The first chapter of Luke's Gospel
opens and closes in the following manner. Verse 1. For as much as many have taken
in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things
which are most surely believed among us, even as they delivered
them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses and
ministers of the word, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect
understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto
thee in order, most excellent Theophilus. that thou mightest
know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed.
There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain
priest named Zacharias of the course of Abiah, and his wife
was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And
they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments
and ordinances of the Lord blameless. And they had no child, because
that Elizabeth was barren. And they both were now well-stricken
in years. And it came to pass that while
he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his
course, according to the custom of the priest's office, his lot
was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.
And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at
the time of incense. And there appeared under him
an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar
of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he
was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said under
him, Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard. And thy
wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his
name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness,
and many shall rejoice at his birth, for he shall be great
in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor
strong drink, and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even
from his mother's womb. And many of the children of Israel
shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him
in the spirit and power of Elias, 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 Zechariah said
unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? For I am an old
man, and my wife well stricken in years. And the angel answering
said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of
God, and am sent to speak unto thee, and to show thee these
glad tidings. And then later on in verse 67,
we read, And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost,
and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for
he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up
an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,
as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets which have been
since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies,
and from the hand of all that hate us, to perform the mercy
promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant. The oath which he swore to our
father Abraham, that he would grant unto us that we be delivered
out of the hand of our enemies. might serve him without fear,
in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our
life. 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
under his people by the remission of their sins through the tender
mercy of our God whereby the dayspring from on high have visited
us to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow
of death to guide our feet into the way of peace and the child
grew and waxed strong in the spirit and was in the desert
till the day of his showing unto Israel. 3. It seemed good to me also, having
had perfect understanding of all things from the very first,
to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, that
thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou
hast been instructed. The certainty of those things. What a chapter this is! How it
opens! How it ends, the promises made
to both Elizabeth and Mary of the birth of both John and Jesus
Christ. How both these women have a promise
from the Lord God on high. How they're both prepared, how
that promise is brought to pass. how they rejoice in the salvation
that God has sent. And what a reason for Luke to
choose to record these things. What motivates him to write these
things down? He writes them down that thou
mightest know the certainty of those things wherein that has
been instructed. the certainty these things are
true These events are true. Everything that Luke recorded
happened as he recorded it. He wrote down what he'd seen
and heard. He and the other disciples were
eyewitnesses from the beginning. They'd lived and walked with
Jesus Christ. They knew what happened. They'd
heard what happened concerning his birth. They met the one who
was born. They weren't writing fables and
hearsay. They were eyewitnesses. These
things happened. They're certain. They're certain
because they came from God. The very God, the same God that
made this world, that created the heavens and the earth, that
brought these men and women into being, came unto these men and
women and made these promises and performed these things. As
true as it is that the world is here, as true as it is that
you stand upon it, as true as it is that you live and breathe
today, these things happened. The same God that sustains you
and keeps you alive today, at this hour, is the same God that
brought these things to pass and makes them known unto us
today through the record that Luke and the other disciples
recorded for us as God led them and inspired them. God brought
these things to pass, God declared them, God made them known and
God makes it known unto us today and he keeps your heart beating
and your mind working that you might come to this point at this
hour and hear these things and if you hear them and reject
them and trample them underfoot then you put yourself into the
hands of a God who can keep you alive and who can take your life
away in a moment. A God who can make you to see
or who can blind you in a moment. A God in whom your life depends. When he came unto Zacharias and
made the promise of the birth of John, to his wife Elizabeth
who was old and stricken in years and barren, she'd never had children
she was barren when God came unto Zacharias and told him that
she will bear a son understandably he couldn't believe it and as
a consequence God said because of your unbelief I will cause
you to be dumb not able to speak until these things shall be performed
because thou believest not my words and yet these words will
be fulfilled when Zacharias came out of the temple he came out
unable to speak he was speechless until that day that these things
came to pass and he believed he was in God's hands And he
saw first-hand the certainty of what God had promised him.
Naturally speaking, he couldn't believe it. It was unbelievable.
