us. See, well, Pastor Darren, man, I really don't got things together and I got all these struggles. Why I hear you, yes, you may have some struggles, but you know what? Go and help someone else in need, get your eyes off your, your pain for a few minutes and bless someone else. Because you know what that does, that actually helps lift your own load, right? You feel a lot better when you go and bless someone else and help someone else. That's the truth, right?
[00:41:53] Jesus said it's better to give than to receive. That's why he said it.
[00:41:57] Right?
[00:41:59] You know, and perhaps you're in a season of life like Zechariah and Elizabeth were maybe facing disappointment, disgrace.
[00:42:08] They felt very disgraced, confusion. Lord, why have youe allowed this to unfold? And I don't understand it, God, I'm doing the right things. But, Lord, you're not showing up the way I'm asked or wanting or hoping. And maybe you're in a season like that where you're confused or disappointed. My encouragement for you is keep going.
[00:42:26] Amen. Keep doing the right thing.
[00:42:29] Faithfully serve God and serve and bless others. Amen. Keep doing it. Because at the right time, Scripture says, you know, don't. Don't be weary and well doing. For at the right time, God will bring a harvest in your life. At the right time, he will surprise you with a blessing you didn't see coming.
[00:42:45] Keep being faithful. God is, he's so good. We need to keep moving towards him and the things that he's called and created us to do.
[00:42:54] And as we read how John the Baptist prepared a way for the Lord by laying down his life to make Jesus known, perhaps too, we need to lay some things down this Christmas season in order to make him known.
[00:43:05] Maybe we need to lay down our pride to make Christ known this holiday season. Maybe we need to lay down some of our disappointments. Maybe we need to lay down our time, Sacrifice some time for someone who needs us to be there for them. Maybe we need to sacrifice some money, right?
[00:43:24] We cling on to money sometimes very, you know, very tightly.
[00:43:29] What can you give to God and to others to help make Jesus known this Christmas season? That's a good question for us, right?
[00:43:36] A couple of practical things. Here, I'll close with this as I shared it earlier. And we put out a social media post a couple weeks ago about five ways, you know, you can help make Jesus known this holiday season.
[00:43:47] We talked about. One of them was certainly just was, you know, inviting someone to come to church but not just ask them, hey, you should come to church. No, invite them to come with you. Hey, I'll pick you up if you want.
[00:43:57] That's a little more, you know, when it's more personal, hey, come with me to church. Right? That means a little more than hey, you should come to church. I want to hang with you in my church.
[00:44:06] Hello. Right?
[00:44:07] The number one reason people don't come to church is because they're not invited.
[00:44:10] We know that's true.
[00:44:13] We can host someone in our homes.
[00:44:17] You guys know that hospitality is a biblical trait and expresses the heart of God.
[00:44:23] It really does.
[00:44:24] God's invited you into his home, in his family. We can invite people into our home and to be with our family. Hello.
[00:44:31] Isn't that true?
[00:44:32] Now you don't have to have a nice place. That's okay. You don't have to have a big place.
[00:44:37] You know, clean it up a little would help maybe, but.
[00:44:40] Or leave it messy. Doesn't matter.
[00:44:42] Whatever, right? Invite people over.
[00:44:46] How about buying a thoughtful gift for someone?
[00:44:49] Some of us are. I'm not good at giving nice gifts, but a thoughtful gift is really nice. You know what I mean? Not just an expensive gift, but a thoughtful gift that can mean something for somebody. Right? Is that true? It could make a difference in someone's life, especially if you're trying to win them with the love of God.
[00:45:05] Hello. Right?
[00:45:07] Beautiful.
[00:45:08] We can share the true meaning of Christmas in our conversations. That's a way to share Christ. I mean, very simply. So, hey, what's your family tradition at Christmas? You can ask people that question, say, well, our family tradition is this. And it can lead to a spiritual conversation to share the truth of who Jesus is.
[00:45:24] Amen. Some things, practical things, I think we can all do to sow seeds of God's love in this season. Amen.
[00:45:33] Would you stand with me? I'm done here today.
[00:45:36] That's all the notes I have.
[00:45:40] Pastor Paul will be back next week.
