Well congregation, let's open our Bible again and continue in Luke chapter 1 Luke chapter 1 and we pick up at verse 57 and read through verse 80 Some of those things of Isaiah 40 and also as we mentioned before Malachi 3 and Malachi 4 and are laid out for us here, and the fulfillment begins, as it were, in earnest. Good and helpful, encouraging and directive things for us in the word of God. So to Luke chapter one, and we begin at verse 57. When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy. On the eighth day, when they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, his mother spoke up and said, no, he is to be called John. They said to her, there is no one among your relatives who has that name. Then they made signs to his father to find out what he would like to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone's astonishment, he wrote, his name is John. Immediately, his mouth was opened, and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God. The neighbors were all filled with awe. And throughout the hill country of Judea, people were talking about all these things. Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, what then is this child going to be? For the Lord's hand was with him. His father, Zechariah, was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied. Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he said through his holy prophets of long ago, salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham. to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for Him, to give His people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins because of the tender mercy of our God. by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven, to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace. And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel." Thus far, dear congregation, the glorious and perfect word of the living God. Let's pause and pray and ask for his help, shall we? Lord, now this morning we thank you for the wonder of your word. As we consider all the various tributaries into the great river of the arrival of the Messiah, we see this strong and deep stream of the promise of the coming of John the Baptist. And yet, Lord, perhaps we were a moment ago amazed that when his father Zachariah is filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesies, the first words to come out of that new dad's mouth is not about his son, but about your son. And so help us, Lord, to have Jesus Christ as first, the one who is preeminent in our lives, and make it so this morning by your spirit and your word, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. So, dear congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, we left Zachariah and Elizabeth waiting. They were waiting for the day of delivery. When Elizabeth was six months along, the angel Gabriel was dispatched again, this time from heaven to a virgin, unmarried, a woman named Mary. After Mary learns that she will give birth to Jesus, that she will give birth to God, she rushes off to the hills to visit Elizabeth. Now, when Mary enters the building, the room, the home where Elizabeth is, Mary hollers, I'm here, or something like that. And at that moment, the pre-born, still unwound, John leaped. did some kind of turning inside of Elizabeth. When the words of Mary reached Elizabeth's ears, John in the womb is filled with joy. Now as Elizabeth is about to give birth, Mary clears out. That's where we would have been just before our text in Luke 1 and verse 56. And the spotlight is back on the birth of the New Testament prophet Elijah. looking at all of these monumental events with fresh eyes, what leaps off the page in all of these things is excitement, is surprise, is shock and praise and thanksgiving to God. That the ancient promises about Messiah are coming to pass. Well, beloved, not just for them, but we are amazed that the good word about John is a great word about Jesus. We are amazed that the good word about John is a great word about Jesus. Well, then notice the progression of these things in the points of our sermon. First of all, joy and awe erupt from his birth and naming. Second, by the Holy Spirit, Zechariah prophesies Jesus' work of spiritual freedom. Thirdly, and prophesies John's work of going before. Fourthly, because the true light is coming into the world for salvation. But let's focus on this, amazement. We are amazed that the good word about John is a great word about Jesus. So first of all, joy and awe erupt from his birth and naming. Well, this is clearly the message, verses 57 and 58. Look at it again. The time for Elizabeth to have her baby. She gives birth to a son. Her neighbors, her relatives, everybody hears about it, and that the Lord has been good to her, show her mercy, and they share her joy. Now, we don't have to tell new parents, especially in the birth of their first child, that they ought to be joyful. Seems to be a kind of natural occurrence in most cases, but here we see it in significant ways. Joy and awe at what the Lord is doing, but do you remember why? I know we focused on this before, but it bears stating again that she gives birth by a miracle. She is not a young lady. She is an old lady, and she is formerly barren, unable to have children, and here giving birth. Now that simple fact ought to be almost enough. And it does set us on that whole train, that movement of joy, when we just contemplate that fact alone, that God has done something that only God could have done. And we retrace that in the Old Testament and those other