The Gospel of Luke 1:57-80 He shall be called John
Luke 1:57-80 · Vern Peterman · Nov 9, 2014
Gospel of Luke, No. 06
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926446362281

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. We're going to be venturing into this passage that Brad just read for us here, Gospel of Luke, Investigating Jesus, and we'll be wrapping up the first chapter with this passage and then next week starting into chapter two. So one of the things that we've done here is to present questions.

These questions we're going to address today. When Elizabeth's baby is born, will it be a boy or a son? So we're going to take a look at that. Why will Zacharias and Elizabeth astound everyone by breaking with the naming tradition among the Jews? All right. And then when Zacharias finally is able to speak, what will he say? Well, we'll certainly take a look at that.

And finally, what will be said for the third time in Luke chapter 1 that only Dr. Luke wrote in Luke and in Acts both those books contain that so we'll venture in that way now we've heard so far just to kind of get the continuity Zacharias was told by Gabriel that John would be born from his wife Elizabeth Mary was told by Gabriel that she would bear the Messiah by a virgin conception. Now notice I used that term conception. The typical term is virgin birth, but it's actually a virgin conception is where it starts, and that's actually the point at which the angel identifies. We have a virgin miraculous conception here.

And then Mary was betrothed to Joseph at the time, and it appears from the cultural patterns and what her questions are that this is early in their betrothal period. We would say that they were engaged, but this is a much more formal thing in that culture than it is in ours.

Mary, having been informed by Gabriel, went to see her relative Elizabeth. It was Gabriel that told her, your relative Elizabeth, who's in the hill country of Judah, about four days travel away, was in her sixth month of pregnancy with John. So Mary hightails it down to see Elizabeth. Now Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months.

And then we have, here's Luke 1, 57 and 58. Now the time had come for Elizabeth to give birth, and she gave birth to a son. There's a clue there. Her neighbors and her relatives heard that the Lord had displayed his great mercy toward her, and they were rejoicing with her. Now this was in fulfillment of what the angel Gabriel had told Zacharias. His wife would have a son.

This is Luke 1.13.

So that Dr. Luke wrote that she conceived a son, this is Luke 1.36, and Luke 1.57 tells us that she bore a son. It's a good thing that those all lined up. If they called it John and it was a daughter, that just wouldn't work, right? So, it was Angel Gabriel told him he'd have a son, Luke wrote she conceived a son, and 1.57, she bore a son.

Okay. After Elizabeth had spent five months in seclusion, it had become known to her neighbors and relatives that she was with child. They all rejoiced with her. The Lord, and who we have here, the Lord magnified his great mercy towards her. That's actually the literal meaning of the word. The Lord magnified his mercy toward her, is the way it was put.

She had gone for decades of her life barren and unable to have a child. And in the Jewish culture, that was just a real reproach and very difficult. The Jews, of course, took it as law that you be fruitful and multiply. And so for her to have no child whatsoever was something that was troubling to her.

So here's Luke 1, 59 through 61. And it happened that on the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child and they were going to call him Zacharias after his father. But his mother answered and said, no indeed, but he shall be called John. Which there's a couple things about this that would be kind of startling to the people, okay? One is, Elizabeth is the one pronouncing things here, okay? That's just, that's not okay, right? And then for her to say no indeed to a man who's carrying this out, and then say he's going to be called John, what? You know? So this was quite contrary to the culture.

And verse 61, and they said to her, there is no one among your relatives who is called by that name, which gives us a clue about their tradition. Now, the laws of motherhood, which we'll see again in a few weeks, it'll actually pop up in a couple of places here, are found in Leviticus chapter 12. So laws of motherhood, boy, you've got to do this and this and this and this and this. And one of those points of instruction was circumcised on the eighth day. That was a key point there.

Leviticus 12.6 says that a Jewish baby boy is to be circumcised on the eighth day, even if that day is a Sabbath.

See, the Jews had all kinds of definitions as to what was work. I mean, even today they've got strange definitions as to what's work. Like the sheets on the toilet paper roll, you can't pull those off, that's work on a Sabbath, right? You can't do that on a Sabbath, that's work. Pushing the elevator buttons, that's work. Circumcision trumped that. Even though it was work, it was circumcision and you had to do it on the 8th day. It must be done that day.

Jewish tradition said on the 8th day, the name for the baby boy would be selected. Isn't it interesting? This baby was kind of officially unnamed until that 8th day. And what they would do is they would go through the family tree and look at what are some other names that have been, you know, given from the family tree and you'd have to pick from that. You couldn't just pick one. The tradition said you must pick from among the family tree. And so that's the way it's done. Always the way it's done, right?

