His Name Is John
Luke 1:57-80
So two Saturdays ago, I had the opportunity to take our youngest daughter, Madeline, to see the greatest football team in the world play. And I don’t have to tell you who that is. If you know, you know. Go Dawgs. And so there we were at the game and my daughter’s rule is that she’s not leaving until it’s completely over. We are not leaving until the fourth quarter is done. She’s amazing like that. So we stayed until the very end of the game, and then immediately we went to the UGA bookstore with 90,000 other fans to just hang out and look around. As we walk through the door, we look over into the corner of the bookstore and there are all these cameras set up. And I’m talking about professional grade cameras, all set up with lighting. And then there’s a guy holding the microphone and talking to one of the cameras. Just kind of doing his deal. It turns out they’re filming a live post-game show in the bookstore, and doing interviews with different fans that were just at the game, getting their thoughts on the team and the game. It’s a live stream thing going out on the interweb. And my daughter’s watching this and is intrigued and fascinated. And then she looks at me and says, “Hey, Dad, you know what? You should do an interview.” I looked at her and I said, “Baby, you’re right.” “I should do an interview.” I’m the biggest Georgia fan in the world and my analysis of this team is second to none. I have so much value to add to this guy’s show, right? You can tell I was feeling incredibly humble this day. And so I thought, “Yeah, let’s do this.” I said, “You know what, darling? I’m going to do an interview.” She said, “You are?” I said, “I sure am, yep.” So I go over and I stand in line and my daughter can’t believe it. She’s waiting. There’s a line of people who wanna do interviews. And so as I’m standing in line, I’m rehearsing the whole time what I’m going to say. Have you ever done this? I know I’m going to analyze the offense and I’m going to analyze the defense. I’m going to analyze a special team. It’s going to be the most brilliant thing this guy has ever heard. As a matter of fact, ESPN might pick it up and show it on SportsCenter that night, right? Coach Kirby Smart himself may call me on Monday and say, “Anson, you don’t know who I am, but please. We need you to get down here immediately.” Right? I mean, I’m serious. I’m thinking about this and I’m convinced this is going to go viral. This is going to be brilliant. People all over the world are going to be watching this. Friends in Uganda are going to be saying, “This guy knows football.” And so I’m ready to do this thing. Finally, it’s my turn. The host calls me and I walk over to him. He says, “Sir, please tell me your name and then tell me your thoughts on the team.” And I looked into the camera. I said, “Well, my name is Anson McMahon and these are my thoughts.” And I unleashed, family, for two straight minutes. I’m like the Apostle Peter on the day of Pentecost. I’m just pointing and giving my analysis of the team, and here’s what I think, and here’s the game, and the quarterback and I’m just going. And then finally, after two minutes of just going off, I looked straight into the camera at the end and I said, “Go Dawgs!” And I walked off the set, thinking, “ESPN, here I come.” And I walked right into the producer of the show who looked at me and said, “Sir, thank you so much for giving us an interview. Unfortunately, as soon as you started to speak, our internet froze up, and we didn’t capture anything that you said, but thank you for your time. Have a nice day.” Turns out, at the very moment I started to talk, everything froze up. Which means for two minutes, for two entire minutes, no one heard a single word that I had to say. The brilliant analysis of the game, of the team and the squad, nothing. For two straight minutes, they saw a single frozen picture on their computer screens. And it was a still shot of me looking like a weirdo creeper stalker. So my daughter and I looked at it when we walked out, and she’s laughing at me, and says, “Daddy, how cringey do you feel right now?” I said, “I feel very cringey, darling, thank you.”
Sometimes the Things of Life Are Unexpected
Here’s why I tell you that story. On that day, I did not at all get what I expected. Because what I expected was that the interview would go viral, and everybody would be really impressed with some incredible football knowledge. But what I actually got was two minutes of looking like a creepy stalker. I obviously didn’t get what I expected. And just so you know, this is exactly what brings us to Luke chapter one. Because here in this chapter, we’re seeing this married couple who are not at all getting what they expected in life. We’re introduced to this old married couple named Zechariah and Elizabeth. We’re told that they’re very old, they’re a ministry couple, Zechariah is a priest, Elizabeth grew up as a pastor’s daughter, and now she’s married to a priest. They’ve both been doing ministry faithfully for a long time, they’re elderly, and they’ve never been able to have a child. So think of that. For their entire lives, they’ve dealt with infertility. They’ve never been able to have their own baby. And then here they are, past childbearing years and Zechariah is in the temple one day when incredibly, miraculously, the angel Gabriel is sent by God to have an encounter with Zechariah, and he makes this fantastic, amazing announcement to Zechariah in chapter one. He says, “Zechariah, the Lord has heard your prayers and you’re about to have a baby. He’s going to give you a son and you’re to name him John, which means God will be gracious. You’re to name that baby John, and he is going to prepare the way for the Savior of the world.” That’s the promise that the angel makes to Zechariah. Now, the problem is Zechariah doesn’t believe this. He’s thinking to himself, “What?” And he has this moment of hesitation where he doesn’t believe the promises of God. And the consequence for that is that the angel strikes this brother mute for nine months. For nine months, Zechariah isn’t able to say a word. He’s not able to speak as a consequence for his refusal to believe the promises of God.
A True Friend Rejoices When God Does a Good Thing in Your Life
Today, we get to verse 57 and we have this moment where it’s now nine months later and this special baby boy is about to be born. This baby that Gabriel had promised to Zechariah and Elizabeth nine months earlier is about to be born. Luke 1:57 says, “Now, the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son, and her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they were all incredibly jealous, and they unfriended her on Facebook, because why couldn’t God do that for them in their own lives?” It’s not what it says, right? Watch this. “And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.” They rejoiced with her. Now, this actually brings us to our very first point for today, which is, a true friend rejoices when God does a good thing in your life.