miraculous births by God's intervention. And there is great joy in all of that. The right and correct response for the Christian of God's intervening into our lives ought to be joy and thanksgiving. But then, on day eight, circumcision day, according to Leviticus 12, one through three, circumcision day, Elizabeth shocks the happy crowd, By saying what Zechariah had passed on to her, that Gabriel had instructed him in the temple, Elizabeth shocks the crowd by saying, his name shall be John. Get this, the group that's gathered around her probably includes family members or people that they had known all of their lives. Oh, I've known your grandparents. I knew your parents. I know everybody. There's nobody in your family line with that name. Have you lost touch with reality? Because that's just not the way it worked in those days. You named your son, especially the firstborn after the family line, carrying on the honor of the lineage. There's nobody in your family with that name. So let's ask Zachariah. Now we wonder a little bit about what occurs here. Verse 62, they made signs to his father. Some say that not only was Zechariah mute, but he was also deaf. I think that's a stretch. I think probably what was going on is that people were so gripped by the shock and the awe of what Elizabeth said that they kind of lost their minds for a moment. They didn't remember that he could hear, he just couldn't speak. But in any case, they give him a tablet, a piece of wood in those days, covered with wax. And he makes an imprint on that piece of wood covered with wax that his name is John. And that name is Zechariah's own deliverance. Because notice exactly what happens in the text. His name is John at the end of verse 63. Verse 64, Luke borrows one of Mark's favorite words immediately. No time is lost. A second didn't pass. It happens instantaneously. His mouth is open, his tongue is loose. He begins to speak. Notice it doesn't say anything here about his ears opening so that he's made able to hear. Back to our former point. His mouth is open, his tongue is loose, and he speaks praising God. But I just said that Zachariah writing and printing on the piece of wood that his name is John, that the name of John is Zachariah's own deliverance. Well, why do we say that? It is because the name John means Jehovah is gracious. Gracious first to Zachariah. God is gracious to reverse the curse, the judgment that had fallen onto Zechariah because in the temple, Zechariah didn't believe God's message. Remember? Angel Gabriel told us that. Zechariah, you don't believe God. And so now what we see here is a beginning graciousness of a whole new kind, a deeper vein and strain of the graciousness of Jehovah, which was exactly what Zechariah needed. And he speaks again and the whole crowd erupts. In a higher level of glory, they are ecstatic. And they ask themselves, what will this child be? What will he be? I want you to notice something of the connection between the first part of our text and the second part of our text because, beloved, they are intimately connected. In verse 66, everyone who heard this wondered about it asking, and their asking is the question that God the Holy Spirit placed on their heart so that they could be made ready for Zechariah's answer to their question. Their question, what then will this child be, is answered in Zechariah's prophecy 67 to 80. God caused them to have wonderment The very same thing he does with us as we continue to remember and learn and rejoice in all of the promises and prophecies about the coming of our Savior, we ought to be filled with wonderment. Now they are asking it about John, but the Spirit will grant them much more than they wanted, much more than they expected. And so joy belongs to the church. For we know that excitement should grip the believer, anticipation should grasp us about all the works that will be done for the salvation of our souls. And we know these events actually happened. We know these things to be facts. Gabriel came and gave news to Zechariah, then he gave news to Mary, and then he gave news to Joseph. A shocking news to each one of them, and they are gripped by that news. The message then comes later to the shepherds. They come and they are filled with awe as they come to Bethlehem to see the baby that was told to them, as was promised. And what we see in all of these cases is a great interest. excitement they're gripped and so beloved are we so beloved are we if we read this word the Word of God as the Word of God to us about the significance of our salvation what has been revealed to us about Our Savior Jesus and the preparer of his arrival, born six months before Jesus, John the Baptist. Or maybe, maybe we should rename him. Now, I'm just kind of toying with us a little bit here, but another way we could name him rather than John the Baptist is we could say Jehovah is Gracious the Baptist. Doesn't quite roll off the tongue the same way. But we see the significance of it, don't we? Jehovah is gracious to a people needing deliverance, and John will lead the way. Well, by the Holy Spirit then, secondly, Zechariah prophesies Jesus' work of spiritual freedom, at least first, Jesus' work of spiritual freedom. We're amazed at the grace of God here seen in the one who had been mute. because he did not believe, now filled with the Holy Spirit. That is actually a stunning thing. You realize something of the application of his son's name again to the father in this reality of verse 67. We ought to be shocked right here. The last interaction that Zechariah