So, since Zacharias had not been on speaking terms with anyone, For nine months now, the attending rabbi, and it may not have been a rabbi, but the person who was performing the ceremony there, would be inclined to name the baby boy Zacharias, because after all, that's certainly in the family tree, and his father can't say much. So about to name the baby Zacharias. So this is when Elizabeth, oh no, right?

It would also be assumed, given the boy's lineage, that he would grow up to be a priest, like his father had been. He has the right lineage, and his mother is even of the line of Aaron. I mean, that's even better, right? So, the assumption would be, you're going to name him Zacharias, or some other family name, and he's going to be a priest. That's what's going to happen, right? And so, what happens?

That's one big reason to name this boy differently so that the traditions don't determine what he does and who he is. He's going to be different, different than his lineage would dictate, different from any other tradition. He's got a separate role given by God that's picked out. God had non-traditional plans for this baby boy.

Now, also by tradition, the father would pronounce the name of the child, the father, right? But since Zacharias was not speaking, Elizabeth spoke up, which is, of course, just shook everybody up. No, indeed, he should be called John, right? People who were present were very surprised and puzzled. What? Now, first of all, Elizabeth is saying it, and that just doesn't count. That doesn't go.

But to have her come up with this name John, they're trying to roll through the family names. Wait a minute, that's not in the list of anybody in the family. So the name John was not found among the entire family tree. Nobody was named John in the family, not going back far or anything. Just it wasn't there.

So Zacharias had to speak up, right? So at Luke 1, 62-64, it reads like this, And they made signs to his father as to what he wanted him called. And he asked for a tablet and wrote as follows, His name is John. And they were all astonished. Oh, what? And at once his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he began to speak in praise of God. Well, this is an extraordinary circumcision ceremony. Very untraditional. Now, signs. Now, think about this. When you think about signs, they didn't hold up signs. It's not this kind of sign. Not one of those. And so it's not that. Instead, this is starting to get funny.

Because Zacharias can't speak, they must think he can't hear either. And so they start waving, and I went on to say, Zacharias, why don't you write down what you want to call them? But instead of that, they're doing charades. So the people must have assumed that Zacharias couldn't speak, or hear, either. So they made signs at him, trying to get his input in the most puzzling of names.

Elizabeth can't be right on the name John for this infant son of theirs. Besides that, Elizabeth's not the one to dictate this sort of thing. Zacharias must have the final say, even if he can't say. So Zacharias asks for a writing tablet, something to write on. Puts down, his name is John. Elizabeth was not mistaken about the puzzling name of her infant son. So the reaction of the people, they are astonished. They're just bewildered. They're wondering, what? What are you doing? You know the tradition. What are you doing breaking the tradition? Both of you are crazy, right?

They wondered at the name John given to this eight-year-old infant. Now, think about Zacharias. When the angel Gabriel first told him that his wife, in her old age, was going to bear a son, and you're going to call him John, his response was, how can I be sure?

Basically, unbelief. And that's what Gabriel said, because you didn't believe. So unbelief was his reaction. Now, so the angel said, you're not going to be able to speak until everything here is fulfilled. So he had nine months to think about this, right? Couldn't say anything, so at least he could think. So what we see is him making a transition from unbelief to belief.

Even, I'm going to break the naming tradition in faith. In faith. So here's Luke 1.13, your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you will give him the name John. So as Zacharias wrote, the name was John. His return to faith allowed him to speak and to say it as well. So think about this.

Suppose you had been Zacharias. What are the possibilities about what your mindset might have been? Could Zacharias have been mad at God for his silence? Could he have been? Except he couldn't say anything. Right? He could have been mad at God for his silence and ticked off. Would it have done any good? No. No, it wouldn't. Could Zacharias have decided to name his son other than John just to get back at God for making him silent for nine months? Could he have done that? I suppose. Would it have been good for him to do that? Uh-uh. Now let's ask this question.

Was Zacharias being punished for his unbelief or was he being disciplined in order to bring him back to faith? This is a key thing that we went through in Hebrews 12. God does not punish believers. God does not punish believers. If we're going through something that's tough, maybe you can even say bad, it's either discipline, as was happening here with Zacharias, or it's trials for our growth. But God does not punish believers. Now that he's back to a place of faith, will nothing bad ever happen again? Not really. We don't get that promise, and neither does Zacharias. Here we have Luke 1, 65 and 66.

