As I read from God's word, in the book of Luke, again, we take up a text that follows soon after what I preached on last Sunday evening, where Mary is visited by the angel Gabriel, and he promises to her in accordance with all of the promises that the people of God had received in centuries past, that he would send a serpent crusher A seed born of a woman who would free his people from the great enemy, Satan himself. This one named Jesus, whom Joseph and Mary were to name him, would be the son of David. He would sit upon his throne, he would reign over the house of Jacob, and he would be a royal son. His kingdom would have no end. Prior to that is the announcement that Zacharias and Elizabeth received, we know that Zacharias doubted and God struck him mute because he did not believe. Elizabeth, by miracle, was given a son. And it is here, the section I will read, verses 57 through 66, a short text on the, not just the receiving of John, but the naming of John and the celebration of Zacharias, whose prophecy and song I will preach on this evening. You may follow along with me as I read from God's word Luke chapter 1 beginning in verse 57. Now Elizabeth's full time came for her to be delivered and she brought forth a son. When her neighbors and relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her, they rejoiced with her. So it was on the eighth day that they came to circumcise the child And they would have called him by the name of his father Zacharias. His mother answered and said, no, he shall be called John. But they said to her, there is no one among your relatives who is called by this name. So they made signs to his father, what he would have him called. And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote saying, his name is John. So they all marveled, and immediately his mouth was opened, and his tongue was loosed, and he spoke, praising God. Then fear came on all who dwelt around them, and all these sayings were discussed throughout all the hill country of Judea. And all those who heard them kept them in their hearts, saying, what kind of child will this be? And the hand of the Lord was with him. Thus far the reading of God's holy word, you may be seated. Let me pray now for the blessing of the preaching of God's holy word. Oh Lord, we ask that this morning, as we reflect upon the great story of redemption of which this is not the first account, but it is one of thousands in which you have revealed yourself to be the only and true Redeemer and Lord of men. In fact, it is a story as old as time itself. When at the beginning, even on that day of rest where Adam and his wife were to delight in their Maker by eating of the tree of life, and yet they ate of that tree, And in doing so, they disobeyed and fell. And in Adam's sin, he did not fulfill the call of multiplication, but brought death upon this world. And if it were not for the miraculous opening of the woman's womb, that woman who would be named Eve, there would be no life. for you brought life from death. It is no less true in the life of Elizabeth than it was in Eve, or Sarah, or Rachel, or Rebecca, or Hannah. For Naomi, Lord, these great figures in Scripture, that we remember not because there was something extraordinary in them, but because, Lord, in your grace and mercy, You gave life where there was no hope for life. Lord, it is this that we celebrate, and not only in the birth of these sons, but in the birth of your son, the eternal Lagos-made flesh, Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, the most miraculous of conceptions and births. Lord, as we celebrate him, May we see our Redeemer, the one whom we worship and adore this morning, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. We will arrive this evening at the great song or prophecy of Zacharias and how he was given speech again. as one who did believe and name his son in obedience with the proclamation of the angel Gabriel. We'll get there. But for now, I want us to see this often passed over story, especially in this season where when we rightly celebrate the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the birth of John and the naming of John is no less a part of the story of redemption than any of the other chapters, as it were. God has for millennia woven into the history of humankind a central story that magnifies His saving purposes and the gift of life, as I have said, in the face of death. And while other stories can be told, other nations were rising and falling, and men were going to war in other places in the world, it is the capturing of the history of God's people with Him that should form the center of all of our study of human history. And it is right for us to be familiar not only with the gospel, and the miraculous conceptions in birth that take place in these opening books of the New Testament, but all that has come before is for us a story of God's saving grace to a people most undeserving. But what we find in the gospel is no more preludes, no more shadow, no more darkness, but the dawning of the light of the Messiah. The Messiah through whom we have sight, Through his light, we have light, and we are nearly there. The first point that I want to make this morning as we look at verses 57 through 66, as it relates to the coming of John, is