What Is God Doing? – Part 2
Luke 1:57-80
September 24, 2017
It is a little regrettable how the time fell for our study of this particular text.
With our Disciple Now falling last weekend, it has caused us to have to wait two weeks to finish this text, and that is tough because it is a pretty complex passage.
This morning, let’s see if we can’t quickly get our minds back into focus
So that we can accurately grasp the rest of this passage.
We have moved forward in Luke’s gospel.
• We’ve had the birth announcements
• We’ve had a baby shower
Now it’s time to see the birth of these two babies.
• The first is John the Baptist
• The second is Jesus the Christ
And when we broke down this text two weeks ago
We did so into two main points.
#1 THE QUESTION
Luke 1:57-66
While looking at the question we merely saw that
God had done a lot of peculiar things in and around the birth of John.
• It started with an angelic messenger (hadn’t happened in over 400 years)
• Next came the deafness and muteness of Zacharias
• Then came the near impossible pregnancy of Elizabeth
• Then came the bizarre naming of John
• Then came the miraculous healing of Zacharias
All of those things were uncommon to say the least,
And they all culminated in a social stir
That was sweeping across the country side.
In fact, we read in verse 66 the question:
(66) “All who heard them kept them in mind, saying, “What then will this child turn out to be?” For the hand of the Lord was certainly with him.”
In a specific sense the people wanted to know
The particulars about this new baby John.
But in reality the question was much larger than that.
Their question was: WHAT IS GOD DOING?
These people had just endured a PERIOD OF SILENCE
That had lasted over 400 years.
• No new revelation
• No angelic visions
• No prophetic announcements
The Old Testament closed with the promise of a coming Messiah and a forerunner to go before Him and then the people waited.
Now, we also noted that while the vast majority of Jews in that day
Had grown legalistic and apathetic in regard to the things of God,
THERE WAS A SMALL FAITHFUL REMNANT WHICH REMAINED.
• This remnant was those who feared the Lord.
• This remnant was the humble; those who were poor in spirit.
• Those who epitomized the attitude of that 106th Psalm we read.
Remember that Psalm?
It is where the Psalmist outlined the continual sinfulness and rebellion of Israel and then said:
Psalms 106:6 “We have sinned like our fathers, We have committed iniquity, we have behaved wickedly.”
That Psalm was written by a man
Who saw the continual rebellion of his ancestors.
But he also saw that regardless of the degree of their rebellion God never failed to show mercy when they humbled themselves before Him.
And this Psalmist, understanding his own wickedness,
Is now pleading for that same mercy.
Psalms 106:47 “Save us, O LORD our God, And gather us from among the nations, To give thanks to Your holy name And glory in Your praise.”
And we said that this Psalm could have been the battle cry
For that faithful remnant that was currently living in Israel.
Here they were Jews, living under Roman oppression, enduring the silence of God, and waiting for the promised Messiah.
Psalms 106 had become the battle cry of this small faithful remnant.
We know that because it is from that Psalm that Zacharias quoted in his answer.
SO… you have hear a group of humble, God-fearing Jews, who are seeking God, and when they see the peculiar events surrounding the birth of John they can’t help but ask: WHAT IS GOD UP TO?
What is God doing?
Their anticipation is at an all-time high.
The Question
#2 THE ANSWER
Luke 1:67-80
And we started this portion, but we didn’t finish.
If you will remember, we talked about how
A person could give quite a detailed outline to this answer if he wanted to.
In Zacharias’ response we have
• A General Answer (to the question, “What is God doing?”)
• A Specific Answer (to the question, “What then will this child turn out to be?”)
We began looking at the general answer.
And in that general answer we noted that Zacharias changed tenses as he answered.
• He started in the past tense (67-71)
• He moved to the present tense (72-75)
Zacharias wanted the people to know that it wasn’t just what God was going to do, but that God had in fact already been at work.
“He has visited us”
• This of course references those two angelic messengers.
“He has…accomplished redemption for His people”
• This of course references the conception of the Christ and God’s intention to save His people from their sins.
“He…has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David His servant – as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old – Salvation from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us.”
• And again, Zacharias references that in sending this Christ Child, God is sending the One the prophets spoke of.
