-Short term memory loss. My son tells me I have a bad memory regularly (but not him, according to him his memory is so good his brain will tell him where things are even when he doesn’t know it)

-I remember growing up and getting so frustrated when my parents would call me be the names of one of my sisters. I’d be looking straight at them and they’d call me Elyssa. I swore I’d never do that to my kids, and here we are. I literally did it yesterday! I’ve mixed all their names up (and I hardly even have Thomas and Charlie to keep track of right now!)

-At this point I just keep telling myself that I have too many things that I’m trying to keep track of (and I keep telling my parents that they only had 3 kids to keep track of, so there was no excuse for them)

-But I think that’s a picture of the way we view our spiritual lives too. We forget which family we’re a part of, and the implications that family has in our day to day lives. We’re called to live radically different lives, but so often our lives look exactly the same as everyone else around us.

READ/PRAY

1. An Arrival (57-66)

-Talked about them briefly last week, but need a little more information about them.

-The best credentials (the right family, Ivy League school, straight As, honest in business, trusted by everyone)

-Unfortunately, the family lineage would stop with them, apart from God’s intervention because they were “advanced in years.”

-As we read through these Christmas texts, our ears are supposed to be hearing references back to God’s work in the past. Think of another couple who had a baby even after they were “advanced in years” The father of the Israelites: Abraham. God can communicate even by events that are taking place around us, and the people who witnessed these events would even make some of those connections for us, as you’ll see when we walk through this.

-But what is the significance of God pointing us back to Abraham?

-God was about to start something brand new. Well, mostly brand new. You may have heard “history doesn’t repeat, but it does rhyme,” that’s because there’s an order and a purpose to all of history. God was at the same time fulfilling all the promises that He’d made to his people before AND undermining the way people had falsely interpreted those promises for their day.

-Today’s story also comes on the end of 400 years of silence from God. After God had sent prophets to His people regularly to tell them what they needed to know, he had stopped. Think of that: 400 years. 400 years ago Blaise Pascal was born, Pope Gregory 15^th died, the settlements that will become Gloucester, MA and Dover, NH are founded, a third vessel delivers pilgrims to Plymouth Colony, and in Nov. a fire will destroy 7 of their buildings. MN wasn’t a state, houses didn’t have running water, plumbing, or electricity. USA wasn’t a nation. Democracy wasn’t common, and capitalism wasn’t a part of economics yet. And that’s how long God’s people had been waiting to hear from Him. If my prayer app doesn’t load in 4 sec. I kill it and start over!

-And I think it’s important for us to reflect on that for a minute. I don’t know anyone who’s gifted at waiting, which just goes to show how affected we are by the world around us. 400 years feels like forever, but that’s a blip in eternity. God doesn’t treat time the same way you and I do. I think of the Ents in LOTR. Merry & Pippen are captured by Treebeard who takes them to the Entmoot “It takes a long time to say anything in old Entish and we never say anything unless it’s worth taking a long time to say.” 

-Today’s text moves a story God had been telling for thousands of years 1 step forward in His unfolding plan. And just as it previously began with the arrival of a baby, this one also begins with the arrival of a baby.

1. Rejoicing! (57-59)

-Before John even begins his public ministry, people are rejoicing about him! Just like the angel had said earlier. 

-Look back to the promise in 1:14 “many will rejoice at his birth”

-One of the aspects we need to ensure we’re doing today is celebrating with those who have been blessed by God, even if we’re still in a season of waiting. God brings us together as a group so that we can rejoice with those who are rejoicing and mourn with those who are mourning. Shared sorrow is half, shared joy is doubled. 

-As we come into the Christmas season I think it’s intentional that God included this section in here. Church, this is your family! Even if you were abandoned at birth, never adopted into a family, and still single today, you have a perfect heavenly Father who has made a new and better family and welcomed you in. But we don’t act like that very often. We’re too quick to run to the nuclear family and too quick to dismiss the Christological family (define)

-Custom of this culture, along with circumcision came the naming of the child (again, we see they were being completely upright citizens, obeying every law that God had commanded) 

-Names ran in the family, if you’ve seen Marvel (they used to be great!), Thor is always “Son of Odin” (Odinson, Johnson, etc) To carry the family name one was a great honor, and the expectation of this family! But then:

• Confusion (60-63)

-Elizabeth refuses! Remember, Zechariah hasn’t been able to speak this whole time, but he found out some way to communicate all that had happened to his wife. 