So before we get to the rest of this text, I feel like this is a really significant place for us to pause and observe what’s going on here, because right out of the gate, the very first thing we’re seeing here is that Elizabeth has some pretty stinking awesome friends. I mean, she has some great friends, some really fantastic friends. You know why they’re great? Here’s why. It’s because they’re the kind of friends who rejoice and celebrate and are genuinely happy for you when God does a really good thing in your life. Do you see that? God does a great thing in Elizabeth’s life. She’s old, and she passed childbearing ages. God just blessed her with a son. The friends are all gathered around. What do we hear about the friends? They don’t get resentful. They don’t get bitter. They don’t get jealous. And they don’t covet. Instead, they’re genuinely happy for their friend, and they rejoice and celebrate with her because they love her. And I wonder, do you have any friends like that? Do you have any friends in your life who you are certain would rejoice and celebrate with you, if God did a good thing, an amazing, incredible thing in your life today? Do you have any friends like that? Or how about this? Let me ask this question. Are you this kind of friend? Are you the kind of friend who responds this way to the good things that God does in the lives of your own friends?
I love what one of my favorite old-dead theologians, J.C. Ryle, has to say about this particular moment in Scripture as we see Elizabeth’s friends and how they respond to her here in this text. J.C. Ryle says, “How much more happiness there would be in this evil world if conduct like that of Elizabeth’s relations was more common? Sympathy in one another’s joys and sorrows costs little, and yet it is a grace of most mighty power. Like the oil on the wheels of some large engine, it may seem a trifling and unimportant thing, yet in reality, it has an immense influence on the comfort and well-working of the whole machine of society. A kind word of congratulation or consolation is seldom forgotten. The heart that is warmed by good tidings or chilled by affliction is peculiarly susceptible, and sympathy to such a heart is often more precious than gold.”
The simple thought is this: in a moment when God does a pretty awesome thing in your life, the kind words of a friend who genuinely rejoices with those who rejoice is so significant and powerful. But do you have any friends like this? Do you know any people like this? Are you a friend like this? Let’s be honest. We live in a world where we’re almost trained from the time that we’re kids to sort of be jealous of one another, right? I mean, what happens oftentimes is I’m tempted every single day of my life, and part of it is just because I’m born into a fallen world where I have a sin nature. I feel this temptation to see something happen in your life, like a certain circumstance happen in your life that’s awesome, that’s great, that’s pretty amazing. And yet what I do is I see that awesome, amazing thing happen in your life, and I compare it to the not so amazing thing happening in my life or the really difficult season that I’m in in my own life, and I’m tempted to envy you. I’m tempted to get jealous at that moment. And rather than rejoice and be excited that my friend is walking through that, I’ll be tempted to get really jealous and to covet what you have. Anybody else, or am I preaching to myself? There’s a temptation to see these awesome things happening with somebody else’s circumstances and to feel this sense of jealousy.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we do this over the dumbest stuff, too. I’ll give you a little glimpse of the depravity of my own heart. So a couple weeks ago, I experienced this. I’m at the house, in the living room. My youngest daughter is playing Mario Kart. Anybody ever played Mario Kart? She’s playing Mario Kart, and Mario Kart is great. The one thing that’s not as good, but almost as good as playing Mario Kart is watching someone play Mario Kart. Just entertaining. So I’m sitting in the living room watching my daughter play Mario Kart, and then all of a sudden, my wife walks in the room and it was like I saw a light bulb go off over my daughter’s head. Bing! She looks at my wife, and then she looks at me. She looks at my wife; she looks at me. And she says, “Hey, I have an idea. Why don’t y’all have a tournament?” I said, “Do what, baby?” She said, “I want y’all to go against each other on Mario Kart. Y’all race, and let’s see who wins.” And my wife immediately was like, “No, I’m not doing that. I’ve never played Mario Kart. I don’t even know how this game works. I’m not going to do that.” And here’s me. I look at my wife and I said, “Babe, let’s do it. It’ll be awesome. It’s just a game. No pressure, baby, it’s just a game. It doesn’t matter who wins. It’s just a game.” Now understand, that’s what I’m saying. But what I’m really thinking in my mind is, “I’m about to destroy her.” Because I have so many hours logged on Mario Kart with my kids, and she’s never played. This ain’t even close. So finally, she’s like, “Okay, yeah, I’ll play.” And so she grabs a controller; I grab a controller. We start to play Mario Kart. And you know what I found out? Mario Kart? Not great for marriages. It’s just not. It’s just really not. You’re never going to go to a marriage counselor and hear, “First things first. Play Mario Kart.” That’s the wrong thing to do. So, we’re playing Mario Kart, and here’s the thing. For the first two laps, I was destroying her. It wasn’t even close. I’m just amazing. I was doing so great. And in the last lap, you know what happened? The last lap, she somehow gets behind me, and she shoots one of those red turtle shells at me, the heat-seeking ones. And bam, it spins me out. She beats me. Now, here’s how she responds. “Oh, I can’t believe it. Oh wow, I can’t believe I won. I can’t believe I won.” Now, here’s the thing. I’m a 44-year-old man. In my mind, I know what I should say. I’ve been a follower of Jesus for a lot of years. I know what I should say at this moment. “Sweetheart, great job. That’s amazing that you won Mario Kart on your first try.” I know that I should encourage her. I know what the Bible says. But how often do we not want what the Bible says. And so, even though I know that’s what I should say, you know what I did say? I looked at her and said, “How’s it feel to get lucky?” And I threw the controller down and walked away. What is that? It’s always something so dumb.
Jealousy Breaks One of the Big Ten
So here’s me looking at somebody’s circumstance, and I want what they have. And I get weird and this is the problem. See, jealousy and covetousness is, honestly, a destroyer of relationships. It’s a destroyer of Christian community. It totally is and the problem is this. Here’s why jealousy and covetousness is so incredibly dangerous. First of all, it literally breaks one of the 10 commandments. I mean, that’s a bad deal, when it breaks one of the big 10. So when God gives His law to Moses in the book of Exodus chapter 20, verse 17, He says, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that’s your neighbor’s or how they do on Mario Kart.” You see where this goes? To covet means I look at something that you have, and I say to myself, I wish I had that instead of them. I should have that in my life instead of them having that in their life. That’s what covetousness is. And so the first problem with jealousy is that it breaks one of the big 10.