He is sending that powerful “horn” who will sit on David’s thrown,
And will deliver us from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.
Which of course was the plea of Psalms 106.
So the people wanted to know what God was doing, and the first thing Zacharias says is, “Let me tell you what He has already done!”
• He has visited us
• He has redeemed us
• He has raised up our Savior
• He has fulfilled His promises
In short, God has started the process of salvation!
And we saw all of that last time.
THIS MORNING we move forward as Zacharias has more to reveal.
We saw the past tense, now we move into the present.
NOW WE SEE WHAT GOD IS DOING.
(72-75) “To show mercy toward our fathers, And to remember His holy covenant, The oath which He swore to Abraham our father, To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, Might serve Him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.”
And again if we simply want to follow the verbs,
We can identify it pretty quickly.
He is:
• SHOWING (72) “To show mercy toward our fathers”
• REMEMBERING (72-73) “to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to Abraham our father.”
• GRANTING (74) “to grant us that we, being rescued…might serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness”
Let’s look at the first.
(72) “To show mercy toward our fathers”
What Zacharias is referring to here are those promises
That God had made through the mouth of His prophets.
God had promised to raise up a horn of salvation
Who would save us from our enemies (Psalms 106)
And Zacharias recognized that that was a merciful promise.
WHY?
Because we read Psalm 106 and we saw how wicked Israel was.
We saw their rebellion.
Things like:
• Grumbling at the Red Sea
• The Rebellion of the Golden Calf
• The Complaining at the waters of Meribah
• The Moabite rebellion and affair
• The Refusal to enter the Promised Land
• The Refusal to cleanse the Promised Land
One thing I know is that
If God did decide to remember His covenant with the “fathers”
It wouldn’t be done out of obligation, it would be pure mercy.
And that is what Zacharias point out.
GOD WAS BEING MERCIFUL
God was Hosea, welcoming back His wayward wife Gomer.
And this mercy, was clearly seen in that second verb.
“And to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to Abraham our father,”
And surely you remember that promise.
It was THE promise as far as all Israel was concerned.
Genesis 12:2-3 “And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
Genesis 13:14-16 “The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever. “I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered.”
Genesis 14:19-20 “He blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.”
Genesis 15:5 “And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
And of course it was there that God struck a covenant with Abram.
• It was the promise that Abraham’s descendants would always be God’s chosen people.
• It was the promise that He would never leave them or forsake them, but would always be present to rescue and deliver them.
And now according to Zacharias, God was honoring that promise.
God was remaining faithful to His word.
He didn’t have to, but He chose to.
In His mercy, He was choosing to go ahead
And honor the promise He made to Abraham.
And the consequences of that promise are what is seen next.
(74-75) “To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies,
Might serve Him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.”
This is specifically what Zacharias sees being fulfilled.
For all those who had the desire to serve God in holiness,
They should rejoice, for God is granting that promise.
And I think that is important to understand.
I think this is one of the reasons Luke includes this passage
Where other gospel writers don’t.
AGAIN, Luke is all about revealing these “poor in spirit” people
As he reveals the type of people that God accepts
And the type of people that God uses.
DO YOU SEE THE DESIRE THESE “poor in spirit” PEOPLE HAVE?
Zacharias DIDN’T say: “Finally, One is coming who will grant that we can once again be the preeminent nation in the world! We can finally get out of this cesspool! Prosperity is on it’s way!”
That wasn’t what Zacharias wanted.
His economic state was not what grieved him most in life.
WHAT DID ZACHARIAS WANT?
He wanted to be able to better serve God.
Specifically, he wanted to be able to serve God “without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.”
That is to say:
• He wanted to serve God CONFIDENTLY (without fear)
• He wanted to serve God PERFECTLY (in holiness and righteousness)
• He wanted to serve God ETERNALLY (all our days)
LUKE IS MAKING SURE YOU UNDERSTAND
THE HEART DESIRE OF THE POOR IN SPIRIT.
For all those who just wanted deliverance from Rome,
Jesus was not going to be what they wanted.
But for those whose sole desire was to “serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him” Jesus was going to be exactly what they wanted.
