The Coming Restorer – Part 1
Luke 1:5-25 (5-7)
July 16, 2017
Well, a couple of weeks ago,
We began a new study here in the word of God.
It is a study I am calling “The History of Redemption”
That is precisely what Luke has set out to give us.
Luke 1:1-4 “Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus; so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.”
• There were so many stories floating around about Jesus, that Luke felt
the necessity to sort of “set the record straight”.
• He investigated the things that were said about Jesus and compiled it
together in an orderly fashion for one purpose.
• That we might know “the exact truth” about the things which have been
said about Jesus.
Luke gives us a Holy Spirit inspired historical account.
And we call it “The History of Redemption”.
And Luke’s first order of business
Is to connect his account to the Old Testament.
In order to fully grasp what Luke is doing,
We need to turn back to the final statement of the Bible Luke read.
Luke’s Bible ended with the prophet Malachi.
TURN TO: MALACHI 4
We’ve never studied Malachi on a Sunday, but some of you were with us when we worked our way through it on Wednesday night a few years back.
The book of Malachi delivers a direct punch in the face to apathy.
It addresses people who were apathetic about the things of God.
• In chapter 1:6-8, God confronted the fact that they were content to give the blind, lame, and sick as a sacrifice to God.
(The idea being that God could just have what we no longer wanted,
instead of the unblemished offering He deserved.)
• Coupled with that, chapter 1:12-13 also tells us that the priests who performed the sacrifices saw their duty as a tiresome burden.
(Here was God’s ordained means of atonement and forgiveness,
and instead of being grateful for the opportunity, the priests saw it as a burden.)
• Chapter 2:7-8 reveals that the priests had also grown lax in their commitment to teaching truth. God says that they had corrupted the covenant, and were in fact twisting the truth.
It revealed a total lack of reverence for God.
• Chapter 2:11 reveals that Israel no longer cared about God’s statutes regarding marriage, but had grown content intermarrying with non-believers.
• We also find in chapter 2:14-16 a total lack of integrity spreading throughout the nation in the rise of divorce which God hated.
Because of this apathy, God promised a day of purification was coming.
Chapter 3:1-4 revealed a coming “messenger” who would “clear the way before Me.” And then, “the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple;”
But before Israel got excited about this event they should know that
He was not coming to comfort, He was coming to confront.
3:2 asks, “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap.”
When the Lord would come,
He would have to confront the apathy and immorality of the people.
And then Malachi returns and exposes yet another sin of the people.
• 3:8-12 reveals that they had stopped tithing to God, which was hurting the poor, who were direct beneficiaries of this benevolent giving.
• 3:13-15 reveals that God’s people had begun to envy the arrogant simply because they were successful in the world.
Now, what we also found in the book of Malachi was that
There was A REMNANT who responded to this convicting message.
• Malachi 3:16-18 revealed that there was a remnant who feared the Lord
who humbled themselves in repentance and a recommitment to the
Lord, and the Lord accepted them as His and promised to spare them
when He would come.
And God promised that “you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve Him.”
So you can see how confrontational and challenging
This final book of the Old Testament is.
It is a book that seeks to cut through the apathy and traditional religion in order to produce people:
• Who genuinely love God,
• Who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
• Who serve God with a whole heart.
That is really the heart of Malachi.
And then the book ends with chapter 4 and this promise.
READ MALACHI 4:1-6
• There we find that God is promising to come and in His coming He will judge the unrighteous and as though they are chaff in the fire.
• He will not tolerate nominal religion, He will not tolerate unrighteousness cloaked in ceremony, He will come like a purifying furnace and will judge the wicked.
That is the promise.
It is certainly something for the wicked to fear.
However, verses 2 & 3 reveal something very important, that we need to grasp.
(2-3) “But as for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day which I am preparing,” says the LORD of hosts.”
The LORD is going to come and judge the wicked,
And this will be a great and glorious day for those who fear Him.
This would be the people who have been forced to dwell in the midst of the wicked and who have felt their righteous souls tormented by the corruption around them.
They are people who have sought to stay righteous in the midst of evil.
They were lone lamps in the midst of the darkness of night.
But the promise to them was that,
“the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings”
No longer would they be the outnumbered voice for God.
God Himself would come and shine light into the world
And once again elevate righteousness.
THAT WAS THE PROMISE.
In light of that reality, (application)
Malachi reminded again that people should rekindle their love for the word of God and for genuine obedience, which is what we read in verse 4 when he says, “Remember the law of Moses”.
