THE CHILD BORN A PROPHET

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on September 18, 2019 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group: September 18, 2019 from Luke 1:57-80

Theme: The story of the birth John the Baptist shows us how God kept His promise to provide a messenger who would proclaim the Christ.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

This morning, we come to a remarkable passage. It’s certainly remarkable because it tells the story of the birth of John the Baptist. As the Lord Jesus said of him, up until John’s time, there had not risen one born of women who was greater than he (Matthew 11:11). His was the birth of one of the greatest men in all of human history.

But this passage is remarkable for another reason. It contains a prophecy that God gave through John’s father. And this prophecy is the breaking of 400 years of revelational silence from God. After the last few words of the last book of the Old Testament, there had been no other prophecy from God given to the people of Israel. The last words in Malachi 4:5-6 says;

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
And he will turn
The hearts of the fathers to the children,
And the hearts of the children to their fathers,
Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse” (Malachi 4:5-6).

And that is a promise from God that was finally fulfilled in the birth of John. John—as the Lord Jesus told His disciples—was that promised ‘Elijah’ (see Matthew 17:11-13). And now, after 400 years of waiting, we’re told that John is born as “the prophet of the highest” will announce the Messiah. The prophetic silence was now officially broken!

And more still, this passage declares to us the keeping of God’s promise made those centuries before concerning the forerunner of the promised Messiah. We read of this promise in Malachi 3:1;

“Behold, I send My messenger,
And he will prepare the way before Me.
And the Lord, whom you seek,
Will suddenly come to His temple,
Even the Messenger of the covenant,
In whom you delight.
Behold, He is coming,”
Says the Lord of hosts (Malachi 3:1).

John was that messenger from God who would prepare the way for the coming of the Lord. As God Himself said in Isaiah 40:3-5, John was born as …

The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make straight in the desert
A highway for our God.
Every valley shall be exalted
And every mountain and hill brought low;
The crooked places shall be made straight
And the rough places smooth;
The glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
And all flesh shall see it together;
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken” (Isaiah 40:3-5; see also John 1:19-23).

It was John’s task to announce to mankind, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). And so here, in this passage, we’re told the story of this great man’s entry onto the scene of human history.

* * * * * * * * * *

Luke first tells us of …

1. THE BIRTH OF JOHN (vv. 57-58).

Luke told us of the miracle of John’s mother Elizabeth becoming pregnant with John (Luke 1:24-25). And Luke also told us of how Mary came to visit her in her sixth month of pregnancy (vv. 39-45; see also 26 and 36). We were told of how Mary even stayed with her for another three months. Luke then tells us in vv. 57-58;

Now Elizabeth’s full time came for her to be delivered, and she brought forth a son. When her neighbors and relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her, they rejoiced with her (Luke 1:57-58).

It’s significant that we’re told specifically that she brought forth “a son”. That was in keeping with God’s promise to her and to Zacharias. This son, as John’s father—the priest Zacharias—was told by the angel Gabriel,

“… your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:13-17).

When we are told that she specifically gave birth to “a son” (just as the angel had said), it’s inferred to us that everything else that we were told about this particular son will also be true.

We’re also told about …

2. THE NAMING OF JOHN (vv. 58-66).

Zacharias was told that his name would be called John. Every new set of parents searches for a new name for their child. But in the case of Zacharias and Elizabeth, there was no need to select from any list of ‘baby names’. John’s name was already given to him by God before he was even conceived in the womb. His name in the Hebrew (Yochanan) meant ‘YHWH is Gracious’. And his name was appropriate to the message he was going to proclaim to this world.

In keeping with the commandment in the Scripture that every Jewish male child be circumcised (see Genesis 17), Luke tells us;

So it was, on the eighth day, that they came to circumcise the child; and they would have called him by the name of his father, Zacharias. His mother answered and said, “No; he shall be called John”. But they said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who is called by this name.” (vv. 59-61).

People ordinarily named their children from the names passed along in their family. Naturally, all of Zacharias’ and Elizabeth’s friends and family expected the child to be named according to tradition. So; Elizabeth’s announcement came as a surprise. Therefore, they turned to Zacharias—who couldn’t speak—for some indication as to what he would want the child to be named:

So they made signs to his father—what he would have him called. And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, saying, “His name is John.” So they all marveled. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, praising God (vv. 62-64).