-This is also where we see Zechariah was deaf during this whole time, they had to make signs to him instead of just asking. And why would they wonder if he just heard his wife say his name? 

-Notice he doesn’t debate or question for a second! He doesn’t even say his name WILL BE, Zechariah writes his name IS John. One of the things I didn’t mention earlier is the Zechariah questioned the angel Gabriel when he was told to prepare for the arrival of a baby. That questioning led to him being unable to speak for 9 months. 9 months of complete silence. 9 months to contemplate what happened. Now, when you compare that to the 400 silent years, 9 months is nothing, but as someone who currently can’t hear out of my right ear let me tell you, 9 months would feel like FOREVER!

• Fulfillment (64-66)

-As soon as Zechariah writes that his name is John, he can talk again! Zechariah had learned his lesson, and wasn’t going to go 0 for 2! Whereas the first time he doubted, this time he rejoiced, believed, and praised God.

-JC Ryle, an Anglican bishop in the UK (wrote some GREAT thoughts on the Gospels) “Let us take heed that affliction does us good, as it did to Zechariah.… “Sanctified afflictions” … are “spiritual promotions.” The sorrow that humbles us, and drives us nearer to God, is a blessing, and a downright gain. No case is more hopeless than that of a man who, in time of affliction, turns his back upon God.”

-Think about that. Ryle calls them “sanctified afflictions,” but in God’s plan every affliction is sanctified! What this mean is: obedience during suffering will lead to lasting fruit. When the Lord allows difficulty to enter your life, how do you respond? Think of Zechariah and Elizabeth, who were “advanced in years” (they were old). How long had they been praying for a child and had the Lord continue to answer “not yet”? But do you think those decades were wasted, or was God continuing to teach them in the midst of their waiting? Same for you today! Even if the answer up until today has been “not yet” are you going to trust that God is still working in your life (spiritual promotions) or do you give up and start doubting God?

-One of the themes in this first chapter of Luke is fear. When Gabriel appears to Zechariah, he’s described as fearful. When Gabriel appears to Mary she’s described as troubled (or fearful). But now, because of God’s work in Zechariah and Elizabeth (and John), their neighbors are fearful.

-That should embolden us, friends! We don’t need to be afraid to share the gospel message with others! God’s work is what properly orders our fear. Why would we fear anyone (or anything) instead of God? We should trust that as God works in our lives, it will lead to all sorts of questions from people, which is exactly what happens here.

-They were the talk of the town! Talk about a high bar for John! Can you imagine what his life was like? “Oh yeah, little Johnnie over there, we know ALL about when you were born!”

• The Song (67-80)

-This seems to be a flashback to vs. 64. It says there that Zechariah blessed God, most likely this is what he said to bless God.

-Often referred to as the Benedictus taken from the Latin translation, first word is Benedictus. A song! When God works among his people, they respond through singing!

1. Salvation Has Come (68-75)

-God saves us so that we might worship. Think of Moses to Pharoah in Ex. 7:16 “Let my people go, so that they may worship me.” The freedom that comes from God saving us allows us to now properly orient our lives.

-Before we are saved, our whole direction in life is toward ourselves. After we’re saved, our lives now have a different direction to them – aligned vertically first to God, and then outward as we look to bless everyone else we come into contact with.

-Zechariah’s prophesy is like a funnel – it begins broadly with all of God’s people, and then slowly narrows to 1- the child he’s holding in his arms.

-Look at where he begins: “He has visited.” The God who had been silent for 400 years hasn’t disappeared! He’s still guiding His people, and redeeming them.

-Horn is used throughout the Psalms to signify strength (think of a rhinoceros horn, should be terrifying to you!) It also means that because it’s God’s horn, it’s guaranteed to happen. We’ll come back to David in a minute.

