We're on Luke chapter 1 and verse
57, and we're reading about the birth of John the Baptist. Now
Elizabeth's full time came that she should be delivered, and
she brought forth a son. And her neighbours and her cousins
heard how the Lord had showed great mercy upon her, and they
rejoiced with her. And it came to pass that on the
eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they called him
Zacharias after the name of his father. And his mother answered
and said, Not so, but he shall be called John. And they said
unto her, There is none of thy kindred that is called by this
name.' And they made signs to his father, how he would have
him called. And he asked for a writing-table,
and wrote, saying, His name is John. And they marvelled all. And his mouth was opened immediately,
and his tongue loosed, and he spake and praised God. And fear
came on all that dwelt round about them, and all these sayings
were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judea.
And all they that heard them laid them up in their hearts,
saying, What manner of child shall this be? And the hand of
the Lord was with him. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. It is perhaps useful for us to
remember how significant the birth of John the Baptist is. And remember, we're speaking
about John, we're not speaking about the birth of the Lord here.
But how significant the birth of John the Baptist is in the
overall scheme of God's purpose of grace. It's more than 400
years since the Book of Malachi was written. During that time,
the Lord had been largely silent as far as prophecy was concerned,
at least as far as recorded prophecy is concerned. But there, some
450 years or so before, the prophet had foretold the coming of John,
the coming of one who would bring about the entrance of the
Saviour into the world. And in Malachi 3, verse 1, we
read, Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare
the way before me. And the Lord whom ye seek shall
suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant
whom ye delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith
the Lord of hosts, Now, once again, we just make sure we rightly
distinguish about who we're talking about here. It is Christ who
is the messenger of the covenant. It is Christ who came to reveal
and to satisfy and to fulfil God's covenant purpose of grace
and peace for his elect. But John's role was important
as well. He was the forerunner to Christ. He was told all those centuries
before to the believing people, to the Church of the Lord Jesus
Christ in the Old Testament, that one would come to prepare
the way for the coming Messiah. And the New Testament writers
understood this. Mark, for example, writing at
the beginning of his gospel says, the beginning of the gospel of
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in the prophets.
So throwing us right back to the Old Testament prophets, Isaiah
and Malachi, of course, right at the beginning of Mark's gospel.
saying, Behold, I send my messenger before thy faith, which shall
prepare thy way before thee. The voice of one crying in the
wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Indeed, Mark continues to identify
John specifically by name. John did baptise in the wilderness
and preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And
there went out unto him all the land of Judea, and they of Jerusalem. And were all baptized of him
in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. And John was clothed
with camel's hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins. And
he did eat locusts and wild honey, and preached, saying, There cometh
one mightier than I after me, the lachet of whose shoes I am
not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I indeed, says John,
have baptized you with water, but he shall baptize you with
the Holy Ghost. And I mention all of this, you
might think I'm running ahead of myself here, but I mention
all of this because I want us to appreciate the care and the
purpose and the attention to detail exhibited here in the
Lord's providence. It would be more than 30 years
yet before the Lord Jesus Christ
would begin his own ministry. And yet, step by step, stage
by stage, the hand of God touched the lives of men and women, inexorably
moving towards the accomplishment of salvation's plan and the redemption
of our souls by him in whom our souls delight. That's how Malachi
phrased it. He would come, him in whom our
souls delight. And so here we see the birth
of John the Baptist as part of this overall purpose, this overall
plan. The angel had come, Zacharias
had been informed, Elizabeth had been informed, Mary was involved
in this situation too. She had spent three months with
Elizabeth in her home, and now comes the birth of John the Baptist.
And let me just say, as I sort of wrap up this overview here,
John's life would be relatively short. He'd be violently slain
by a wicked king, on a drunken whim, but not before fulfilling
the purpose for which he had been sent. And indeed, many people
thought he himself was the Messiah until he emphatically denied
it, as we've heard. Yet this child, whose birth we
have before us today, was said of the Lord Jesus Christ, verily
I say unto you, among them that are born of women, there hath
not risen a greater than John the Baptist. Which certainly
was true for the insight and the understanding of Christ's
messianic role up to that point. So, back to our passage in Luke. It seems that Mary had returned
to her own home prior to Elizabeth's full time, the completion of
her pregnancy. And she had stayed with her cousin
for these three months. As might be expected, there was
great rejoicing amongst Elizabeth's friends and family when the child
was born. Though in all of this, Zacharias
remained deaf and dumb. When the day came to circumcise
the child, placing the mark of God's covenant with Abraham in
his body, a large number came to celebrate the event and to
name the child. And Zacharias would have probably
circumcised his own son, but a blessing had to be spoken. It was tradition that a blessing
would be spoken over the child. And it seems likely that another
person, because it could actually be anyone, another person stepped
forward to fulfil the task of the circumcision. because Zacharias
would be unable to give the blessing. And unbeknown to the parents,
a decision had been taken by those people involved to call
the child after his father. But Elizabeth resisted and insisted
that his name would be John. So clearly, we can tell from
this that complete secrecy had been maintained by the immediate
family and Mary concerning the visit of the angel and what had
been conveyed by Gabriel about this child's future. The friends
and wider family appeared to have had no knowledge of what
the angel had said or what had happened. And Zacharias called
for a writing table We might call it a tablet. And he wrote,
his name is John. His name is John. The present
tense being used to convey a certainty that was non-negotiable. We're not going to debate this.