Jealousy is Always An Indication of Believing 3 Lies
But there’s another problem. When I’m jealous of you, or coveting something that’s happening in your life and you’re experiencing in your life, it is always a clear indication that, I’m believing three specific lies. All jealousy towards someone else in your life is an indication that you are believing three very specific lies. Lie number one is if you have something, then I should have it too. Of course, that’s lie number one. Lie number two is if God loves me, then He’ll give me everything that I want. And lie number three is that my happiness, satisfaction, peace, and security depend on all my desires being fulfilled. All three of those are big, fat lies because here’s the truth. The truth is, I need nothing other than what I’ve already been given in Christ. That’s it. Everything else is just gravy on the top, man. All I really need is what I’ve already been provided through what Jesus did in His life and death and resurrection. That’s what I really need. Number two is that the truth is God does love me, and that has nothing to do with my circumstances. God does love you, and that has nothing to do with what He’s doing in your life right now. The Bible says in Romans 5:8 that He demonstrated that love when He sent Jesus to a cross. And number three is that my happiness and satisfaction and peace and security only depend on Jesus. If I remember that, if my heart will be anchored there, then I’m going to be able to be a good friend to you because in the moments when God does something incredible in your life, I’m going to be able to rejoice with those who rejoice because I know that I am secure in Jesus.
So, here’s Elizabeth, and she has some great, fantastic, amazing friends because she is celebrating the most amazing thing that’s ever happened to her in her life, and her friends aren’t resentful, and they’re not bitter. They’re just celebrating with her. Would that we all had friends like this and would be friends like this!
Now watch verse 59, and see what happens here. “And on the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child.” Why? Because they’re good Jewish God-fearers. They love God, and they’re doing exactly what the Lord told them to do in the Old Testament. “So on the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child, and they would have called him Zechariah after his father, but his mother answered, no, he shall be called John. And they said to her, none of your relatives is called by this name.”
How many of y’all were expecting a child, and at the moment you were expecting a child, you started to find out that everyone in the world has an opinion of what the name should be. How annoying is that? I remember when my wife and I were expecting our first child. We were living out in California years ago, and I was working as a student pastor at a church. I can’t tell you how many people always came up, total strangers, and rubbed the belly, which was weird. And then they’re like, “So, what you going to name it?” We’d say, “Well, we haven’t really decided yet.” And they would respond, “Oh, I’ve got an idea. I know what you should name it. I’ve been looking in the baby name book, and I know the perfect name: Myrtle. You should name her Myrtle.” And I’m like, “Nah.” You go have your own child and name it your weird name. I really don’t want your suggestion. I remember one time we had decided on a name. This was fun. Some people have their opinions, and they just make them known. It’s like their spiritual gift, just to put it out there. I remember one time this lady said, “What are you going to name her?” I said, “Well, I think we’ve landed on Annabelle Grace.” She goes, “Ew, I don’t like that.” So, I’m like, “Well, I don’t like you, so we’re even.
Have you ever noticed that everybody has an opinion? Here’s what the name is. I have a name. I love that this is exactly what’s happening here. These people are saying, “Well, why John? Why aren you going to name him John? You should name him after a relative. Isn’t that what we typically do? Name it after the father, name it after another person. You don’t have anybody in your family named John.” So they got a lot of suggestions and thoughts.
And I love this in verse 62. It says, “And they made signs to his father inquiring what he wanted him to be called.” They’re saying, “Well, don’t listen to Elizabeth. Maybe she’s gone rogue. Let’s go talk to Zachariah and see what he wants to name him. Maybe he’s got a better name.” So they go to Zachariah to see what he wants to call him. Verse 63. “And he asked for a writing tablet, and he wrote, his name is John.” And by the way, I love that it doesn’t just say, “his name should be John, or we want to name him John.” I love that Zachariah’s like, “Hey, his name is John.” Because what does Zachariah know? Zachariah knows that when the angel Gabriel showed up to him, he said, “and you shall name the baby John.” So here’s Zachariah saying, “I’m not naming him. I’m telling you what his name is. God already named this baby before he was a thing that was born. He’s already got a name. His name is John.” I love that. Now watch this. “And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, his name is John. And they all wondered.” Why are they wondering? Why are they bewildered? Well, because for the first time in the history of the world, a husband and wife agree. I’m kidding. No, they’re wondering and they’re bewildered because this is odd. This is weird. This isn’t how this thing normally goes. Typically when you choose a name, it’s a family name. What is going on here that they’re insisting on this name John?
And then follow this, look at verse 64. “And immediately, [after he writes his name is John], his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed and he spoke,” cursing God because God had made him mute for nine months and that was really mean. And then he deconstructed his faith and became an atheist. No, wrong version. Back to the real Bible. “And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed and he spoke, blessing God.” After nine months of silence, the first words that he speaks are a blessing to God.
I Can Respond to Affliction in My Life By Either Running Away From God or By Running to God.
This brings us to our second point for today, I can respond to affliction in my life by either running away from God or by running to God. See, here’s how this thing works. Whenever we walk through a season that’s difficult or that’s trying or that’s hard, a season of affliction, we all respond in one of two ways. We can either respond by running away from God and getting bitter towards God and getting angry at the circumstances we’re having to walk through and asking questions like if God really loved me, why am I walking through this? Or during a season of affliction, you know what we can do? We can run to God. We can run to the church. We can run to gospel community in our small group. We can run to the Word of God and time in the Scriptures so that we can hear from God and really inch up closer to our heavenly Father to hear His perspective. We run one of two ways, either running to God or running away from God. And here’s what’s so incredible to me about Zechariah. After nine months of being completely mute and unable to speak, unable to preach as a priest and do what he typically was used to do and unable to say a word to his wife, what happens? He’s finally able to speak. And the first thing he does is worship God. He sings a song of worship. Why does he do that? Well, think about it. It’s because for the past nine months as he’s been mute, he hasn’t been running away from God or getting bitter towards God, but instead he’s actually been growing in his relationship with God, trusting God, believing God, looking to God. I wonder, beloved, when you walk through a season of affliction and a season that’s difficult, and we all walk through that kind of season, do you run away from God or do you run to the Lord? Do you tend to get bitter towards God or does that season of affliction increase your sense of dependence upon God? Or another way to ask it would be this. So are you a person who actually believes the words of the psalmist in Psalm 119 and Psalm 107? Psalm 107:71, the psalmist says this, “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.” Did you see that? It’s like, I walked through a season of my life that was very hard and it was painful and it was full of confusion, but you know what? It was actually good for me to walk through that season because it caused me to draw closer to the Lord, to hear from God.