It was incredible. How could his wife, barren for
so long, bring forth a child, and yet God came unto them. He
came unto her, and he said, you will. you will bear a child. And he shall be great, he shall
be John, he shall prepare the way of the Lord. The child born
of Elizabeth shall prepare the people for the coming of the
child born of Mary, that child whose name shall be called Jesus,
that child who is born of the Holy Ghost, that child who is
the Son of God, that child who shall come under his people to
redeem them. and set them free and deliver
them from their sins. Two children are promised, one
the Son of God, the Saviour, the long-awaited Messiah, who
had been promised for generations, and another the servant of God,
John. who should come before Messiah,
before Christ, before Jesus, and prepare the people for His
coming. He should come as a preacher
and say unto the people, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh
away the sin of the world. Behold Jesus. Look under him, he is born, he
has come, he has come into this world to save his people from
their sins. Both the birth of Christ and
the birth of his servant who went before him to prepare his
way was promised from on high and both promises came to pass. They were certain. And Luke writes,
after these events, that thou mightest know the certainty of
those things. Yes, these things were promised,
they were prepared, and they were performed. What was promised,
what was prepared, and what was performed? The promise of birth. The preparation for that birth.
The performance of that birth. The promise of the birth of John. The preparation for it. The performance
of it. The promise of the birth of Christ
himself. The preparation for it and the
performance of it. The promise of the birth of Christ. in time, in history, as a man
who physically walked upon this earth, and the promise of his
birth in the experience of all his people as they are born of
God when they hear the gospel and believe on him who came into
this world to save them. There is a promise made regarding
their birth. There is a preparation made regarding
the birth of Christ in the heart of the believer. And there is
a performance of that birth, when by the Holy Ghost, they
are brought to life and cease to be dumb, cease to be blind,
cease to be dead and unbelieving. And by the work of God, the grace
of God, the work of God, the salvation of God, they believe,
they see, and they declare that what God promised he performed. This not only speaks in this
chapter of the historical events concerning the birth of John
and the birth of Christ, but in this picture, in this pattern,
in this course, in this pathway of promise, preparation and performance
is the pattern of how every believer who follows, for whom Christ
came, for whom Christ died is brought to life in him. Firstly, the birth of John is
promised. Not just the birth of Christ,
but the birth of John is promised. God sent a messenger before his
son to prepare the way As is recorded in several of these
Gospels, he's sent before him, as Mark says, the beginning of
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The beginning of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in the Prophets,
Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare
thy way before thee. The voice of one crying in the
wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his path straight. 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 baptised of him in the river of 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 latchet of whose shoes I
am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I indeed have baptised
you with water, but he shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost. And it came to pass in those
days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptised of
John in Jordan. Yes, John was sent before Christ. There was another promised before
Christ. Another child promised. Another
miraculous birth. Another miraculous sending. Another
miraculous preparation. God prepared the way for the
coming of His Son. He sent a servant before Him
to herald His coming. He sent a man to prepare the
way, a man who came preaching, preaching a message to prepare
the people for the coming of Christ. And that man, he is promised
unto the people. The chapter moves on to the promise
of the Son of God, the birth of Jesus himself. that one born
of a virgin, that one born of God, that one who is God himself,
the Son of God, the Word of God, Jesus, born of Mary, born very
God and very man, that one who came to bear the sins of his
people and deliver them through his own death upon the cross.
He is promised, but John also was promised. John is promised
unto the people. God has promised to send a messenger
with his message. And following this, likewise
the birth of Christ is then promised unto Mary. But before Christ
comes, John. And not just historically, not
just in the event of the Gospel as recorded here by Luke, but
as a picture experimentally. If we're ever to come to know
Christ, if Christ is ever to come unto us if Christ is ever
to be born for us and born in us if we are ever to be born
of God with the life of Christ risen up in our souls if we're
ever to know Christ's life and to know his salvation and to
know his redemption then first there will come a messenger with
the Gospel. God has promised it. God has
declared it. God has set it forth as His pattern
of how He sends salvation from the beginning, throughout time,
and to the end. There is no coming of Christ
into the experience of a sinner, of a man, of a woman, of a child,
Of those who were chosen of God unto salvation, there is no coming
of Christ, there is no life, there is no birth, there is no
belief, there is no faith, until God first sends his messenger,
his servant John, with the gospel. The birth of John, as the birth
of Jesus, was promised. That promise came to pass. But
before it came to pass there was a preparation. Zacharias
was met in the temple by the angel of God. The angel of God
brought the message to Zacharias. just like John would then go
from God unto the people and bring the message of God unto
that people to prepare that people for the coming of Christ so God
sent a messenger to Zacharias and he prepared Zacharias for
the coming of John he prepared him and he spake unto him and
he told him what would come to pass that his prayer was heard. And his wife Elizabeth would
bear him a son and they would call his name John. He tells him, for he shall be
great in the sight of the Lord and shall drink neither wine
nor strong drink. And he shall be filled with the
Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb. And many of the children
of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall
go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, 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. Prepared for the Lord. See in these verses the four
things the Lord said he will do through his servant John.