AND THAT IS A GREAT REMINDER TO US ALL.
In a world that tends to look upon Jesus as more of a cosmic genie who grants wishes and fulfills desires,
You certainly need to understand what He came to do.
He came to make men holy
That they might serve God without fear forever.
Think about it.
All they ever knew of God was fear.
Do you remember the picture on Sinai?
The earthquake, the fire, the smoke…
Do you remember what happened when someone touched the Ark of the Covenant?
Do you remember what happened if someone tried to enter inside the veil?
If you learned nothing of God in the O.T., you learned to fear Him.
It was a steady diet of you’d better not mess up or else!
And consider a priest like Zacharias.
Here was a man whose very livelihood was to serve God in His temple.
Do you think he had much fear involved when he would embark upon that service?
Do you think he had heard of Hophni and Phineas and how fire from the altar had devoured them?
Zacharias served the Lord, but I promise he didn’t do it without fear.
Because he was not acceptable to God as he was.
And yet, Zacharias knew that God was sending One
Who would make him holy and who would make him righteous
And who would make him acceptable
So that he could serve God without fear.
SO DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHY THEY WERE EXCITED TO HAVE JESUS?
• It wasn’t so they could get rich…
• It wasn’t so they could get healed…
• It wasn’t so they could go to heaven…
• It wasn’t so they could have good days…
Zacharias was excited because God was sending the One
Who would equip him to serve God better.
Jesus makes us acceptable to the Father.
Jesus allows us to serve God perfectly.
Is that not what Paul said in Romans 12 after outlining for us the redemption that was found in Jesus?
Romans 12:1 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”
Can you see that Zacharias was saying the same thing?
God has been merciful to us
God is making a way for us to serve Him better
So when these people ask what God is doing,
Zacharias first gives them a general answer.
He is sending the Savior who will allow us
To serve God without fear and in holiness, just like He said!
Now that was the general answer.
LET’S LOOK AT THE SPECIFIC ANSWER.
The specific question was:
(66) “What then will this child turn out to be?”
Well, here is the answer to that specific question.
(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.”
Now first, let me direct your attention to verses 78-79, because in those verses Zacharias once again speaks of the blessing of the coming Messiah.
Because of the mercy of God, “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.”
There Zacharias gives us three people with 3 kinds of problems.
• We have IGNORANT PEOPLE who “sit in darkness” which is to say they don’t know.
• We have HOPELESS PEOPLE who sit in “the shadow of death” where there is no hope.
• We have LOST PEOPLE who don’t know where they are headed and who need someone to “guide our feet into the way of peace.”
And the Messiah is going to accomplish all of that.
• He is going to be truth to the ignorant.
• He is going to be hope to the hopeless.
• He is going to be direction to the lost.
In other words, He is going to be LIGHT
Now the other gospel writers certainly picked up on that analogy.
Matthew 4:12-16 “Now when Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, He withdrew into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth, He came and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: “THE LAND OF ZEBULUN AND THE LAND OF NAPHTALI, BY THE WAY OF THE SEA, BEYOND THE JORDAN, GALILEE OF THE GENTILES — “THE PEOPLE WHO WERE SITTING IN DARKNESS SAW A GREAT LIGHT, AND THOSE WHO WERE SITTING IN THE LAND AND SHADOW OF DEATH, UPON THEM A LIGHT DAWNED.”
John 1:9 “There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.”
John 8:12 “Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”
That is a popular analogy regarding Jesus.
But REMEMBER, Luke is seeking to show you how Jesus is the expected One by linking His coming to the Old Testament.
So when Luke talks about Jesus as the light, he refers to Him as “the Sunrise from on high”
Malachi 4:1-2 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.” “But 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.”
Specifically, Jesus is that “sun of righteousness”
Who is coming to those “who fear My name”.
• For all of those people who walk in fear of God and have no peace because they know that they are unworthy to stand before Him.
• For all of those people who have wandered in the darkness seeking to know more of God in His silence.
• For all of those people who have seen the utter hopelessness in all their efforts and attempts to be pleasing.
Zacharias wants you to know that God is sending the One
Who will bring light into the darkness.