When God’s Hand Is On a Life, It Always Causes That Life to Look Different
Now watch what happens in verse 65. We have Zechariah. He’s walked through a season of affliction and he’s obviously grown closer to the Lord and not been bitter at the Lord. And then verse 65 says this, “And fear came on all their neighbors and all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea. And all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, ‘What then will this child be?’ For the hand of the Lord was with them.” Did you see that? The hand of the Lord was with this baby. Now incidentally, this brings us to the third point for today, which is this, when God’s hand is on a life, it always causes that life to look different. So what do we see in here? Pay close attention to what’s happening here. So we have these friends and family of Elizabeth, all rejoicing; they’re all excited. And at this point, they’re clearly acknowledging that they are completely aware that God has his hand on this baby. No doubt about it. Why do they deduce that? Well, first of all, because Elizabeth, past childbearing age, has just given birth to a baby. That’s pretty amazing. And then all of a sudden, we have Elizabeth and Zechariah insisting on naming him John, which means God will be gracious, which is a name that’s not in the family at all, and just completely goes against societal norms. And then thirdly, we have Zechariah writing down on a tablet his name will be John. And as soon as he writes that down, his tongue is opened up. And for the first time in nine months, he’s able to speak, he’s able to sing, he’s able to praise God. And so here are these people; they’re not slowing the uptake. They get it. But all the signs point to the fact there’s something special about this baby. God’s hand is clearly on this kid. Now follow this. If you’ve been around church for any season of time, then what you probably know is that we are well aware that God’s hand was clearly on this baby, John, who will grow up to be John the Baptist, because of what the rest of the Bible teaches about this guy. We can look at the rest of the gospels and what the gospels say about John the Baptist, and we know that undeniably God’s hand was on his life. For example, I don’t know if you remember this, but back in Luke 1, verse 15, there was that moment when the angel showed up to Zechariah and made a promise about this baby. He said, “For he will be great before the Lord.” Think about that. The promise from God is that John will be great before the Lord. Now this is important, I want to clarify. Notice he didn’t say he’ll be great before the world. He’ll be great before the Lord. Listen, how many of y’all know that greatness in the eyes of the world and greatness in the eyes of the Lord are two completely different things. They’re completely different solar systems. And so the promise is he will be great in the eyes of God, not that he’ll be great in the eyes of the world. Now, there’s another moment coming up in Luke chapter seven where Jesus is going to be talking to His disciples and in a conversation with his disciples, he starts to talk a little bit about John the Baptist and says, “I tell you, among those born of women, none is greater than John.” So follow this for a second. God the Father has already declared to us, “he is great in my eyes.” God the Son, Jesus Christ is declaring to his disciples, “he is great in my eyes.”So we have a man who was declared to be great in the eyes of God. So the question now becomes this: What does it actually look like for God to have his hand on your life? What does it look like to be great in the eyes of God? What does it look like to have what some would call the Lord’s anointing to be upon you or for the Lord’s face to be shining upon you? What does it mean? What does it mean for God’s hand to be on your life? What are the practical implications of that? Does it mean you’ll be rich and you’ll be powerful and you’ll be really attractive and you’ll always wear nice clothes and you’ll live out in a mansion in John’s Creek and have an air-conditioned doghouse for your puppy? Pray tell what does it mean for you to have God’s hand on your life? Well, it didn’t mean any of that stuff for John. We’re going to clear this up because there are even some Christian denominations that get goofy on this stuff. What does it mean to have God’s anointing on your life and God’s blessing on your life? Does it mean you’ll have plenty of money and have plenty of health and have plenty of favor with people. Well, no, I’d encourage you to read your Bible. That’s not what it means at all. Read about John’s life. What did it mean for John’s life? See, here’s what we know about what John’s life is going to be like eventually when he grows up. First of all, we’re told that he’s much like the prophet Elijah in that, John walked around wearing camel’s hair all the time. That was his clothing, camel’s hair. So he’s not exactly trying to make an impressive fashion statement. We’re told in the Scriptures that John ate grasshoppers and locusts. Then he’d visit the occasional beehive for dessert. So he’s not exactly what you’d call a foodie. We’re told John lives out in the desert in the middle of nowhere in the wilderness, probably so he didn’t have to put up with an HOA, amen? And on top of all that, he spends his entire ministry calling for greedy people and Roman soldiers and tax collectors to repent of their sin because God’s mad at them. Not exactly a popular message; it isn’t going to win you a lot of friends. And then there’s something that’s so striking to me about John, and I think it is probably one of the reasons we’re told he’s going to be great, and also probably one of the reasons Jesus said, “Of those born of women, there’s never been anybody greater.” You know something about the humility of John the Baptist? Read the Bible, and here’s what you’re going to find. It’s incredible. At the moment when Jesus began his public ministry and came onto the scene in public, John immediately gave all of his followers away to Jesus. Think about that. Here’s this dude who has all these followers, all these fans who have been following him everywhere, and as soon as Jesus shows up, John’s like, “No, no, He must become greater; I must become less. Y’all go to him. Y’all follow him,” which is crazy, right? I mean, that’s a lot like a preacher saying to the people of his church, “Don’t come to this church anymore. Go to that church over there, it’s a way better church.” It’s amazing stuff. In other words, here’s what we know about John. This dude didn’t look like the culture, he didn’t talk like the culture, and he most certainly didn’t live like the culture. Why? Because God’s hand was on his life. And when God’s hand is on your life, a powerful principle to know is that your life is going to look completely different than the culture around you. Here’s the truth. This world does not need more people who look like the world. This world doesn’t need another church that looks just like the culture. This world needs a church that looks completely different than the culture around it. Why? Because God’s hand is on it. Everything about this dude’s life screams different, different, different, because God’s hand is on his life.
