[Music]
If you’ll please turn with me in your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke in the first chapter. Luke writes, “In the days of Herod, King of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah, and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.
Now while he was serving as priest before God, when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the Temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of people were praying outside at the hour of incense. And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.
And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and 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 before the Lord.
And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will 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. And he will 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 for the Lord a people prepared.”
And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel, I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.”
And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple. And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home. After these days, his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me and took away my reproach among people.”
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the hope and the promises that you give us, hope to look forward to your coming and signs and wonders that prove and show who you are, and the word that has been given that tells us of what you have done and what you shall do for us. We thank you and praise you and ask that you open our hearts and minds to hear you speak. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
The story of John the Baptist’s birth in the Gospel of Luke is like a perfect fairy tale. It is perfectly wrong in every way; every detail is 100% wrong, at least it’s wrong according to what our worldly experience teaches us to expect for the birth of such an important figure like John.
This incident is filled with such improbable and unlikely details that they could not have been arranged by accident, nor would they have been imaginable by a human author. No human person could have fabricated this story to support or justify John’s divine calling and purpose, and the specific details of his origin were easily verifiable by contemporary witnesses.
So I say that Luke’s account is perfectly wrong because it could only be perfectly right and perfectly true if it was enacted through divine planning and divine action. Luke records that a whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense, the time when Zechariah received his angelic visitation. Specifically, they were out there waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple, so they were innumerable witnesses to him being struck dumb.
Furthermore, after this event, he kept on working in the temple for a time. He was surely there long enough that if he were faking, then he would have been quickly found out, unless the religious establishment was also in on it. But judging by their later response to John, clearly they were not supportive of his suggested reforms.
So, if this story was false, then it would have been all too easy for the establishment to refute it and prove it wrong. This story’s many details all work together to support a narrative of redemption that’s far greater than just the sum of its parts. The way in which the Holy Spirit inspired Luke to write his gospel, the way in which he compiles these details and builds upon them exponentially rather than linearly, is itself a narrative miracle.
And although we should all be familiar with the sweep and the scope of the story, I’ll provide a quick summary before we dig into those details.
See, Zechariah and his wife were members of a priestly family within the Levites, meaning that they naturally belonged to the elite of the religious community. They were a righteous couple, meaning that they were faithful and obedient to Torah, to the law, and were considered blameless before men. But they were older, and unfortunately, in their culture’s eyes, they would have been considered cursed at worst or at least in the Lord’s disfavor because they had never been blessed with children.
Then one day, while Zechariah was working in Jerusalem at the temple, after he was chosen randomly, he went inside to offer a regular incense offering. He was just doing business as usual, yet while he was inside alone, an angel appeared to him beside the altar. And this angel, who called himself Gabriel, pronounced a prophecy concerning Zechariah’s as-yet-unconceived son and what his divinely appointed work would be.
But Zechariah did believe the angel, and so to prove God’s point, Zechariah was made mute until the prophecy came true. He was struck dumb and made speechless for the rest of his time serving at the temple and also after he returned home to his wife until she conceived and bore him a son.
Now, for Zechariah, he found this prophecy unbelievable for two principal reasons. The Lord had been prophetically silent for around 400 years, ever since the words of Malachi the prophet, and he and his wife were both old. Their circumstance and their situation was like that of Abraham and Sarah when they received God’s promise of a son.
Zechariah was certainly himself too pious or at least religiously conscientious to expect that the Lord might now bless him and Elizabeth in a like manner, much less give them a son for such an important purpose as what the angel was prophesying. I mean, who were they to deserve such favor and honor? They were no one, and despite their worldly righteousness, they did not deserve it, preserving this all as still being a matter of God’s grace and mercy.
Now, the first detail that the Holy Spirit gives us in the story is the description of Zechariah and his wife as being righteous. This closely echoes Abraham and Sarah, but the circumstances of Elizabeth’s barrenness are also like the stories of Hannah and Samuel, the parents of Samuel, as well as Manoah and his unnamed wife, the parents of Samson.
But the similarities go beyond the simple fact of a woman’s barrenness. See, Hannah also offered prayers to the Lord for a child privately in the tabernacle, something which Gabriel was implying that Zechariah did, saying, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son.”
Also like Zechariah, Manoah’s wife had an angel of the Lord appear to her privately, and not only did he prophesy that she would have a child, but he was also instructing them concerning how he was to be raised and what he would do for God, similar to what the angel prophesies about John.
Thus, through Luke, the Holy Spirit brings these old stories from Old Testament scripture forward to inform and better explain John and his intended role. They also demonstrate that what the Lord was doing with Zechariah, Elizabeth, and John was not something innovative or new, but a greater example of something that God has already done before.
The next important detail to note is the specific names of every character involved in the story. Remember, names were always considered to be very important in ancient storytelling. Every name is believed to be something far greater than just a collection of syllables that sound nice and identify a person, because to the Jewish and Hebrew mindset, names are foundational to who someone is.