We're not going to talk about it. It's not up for discussion.
His name is John. And with this act, Zacharias
acknowledged the hand of God in this whole matter. He was
at once cured of his affliction of being deaf and dumb. While we're only told that he
was dumb in the earlier passage, we are told here that the people
signaled to him about the name of the child, so clearly he was
deaf as well. And he began praising God for
the events, touching himself and his wife, and the safe birth
of John, and no doubt the greater matter of the promise of the
coming Messiah as well. And all of which, when I thought
about it, might reflect an act of wisdom on the part of Mary,
to have left Elizabeth's home when she did. Mary, now showing
herself to be pregnant, got out of that house before the birth
of John the Baptist. And it's quite likely that people
could have made some deductions about what Zacharias was saying
regarding the birth of John and the coming of the angel Gabriel. with Mary's own obvious state
of pregnancy. So Mary was probably quite wise
in returning to her own home when she did. And these events
caused great wonder in the community and amongst those present. We're
told, turning to fear or reverence towards God. So there was this
awareness that the hand of God was at work in the life of this
family and anticipating in the life of the child. And that reverential
attitude was well suited to the situation. And it would be good
if there were a greater reverence towards God amongst men and women
today. The events of this time were
widely spoken of throughout the region, and men and women reflected
on the birth of John and what manner of man he would be. it
being clear to all that the hand of the Lord was upon him from
his birth, which indeed it was. And there were men and women,
such as Simeon and Anna, who heard such things and treasured
them up in their hearts, dwelling on the wonderful ways of the
Lord, And I think it should be a good hope that we may all be
like them. When we hear the things that
the Lord has done, let us, like them, treasure these things up
in our hearts and dwell upon them. Just how the hand of the
Lord was upon John the Baptist is not said. Perhaps John was
protected from childhood dangers. Perhaps he had a keen learning
ability. Maybe he had a sense of God's
Holy Spirit guidance with a spiritual understanding granted to him
even as a young man. Whatever, it is certain that
the Lord who had so wonderfully set in place the birth of this
child and had blessed his mother and father with the mercies that
they now enjoyed, it is certain he would protect and preserve
the child and equip him for the tasks that lay before him. And
I think that there's a little application in this for us all,
because we, each of us, have a different path to walk in this
world. We're not John the Baptist by
any means. We're not the apostles of the
Lord, but we have a distinctive role to serve in the service
of the Lord. And we may not think our contribution
is very significant or our achievement's very great, But nevertheless,
for every believer, the hand of the Lord is upon each of us. The hand of the Lord is upon
us. So you can go to bed tonight thinking, the hand of the Lord
is upon me. You can get up tomorrow morning
and face your day knowing that the hand of the Lord is upon
you. It is on his people to bless
and preserve and protect and equip each of us to serve his
cause and accomplished by us all he purposes to do because
the Lord uses means to accomplish his ends. When we get to heaven
we shall be greeted with a well-done good and faithful servant. We
shall wonder what on earth What on earth did we do that was ever
good? What on earth did we do that
was ever faithful? and yet the Lord will honour
us with his personal commendation. Each member of the Lord's body
serves a unique purpose and we are all part of that body to
mutually support, encourage, comfort and sustain one another
as we make our way through this pilgrim life. As the hand of
the Lord was upon John, it is upon you and me as well. In the coming verses, we are
going to read the prophecy of Zacharias, which is rightly taken
up with the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the Lord Jesus Christ that
is the subject of Zacharias' prophecy in the coming 10 or
12 verses. And we'll come to that on another
occasion. However, Let me point something
out, if I may. In verse 76, the old man speaks
directly to his son. He speaks directly to the infant
John. Maybe he's holding him in his
arms at the time when he does so. He speaks to him and he says
in verse 76, in the next couple of verses, and thou child, shalt
be called the prophet of the highest, for thou shalt go before
the face of the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of
salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins,
through the tender mercy of our God. And of course that's largely
what the angel had said to Zacharias. But I just want to emphasise
the last line of this statement, which I think is a beautiful
gospel verse to be noted and remembered by the Church. Part
of John's role would be to give knowledge of salvation unto his
people by the remission of their sins. And this is the message
of sovereign grace, surely it is, and it is still the role
of the preacher today to give knowledge of salvation unto his
people by the remission of their sins. Our sins, the sins of God's
elect and Christ's church, and Christ's people were remitted. They were sent back. That's what
the invoice says to you when your tradesman sends you his
invoice. He says, please remit in the
next 10 days. Well, that is you've to send
back your payment. and our sins have been remitted. They were sent back. They were
taken away by the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. That's just
a fact. That's just a fact. They've been
taken away, never to be remembered against us evermore. and Christ
carried them away by his sacrificial death. And a preacher's job is
to preach that message, to give knowledge of salvation unto his
people. And it's my prayer each time
I preach that those who hear will come to know, will come
to that knowledge. They will be given spiritual
knowledge and understanding by faith that their sins have been
taken away and washed away by the precious blood and sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us today. Amen. Amen. Amen.