Now watch what happens in verse 67. “And his father, Zechariah, was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he prophesied.” Now, here’s the thing. I don’t know if you’ve noticed how many times so far in Luke we’ve read about somebody being filled with the Holy Spirit. Have you noticed this? In just the first chapter, people are constantly filled with the Holy Spirit, and we’re going to see the Holy Spirit mentioned a lot in the Gospel of Luke. This is one of the reasons that a lot of Bible scholars actually refer to the Gospel of Luke as the Gospel of the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit makes so many appearances and is up to so many amazing things in the Gospel of Luke. But here’s what’s so fascinating. People are filled with the Holy Spirit, and what do we typically see them doing? They immediately begin to say awesome things about Jesus. Have you noticed that? They’re filled with the Holy Spirit, and the result, or the evidence of that they’re filled with the Holy Spirit is they begin to say awesome things about Jesus and make much of Jesus and declare how good Jesus is and how powerful Jesus is, which is an incredible thing to point out because there are some people who say that the evidence of the Holy Spirit is that you’ll walk around speaking in all kinds of tongues and foreign languages. Listen, that’s a spiritual gift, and Paul talks about it in Corinthians. But frankly, family, when you read the Bible, one of the things you see is that the clear evidence that the Holy Spirit has filled the person and is at work is that person says a lot of awesome stuff about Jesus. They preach Jesus, they declare Jesus, they make much of Jesus, they exalt Jesus. That’s the evidence of the Holy Spirit. The evidence of the Holy Spirit in the life of a person, in the life of a follower of Jesus, in the life of a church, is that those people, that group of people, or that individual is constantly making much of Jesus. This is the reason that the Bible says that no one can say that Jesus is Lord apart from the Holy Spirit. The evidence the Holy Spirit’s at work is that someone’s making much of Jesus, and that’s what Zechariah’s about to do. He’s about to prophesy, and his entire prophecy isn’t all about his boy, his son, his child. His prophecy is actually about Jesus.
Jesus Has Come Into the World To Save Me From Those Who Hate Me
Watch what happens here in verse 68. “And his father, Zechariah, was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he prophesied, saying, ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people, and he’s 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 from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all who, hate us.’” Now watch what’s happening here. This is incredible. So we have Zechariah, and he’s telling everyone Jesus is coming. The Savior is coming and He’s on a mission, and one of the things the Savior is going to do is He’s going to rescue us “rom our enemies who hate us so much. And this actually brings us to the fourth point for today, which is, Jesus has come into this world to save me from those who hate me. Jesus is on a mission to save us from the one who hates us. Beloved, follow this. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that when Zechariah talks about the enemies who hate them, that he’s simply referring to evil empires like Rome. That is not all that’s happening here. There is so much more going on here. This is so much more spiritually significant. What is he talking about when he talks about enemies who hate them? There’s a South African Bible scholar I like to read every now and then, Norval Gildenheist, who is talking about this statement from Zechariah, and he says this in his commentary, “Although there may be a reference here to political liberation as well, something far more glorious is meant. The wholehearted service of the Lord and complete freedom from all bonds of sin, guilt, punishment, curse, Satan, and destruction.” See, if you haven’t watched this, here’s what Zechariah totally knows. There is no one in this world who hates you more today than the devil. I wonder if you feel that today. I wonder if that truth is real to you, that there is no one in this world that has more of a malicious disposition towards you and against you today than Satan himself.
See, here’s one of the mistakes we make, oftentimes even in the church, we talk a whole lot about God’s will for my life, but we hardly ever talk about the devil’s will for our lives. How many of you know Satan has a will for your life too? He totally does. Thankfully God has revealed his will for our lives through His Holy Word. That’s how we can know God’s will for our lives. God’s will for your life is not hidden under the couch somewhere. It’s actually right here in this book, and you can know it. But how do we know Satan’s will for our life? Because Satan also has a will for our lives. The devil has a purpose for our lives too. Satan is just fine with you believing in God, as long as you don’t worship Him. He doesn’t care if you believe in God. As a matter of fact, James, the half-brother of Jesus in the New Testament tells us even the demons believe in God, and they tremble. The demons know God is God; the demons know Jesus is the Son of God. Read Mark chapter five, and you see they’re falling down at the feet of Jesus and saying, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” The demons know. They’re aware. Here’s the reality. The enemy is just fine with you believing in God, and he’s just fine with you reading lots of books about God, and he’s just fine with you having conversations with your friends over a latte about God, and he’s just fine with you posting a lot of verses on the socials about God. He just doesn’t want you to love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. In fact, you know what Satan wants? And this is where it gets tricky. Here’s what Satan actually wants. He wants you to love anything more than you love God. And frankly, he doesn’t care what it is. It could be a really bad thing. It might be a really good thing. See, the problem with a lot of us, because we live in America and we’re trying to be good citizens here in the suburbs and trying to live life the right way, is not that we’re outright loving a lot of really bad, visibly evil things. The problem with a lot of us, honestly, is that we love good things too much. The problem with a lot of us is we take a good thing, we’ve turned it into a God thing, and that’s the point where it becomes a bad thing. Because we love a good thing more than we love God, and now we’ve usurped the place of God in our lives. There’s something in our life that is more important to us than God. Is there anything in your life that you’re more passionate about, more in love with, or more afraid of not having than Jesus? If so, that’s an idol. And the thing about the enemy is he wants us to love anything more than we love God. It might be a bad thing, it might be something that on the surface looks like a good thing. It might be money, it might be sex, it might be power, it might be your truth, it might be Xbox 360, it might be popularity with people, it might be food, it might be your body, it might be your political ideology, it might be social justice, it might be your kids, it might be travel baseball. It really doesn’t matter what that thing is that you love more than God and you’re more passionate about than God, as long as there’s something in your life that you’re more in love with than God. Because here’s what Satan totally knows: the enemy knows that nothing will ever give you satisfaction and peace other than God. So it doesn’t matter what it is that we love more than God, as long as there’s some created thing we love more than God.