the birth of John. The second is the naming of John. The birth of John and the naming of John. Let's look at the first few verses here. First two, really. Verse 57, we see that Elizabeth has come to term. and it was time for her to deliver. And she bore a son in accordance with the promise given to her at the beginning of chapter one of Luke's gospel, when John's birth is announced first to Zacharias. Now this announcement, I'll pick up in verse 13. The angel says to him, do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is 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 in the sight of God, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before him, that is the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, who was a prophet. to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. And Zacharias said to the angel, how shall I know this? For I am an old man and my wife is well advanced in years. It sounds familiar, doesn't it? Like Abram and Sarai. And the angel answered and said to him, I am Gabriel who stands in the presence of God and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings. But behold, you will be mute and not be able to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their own time. And the people waited for Zacharias, excuse me, and marveled that he lingered so long in the temple, but when he came out, he could not speak to them, and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple, for he beckoned to them and remained speechless. So it was, as soon as the days of his service were completed, that he departed to his own house. Now, after those days, his wife conceived, and she hid herself five months, saying, thus the Lord has dealt with me. In the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach from among the people." There are themes here that in some sense are so numerous and rich and pregnant with meaning that it would be not just one sermon, but many. We see here even the words of Elizabeth, thus the Lord has dealt with me in the days when he looked upon me to take away my reproach from among the people. This reproach is emblematic. It is symbolic of the reproach that all men suffer because of the judgment that they are owed because of man's disobedience. And the one who brought that reproach first was Adam. Adam and his sin and death, rather than bringing life as he was commanded, with his wife brought death. There at the very beginning, man was hopeless, except God made a promise. That in the very promise of the seed was the guarantee that God would bring to men that which they abandoned, multiplication. And man had suffered for millennia, for 4,000 years. The expectation of those who hoped in the promise of God was that perhaps their son would be the serpent crusher. And for 4,000 years, the people of God waited. And as we know from the pages of Scripture, there is much drama at times. There was death. There was failure. There was misery. There was suffering at the hands of the seed of the serpent, even in Egypt. The showdown between Moses and Pharaoh And many stories like that between David and Goliath, all of these and the judges and the pagan nations that would seek their removal from the face of the earth. But in the gospels, all of that anticipation and waiting is over. Now, Elizabeth doesn't know all that. Not yet in full, although they get even more of it, because here in chapter one in the beginning, when the prophecy is given to Zacharias and he communicates these things to Elizabeth, we find these words, he, that is John, will also go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. We are right at the cusp of that moment. And despite the promise in the announcement of this angel, Zacharias doubts. And God strikes him with the inability to speak. And as a priest, that's a big deal. In fact, there are some Sundays where I'm either by cold or some allergy, losing my voice, and I think, what would it be like as a minister of the gospel to have the one instrument, that is the instrument whereby the good news of the gospel is proclaimed, is taken away from me? I can't imagine such a thing. Here, Zacharias can no longer speak until the day John is born. The birth of John is not only significant then for Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth who were old, but it is significant for the entire people of God. It represents promises and prophecies come true. God's promises even at this time are being realized in the flesh What was spoken by Gabriel who stood in the presence of God, that's what he says. I am Gabriel, verse 19, who stands in the presence of God and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings. We speak of angels, we speak of messengers. Good news, glad tidings. And yet, Zacharias did not believe. This itself, as a priest of Israel, personifies much of the fate of that nation. They had little. They believed little. In fact, time and time again, they put God to the test. And instead of believing the promises of God and trusting in Him, they doubted, and they turned to the gods of this world. They put their trust more in princes and chariots, more in the idols of the making of human hands. And yet God's Word, proven over and over, was not only true, but it was powerful. This same Word that Paul speaks