Zacharias had doubted the message from the angel that his wife would bear a child in her old age; and so, he had been struck mute by God until the child was born (v. 20). And now—having fully accepted what the angel had told him; and having seen it with his own eyes—his voice was given back to him. And note carefully how it is indicated to us that he was submitted to God’s promise. Zacharias didn’t simply declare, “We have decided that he should be called John.” Instead, he simply reported, “His name is John.” The child had already been named by God. And now, with Zacharias’ voice suddenly returned to him, it was certain that everything the angel reported about this child would be fulfilled. We’re told;

Then fear came on all who dwelt around them; and all these sayings were discussed throughout all the hill country of Judea. And all those who heard them kept them in their hearts, saying, “What kind of child will this be?” And the hand of the Lord was with him (vv. 65-66).

Just “what kind of child” this would be is then prophetically declared to us in …

3. THE PROPHECY ABOUT JOHN (vv. 67-79).

When Zacharias finally spoke in praise to God, we’re told that what he had said was a prophetic message given by the Holy Spirit. Luke tells us;

Now his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying:
“Blessed is the Lord God of Israel,
For He has visited and redeemed His people,
And has raised up a horn of salvation for us
In the house of His servant David,
As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets,
Who have been since the world began” (vv. 67-70).

The first thing that John gave praise to God for was the Lord Jesus—yet unborn—who would be the one that John would proclaim. It is Jesus who is the one who has visited and redeemed His people. It is He who is the “horn” (a symbol of kingly power) “of salvation”. He came as the fulfillment of God’s promise that King David would have a Son who would reign upon his throne forever.

Note how the Messiah’s arrival—as would be announced by John—is good news to the Jewish people:

“That we should be saved from our enemies
And from the hand of all who hate us,
To perform the mercy promised to our fathers
And to remember His holy covenant,
The oath which He swore to our father Abraham:
To grant us that we,
Being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
Might serve Him without fear,
In holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life” (vv. 71-75).

The coming of Jesus into this world is the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham—back when God called him to Himself in Genesis 12:1-3. Jesus is the promised King of the Jews; and it would be by Him that the Jewish people would be delivered, and restored from their years of disobedience to God, and would be enabled to serve Him.

Zacharias then prophesied of how John would announce the Redeemer to the world:

“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest;
For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways,
To give knowledge of salvation to His people
By the remission of their sins,
Through the tender mercy of our God,
With which the Dayspring from on high has visited us;
To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,
To guide our feet into the way of peace” (vv. 76-79).

Zacharias—under the leading of the Holy Spirit—was declaring the fulfillment of the promise made long ago in Isaiah 9; the promise concerning the promised ‘Dayspring’ who is the Messiah:

Nevertheless the gloom will not be upon her who is distressed,
As when at first He lightly esteemed
The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
And afterward more heavily oppressed her,
By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan,
In Galilee of the Gentiles.
The people who walked in darkness
Have seen a great light;
Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,
Upon them a light has shined (Isaiah 9:1-2).

What good news the coming of Jesus is! What a great role John filled in this world of announcing the coming of this Redeemer! But as great as John was, and as much as we wish to hear more about his growing up and the development of his ministry, the Holy Spirit has seen fit to only tell us just one-verse-worth of information about this great man’s life. Luke closes this section off with …

4. THE GROWTH OF JOHN (v. 80).

He covered perhaps as much as thirty-three years of the story by simply telling us,

So the child grew and became strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his manifestation to Israel (v. 80).

But really, it wouldn’t be necessary for us to know much more than this. The focus should not be on John the Baptist; but rather, on the One that was born into the world to announce. As the apostle John has put it at the beginning of his Gospel;

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world (John 1:6-9).

John the Baptist was given by God to be the prophet who bore witness of the Christ. He was only the messenger of the Coming One. He was only the forerunner of the King. It’s more important that we know the story of Jesus; and it is more than enough for us to know that God kept His promise in giving John to the world to declare Him.

Let’s let John himself have the final word on the matter when he said;

“A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before Him.’ He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:28-30).

That’s all we need to know. And it’s enough to be able to say, “Amen, John! Amen!”

EA