That is to say, remember the importance of fearing God and living in obedience to Him. On the day that He comes, it will greatly matter.
And then the book closes with yet ONE MORE PROMISE.
(5-6) “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. “He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.”
Malachi reminds that the “day of the LORD” is coming.
• For those who fear the Lord, it will be “great”.
• For those who are apathetic towards Him, it will be “terrible”
And so, BEFORE THE LORD COMES He will first send “Elijah the prophet”
And “He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.”
Before the Lord comes in judgment,
He will first send a forerunner to clean up the people
That they might enjoy the Lord’s coming and not dread it.
This forerunner will “restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers.”
This does not mean the forerunner will promote family unity.
“the fathers” here is a reference to the patriarchal fathers,
Or those who were the faithful of old.
At the present the fathers would not be pleased with these children
And these current children clearly are not like their fathers.
Perhaps you will remember Jesus saying:
John 8:39-40 “They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. “But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do.”
It was clear in Jesus’ day that the “children of Abraham” were nothing like him.
Perhaps you even remember John the Baptist saying:
Matthew 3:7-9 “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.”
The people thought they were children of Abraham,
John revealed they were actually sons of snakes.
That was the problem in Israel.
The forerunner would come to fix that before the coming day of the Lord.
NOW, THAT PROMISE WAS HOW THE OLD TESTAMENT ENDED.
And it would be over 400 years
Before God would ever break the silence with a new revelation.
I don’t want you to assume that God was totally silent for that time,
For surely God continued to speak through His word just as He does today.
But for 400 years there was no new revelation from God.
• There were no prophets with anything new to reveal.
• There was just this final promise from Malachi that the Lord was coming and
His forerunner before Him.
And the faithful remnant of God was patiently waiting for this “sun of righteousness” which would “rise with healing in its wings;”
That is where God’s word stopped.
AND THAT BEARS WITNESS TO THE METICULOUS DETAIL OF LUKE.
LUKE PICKS UP RIGHT WERE MALACHI ENDS.
You could end Malachi 4 and go straight into Luke 1 without missing a beat.
In fact, NOTICE some of the things Luke references here.
After announcing to Zecharias that he will have a son, Luke reveals this angelic message.
(17) “It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people for the Lord.”
Where have you heard that before?
Do you see how Luke is just carrying the story forward?
Later, when John is born and Zecharias is again allowed to speak, notice what he says about his son.
(1:76-79) “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; For you will go on BEFORE THE LORD TO PREPARE HIS WAYS; To give to His people the knowledge of salvation By the forgiveness of their sins, Because of the tender mercy of our God, With which the Sunrise from on high will visit us, TO SHINE UPON THOSE WHO SIT IN DARKNESS AND THE SHADOW OF DEATH, To guide our feet into the way of peace.”
Did you catch that reference?
Luke is careful to make sure you understand that
This story of Jesus is not independent of the Old Testament.
The story of Jesus IS THE CULMINATION of the Old Testament.
These two stories fit together as one.
The New Testament is LOST without the Old
And the Old Testament is INCOMPLETE without the New.
This isn’t some different message or religion from a different God. This story of Jesus is the culmination and completion
Of all that God was doing and promised in the Old Testament.
It’s as though Luke found the final missing chapters of the book and is finally working to attach them that we might have the whole story.
Or, as Luke put it, “the exact truth”.
Luke wants you:
• To pick back up in Malachi 4,
• To agonize in anticipation for 400 years
• As you wait for “the sun of righteousness”.
Because Luke has found the fulfillment of that promise.
And when you get to Luke’s gospel, the silence of God is finally broken.
If you’ve read the chapters ahead of time then you are aware,
That not only does God break His silence,
But He does so with a vengeance.
We get not one, but two messages directly from God.
Luke 1 contains two angelic visits and two angelic announcements.
After Malachi 4 God laid down His pen,
But in Luke chapter 1, He has picked it back up again.
THE STORY OF REDEMPTION IS MOVING FORWARD.
I think you will agree, that this is pretty exciting stuff!
Now, that’s the big picture, I just wanted you to see that before we start working through the details of the story.
THIS MORNING we are going to begin looking at
The announcement of this Restorer that Malachi promised us.
Malachi said:
Malachi 4:5-6 “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. “He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.”
Well let’s see how this restorer arrived on the scene.
By this point you’ve already figured out that there is no way we’re going to make it through all 25 verses this morning, but let’s begin and we’ll finish it up next week.