had, as it were, with the Lord in a formal way, was in the temple when the angel Gabriel was dispatched and was standing before Zechariah and told Zechariah, this is what God has sent me to say to you. And Zechariah, do you remember last time, Zechariah said, in effect, prove it. I don't believe you, you're gonna have to prove it to me. Now what we see here in verse 67 is that same Zechariah filled with the Holy Spirit. This is an astonishing application of the merit and the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ to one who doubted, who disbelieved. And all congregation how this speaks to us. of the fullness, of the richness, of the mercy of Jesus Christ for sinners such as we are. Do we minimize that work? Oh, we should rather extol that work. We should rather glory in that work of Jesus Christ applied to sinners such as Zechariah and such as we are. So then filled with the Holy Spirit, he is used, verse 67, for prophecy. In this, there are four things. Four specific matters that he expounds on here in verses 68 through the end of 75, pretty much in a little bit more, but four basic matters here. First of all, notice that in verse 68, he prophesies Emmanuel. He prophesies God has come. Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has come. He has come and has redeemed His people. That's the first thing, the arrival of the promised Messiah. We say it every time we stand together on usually the eve of the Lord's Day, and we use the Nicene Creed. We say, who for us men and for our salvation, you know the rest of it, came down from heaven, was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary. This is what we are seeing right here. Oh, praise be to God for Emmanuel, God with us. But why? Why has he come? That's the second thing. He has come to set us free. He has come and has redeemed his people. Now verse 69 he has raised up a horn in the original language here. It means strength of power of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. Psalm 110 as was promised in the line and lineage of David. Here, Zachariah is prophesying, probably in a way not really grasped by Zachariah himself, of the power of the atoning work of Jesus Christ, who on the cross has to be upheld to maintain the whole weight of the wrath of God poured out on the cross for our sins, to rescue us from our enemies, Verse 74 says the same thing, to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, to enable us to serve him without fear, to deliver, to save us. This is why he has come. He has come not for any generic work, any other kind of work other than the work of rescue, to deliver sinners. Well thirdly then, God has come to fulfill, this is verse 72b and verse 73, God has come to fulfill his oath. In the work and worth of the promised Messiah, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. Notice this at the end of verse 72. And to remember his holy covenant, Verse 73, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham. This is exactly what God had called him to do, was set him forth to accomplish. Promised already back there in what we read earlier this morning in Genesis chapter three. That's where this promise begins. The promise of the one who needed to come. Now the covenant that brought out that promise in Genesis 3.15 is of an eternal value. It is an eternal covenant. The covenant that God, the Father and the Son with the collaboration of the Holy Spirit agreed to before there was time. And yet here's the work of the Lord Jesus Christ prophesied about here through Zachariah of the coming of the Oath Keeper, the Promise Keeper. The one who would be an oath keeper because you and I are not very good at that. You know that when we come to the Lord's to the Lord's Day in the morning particularly and we hear the Word of God being read in terms of the law of God. One thing we are saying at that moment is that we need covenant renewal. Because we break. Covenant. We do not do all things that we have said we agree with God that we should do. Here what we are noticing Zechariah prophesying about is one who will come to keep what was promised. And then fourthly, He comes having saved us. He comes fourthly to allow us, verses 74 and 75, to allow us to be servants of God. But notice it here, verse 75, servants of God without fear in holiness and righteousness. Now, this is a direct application of how it is we ought to sense and be gripped with when we are standing before a holy God. We ought to be in fear and trepidation because we are sinners. But here's something amazing is being promised. that we will be able to serve the Lord in a wonderful life service, as Paul talks about in Romans chapter 12, without fear and in holiness and righteousness. How is that possible? It is possible only through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one here Zachariah is prophesying about. Through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. we will be able to serve God in a holy and righteous way. Now, beloved, before we go further, we need to stop and consider this. In our hearts, our mouths opened, our hearts ought to be overflowing with thanksgiving and praise that we have the privilege through the work of Jesus Christ to say, I am a servant of the Most High God. We have the privilege and the blessing of saying, by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can love God and serve him without fear. Our speaking about Jesus, you see, must be based on facts. And what we have here in these things, these promises, these prophecies of Zechariah are facts. Well, when