Names were often given to a child because of something descriptive about them, as in Esau, which meant ‘hairy,’ because of his hair and complexion; or Moses, which meant ‘to draw,’ because he was drawn from the water; or perhaps it was something prophetic and hopeful like Solomon, whose name simply means ‘peace,’ in hope of peace for Bathsheba after the death of her first son; or perhaps hope in peace for a peaceful reign as David’s eventual heir.
See, names were so important that the very first job which God gave to Adam was to name everything. I mean, the first man Adam, he was named such because he was made from the dust of the earth, because the ancient Hebrew term for ground or dirt is ‘Adama.’ Adam comes from ‘ad,’ making the name descriptive.
The first woman, Eve, or ‘Hava,’ was named such because she would be the mother of all living people, because the ancient Hebrew term for alive or living is ‘chay,’ and Hava comes from ‘chay,’ making it descriptive. Joseph, or ‘Yosef,’ Jacob’s son, was a name that meant ‘he will increase,’ foreshadowing the various increases that he brought about in Egypt for his family, making the name prophetic.
David means ‘beloved,’ as King David was beloved by the Lord, making that name a hopeful invocation of the Lord’s blessing upon him.
So as you can now better see, Hebrew names were not just what someone was called, but they were descriptive of them and they defined who they ultimately were, especially for those people actively involved in the scope of redemptive history.
So when we consider the names of the different people in this story, they tell us something about the person, their role within the story, and their relationship to God.
First, Zechariah, his name means ‘Yahweh remembers,’ and within the story it shows us how God remembers and keeps his covenant and promises, as the Lord remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in Exodus 2:24. So too, the Lord remembered his prophetic promises to send a messenger in order to prepare the way for the Messiah.
Abijah was a name that meant ‘Yahweh is my father,’ and its mention reminds us of God’s sovereignty over all children of the covenant and the Lord’s authority over their system of religion, because the Lord was the one who appointed the descendants of Levi to his regular service, and specifically the children of Aaron to a priestly duty.
So it was appropriate that someone belonging to that family line would serve as the final Mosaic mediator as the covenant transferred from law into gospel. Elizabeth, or ‘Elisheva,’ her name means ‘my God is an oath,’ or ‘my God’s oath,’ and it emphasizes her trust and hope in God’s promises, his eternal covenant, and this new promise of a son.
See, she had trusted God’s promise all of her life, even though she had not received the fullness of his blessings. She remained faithful because she trusted that God will remain faithful to his oaths.
John, or ‘Yohanan,’ his name means ‘Yahweh is gracious,’ and here in the person of John, God’s graciousness is manifested to Zechariah and Elizabeth by giving them a son in their old age, as to Abraham and Sarah, as well as grace to God’s chosen people by giving them someone to prepare them for the Christ to come by setting things straight and heralding his appearance.
Elijah, his name means ‘Yahweh is my God,’ and by prophetically relating John to him as being in the spirit and power of Elijah, Luke not only invokes the authority of the first of the Old Testament prophets and shares it with the last, but he foreshadows the quality and character of John’s future ministry as an echo of Elijah.
Gabriel, his name means ‘mighty man of God.’ The Hebrew term ‘Gibor’ was an expression used to denote specifically a pious and righteous warrior as a mighty man, someone who is faithful and true and reliable, willing and able to do whatever is necessary to fulfill the Lord’s commands. This is also understood to be the same Gabriel who appeared to Daniel during his visions, explaining and interpreting them, which makes him someone that we should trust to give us God’s words straight.
Because if he explained all of that to Daniel, the wisest guy in all Babylon, everything that he recorded and wrote down for us—and Daniel trusted him—then the angel does deserve our benefit of the doubt and trust.
So you see, each name and each person contributes something important to the story, and they do it perfectly. They harmonize so well that it cannot be by accident because it would have been too easy to disprove if it was fabricated. These are perfect names for a perfect story, and such a cast of characters could not have come together by mere chance. It could only have been planned, and if the story was not fabricated and no evidence has been brought forward to suggest that it was, then it must have been planned by the author of all things.
For as Sherlock Holmes says, “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” This story could only have been planned and arranged by God. The knowledge of God’s work in the past combined with these providential names combined to set the stage of this act of the greatest and truest story ever told.
Together, they informed that first-century present without need of further explanation. And now that we have a better understanding of these seemingly unimportant details and how they create the context for John the Baptist’s birth, we want to look examine what exactly it was that Gabriel prophesied about him.
Where he says, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and 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 before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will 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.
And he will 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 for the Lord a people prepared.”
First and foremost, Zechariah and Elizabeth would have a son. They would finally get to experience the joy of being parents, and they would have a child to comfort them and care for them in their old age, because the Lord is gracious and merciful. The Lord would bless them with the fulfillment of their hope and dream. God would bless them with a kind of worldly satisfaction as He also blessed them by fulfilling their eternal hope.
Second, not only would they be filled with joy and gladness because of their son, others would too. Many people would rejoice for Zechariah and Elizabeth, and they would also rejoice with them, and they would also rejoice over what their son would someday do for God. They will be proud of him because he will be great before the Lord, implying that he will become someone notable, like a prophet, or that perhaps he would become high priest one day.