of in the book of Romans is the word that turned Moses or Aaron's staff into a serpent. It was the same word that brought the plagues on Egypt, that parted the Red Seas, that gave manna and quail and water in the wilderness. that spoke over and over again, that provided liberty from the enemies of God's people time and time again. And all of that comes to a glorious redemptive head here in Luke's gospel. If you could imagine all of the tears sown, not only by Elizabeth and her husband, as they endeavored for years and years and years to conceive and failed in doing so. It was doubly significant. Not just because God blessed them with a son, and we know that conception is not just an element of a promise fulfilled, but it is not yet fully consummated. As we all know, we who have sought to have children, perhaps those who have struggled, just conception is itself at times its own hurdle. And then there is the anticipation, there is the worry and concern that is inevitable with this child be born healthy. And then they're born and then there's a whole new set of problems. And then you get to the teenage years and then you pray like never before, Lord, Help them not to lose their minds or once they've lost their minds for a season, Lord, let it be very temporary. All of these things are bound up in the heart of a parent. And so you have the individual element of a couple conceiving. And so there is relief even in the birth of a son, there is rejoicing. And not just with these two. But as we saw even with the story of Boaz and Ruth, We see the women of the city come together and they rejoice not only for Ruth and Boaz, but for Naomi and the household of Elimelech, for God had given to that family life from death. Now, remember the reason for the death of Elimelech and Malon and Kilion, they were disobedient. They had left Israel to go to the land of Moab. a land to find bread that historically kept bread and water back from the nation of Israel. The reason why we languish is because we have brought it upon ourselves. And so the birth of John is a symbol, it is a sign, it is an expression, it is the fulfillment of God's extraordinary grace according to his covenant promises. It is the end of a tragic legacy. And it is the consummation of years of expectation and disappointment. And so this community comes together and they rejoice. And on his naming day, on the eighth day after his birth, the day of his circumcision, the question is, What will his name be? The expectation is that he would bear his father's name, verse 59. But his mother Elizabeth says, no, his name will not be Zacharias, but it will be John. Why John? Because before the foundations of the earth were laid, God in eternity past determined that this forerunner for the gospel, or this forerunner in the gospel, this forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ, one born just prior to him, whose ministry would be one of decrying in the wilderness, make straight the ways of God. He would wear camel fur and eat locusts and honey. He was busy, too busy with the proclamation of the kingdom and the baptizing of people into the name of this Messiah, Jesus Christ. His name would be John. And here they are rejoicing, and then the question comes, why John? Perhaps some of you have friends And on their naming day, you say, that's an interesting name. Why that name? Sometimes the name is this new trendy millennial kind of choice, right? Sometimes it's a name that your kids at least early in their life go, well, why did you name me a name from like the 1800s? Well, because that's a family name. Some of you are the fourth or the fifth or the third or a junior. Names are important. And what's interesting is at some point in your life, you grow into your name. Sometimes it seems almost as though your parents are prophetic in the names that they give you. This name would be the name given to the one who would preach powerfully, who would one day baptize even Jesus Christ in the Jordan River. And so they wonder why John No one else in the family is named John. And so they come to Zacharias. And in this birth and in this naming, of which I have more in just a moment, we find not only the fulfillment of God's promises, we find an anticipation of what is about to come. Now it is true that not only in the birth of John, but especially in the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, that so many pass by the true depth and beauty and significance of the incarnation. Parents, why do you, if you do, celebrate Christmas? Why do you teach your children to celebrate Christmas? Why do you teach your children to pray? Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Why do you teach them the significance of the covenants? Because those things belong to our children. They are their inheritance. They are their birthright. They are their heritage. Because our children are from the earliest days baptized into this entire narrative drama of God's covenant promises. Now John in some fashion at least explicitly from scripture is unique. We know from earlier in Luke chapter one that he will be regenerate from conception. And that he will be volunteered by God to be a Nazarene. He will not take up strong drink. He will not drink wine or at least an element of the Nazareth vow and he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is why in the story between the announcement and what I preached last evening. We see Mary, right after this story, sorry, that I preached last Sunday, where Mary and Elizabeth visit with one another. And as these two women come together, you have the eternally begotten one in the womb of a woman, this fetal human Messiah in the presence of John. And as John comes close, because he's traveling with his mother, obviously, and their wombs come in close proximity, John leaps And in some fashion, John, in the same way that Jesus is Israel, he is the son of God. He is the perfect Israelite. John is sort of the perfect Old Testament Israelite. He is the personification of all of these hopes realized. And when the one who anticipates the coming of Christ comes near to Christ, what is his reaction? It is rejoicing. And in fact, what is interesting as it relates to John and his own father is that John worships Jesus with greater fullness than his father does as a fetus. John is worshiping in a sense before we see Zacharias do that. Now, perhaps a point of application there is parents, your children belong in worship, that there is something your children can do by the Holy Spirit that predates their ability with mouths and brains that understand what they're doing, they can worship. You think John understood what he was doing? No. He didn't understand. He was still a fetus. He still could not form memories. He could not communicate, and yet we see him worshiping. Worship is an exercise that goes far deeper than even what we say with our mouths and even what we can think of with our minds. and all of this in attendance with the birth of John. Let's move, although I've sort of done that already, let's move to the second point, the naming of John. As I said already, it's an unconventional name. It's an unprecedented name as it relates to the family of Zacharias and Elizabeth. But what we find happening here, as I've said already, is a miracle birth. Now, what is a miracle? Well, a miracle, according to scripture, is where God enters directly into creation apart from secondary causes. So when you speak of your little miracle, right, perhaps maybe your children, this little miracle, maybe you would say it's a miracle that they survived their toddler years. Oftentimes we use this word miracle more generally than we ought. But what we find here as a miracle of the birth is confirmation of God's promises. And not only that confirmation of what God has promised, but how the miracle is received is also important in relationship for what the miracle was given for. In fact, this is not the first miracle in redemptive history. But it is certainly one of the first in the Gospels. When God gives to Elizabeth a miraculous child, and by miracle, through the sending of the Holy Spirit, regenerates that child in the womb. But the crowd doesn't know this. These are things that Elizabeth has laid up in her heart. In fact, she went silent for five months and hid herself away in anticipation of what would come. And it is not until verse 39 of Luke chapter one that we see her leaving the house to visit Mary. And so the people come together and they ask Zacharias, Are you sure you want to name him John? Are you all agreed on this? Now, if a couple hasn't agreed on a name before they decide to tell somebody, we've got a problem, right? You ought to probably make that decision before you go public with it. And here Zacharias concurs. They give him a tablet. He writes upon it, his name is John. and they marveled. Why? Not just because it was a new name that was introduced into the family, but in relationship to what we find in verse 64. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed and he spoke, praising God. Not just a miracle birth, but a miracle in terms of healing or restoring speech to this priest. We find an unexpected blessing. In fact, it's not promised anywhere here. It just happens. It's indicative of what? What would happen to any and all who believe in the promises of God that he is bringing about fulfillment to bring life from death? And so it is when Christ begins his earthly ministry, what do we see him doing with the tongues, as it were, that do not operate for those who are mute, who cannot speak? He heals them, which is not only indicative that he is God, but he is the one who directs the Holy Spirit in bringing the power of God to bear on the lives of men and women and children. And so all of this stuff is coming to a head. We are anticipating it more and more like an electron that becomes more and more excited with heat and these atoms begin to move around. We see the covenant promises of God becoming more excited and more accelerated and more, there's greater motion and glory and power to it. And Zacarias's part in all of this is to do the very thing that he should have been doing from the beginning of the announcement of the birth of his son, telling everyone about it. and not only telling everyone about John, but what his birth indicates in terms of the nearness of the birth of the Messiah. In fact, this was the very thing that the priests should have done for hundreds of years, and yet what had they done? They had been strucken by muteness because of what? Their