There are 4 main points to this section
Which will help us see what is going on.
#1 THE CHOSEN SERVANTS
Luke 1:5-10
Luke begins “In the days of Herod, king of Judea”
The “Herod” mentioned here is the first of 5 seen in the New Testament, and he is no doubt the most famous.
• He is Herod I or Herod the Great.
• His dad was Antipater and a supporter of Julius Caesar who rewarded him by making him governor of Judea. Antipater then made Herod I the governor of Galilee.
• Herod was quite a PR man, who did a great many things to try and win over the Jews and to gain their support.
• He even married a Jewish woman and conducted many public works including rebuilding the temple. He also lowered Jewish taxes and during a famine even melted down his own gold in order to feed the poor.
• He was so popular among the Jews that many became known as Herodians.
However Herod also had a dark side.
He was a very suspicious man and was known to be ruthless.
This was best seen in the murder of his wife, her brother, her mother,
And several of his own sons.
Of course he is most famous for the slaughter of the Hebrew babies
In Bethlehem following the birth of Christ.
At this point, Herod’s reign was about to come to an end.
(MacArthur, John [The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Series; Luke 1-5; Moody Publishers; Chicago, IL, 2009] pg. 22-23)
AND THERE THE STAGE IS SET.
• It was a time when Judaism was growing comfortable inside of Rome.
• They had their temple, they had sympathetic man on the throne.
• The culture was such that apathy could flourish.
But during this time, “there was a priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah; and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.”
“Zacharias” name means “The Lord Remembers”
And of course that was a very fitting name.
It was said that he was “of the division of Abijah” which is true,
But in title only.
• After the deportation to Babylon Ezra 2 teaches that only 4 of the original 24 orders of priests returned, and Abijah was not one of them.
• However, in order to maintain the old system priests were simply assigned to the old division of orders under David even though genetically speaking it was not so.
It was just another picture of how apathy had settled in,
But Israel continued to try and play the part.
Zacharias’ wife was a woman named Elizabeth who was also from the tribe of Levi and so we have here A DEVOTED PRIESTLY FAMILY.
(6) “They were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord.”
Now this is a very interesting statement
And one that you need to understand to grasp another of Luke’s points.
Throughout Luke’s gospel, there is no doubt that
Luke highlights a specific group of people.
And they are people just like Zacharias and Elizabeth.
• In the first two chapters alone we’ll see Mary, and Simeon, and Anna, who are
also people who fit the mold.
Throughout the book Luke will continually focus on groups of people like:
• Tax Collectors
• Samaritans
• Centurions
Luke almost shows them totally in a positive light,
While he continually reveals people like Pharisees and Scribes and Lawyers in a negative light.
WHAT IS THE UNIFYING THEME TO THIS?
HUMILITY
LUKE MAKES SURE THAT WE ALL UNDERSTAND
Exactly the type of people whom the Lord accepts
And exactly the type of people whom the Lord rejects.
• It wasn’t about your level of religion.
• It wasn’t about your level of knowledge.
• It wasn’t even about your level of morality.
You cannot read Luke’s gospel without quickly recognizing that
The Lord is moved with compassion on those who are humble.
• They may be those who are outcasts in the world.
• They may be those who sort of fly under the radar of importance.
• They may be those branded as insignificant, unimportant, or even cursed.
But Luke wants to make sure you see that
These are the people whom the Lord accepted and whom the Lord used.
That reality is probably summed up better in Luke 6
Than in any other spot in the book.
Luke 6:20-26 “And turning His gaze toward His disciples, He began to say, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. “Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. “Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man. “Be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets. “But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. “Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.”
It is clear that Luke was keenly aware that
Christ was opposed to the proud but gave grace to the humble.
When LUKE REVEALS JESUS’ FIRST MAJOR DECLARATION of who He was, listen to the account that Luke recorded.
Luke 4:16-21 “And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, “THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.” And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Luke revealed Jesus as the One who was for the humble and the lowly, not the arrogant and self-righteous.
And of course this is A PERFECT FIT
To the things we learned of God in the Old Testament.
Isaiah 57:15 “For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.”
Isaiah 66:2 “For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,” declares the LORD. “But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.”
Micah 6:6-8 “With what shall I come to the LORD And bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, With yearling calves? Does the LORD take delight in thousands of rams, In ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?”
And those verses then help us understand
Who Zacharias and Elizabeth were.
Luke says that “They were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord.”