He shall go before him, before Christ in the spirit and power
of Elias. He shall come before the coming
of Christ as a prophet, with the same spirit and power that
the prophet Elias had. that the Israelites knew of,
they knew of Elias, they knew of the great power and influence
he had and the great prophecies he made and how these things
came to pass. Well John shall come in the same
way and he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children.
The fathers shall be brought to think of their children, to
think of the life that must come, of the generation to follow,
and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just. By his message he shall come
unto those who are disobedient. And she shall lead this disobedient,
this blind, this unbelieving, this hard-hearted people to hear
the gospel, to hear the truth, and to hear the wisdom of God,
the wisdom of the just, and turn them unto it. In order to make
ready a people prepared for the Lord. prepared for the Lord. John was sent with the Gospel
to prepare the people for the Lord. Without such a preparation,
without the Gospel coming forth in order to prepare the hearts
of the people, there's no visiting of Christ. And unless we see
this, and unless we know this, We can know all so much about
Jesus. We can know all the facts about
him. We can claim to follow him, we
can claim to believe him, but it's all just words. Because
the fact is that God brings the life of Christ into the hearts
of those whom he has prepared through the sending of his gospel
by his servant to prepare them for the coming of his son. This
is God's order. This is God's pattern. This is
what he does. He sends a preacher. He sends
a preacher with his gospel and that gospel prepares the heart
that God should then bring forth life in the heart to believe
what you have heard. You cannot believe if you have
not heard. You cannot hear, as Paul tells
us in Romans, unless God sends a preacher. And those preachers
cannot preach unless they've been called, prepared and sent
of God. God prepared John. He caused him to be born. He was filled with the Holy Ghost
even from his mother's womb. and he was sent forth to this
generation, to this people, preaching the Gospel. This is what the
Lord does through those whom he sends with his Gospel. Those
who prepare the way of the Lord. They go before Christ in the
spirit and power of Elias. They turn the hearts of the fathers
to the children, the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to
make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Note the order. John is sent before Christ. The gospel precedes his coming. The gospel precedes his birth. The gospel prepares a people
for the Lord and then Christ comes unto them. Then Christ
is born. not just born physically at Bethlehem
in the historical sense, John having been born first and then
Christ later, but born as it were in the heart. The new birth
of a believer does not precede the preparation that comes through
John and the preaching of the gospel. the new birth comes following
the preparation. Until that birth has come, we
may be unbelieving, like Zacharias. We may be dumb, unable to speak. We may be blind. But the order
is that God sends his gospel first. to those who are dumb,
to those who are unbelieving, to those who are blind, to those
who are dead and he brings the truth. And in the spirit and
power of alliance he turns the hearts. He turns the hearts of
the father to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom
of the just. And when they're turned, and
when he's prepared the heart, then he sends forth his son into
their heart. Then he causes his son to be
born. Then their tongues are loosened. and they who now believe, they
who now have faith, they who now have the life of Christ born
again within them by the Holy Ghost as Mary did. That which is born within you
is of the Holy Ghost. Those who have been brought to
be born again of God in Christ, then they speak. then they see,
then they believe, then they rise up with prayer and praise
unto God. This is God's way. He uses the
gospel to prepare a people, then he brings them to life as Christ
is sent into their hearts. Some will contend that Christ
comes first. That life in the soul by the
new birth comes as it were in isolation. Perhaps apart from
the gospel. Because they claim that no one
can understand or believe the gospel until they're first living.