do we serve him without fear in these ways? Let me give us three categories. The first and most important time we serve him without fear in holiness and in righteousness is right now. It is what we are doing right here. It's called corporate worship. Where the assembled church gathered from all the compass points into one central location happens to be for us this building, this place of worship. We are gathered from all of those different places to exalt him. This is where we praise him. Is that what we're doing this morning? When we open the songbooks that we use, are we praising him with our whole heart, through our voice, to his hearing? Is that what we're doing? When we pray, though sometimes, and I know my children often called it this, the long prayer, I know it's long sometimes, but are we engaged in that praying? Even beyond that, are you praying throughout the worship service? Are you praying for the preaching of the word? That's how you see we begin to praise our God. And it's the first and most important category of that freedom to worship God without fear and holiness and righteousness. We worship him in song and in prayer and the delight of his Christ's preaching ministry. But then secondly, we leave this room, eventually, After the conclusion of the second service, we leave this building, and we go out into the world. Does our service of God stop when we exit the door? Some churches have placed over the exit door of their building, you're now entering onto the mission field. That's exactly right, isn't it? So that not only do we worship him, first of all, in corporate worship, and that is praise, but secondly, in prophetic living. Prophetic living. The church enters into the world, it enters into the area of the enemy, not to be conquered, but to conquer. Do you see what it is that Zechariah is prophesying that Jesus Christ will accomplish? He will accomplish through power and strength, conquering. Well, what kind of conquering? It's the kind of conquering that Paul talks about. The tearing down of strongholds, the living in our culture in such a way that enemies are conquered by the gospel. This is what the church's mission is. So the people look at us at the workplace, they look at us in our shopping patterns, they look at us in our cultural engagement, they look at us in our ethical engagement, and they say, now what's so different about you people? Why don't you tell the same jokes that we tell? Why don't you laugh at the same jokes that we laugh at? Why don't you watch the same television series and movies that we watch? because we are going to engage to conquer, that's prophetic living, living sane by our living, thus says the Lord. But all of these things, which leads to the third category, proclaiming. We praise here, we live prophetically out there, so that thirdly, we are proclaiming the only Savior, Jesus Christ, by an evangelistic lifestyle. Beloved, do you see that when Zacharias prophesying here about spiritual freedom, this isn't a freedom that then says, well, I'm free to do whatever I want and to take life easy and to use all my resources for myself. He says rather something far more comprehensive. A life rescued, verse 74, out of the enemy's hands so that, verse 74, we might be enabled to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. That is a glorious work of Christ's by his church. Thirdly, now Zachariah turns his attention to his own son. John's work of going before. Now beginning at verse 76, we have a very special sort of scripture. It's akin to, if you can remember back to the end of Genesis chapter 49, what we have here is a little like Jacob foretelling what is going to happen with or through his sons in Genesis chapter 49. But with Zechariah about John, about Jehovah is gracious, the Baptist, all is glorious. All that John is going to accomplish, as Zechariah prophesies here, is gonna be for the glory of God and the forward movement of the kingdom of God, drawn out of the Old Testament, Specifically, Zechariah prophesies out of Isaiah 40, again Malachi 3, chapter 3, verse 1, and Malachi 4, verses 5 and 6, as Gabriel had promised. What we have here is one who would come and make straight the way in the wilderness. Isaiah chapter 40 by the way, verse 3 says exactly that. Isaiah 40 verse 3, he would come to make straight the way in the wilderness. And if you let your eyes go down to verse 80 of Luke, our last verse, you will learn that John will live where? In the wilderness. Now all we have to happen here is for our minds to wander just a little bit to what is going to be the case in John's ministry. He will not be in the cities. He will not be in the palaces. He will rather be out in the wilderness. He will rather be out where people have to come and find him, and he will be calling out, just as Zachariah here prophesies about his son, verse 76, a prophet of the Most High, calling people to repentance. Now here we have a place where we need to consider the tension. And what's that tension? It's the tension that supposedly exists between the meaning of John's name and the responsibility of John's mission. Remember we said the name John means Jehovah is gracious, but the mission of John is going to be to call people to repent. You brood of vipers, produce fruits in keeping with repentance. Now, how do we find those things to be in agreement? Let me ask it in terms of a bare question. Is God gracious? When he calls people to repentance, I hope you answer that question, yes. Because this, beloved, is exactly the perspective that the church needs to