This is the response of all the people in the hill country of Judah. Fear came on all those living around them, and all these matters were being talked about in all the hill country of Judea. All who heard them kept them in mind, saying, what then will this child turn out to be?

For the hand of the Lord was certainly with him. Now, why did they fear? Think about this. What were the people afraid of? You see, people having known that Zacharias was made to be silent, suddenly something God did, were astounded when he did speak. It was a surprise. They weren't expecting it. So there was that. Similarly, there was a fear of the power of God being made evident in their neighbor and relative Zacharias being made silent and then being made able to speak again.

This is the power of God. It's not simply the surprise factor, but realizing God's doing something here. Suddenly Zacharias can't speak and then suddenly he can. This is going to get their attention. people are putting together that God is doing something extraordinary with this child. God's not just having a, here's another baby, you know, Jewish baby boy.

God is doing something extraordinary. Extraordinary in the life of Zacharias. Extraordinary in Elizabeth, who was beyond the years of childbearing. Extraordinary in the naming of this child. This is something to talk about. God's moving. This is a God thing, right? As we might say. So they said, what then will this child turn out to be?

And that was the reason for doing things as strangely and non-traditionally as was done here. They didn't want, God didn't want, God didn't want for John to just follow all the traditions and end up just being a priest named Zacharias. He had something very different in mind, something very special.

An angel appearing to Zacharias at a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring the incense into the holy place and take it to the incense altar. This angel appearing, that's going to be extraordinary. Now Zacharias can begin to talk about it. Zacharias being silenced and then being able to speak again, that's going to cause them to wonder.

This marks this child as something very different. What then will this child turn out to be? Elizabeth becoming pregnant and bearing a child later in life after being barren for decades? How does such a thing happen, right? A name given to their miracle baby that is not according to tradition, confirmed by Zacharias.

All this has got them thinking, whoa, we're not going to put some kind of a mold onto this guy, this baby. God's doing something different. How is this going to turn out? Well, they said, the hand of the Lord is certainly with him. Ah, this is God acting. This is God doing. Does the hand of the Lord is certainly with him mean that nothing bad will ever happen to the son of theirs? No. As a matter of fact, how will John end up dying? Beheading, right? The hand of the Lord is certainly with him. God's doing something very special. He has a special appointment for John.

It doesn't mean nothing bad is ever going to happen. Or does it mean that life will go easy for him all his days? No, not that either. Not that either. The answer, of course, to both of those questions is no. The hand of the Lord with him means God is doing some extraordinary things and very intentionally, but for God's purposes, not for man's. Not for man's. Certainly means it's very evident.

It's very evident that God's doing something different with this son named John. You have a half-page slide that looks like this. It is the passage that has Zacharias being filled with the Holy Spirit, prophesying and speaking. And one of the things we'll notice as a pattern, verses 68 through 75, focuses on Jesus and salvation and the kingdom. So this is Christ's second coming and the kingdom to follow. And then verses 76 to 79 focus on John, his forerunner, and dealing with sins, Christ's first coming.

So isn't it very interesting? So the first half is Jesus and the kingdom, second coming, and then the last half is John and dealing with sins, and of course resurrection along with that. so let's take a look and it says in verse 67 and his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied now one of the things we pointed out here this is a set of words that only dr. Luke uses and he uses it in both Luke and in Acts by this time John and Elizabeth and her husband Zacharias are all three said to have been filled with the Holy Spirit. So very interesting. This is a Holy Spirit filled family. Even John, the infant, is a Holy Spirit filled family.

So Dr. Luke here uses this term as he uses it uniquely. This seems to be a special filling, a special empowering to enable a believer to, in some cases to know, in other cases to act. and to speak for God's intended outcome. This is the Holy Spirit working in a very special way, very deliberately. And Dr. Luke alone seems to put the focus on that with this particular term that he uses repeatedly.

So Zacharias prophesied here at this point. One of the things to point out as we read through this is the future is spoken of as the past or present. that it's already, you know, being done or has been done. And so that's one of the things that we'll see as a pattern here throughout this prophecy that Zacharias gives. Another thing is to look at this. This is something that the Old Testament prophets did fairly often. They would speak of something that is certain by speaking of it in the present or the past tense.