This is exactly what Romans chapter one is talking about when it tells us that because we’re born into this world as sinners, we are all prone to look for satisfaction in created things other than God. But I have good news for you. Jesus came to save you from the one that hates you. Satan hates you. He has an agenda for your life and he wants to trick you. He wants to kill you.
One of the clearest pictures to me of Satan and his disposition towards our lives is actually found in Mark chapter five. Remember that story where Jesus shows up at the tombs and he finds the demon possessed man who’s been possessed? Remember, “Our name is Legion for we are many.” And what do we read about that guy who’s possessed by the demons? First of all, we read that he’s chained up inside of the tombs because that’s where the people in the village have chained him. That’s how society likes to deal with spiritual problems. Let’s just put him out of the way and then we don’t have to deal with it. So he’s chained up in a tomb somewhere. He immediately comes running out of the tomb and he comes to Jesus and he falls down at His feet and declares Him to be Lord. And what are we told about that man? We are told that all day and night he would cut himself with stones and with rocks, causing wounds in himself. Why? That’s a picture of what the enemy wants in your life and in my life. He wants us to hate ourselves. He wants us to hate what we see in the mirror. He wants to hate who we are. He wants us to destroy ourselves. He wants to destroy us and kill us. Make no mistake about it. He hates you, but Jesus Christ has come to the world to save you from the one who hates you. Born of a virgin, He lived the perfect life that we would never live, died on a cross, rose from the dead victorious, and on that day when He rose, the one who hates you was defeated forever. Think about that. Defeated forever. And right now we’re living in that weird time, the already not yet, in this glorious middle, and we’re waiting for that final chapter that we read in Revelation where he has a really bad day and is finally tossed into a lake of fire forever. So here’s the deal. We can have a sense of peace and confidence in Jesus because we’ve read the end of the book and our team wins. Team Jesus is victorious because of what Christ has accomplished. He’s come to save us from the one who hates us. And by the way, this is the reason we gather every week. It’s the reason we sing. It’s the reason we give. It’s the reason we serve. It’s the reason we have fellowship with one another. It’s the reason we do this thing all the time because we know that Jesus Christ has freed us from the one who hates us. How awesome is it to be one of the redeemed by Jesus? And I love that Zachariah is singing about Christ. Think about this for a second. Jesus hasn’t even been born yet and he’s already changing the world. Hearts are already praising Him for Who He is. That’s how awesome Jesus Christ is.
The Right Response to the Grace of Jesus Is to Serve Him
Now look at verse 72. He says, “Jesus is coming to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham to grant us, that we being delivered from the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear.” Did you see that? “That we being delivered from the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him in all our days.” This brings us to the fifth point for today, the right response to the grace of Jesus is to serve Him. Don’t miss this. According to Zechariah right here, there’s a very specific reason Jesus has saved us, and there’s a response that we’re all supposed to have to that salvation. Jesus has come to save us from the one who hates us, to redeem us from sin and the curse and the devil, and there’s a response that we’re supposed to have to this incredible reality that Jesus has rescued us from the enemy and from hell and from death and from sin and from wrath. The response that every Christian saved by grace is supposed to have is to serve Jesus for the rest of our lives. I’m supposed to respond to the grace of Jesus by serving Him for the rest of my life. But listen, I’m not serving Him to earn salvation. Salvation is by grace through faith, but I serve Him as an act of gratitude and worshipful response for what He has accomplished in my life. So this means that my right response to grace and mercy from Jesus is not to sit in the comfortable confines of my living room eating Doritos, watching reruns of “Cops,” waiting to die and go meet Jesus so that I can finally be in eternity forever, as heavenly as that does sound some days. But instead, the right response to the mercy of Jesus that God has shown me is to serve Jesus forever. And I wonder, are you serving Christ? Are you serving Him through worship? We gather together to serve Christ through worship. Are you serving Him through the utilization of the spiritual gifts God has deposited within you to magnify Christ every Sunday in your church body? Every week in the church are you serving with your spiritual gifts? Are you serving Him through evangelism? Are you serving Jesus?
I’m going to go off script here for a second. If you don’t have an area where you’re currently serving Jesus, and you want to be serving Jesus in gratitude for the fact that He saved you and died on the cross for you and rose again and you’re looking for a place to serve, can I encourage you with something? We have an incredible student ministry that meets down here every single Wednesday night in order to disciple our teenagers, who, by the way, need to be discipled and grown up in the ways of Christ in a fallen world like this. We have an opportunity to come alongside and to pour into our teenagers, and we are in need of leaders in our student ministry. I’ll be honest with you, family, in a church this size, we should never be wanting for people to pour into the lives of teenagers. So I’m encouraging you that if you love Jesus and you’re filled with the Holy Spirit and you want to see the gospel advance, you want to be used by God and serve Jesus in response to what He’s done in your life, let us know. Take a card, write down student ministry and your name so we can call you this week and get you plugged in. There is no excuse for any of us to not be serving Jesus in response to the grace He’s poured out on our lives if we know Him. How are you serving Christ?