take today. A God-word perspective, a Christ-centered perspective, a spiritual perspective. where the ministry of preaching in churches is the calling of people to repentance because people are sinners. So that what we see Zachariah saying here about the work that his son John will accomplish is the work of the prophet's voice. a merciful call, a merciful command, a gracious and loving word to sinners to be made right with God, to bend before God in repentance. The church today, largely, and I'm not trying to impugn any motivations of any church, but the church today, largely, has dismissed the gracious aspect of the call to repentance. Instead, what's going on in so-called churches today is to say, well, we ought to love, and we use that word advisedly, come tonight for more, love people in such a way as to say, well, your behavior is fine, and we're gonna accept you exactly as you are, not ask you to change anything, because God is a broad-tent, big-tent lover. No, that is not Jehovah is gracious. What Jehovah is gracious is, is for a holy God to say to sinners, you must repent of your sins and be made right through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is exactly what Zechariah says that John's ministry is gonna be all about. The grace and kindness and love of the prophetic ministry that our church today has, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ broadly around the world has, as Paul puts it, In 2 Corinthians chapter five, verse two, and this is the calling of the church, 2 Corinthians 5, 20, I should say, we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. God-focused, Christ-centered perspective, then the gospel is entirely merciful, gracious, and glorious. Because fourthly, the true light is coming into the world for salvation. And this is exactly what we see here, verses 77 through 79, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins because of the tender mercy of our God by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet to the path of peace through forgiveness. So John will pave the way by a clarion call for the need for repentance, and the work of Jesus Christ will issue out of the heart of God. I wanna say this very gently, but it needs to be heard by us in significant terms. Back to what I said a moment ago about churches misusing the title, the love of God, and saying, well, God is going to willingly and freely accept every lifestyle and behavior choice, when what we actually have here in verse 78 is the center and the source of the call of repentance and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything flows from verse 78. Why do we say that? I mentioned ago the eternal covenant that God the Father and the Son made with the cooperation of the Holy Spirit. Here is where we find it. The old language and the original language, by the way, and the older versions of the Bible reflected this a little bit better than our newer versions do. The original language here speaks of the bowels or the heart. And so when we see verse 78 saying, because of the tender mercy, what we ought to read there is because of the mercy out of God's bowels, out of God's center, out of God's heart, all of this comes. So that we see this call, this need for repentance in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, not to be ancillary or not to be on the periphery, not to be something later on added to the gospel, but no, rather it issues, its source is the heart of God himself. This is where salvation comes from. The inner being of God. As a salvation, notice at verse 79, for sinners. God has a love from the core of his being for those trapped in darkness. And he will lead them by the hand. Notice it again, verse 79. Don't run past this. To guide our feet. It's almost as if, and I'm not at all saying this was the case, but it's almost as if not only was Zachariah mute, but blind. He wasn't blind, but this is almost what the text seems to be addressing. And of course, this is fulfilling the prophecies made in Isaiah about the blind being made to see. The text says here that God is going to need to grasp people by the hand and lead them out of darkness. Oh, beloved, this is the gospel. All of this is God initiated. All of this is God authored. Grace leads. Grace leads. So that John the Baptist has one main mission. He has one primary reason for living. And that is to lead people through and by repentance to Jesus Christ for deliverance, rescue. How gracious of God to send the forerunner to prepare the way. We studied it in our preparatory week. That is, we said repentance is a very specific action. We said some things like it removes excuses. It takes away false hopes. But here we see the fulfillment of it. When we repent, we are saying, I must have Jesus Christ. Because he alone can deliver me from all of my sins. So God has sent his forebearer, forerunner John, to pave the way for the one born to save us from our sins. But beloved, we must have that the biblical way. Those who know that their complete and total salvation must come from Jesus Christ. Amen. Oh Lord God, how we praise you this morning for the wonder of your word. How we thank you for enlightening us as it were by your spirit, illuminating our minds and our hearts to see and understand. So that what we see when we look at John is the one who would be flattening the hills, laying bare all excuses so that we would know that we must have Jesus alone. Grant us mercy, then, in Jesus Christ, as we look to him only for our salvation. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.