Much of what Zacharias has to say is really looking ahead to the coming millennial kingdom, particularly the first half, which is yet future to us now. It's also looking back to promises made long ago. So it's very interesting. His perspective is not, boy, isn't this a neat thing that's happening right now, but his perspective is looking far ahead and far into the past. You have here a slide that kind of gives a diagram just so if I say the term Millennial Kingdom, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Here is the first coming where Christ died for our sins and was buried and rose again and was ascended. We have since then the church age up to the time of the rapture when the church is caught up to be with the Lord. And then you have a seven-year tribulation period at the end of which Christ comes to earth for the second coming, and he will come with us. And then there will be what's called the Millennial Kingdom, means 1,000 years. In Revelation chapter 20, six times, it gives the figure 1,000 years as the duration.

So we call that the Millennial Kingdom because of that. Then the end of this present heavens and earth and on into eternity. So that's the outline. If I say Millennial Kingdom, that's what I'm referring to. The Millennial Kingdom, because the tribulation period is seven years long, if the rapture were to occur now, would be seven years away. It would be seven years away.

All right, so now in verses 68 and 69, blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he has visited us and accomplished redemption for his people and he raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David his servant. So let's take a look at that. So to bless the Lord is to speak well of him. To speak well of him. In this case it's the Lord God of Israel. And one of the patterns you find in the Old Testament is in this, it'll be, blessed be the Lord, God of Israel. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel sometimes.

He has visited us is not just a social gathering. It is a term used, you'll find it throughout the Bible, particularly the New Testament. It's not just stopping by for a visit. It's a Hebrew expression what it means God has come with good intent for carrying out a favorable action That's that's what visited means, okay?

To redeem was used of Israel out of to bring them out of bondage In Egypt he will redeem Israel for the coming kingdom so that he's Saying, you know, He has visited us is God's coming with intent. Not that God came in and sat down and had some tea with you and, you know, cookies and things of that sort. But rather that God came with intent to act.

Now, how about this term, horn of salvation? It's not this kind of horn, okay? Not that kind. More like this kind. A horn is an Old Testament or Hebrew figure, speech. It means strength or power. It conveys strength or power. That's what the term is. It's used in a number of places in the Old Testament. Speaking of a horn of salvation means a strong or powerful salvation. If the horn signifies strength or power, a horn of salvation means a strong or powerful salvation, not just a little bit of help. Here's an example, 2 Samuel 22. reads, my God, my rock and whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. Another expression you'll find in the Old Testament is God's arm. God's arm. Both of those mean strength or power.

So here's Joseph and Mary. They're of the house of David that is both by Matthews and by Dr. Luke's genealogies. We'll see that in Luke chapter 3. It means the baby conceived in Mary will be the promised Messiah. Joseph is, as you would say, kind of the adoptive father, not the biological father. So here we see the next verses, 70 through 75. As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from old, salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to show mercy toward our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to Abraham, our father, to grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days."

When is that going to happen? At the end of the tribulation period, as you see it in the little chart that we have there, and during the Millennial Kingdom. And it's not happened otherwise. But this is Jesus coming for the Millennial Kingdom period. Now why is there no fear? No fear because of God's faithfulness to his promise. God will come in and defeat Israel's enemies.

We sometimes hear the term Battle of Armageddon. It's really a campaign of eight stages. An eight-stage campaign. And God will judge the Gentile nations attacking Israel. And it will be decisive. It will be a decisive victory. We have here a diagram, a map showing the future Millennial Kingdom in the area that will be encompassed. Christ will reign as King of Israel, King of the Jews.

And he'll reign over the Gentile nations with the title King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That's why Jesus has those two different titles. King of Israel, or King of the Jews, over the nation of Israel. King of Kings and Lord of Lords is his title over the Gentile nations. Here is the map in larger dimension here. Genesis 15, 18-21 is where it is promised to Abraham what this kingdom will encompass. In Ezekiel 48, it gives the land area within that by tribe.

So that's why the stripes are there. Now, all the salvation and safety and security and living without fear has one end goal, and that is to serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness. So it isn't, okay, now God's going to make them all secure. But it's to be focused on serving the Lord. That's why. That's why God's doing it that way. This tells that coming millennial kingdom when Christ will reign as king of Israel and over the Gentile nations.

Now let's look at the last verses of Zechariah's prophecy here. And in verses 76 through 79, and you child will be called the prophet. So which child is he talking about? This John, right? That's just been born. You, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, and you will go on before the Lord to prepare His ways." He's a forerunner, right?

Verse 77, "...to give to His people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God with which the sunrise from on high will visit us, to shine upon those who sit in darkness in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace." So here's John the Baptist.

We make note here verses 76 through 79. It also points you to Malachi chapter 4. That's where that sunrise comes from here. Malachi chapter 4. It is a chapter about John the Baptist. It's also a chapter about the second coming in the Millennial Kingdom. Malachi chapter 4.