And that's true. This is why we see in the picture
here that Zacharias was dumb and unbelieving even when Gabriel
had come unto him and promised him these things. But the order
is that the messenger comes with the message first. And we may
be unbelieving at first and we may just hear with the outward
ear at first, we may just have facts in the heads at first but
there comes that day when God says now today's the day. I've made the promise unto you,
I've sent the message unto you, I've prepared the way, I've prepared
your heart. I've caused you to know I've
caused you to I've sounded the alarm I've sounded the alarm
of judgment to come I've warned you I've shown you the barrenness
of this world I've shown you the barrenness of your heart
the barrenness of your womb as it were I've showed you your
inability your inability to believe your inability to walk before
me as you should your inability to bring life unto yourself your
inability to save yourself I've prepared you and now's the day
when you shall believe And they who had heard the Gospel, merely
with the outward ear, they whose hearts were being prepared by
God, come to that day when the life of God drops in, to that
heart prepared of God, and finally they see. They see. And being filled with the Holy
Ghost, They with Zechariah say, blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has visited and redeemed his people. This birth, this life, does not
come in isolation. Neither does it precede the preparation
of God, or the promise of God. God sends John, as it were, his
servant, with his gospel. He does not send the life and
follow it with the gospel, simply to bring a knowledge of what's
already occurred. Yes, that gospel follows the
life, but it also precedes it. It prepares for it. and it brings
this to pass because God will have it his way. He will send
a preacher with his gospel. That is not the order we see
here in John, the order of having life and then the gospel. The
order we see in John and in Mark and throughout all the scriptures
is that God sends a messenger. before his son. He sends his servant John to
prepare the way. This is the beginning of the
gospel of Jesus Christ. It is throughout all the scriptures. He sends a messenger with his
word first. He prepares the way of the Lord.
And Luke declares these things and sets them down that we may
know the certainty of those things. that it might not be something
which is debated, this might not be a matter of conjecture,
this might not be a matter of discussion amongst those who
have knowledge of things, knowledge of doctrine in their head, but
this is a reality. a certainty which those who have
trodden the path of Zacharias, trodden the path of Elizabeth,
trodden the path of Mary and Joseph, trodden the path of Luke
and John and Mark and Matthew, trodden the path of the disciples,
trodden the path of every child of God who's come to know Christ
and the new birth, that those who have trodden this path might
say yes. God prepared me, he sent me his
gospel. I didn't believe at first and
he shut my mouth that I would not contend. He silenced me,
all my objections to the truth. All my objections to the gospel,
all my objections to the ways of God and the ways that He would
save were silenced. I became dumb before Him. I could
not speak until He brought me to life and then I could not
but praise Him for what He had done. I know this is the way. I know this is the truth. I know
the certainty of these things. What Zacharias knew, I know. Because the same God that visited
Zacharias and promised him John is the same God that visited
me and promised me life in Christ and brought it to pass. At first I would not believe. He brought me to silence. I could not answer. I could not
contend. and I saw at last the certainty
when he brought me unto life. Look sets before us these things
that we may know the certainty of them that we may know this
not just in the head but as a reality of which we are a part in our
experience in it of ourselves in ourselves These births, the
birth of John and the birth of Christ are not something at a
distance. The birth of Christ which will
be remembered around the world in these coming weeks is not
something merely historical, not something you merely talk
about, but for the believer it's something that they are one with. He was not only born 2,000 years
ago in Bethlehem, but for them He was born within them. The
promise of His coming is a promise made unto them in particular. The preparation for His coming
is a preparation that they felt and experienced. as God sent
his gospel unto them, the truth unto them, and scattered the
lies of their objections which they once held on to. Once they
held on to a false gospel and false notions of whom Jesus is. Once they thought they could
be saved by their own works. Once they thought their own decision
was enough. Once they thought their acceptance
of Jesus would bring them salvation. Once they thought their knowledge
of the truth in their head was good enough. Once they thought
their own righteousness was good enough, their own obedience was
good enough, their own walking in the commandments and the ordinances
of the Lord would be good enough. But then God silenced them. And
he said no, none of this is good enough. Because none of this
brings life. This is just you in the deadness
of your trespasses and sins walking in your religion thinking you
stand before God when you're dead. And all your answering
and all your reckoning and all your hopes go falling down in
tatters because there's nothing in it. He prepares us. by brushing aside
all of our false refuges, all the things we try to hope in
which won't save us. We contend against the election
of God, the promise of God to save a people, that God chooses
them and saves them and brings the knowledge of God unto them
and brings the life of God unto them. By nature we contend against
it because it takes it out of our hands. We want a gospel that
we can choose. We want a gospel, a saviour that
we can choose to accept and choose to follow based upon our decision. But God shows us that every decision
we ever make is to reject Him. It's to go another way. The only
decisions we make in religion for a Jesus whom we follow is
a Jesus of our own imagination. A Jesus who is a little servant
to us, a little idol. One that does our bidding. But
we never followed the true Jesus. We don't know Him. We don't care
for Him. Like the Jews, when He came unto
them, we would reject Him and crucify Him. When the truth of
Christ comes unto us, we rise up and say, away with this man,
crucify Him, crucify Him. And the preparation of God in
the Gospel is to take away that stony heart that so says. That's
where you and I are by nature. When we first hear the truth,
when we first hear the true gospel, we reject the Christ that's made
known in it. We reject the certainty of these
things. We reject Luke's message, even
though he comes as an eyewitness of these things. We say, no,
we don't want to know. We reject it. And yet God's preparation
is to say, no, this is the truth. This is certain. If you're to
be saved, it's because I've promised to save you. And if you're to
be saved, it's because I will prepare you and brush away all
these false lies in which you've walked. All this false hope in
which you've trusted. I'll show you that you're nothing.