[00:45:43] A little one off here.
[00:45:45] One off from me.
[00:45:51] I certainly hope and pray this Christmas season that you experience just a true, deep measure of God's blessing and presence in your homes.
[00:45:59] Experience the presence of Christ. Not just about gifts and good food. And that's wonderful. And family.
[00:46:06] Amen. That's all wonderful. Blessings. It's good to enjoy those things, but that we certainly have a reality of the presence of our Lord and Savior in our homes, in our families, that it would be heightened. We should have that all the time.
[00:46:23] But Christmas season should be a time when I think that's heightened because of the time of year in which we celebrate.
[00:46:30] I believe the world needs that. Amen.
[00:46:34] The world needs God's people to have a heightened sense of his presence and awareness in the times in which we live.
[00:46:41] I believe that there's a growing sense of the need for God in the lives of people who are far away from Him. People are recognizing there's got to be more to life than this. They see the confusion of the world, the problems of the world, sometimes the evil in the world.
[00:46:57] I had a conversation recently with someone. They didn't know I was a pastor, and they were swearing like a sailor or oil patchworker, which I think is what they were. And usually when I have conversations like this and people find out I'm a pastor, usually a couple things happen. Usually, number one, the conversation stops because they think pastors are weird.
[00:47:17] Some of us are.
[00:47:19] Either the conversation just stops right there or they start apologizing profusely for their. For their potty mouth.
[00:47:25] Usually one of those two things happen, but in this case, the person didn't do any of those things. He kept swearing, but he kept talking.
[00:47:32] But he said, you know what? You're a pastor. Yeah, well, you know what? I've never really considered spiritual things before, but I'm starting to now.
[00:47:40] I said, well, why is that?
[00:47:42] Is it because of how messed up things are in the world and how screwed up they are?
[00:47:46] I'm now starting to question some things. I'm like, brother, you're on the right path. Christ is the answer. I told him, right, friends, this is what the world is looking for. We need to live it out. Amen. Be more bold. Not in an obnoxious way, but we need to be a little more bold with our faith to say, this is. This is what Christmas is about. You can come to church with me, man. Why don't you come with me? Come with me on Christmas Eve. We have a wonderful church service here, right? Come with me on a Sunday morning. Let me tell you about Jesus.
[00:48:16] Amen.
[00:48:18] Let's pray. Let's pray.
[00:48:20] Father God, I thank you this afternoon for your presence that's among us. God, you are so wonderful.
[00:48:27] God, you are so loving, so merciful, so gracious. God, thank you for bringing us into your family, to the family. Of God. Lord, you've invited us into your home, to your family. God, I pray that we would all make room, Lord, in our lives, even if we're very busy, even if we feel like we are in lack and we don't have the things that we think we need. And God, I pray that you would help each one of us to make a shift in our minds and in our hearts. That God, you have positioned us, you've blessed us, you've appointed us to make a difference in the lives of others. Even if it's small, even if it's planting a seed. Help us to represent you well this Christmas season to share your gospel, to share your truth. And God, I do pray that there's any here who are like Zachariah perhaps, or Elizabeth, or you know, facing disappointments or frustrations or struggle or challenges. And maybe it's you years and you're confused and wondering why God has allowed this. I just want to pray, Lord, that you would encourage people today to keep going, to keep doing the right thing, to faithfully serve the Lord and to serve other people. Because, God, I believe at the right time, you will honor them.
[00:49:35] You will honor those, Lord, who are faithful to you in this life and in the next life. God, you honor those in that way. So, Lord, I pray today that you would encourage and strengthen each one of us to live out the assignments that you have for us and in this Christmas season, Lord, that we will see people turn their hearts towards you. That we will indeed prepare a way for people to come to Christ, even this Christmas season.
[00:49:58] Jesus, help us to do that individually and corporately as a church family. Lord, we thank you now and we praise you. We give you the highest praise. You deserve it all today, Jesus, for what you've done for us. We love you today. We pray it all in your awesome name. In Jesus name we pray.
[00:50:15] Amen. Amen. God bless you today as you leave.
[00:50:19] We'll see you later.