So John the Baptist would be the one who prepared the way of the Lord. He won't be there to compete with him, which some of his disciples get confused about. I mean John the Baptist disciples. They get worried because Jesus is drawing more disciples after him than John the Baptist, and John's not worried. He says, nope, that's the way it's supposed to be.

The words of Jesus focus on Christ's second coming in the Millennial Kingdom, but here, the words about John the Baptist focus on Christ's first coming and John preparing the way. That is the place for John, is in the first coming. John preparing the way for Jesus as the one by whom we who believe have the forgiveness of sins. What does John say twice in the Gospel of John chapter 1? Behold the Lamb of God. And the first time, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. John is fulfilling exactly what he's supposed to. It's on purpose.

So here's Luke 180, and the child continued to grow and to become strong in spirit, and he lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel. So this describes in one verse, taking John from being this infant that we've just seen a number of verses on, to the point of beginning his ministry. So this one verse spans decades of time. John was born about 6 BC. He grew. He also moved from the hill country of Judah, where he had been born and raised up to some time, out into the desert. And he became strong in spirit.

What's interesting is in recent times, about 15 years ago, an archaeologist made a discovery. And he believes that this is the entrance to John the Baptist's cave. Real interesting. It would be good to see that confirmed by other archaeologists, see if they agree.

But nonetheless, he went out into the desert until he began his ministry, which was then along the Jordan River. John the Baptist began his preparing ministry, preparing the way ministry, about 28 or 29 AD. So that would have been some years later. the people would then have an answer to what then will this child turn out to be at that point they would see so we saw in this passage when Elizabeth baby is born will be a boy or a son we see repeatedly a son right a son so why will Zacharias and Elizabeth astound everyone by breaking with the naming tradition among the Jews they will do so They will break the naming tradition because the angel Gabriel gave to them the name that he's to be called. John. God is gracious. You're to name him this specifically. So they're going to break the naming tradition because God had appointed a name for this John.

And they had to do so in order that John wouldn't be just pressed into the cultural mold. That's one thing that the Jews had such an intense cultural mold that they had to do several things here in order to just kind of startle people and so people would back off and say God's doing something here, this isn't according to any tradition, but it's the God thing.

When Zacharias was finally able to speak, what would he say? Well, we saw that when he was finally able to speak, he would first speak about Jesus, the one of the house of David. and speak about his second coming in the Millennial Kingdom, and then he would speak of his very son, this son right here, this child right here. He'd speak about his son, and what's very interesting, he pointed ahead, decades ahead, to a time he probably didn't live to see, where John would carry out a preparing ministry, a preparing the way ministry for Jesus. What will be said for the third time in Luke chapter 1 that only Dr. Luke wrote in Luke and Acts? This was to be filled with the Holy Spirit, a set of words unique to Dr. Luke. Now, as we continue investigating Jesus, could Caesar Augustus really command that a census be taken in all the inhabited earth? What about the Native Americans? What about the Aborigines? What about the empire to the east, the Parthians?

Could he really command that? Why is this all the inhabited earth? Why that phrase? Well, we'll take a look at that. Why would Joseph and Mary both have to go to Bethlehem from Nazareth? I mean, this is a very inconvenient time. So why do they both have to go? Why don't we just send Joseph and make it easier on Mary and not have this walking while you're pregnant, you know? So anyway, we'll take a look at that. Did Mary ride a donkey to Bethlehem? It's in the movies. It's on all the postcards and Christmas cards, right? But did she really? We'll take a look at that. Did Mary become, oh boy, this is a biggie, did Mary become the mother of God, the mother of the Son of God, or the mother of Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, or something else? So we'll take a look at that. Very interesting.

As we continue investigating Jesus, we will go into Luke 2, 1-7 and begin our early Christmas celebration. And we will continue that for two weeks. Have another Christmas celebration. And then we'll wait a few weeks and then we'll have another Christmas celebration. Okay. Let's pray.

Lord, we're thankful as we read this account you revealed what you wanted us to know. You've revealed that you can work beyond the tradition and beyond the pressure of culture. We've seen it in the lives of Zacharias and of Elizabeth and of John. And we know that you can work in us to move and to do things outside the pressure of the culture around us.

And we're thankful for that. We're just also thankful just to see how you very intentionally did some extraordinary things because you wanted some extraordinary things to be accomplished. And you're very deliberate about it. You didn't do it the way we would have done it, but you did it because you love us. We thank you for that. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.