idolatry and rebellion. And if God will do all this through the birth of a John, Imagine what he will do in the birth of a Jesus. Now, we don't have to imagine long, do we? But when it comes to these matters as Christians, I want us to be familiar with the story, not just because at this time of year, we open the Gospel of Luke and we read the first three chapters and we read of Christ and all of these glorious things. And a lot of it is for you children. Will you just stop reading so we can open the gifts? But what always ends up happening once the paper is torn, the box is thrown open and you get the thing and you look at it and go, waiting for it in some sense was better than the getting of it. All of that emotion, anticipation, and yet not so with the one who was revealed in the gospels. It is the getting of Christ that is even more glorious than the anticipation of the Christ. Because what Christ brings is an end to the winter, an end to the darkness. And this is what Lewis really captures at the end of Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe. What evil and the wicked witch had brought on that land, this white witch was always winter, but never Christmas. And the solution to that cold, dark, hopeless place was what the son of the creator of that world would bring about through his own suffering and death, the fall. But before the fall, what? Christmas. Christmas. Now, I'm not saying that word needs to be in our vocabulary in order to understand the gospel. And in many respects, we put the cart before the horse when it comes to a lot of these things, and we become slave to traditions and church calendars that are not commanded anywhere in scripture. But if your salvation, understanding of salvation, as we confess in our vows, that the only perfect and true doctrine of salvation is the one in scriptures, if your doctrine of salvation does not have in it the incarnation, and the celebration of Christ come in the flesh, then you don't have a true and proper doctrine of salvation. And it is how we move on from John, in whom all of the Old Testament promises are sort of put. He is the final Old Testament prophet, and yet he sees Jesus. He baptizes Jesus. He proclaims the way of Christ as a forerunner, and then Christ comes. And so what we have here with this group of people are those who see the miracles, but don't understand their true depth. We live among the people who sort of feel the after effects, the reverberation, right? When Macy's puts up a Christmas tree in their store, they're celebrating in something they have no idea what they're celebrating. They are doing it as mute people, not as those who have been given speech. And the only thing that can give to those who don't know how to celebrate properly, who don't know how to worship properly, is that full revelatory goodness of what Christ gives us. The key that unlocks it all is coming. And for us, he has come. And so woe be unto us when we celebrate and we don't put into this celebration the very heart of it all. Because they're bound up in the fact that John's named a weird name and all of a sudden, oh my goodness, Zacharias. I keep wanting to say Zacchaeus, but that's not who this is. Zacharias, what in the world's happening? They know it's a miracle, but why? Zacharias understands. He knows why. And look at verse 66. Fear comes upon them and they start talking. And this is exactly what God wanted. They're talking about these things. And all those, verse 66, who heard them kept them in their hearts saying, what kind of child would this be? And the hand of the Lord was with him. We live in a world like this. We live in a world where they see the mighty deeds of God all around them, but they don't know what's up. They don't really know what's up, but we do. And parents, these are the things we set before our children. So the Christmas isn't just about me, me, me, me, me. And the gifts that we get such that we have that let down, right? The post Christmas blues. Because Christ is coming to the world and not only this, not only is Christ coming, there's actually difficult, horrible things in store because the death of Christ is coming. But Christ knew something that even the disciples did not believe. And this is why Christ went to the cross with joy and anticipation because he knew that if he suffered on behalf of his people, his father would raise him and exalt him and give him the throne. And so the greater context of all of this post John is that Jesus even now sits upon the throne of heaven and earth. And so this day for us, this day that marks Christ coming into the world, is a day that has built up in it all of Christ's sufficient work of redemption. And it is our responsibility then to treat Christmas not just as a time of family and celebration, but warfare. Because it is light come in the darkness. It is Christ come in the flesh. It is Christ coming to his church. And in coming to his church, we receive him as the king. And as our king, we go forth and conquer in his name. And we celebrate and we sing with tongues that are loose, with hearts that are set free, because Christ has come into the world. Dear saints, this is what we remember. God does miraculous things for the sake of our salvation, and this is why He is to be praised.