-This has been part of God’s plan “from of old.” You think Zechariah and Elizabeth are old, that’s not even where this story begins! This story begins all the way back in Genesis 1! God’s plan that was in place before the earth was created was about to take a major step forward.

-The people who had been under persecution for centuries, mocked and belittled by the nations were about the saved. No one would be able stand against them. Just as He had been faithful to the previous generations, that mercy would continue down to His people today.

-Then Zechariah utters an important word: covenant. Now we need to talk about David! Because one of the things that’s vital for us to learn about God is that He’s a covenant making and covenant keeping God.

-God made a covenant with David, God made a covenant with Abraham, God made a covenant with Noah, God has even made a covenant with you and me. You can trace the entire storyline of the Bible through God’s covenants. But the significance is that Zechariah is saying that ALL of those covenants are coming to a head now.

-Notice as well that it’s both spiritual and physical. We’re commanded to live holy and righteous lives all our days (75), but so many of these promises are spiritual promises (salvation (69, 71), holy covenant (72))

-This new way of living means we no longer have anything to fear (74) Unlike almost everyone else in this story, now when we see God move we don’t have to be afraid because of God’s provision of the Messiah.

• A Prophet and a Messiah (76-80)

-Then the prophecy turns to John. 

-John’s role is said to be preparation. His whole aim, goal, focus is to prepare people to meet the Lord. 

-This is meant to connect to a prophesy in Malachi 3:1. John’s job is to be the hype man! Getting every ready, smoothing out the path, so that when the main event finally comes the people are ready.

-So how is John supposed to do this? By giving people knowledge of salvation, how their sins can be forgiven.

-Where the people were expecting God’s arrival to be a great time of political upheaval, God’s actual arrival would be a spiritual upheaval. And I think we do the same thing today! We’re so focused on the physical world that we miss the deeper spiritual realities that are taking place around us every day.

-God’s mercies (new every morning) are like the sunrise. Pointing back to Malachi 4:2 “For you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.” 

-This imagery is also seen in Isaiah 9:2. Do you see how this prophesy is just dripping with OT ideas? I think part of the reason we don’t know our OT well enough is because we don’t see how it applies to us. What we need to realize is we need to understand ALL of God’s story so we can know how we can find our place in that story.

-The light is finally coming! The light of Christ shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it. This light shines for eternity, and we have the responsibility to let our light shine before others so that others may see our good deeds and glorify our God who is in heaven.

-The “path of peace” is not simply the path that leads to peace but is itself a peaceful path: “Peace will characterize the walk along this road.” (ZECNT) Another way you could say this is: are you a peace-filled person? Do you bring peace into every situation you walk into? 

-A good description I’ve heard of this is the church should be filled with shock-absorbers. The world will try to rile people up, causing them to become tension filled and anxious, and as soon as they walk in the doors they’re welcomed by people of peace. Not because it comes naturally or easily, but because Christ has won our peace through His sacrifice on our behalf.

1-Think of how hard John’s call was. He wasn’t the focus, he wasn’t the main event. His job was simply to point to someone else who was coming, someone whose sandals he wasn’t even worthy to untie. Yet that’s the call for all of us, and we don’t often like to admit that! We’d rather be the hero of the story than be a background character (NPC for gamers) But we’re back at the paradox of the gospel, and John’s (and our) life goal: He must increase, but I must decrease.

2-Second thing we see: “When it is recognized that Luke identifies ‘the enemy’ as the cosmic power of evil resident and active behind all forms of opposition to God and God’s people, it is plain that Zechariah’s hope has not been dashed but clarified and, indeed, radicalized.”

-This radicalization is most visibly seen by God taking enemies and turning them into family. Before Christ saved us we were opposed to God, fighting against Him, and at that time while we were enemies with God, Jesus saved us and made us family. 

3 -Salvation isn’t for retreat, but to look for opportunities to bless others “Might serve him without fear” (74)

-God doesn’t save people and immediately call them up to heaven! He leaves us here so that we can serve Him and show the world what it looks like to live in the way of peace. 

-Think of Psalm 23 “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil.” Even if we’re surrounded by enemies, even if death has overtaken us we still walk in the way of peace, bought by the sacrifice of the Prince of Peace.