Now look at verse 76. This is amazing to me. Picture this in your mind for a second: Zachariah’s been making much of Jesus, and then we have this incredible moment in verse 76 where it’s like Zachariah now looks down at his baby. He’s been glorifying and magnifying Jesus, then all of a sudden he looks down at his baby’s little chubby face, wrapped up in little swaddling clothes, whatever John’s in at this moment, and he says, “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the most high, for you will go before the Lord to prepare His ways.” Now listen, every parent in here, listen to me for a second. I’ll be honest with you. There was a moment this past week where I’m reading this text and there was this sting in my soul as a daddy, and here’s why. I wonder, as Zechariah’s saying these words right here while looking at little John in the face, calling him a prophet, if Zechariah was a little bit conflicted. Because you have to remember, as a student of Scripture, Zechariah totally would have known that prophets tend to be very lonely dudes who end up getting murdered. Read the Bible. Amos, tortured. Micah, killed. Isaiah, sawn in two. Jeremiah, stoned to death. And it goes on and on and on and on. So, I’m just wondering, if as a daddy, on the one hand, I know he’s going to be a prophet, and on the other hand, I know he’s going to be a prophet. Do you feel that tension there? See, here’s how it works. When God calls you to stand up in front of an entire culture and declare to them that they’re wicked and they need to repent of their sin, because if not, God is going to judge them with fire, that doesn’t tend to be a very popular message. And this is what God’s going to call John to do. As a matter of fact, you know we’re reading the gospels and there’s coming a moment where, God is going to call John to call out King Herod. Remember that? John’s going to have to declare to King Herod, the King of Israel, that he himself is a sinner for all this crazy sexuality stuff that’s happening in his family, and he’s going to call them out and call for him to repent of his sin, or else he will experience the judgment of God. And you have to wonder if there was some point where John’s like, okay, great, the Lord wants me to offend the most powerful man in Israel who owns a very sharp ax. This should be fantastic; this is great.This is what prophets do. Prophets tend not to have a lot of friends and tend to be very lonely guys who die bloody deaths because they preach a very unpopular message. But again, here’s what you have to remember. What did God the Father and God the Son already call John? He’s great.This is a man who in the eyes of God is great, and at the very same time, God has called him to live a very hard life. Being great in the eyes of God does not mean you live an easy life. Listen, somewhere along the line, here’s what every single follower of Jesus has to ask themselves. Do I want to live a faithful life? Or do I want to live an easy life? Because I’m just telling you, when you read the Bible, those two things are two very different things. A life that’s faithful to Jesus and His Gospel and a life that’s easy are two very different things. Which incidentally is exactly why later on in the gospel of Luke, chapter 10, verse three, Jesus says an incredible thing to his disciples. He says, “Go your way, behold, I’m sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.” Isn’t that special? Isn’t that just wonderful? Isn’t that the great image you want to hear? How many of you have ever played football when you were in high school? Me too, I was a star running back. Kidding, look at me. But how would you like to hear your coach right before the game give that pre-game speech? Hey guys, this is great! Now get ready, I’m sending you out like sheep among wolves. You’re lambs, right? Have you ever seen a high school with a lamb as their mascot? No, and there’s a reason. Wolf, right here in town. No lambs, right? Why? Because it’s not a very threatening. You never see a lamb and a wolf on the Discovery Channel having a tickle fight in a field, right? A lamb never gets put in a cage with wolves and gets comfortable. No, it’s bloody and it’s really difficult. And yet this is the image that Jesus chooses to use when He sends His followers out into a fallen world. Why? Because the point is that being faithful to Jesus in a fallen world is not easy, but it’s always worth it. Again, think about it, what’s happening behind the scenes? God’s looking at John saying, “He’s great! He’s great! He’s great!” And the fallen world is looking at John saying, “He’s scum. He’s scum. He’s scum.” But something bigger is happening behind the scenes.
Jesus Has Come to Be Our Guide, Not Our Hobby
Watch verse 76, “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people and the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light.” Jesus is coming to give us light. Don’t miss that; He’s coming to give us light. He’s like the sunrise that rises in the morning to give light to people, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet. He’s coming to give light and He’s coming as a guide. He wants to shine light on our path and to guide us down that path, to guide our feet into the way of peace. And this actually brings us to our seventh point for today, which is, Jesus has come to be our guide, not our hobby. Let me ask you a question. What does a hacky sack, a jigsaw puzzle, building model cars, and parasailing all have in common? Anybody know? It’s a hobby. How many of you have hobbies? A lot of people have hobbies, things you do when you need a mental health break, like making candles or calligraphy or rock collecting or macrame or geocaching or maybe you make your own essential oils, you weirdo. A hobby is something we fit into our spare time and we like to do for fun. I looked up the word “hobby” this week and here’s the definition for the word hobby. “A hobby is an activity you enjoy doing in your spare time.” That’s what makes it a hobby. It’s something you enjoy doing, but it doesn’t command your schedule. It’s just something you enjoy doing in your spare time. You fit it in when you have time. And some people have weird hobbies. I remember 12 years ago, when we first planted the church, there was this guy who was around, who came up to me after a Sunday gathering and said, “Hey, Pastor Anson, I was wondering, next weekend, you wanna go with me and my friends? You wanna go spelunking?” I said, “Do what?” He said, “You wanna go spelunking?” I said, “Bro, what is spelunking?” He said, “Well, we go up to East Tennessee, and we find some caves, and and we crawl around in the caves and explore the caves with my buddies. You wanna go cave exploring? You wanna go spelunking?” I’m like, “No, I did, but then I turned five, and I wanted to be a dinosaur instead.” If you have weird hobbies, here’s where it gets dangerous. If we’re not careful, we can get to a place in our own lives where we start to treat Jesus like He’s a hobby. It doesn’t command our schedule, so when we have time, we fit Him in to our schedule. And we start to have this attitude, ”Well, I’ll get to church when I can. And maybe I’ll be a part of a group when I can, and I’ll give towards the work of the Lord when I can, and I’ll serve in the church when I can, and I’ll tell my friend who’s going to hell, about Jesus when I can.” I have a lot of really important things going on in my life, so I’ll fit Him in when I can. I’ll pencil Him into the priority list, right under macrame and jigsaw puzzles, and He’ll be there. But here’s the problem with treating Jesus as if He’s just a hobby, is that a hobby is something that I fit in to my schedule, and it’s not something that commands my schedule.
But what does Zechariah tell us about Jesus here? He comes as our guide. Jesus is coming to be our guide, not our hobby. He’s coming to be our guide. Now by definition, what does a guide have? Leadership. A guide has command. A guide, by definition, knows more than I know, and so therefore, that’s why he’s a guide. He shows me the way, and he leads the path, and he tells me where to go, and he commands it all. That’s the whole point. Jesus wants to command my schedule, not just fit into it when it’s convenient. And so one of the declarations we have is that Jesus is our guide. Zechariah says He’s our guide.