Perhaps he’d be the one to heal their religious divisions, uniting the Sadducees and Pharisees and the Essenes of Qumran. But regardless, whatever it was that he might specifically do, his parents should expect it to be for the Lord and for his eternal glory.
Third, that he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb. See, their son would be set apart by God for the Lord’s purpose from before his birth. He would be set apart as a Nazarite; he would be set apart to the Lord, placed under a vow by his parents, like Samson and Samuel before him, much as we consecrate the children of Christian believers, setting them apart for Christ by placing them under God’s covenantal oath and ourselves vowing to raise them in the Christian faith.
Doing this to John and doing this for John would place them also under a similar obligation to help protect and preserve his vow. They themselves would need to lead and teach him by example. Although they were already accounted as righteous, they would still need to do better because their son would be a prophet like Jeremiah, set apart by God before birth. Yet also, as such, they must surely fear that he would come to public grief like his spiritual predecessor, for speaking truth to power, for standing up for what is right, for being a true prophet, and for remaining faithful to the Lord, even when it could end up costing him his life, as it eventually would.
Now fourth, after all that, they were promised that his ministry would be successful, that it would be fruitful for the Lord and his glory, because their son would turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. Their son would become an effective religious catalyst who would lead to revival of repentance and faith in the Lord—a wonderful promise that even despite all of the other attended worldly negatives is something which would make a pair of righteous parents proud of their godly son.
But to do so, their son must live and work before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, which meant that he would be bold and fearless in witness in order to see righteous fruit grow on account of his testimony. But he would also make powerful enemies, and even so, he would receive a glorious reward from the Lord, like Elijah after his battle against the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel.
Through his ministry, people would see and remember that the Lord is God alone, and God’s chosen people would once again turn to him in faith and obedience. Their son, John, would turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, so that they would become righteous and holy as the Lord is holy, so as to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.
That is the ultimate promise in Gabriel’s prophecy—that through Zechariah’s son, God’s people would become prepared. They would be made ready for the Messiah, for the day of visitation, and ultimately for the great and terrible day of the Lord. He would become the precursor of their eschatological hope, heralding God’s greatest work of redeeming grace for his people.
But since judgment must begin within the household of God, the first person whose heart John needed to help turn belonged to Zechariah. And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”
Because of who he was—a priest—and because of his piety, and even despite being confronted by the Lord’s messenger, an angel in the temple, Zechariah doubted the angel’s message, which means he also doubted God’s power and faithfulness. So the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. Behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.”
The angel issued a command of silence to Zechariah, a prohibition on speech until his son would be born and rightly named John. This surely convinced Zechariah and encouraged him to believe and act out of his faith because, well, his participation and cooperation was kind of necessary to the fulfillment of this prophecy. If he wanted to speak again, then he needed to believe and to do his part in obedience to a divine decree to see these things fulfilled.
And finally, in his silence, Zechariah returned home at the conclusion of his time of service, and his wife Elizabeth conceived, which prompted her to give thanks and praise God: “The Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me to take away my reproach among people.”
And so, thinking about their names—when the Lord remembers Zechariah, his covenant in his people, his divinely chosen adopted children, Abijah’s God, God’s oath, Elizabeth as pronounced to the Lord’s power and authority—Gabriel was fulfilled through the giving of God’s grace, John and the birth of a son.
So as you can see, this narrative surrounding the prophecy of John the Baptist’s birth truly is a true and perfect story because it foretells in miniature the story of Jesus’s birth within God’s plan of redemptive history.
In this December, as we continue to look at the beginning of Luke’s gospel during Advent, let’s consider this story of hope and think about how it applies to our own life. Zechariah and Elizabeth lived with unrealized hope—without a child and without a designated king. So the Lord filled them with a new hope in a smaller promise to encourage their greater hope in his bigger promise.
So just as the birth of their son John, this one small act of God’s grace and mercy built up their hope and confidence in God’s promise of a Messiah. Let this story and our experiences of faith build up our hope as well because today we live in a spiritual tension, hoping and trusting in Jesus Christ.
We know that he reigns over the whole creation, that he is sovereign because he is sovereign in our hearts. But we cannot easily see the effect of his reign in the world around us. The news media, social media, entertainment, and even our own local interactions at the store offer little encouraging evidence that God is in control.
Until we stop and think how much worse everything could be, then we start to see his power restraining our human sinfulness. And so we are made better able to patiently wait for his glorious appearing because we know then we shall see the whole earth acknowledge him as king, and all shall bow down and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.
We know that our sins are forgiven by the blood of Christ because we feel remorse and we repent when we do still sin. Whenever we are assured of his mercy, we feel a kind of peace of conscience, something different from others because we feel the warmth of his love as we do things through a desire to please him rather than the selfish, cold, and unfeeling emptiness experienced by a conscience utterly seared by sin.
So we are encouraged in hope, knowing that as the hour of our passing grows nearer because of what Jesus has done for us, we will stand justified before God’s throne, and we shall be approved of and welcomed into his eternal Kingdom as the Lord’s beloved sons and daughters.
So you see, we live out our faith within the tension of an is and not yet. So we must be patient and active in our faith as we await his return and final fulfillment. Therefore, we continue to live in the hope of Jesus Christ and his promises. Amen.