No, that does not mean that they were sinless.
They were righteous in the sense that Abraham was righteous.
Genesis 15:6 “Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.”
They were blameless in the way that Job was blameless.
Job 1:8 “The LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.”
It simply means that
• They genuinely loved God.
• They genuinely trusted God.
• And when they messed up, then they humbled themselves before God and in
faith trusted in His provision of atonement.
Zacharias and Elizabeth were among that small remnant of Jews
Whom Malachi referred to as “you who fear My name”
And as “those who feared the LORD”
They just really honored God.
And it is obvious that God was totally pleased with them.
• He had accepted them.
• He had drawn close to them.
• And He was about to honor them.
Now, this is interesting that we see how God viewed them,
Because I promise you that this is not how the world viewed them.
(7) “But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both advanced in years.”
Luke tells us that these two were pleasing to God,
But if it wasn’t for that piece of information you might never know it.
Because there is no doubt that in their day
They were thought to be cursed.
WHY?
BECAUSE THEY WERE BARREN.
Psalms 127:3-5 “Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one’s youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them; They will not be ashamed When they speak with their enemies in the gate.”
That is certainly a great passage of Scripture, but it’s highly doubtful that you’ll ever see it hanging on the wall of a fertility clinic.
And in this day in age,
A woman who couldn’t bear children was thought to be accursed.
Since God and God alone could open the womb and create life, what else could be deduced but that God was somehow displeased with those who had no children?
(It was the same type of thinking that caused Job’s friends to assume that he must have offended God; or else why all the calamity?)
Zacharias and Elizabeth are the first in a long line of rejects
That we find have been accepted by the Lord.
AND THERE IS QUITE A MESSAGE IN THAT ALONE.
We tend to attributed prosperity and ability as indicators
Of those whom God is most pleased with
And as indicators of those whom God wants to use.
“Boy, God could sure use that guy!”
And yet the Bible is clear that worldly success and ability
Is not an indicator of divine acceptance, or usefulness.
Even religious achievement is not an indicator of divine acceptance.
LUKE PICKS UP RIGHT WERE MALACHI LEAVES OFF
In order to remind the world that God is looking for those who fear Him.
God is looking for those who will humble themselves before Him.
I think I’m safe in saying that we’ve got plenty of apathy regarding God in our world today.
Admit it, when we walked through Malachi a moment ago and we talked about people who:
• Gave the broken to God…
• Sighed as though the Lord’s work was too burdensome…
• Weren’t interested in teaching God’s word in truth…
• Were joining themselves to the world, even in marriage…
• Were engaged in divorce simply because they were tired of their spouses…
• Didn’t see the need to give to God or take care of the poor…
When we highlighted those people, could you not see the relevance?
We have plenty of people
Who are content with a skin deep and half-hearted commitment to God.
• So long as that commitment doesn’t cost them anything.
• As long as God doesn’t ask me to give Him the things I love most…
• As long as God doesn’t ask me to work too hard for Him…
• As long as God doesn’t ask me to teach what is unpopular…
• As long as God doesn’t ask me to forsake the world…
• As long as God doesn’t expect me to endure discomfort…
• As long as God doesn’t ask me to give until it hurts for the sake the poor…
As long as God doesn’t ask for any of that, then sure, I’ll follow Him.
And then comes Luke’s gospel.
And we find that those are the people who
Merely THOUGHT THEMSELVES to be acceptable God,
But in reality they NEVER REALLY WERE.
They were the ones who were about to face the fire of refining.
They were the very ones that this forerunner was coming to confront.
And that is why GOD IS NOT USING ANY OF THOSE PEOPLE in His story of redemption.
• Instead He is using an old barren couple.
• He’s about to use an insignificant virgin.
• Then He’ll reveal Himself to devout man named Simeon.
• And to a widow woman named Anna.
• He’s going to use a hermit in the wilderness
• He’s going to use fishermen, and tax collectors, and rejected women
It becomes clear that God is looking for the genuine and humble in heart.
Let me read that passage from Micah one more time.
Micah 6:6-8 “What God Requires of Man With what shall I come to the LORD And bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, With yearling calves? Does the LORD take delight in thousands of rams, In ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?”
Is this not the message of the New Testament?
James 4:6-10 “But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.” Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.”
This has always been the message.
God is not concerned about your commitment to religion,
God is concerned about the humility and reverence of your heart.
Luke is just picking up where Malachi left off.
Highlighting the importance of humility and reverence for God.
We’ll continue on next time.