And I'll make you to be dumb before me. Until that day, when
I perform these things that I've promised, and I bring you to
life. Yes, all these things in this
chapter concern birth. The birth of Jesus Christ, not
just in time, in history, in Bethlehem, but the birth of Jesus
Christ in the souls of his people. Believe in the birth of Jesus
Christ in your soul, O sinner. Does it concern the birth of
Jesus Christ in your soul? Has God made a promise regarding
you? Has he said, though you are barren,
though you are dead, I will bring life within? Has he prepared you by brushing
away all your hope in any other way of being saved and said,
this is the way? You'll only be saved through
my son Jesus Christ. You'll only be saved if he's
born in you as the life of God in your soul and that will only
come to pass if he first took away your sins. if he first redeemed
you if he first brought remission of sins and that only came to
pass if I sent him to the cross in your place and he of whom
you said in your natural state crucify him crucify him was indeed
crucified was indeed slain and if you're mine he bore your sins
he bore your unbelief he bore your rejection of him he bore
your hatred of him he bore your apathy he bore your wickedness
he bore your selfishness he bore your greed he bore all your iniquity
and he suffered for it and he died for it he died for it that
you my child through him should live should live as he come unto
you as he promised this life unto your soul as he prepared
you for its coming through his gospel and in time as he brought
it to pass as he performed it. And his father Zacharias was
filled with the Holy Ghost and prophets I'd say and blessed
be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed
his people and have raised up and horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David as he spake by the mouth of his
holy prophets which have been since the world began that we
should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that
hate us to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to
remember his holy covenant the oath which he swore to our father
abraham that he would grant unto us that we being delivered out
of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness
and righteousness before Him all the days of our life. He's
promised us and He's brought it to pass. He sent His Son. He's visited us. Christ has come. He's redeemed us. He's redeemed
us through His own blood. He died that we should be living. He died that we should live in
Him. That we through Him should be
righteous. thou child shall be called the
prophet of the highest for thou shall go before the face of the
lord to prepare his ways to give knowledge of salvation under
his people by the remission of their sins Through the tender
mercy of our God, whereby the dayspring from on high have visited
us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow
of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. And the child
grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the
day of his showing unto Israel. What God promised regarding John
came to pass. Zechariah saw the child born. He knew what he would do. He
knew why he was sent. And he was sent to preach the
gospel, to bring light to them that sit in darkness and in the
shadow of death, to people like you and I. you sit in darkness
by nature and in the shadow of death in a few short years if
you remain in darkness then death will come upon you you sit in
its shadow the shadow gets longer as you get closer and yet God
has sent his gospel his message that you who sit in darkness
might be given light. To give them light that sit in
darkness and in the shadow of death. John preached these things. The people heard, they heard
the gospel from his lips. But only Christ could bring them
life. Only when Christ came unto them
could they bring them life. John preached a certain baptism
but he made it plain that he was pointing them to Christ.
They must know Christ. John's birth came first. His
arrival with his message came first. The gospel came first.
But it came to prepare the way. Ultimately, you and they must
hear and see and believe on Christ. You must have the birth of Jesus
Christ within. There must be a conception within
you as there was in Mary. And the angel answered and said
unto Mary, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power
of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy
thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son
of God. If what is promised here, if
what is prepared in your soul through the preaching of the
Gospel is brought to pass, is performed, then what will happen
is that the Holy Ghost shall come upon you, the power of the
highest shall overshadow you, and a holy thing shall be born
within, which is called the Son of God. And that's the only way
that sinners like you and I shall be saved. If you're born of God,
you will live forever. If that which is born within
you is Christ himself, by the grace and mercy of God, then
you will know God and live forever. And if he isn't, then all your
religion and all your knowledge is but words in the head. God
sent a promise. God prepared the coming of his
son through the preaching of the gospel by his servant John. He sends that message today that
sinners that sit in darkness might see the light and might
come to know the birth of Jesus Christ. Do you know Christ? Has he been born within your
heart? Amen.