The Spiritual Development of Your Child Matters More Than Anything Else
Pay close attention to how this amazing chapter ends. Verse 80. “And the child [John] grew” and became an all-star on the baseball squad. No. “And the child grew”, and he became president of the Beta Club. No. “And the child grew” and he had tap dance classes on Sunday, and that was a bummer because he always missed church, but at least he became a real good tap dancer. That’s not what it says. “And the child grew and became strong in spirit.” Now watch this. “And he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.” He grew and he became strong in spirit. And some of you have older kids, and some of you don’t have any kids. If you’re a person who doesn’t have any kids, that’s fine, just take notes for maybe if the Lord gives you kids one day. And others of you have very young kids and I want you to just huddle up and lend me your ear for a second, because I want to point something out here. It’s our final point. The spiritual development of your child matters more than anything else in your child’s life. Please don’t miss this. The spiritual development of your child matters more than anything else in your child’s life. Did you know that this is the only verse in the entire Bible where we’re told anything about John the Baptist’s childhood? That’s it, right here, verse 80. And the thing that we’re told about his childhood is that he grew and became strong in spirit. Or another way we could say it would be the boy grew in godliness. He grew in godliness. Is godliness your top main priority as a parent, who, by the way, only gets to do this thing once? Some of you have older kids, like I have. My oldest is 16. She just started driving this year. She now drives herself to church. She now drives herself to school. And the problem is, I’m her dad, and I blinked and she was 16. Anybody know what I’m talking about? And now I see her driving her car, but I still see a little four-year-old driving a car. You blink and you miss it. So as a parent, your main priority as somebody who only gets to do this once is to do everything possible to make sure that before anything else, your child grows in godliness. Before anything else, before any other priority, before growth in any other field or extracurricular deal. Is it your priority? You want them to grow in Christ-likeness. Many of us will say, “Well, of course. Of course that’s what I want. I want my child to grow in godliness and Christ-likeness. So pray tell, pastor, how does that work? You have a good devotional book you could recommend? Or should my kids watch VeggieTale until they’re 19? Or should we be learning the book of Leviticus as a family together at night? What should we do? What should we do?” Let me ask you a question. Did you know that according to statistics, the most effective thing you can possibly do to cultivate an environment of spiritual growth in your home where your kids are positioned to flourish in a relationship with Jesus is to go to church?
This guy named Cameron Cole recently wrote an article about this on the Gospel Coalition website. Some of y’all frequent that and read it. It’s got good stuff. Cameron Cole and the Gospel Coalition wrote an article called “Parents Just Go to Church”. Here’s what he said, ”When I was a kid, we went to church every single week, even on vacation. I often complained about it, though I liked the donuts they served at Sunday school. I asked my father, ‘Why can’t we take a week off?’ My old school dad would always reply in the same gruff Southern drawl, ‘Son, God gives us seven days a week. We can sacrifice one morning to Him.’ My family’s commitment to Sunday worship communicated major truths to me. God is the center of life. God is worthy of praise and worship. The Christian life requires sacrifice and discipline. My father rarely talked to me about spiritual matters. I don’t think he had a vast vocabulary for such conversations. Still, he modeled the Christian life well, largely through his unflinching commitment to go to church every Sunday. If you feel inadequate to lead your kids spiritually, just go to church. If strategizing about your Christian parenting feels overly complicated, just go to church. If you’ve been taking a few too many Sundays off, just go to church. If all of this seems overwhelmingly difficult, ask God to give you the grace to have this consistent discipline in your family’s life. Faithful church attendance can have an eternal influence on your kids.”
Here’s why this is so important. Every single week, you, as a parent, are literally establishing for your children what normal looks like. It’s what you’re doing. Your home’s like an incubator and you’re the one who sets the spiritual temperature in that home. It’s that one environment in the world that you can somewhat have leadership and dominion over. And so you’re the one who sets that spiritual tone and environment in that home. And it’s this incubator where your kids are going to understand and come to grips with their worldview and with what normal in this life looks like. And you’re going to establish what normal looks like. So when you walk out of this home and people are doing things a different way, you have to understand, this is who God’s called us to be. That’s abnormal. This is what’s normal for us. This is who we’re called to be by Jesus. And so the question becomes, what does normal look like for your children? What are you establishing as normal in your home? My wife and I have to understand that everything we do for our two daughters that God has entrusted to us is establishing for them what normal is going to look like for the rest of their life. By the way, our two daughters don’t belong to us. They belong to God. They’ve been entrusted to us for a season, and their heavenly Father loves them far more than I ever could or my wife ever could. Our job is to train them up to love their heavenly Father first and foremost. Every single thing I do for my two daughters is establishing for them what normal is going to look like for the rest of their life. Even when I’m dead and gone, what’s normal going to look like? Will it be normal to eat dinner with their family at the table every night and talk to one another? Will that be normal? Will it be normal to cheer for the Georgia Bulldogs every single Saturday for the rest of their lives? Is that going to be normal, or are they going to rebel and cheer for Tennessee? Will it be normal? Will it be normal to have a hot lasagna every Christmas Eve night after the candlelight service? Will that be normal for the rest of their lives? Will it be normal to worship Jesus with the church on Sunday? What does normal look like? Every single thing I do as a parent is establishing for them what normal is. And listen to me, going to church and taking your children to church, is not a 100% matter of fact that your children will grow up to be really strong Christians. But I can promise you, never coming to church isn’t going to help. What kind of environment are we establishing for our children?
But let me guess what scientists tell us. You know what scientists with clipboards and pocket protectors and brains and smart notes, you know what they tell us? They tell us that the human brain is most receptive between the ages of two and seven. Did you know that? Between two and seven, the mind is like a steel trap. It’s like a sponge and it just catches everything, which is frightening if you’re a parent, amen? But between two and seven, the human brain is like a sponge and it just catches it all, which is one of the reasons why here at Emmaus Church, when children are between the ages of two and seven, it’s very important for us that we do something very basic which is to teach them the lyrics to a song that is very simple and yet incredibly powerful. It’s a song that many of us learned when we were kids. It says, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong, they are weak but he is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me, yes, Jesus loves me, yes, Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so.” Here’s how it works. The more I focus on the love of this Savior Jesus that Zechariah is singing about right here in this chapter, the more I will grow spiritually just like John did.