He will give you truth
He will give you hope
He will give you peace
And certainly everyone should be excited for the coming of such a one.
But again, the problem is that not everyone is ready for Him.
And that brings us to the purpose of this baby.
(76-77) “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,”
So now we finally get to the specific answer of the question.
• What is up with this child?
• What is God doing through him?
First look at who he is.
“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High”
He is not called “a prophet”, but “the prophet”
He is a specific character in the plan,
Not just one of many whom God will use.
This is the one Malachi spoke of.
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.”
This is the one coming before that Savior.
And again, I remind you that the presence of John the Baptist overwhelmingly teaches us 1 thing.
YOU, AS YOU ARE, ARE NOT FIT TO APPROACH JESUS
It has been a reoccurring theme especially in contemporary Christian music to sort of play this card that you come to Jesus “just as you are”.
It is this idea that there is no change needed at all, you can just approach Jesus and He will accept you in whatever state.
I think I’d like to clarify that.
Because if that were true, then there was no need for John the Baptist.
Zacharias was clear here about the purpose of John.
“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.”
John had to primary jobs.
1) To PREPARE the way for the Lord.
2) To PROCLAIM salvation through forgiveness.
Now, if people were already acceptable, “just as they are”,
• Then why did Malachi warn that no one would be able to endure His coming?
• And why did God send John the Baptist to “prepare His ways”?
• And why did people need to first repent?
Are you following me here?
Here is the reality, Jesus accepts sinners.
Even filthy, rotten, vile, unthinkable sinners
In fact, He has to, because that’s what everyone is.
He’s the only One who can transform sinners and makes them righteous.
So no amount of sin disqualifies a person
From being able to approach Jesus.
But let me emphatically tell you who is NOT acceptable to Jesus.
THOSE WHO LOVE THEIR SIN.
Sinners have always been welcome to Jesus,
Those who love their sin are not.
Do you remember the beatitudes?
Matthew 5:3-6 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
These were the type of people who were acceptable to Jesus.
• It wasn’t sinless people, it was people who mourned over their sin.
• It wasn’t righteous people, it was people who longed for righteousness.
• It wasn’t good people, it was submissive people.
• It wasn’t religious people, it was humble people.
What “come just as you are” means is that
You can come in your filthy sinful state
So long as you are humble, and meek, and you hate your sin
And you hunger for righteousness.
But those who refuse to come like that cannot come to Jesus.
In fact Malachi said they would not be able to endure His coming.
And that isn’t some isolated verse.
John 3:19-21 “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. “But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”
John 8:21 “Then He said again to them, “I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come.”
The idea there is that they were unwilling to part with their sin in this life,
And in such a state they were not able to come to Jesus.
Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’”
Religious works are not a substitute for humility and repentance.
Do you understand what we are saying?
You are welcome to come to Jesus,
But not if you want to keep your sin when you come.
That was the very purpose and reason for John the Baptist.
He came to “PREPARE HIS WAYS”
• That is, he came to expose the sin of the people and lead them to repentance
that they might be humble and ready for Christ.
He came to give them “the knowledge of salvation”
• That is, John pushed them to Jesus.
• John didn’t come to make you acceptable to God, only Jesus
could do that.
• John didn’t come to try and make Jesus acceptable to you.
• JOHN CAME TO MAKE SURE YOU WERE READY FOR JESUS.
He came to show you your sin and show you your condemnation.
He came to break your pride, and expose your darkness.
So that on the day when this Messiah would walk by
John could then emphatically say,
“Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
And you would desire Him!
What is God doing?
What will this child grow up to be?
• God has visited us, He has accomplished redemption for us, He has raised up a Savior for us from the line of David just like He promised to all the descendants of Abraham.
• This Savior will make us righteous and holy and able to serve God without fear. He will be light in the midst of darkness and will give us hope and guide us to peace.
• And in order to make us ready for Him, God has first sent John, who will proclaim the truth, and confront our sin so that we will be ready for this coming Savior.
(80) “And the child continued to grow and to become strong in spirit, and he lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel.”
And with that friend let me encourage you.
Christ is the One who can equip you to serve God without fear,
But don’t assume you can come to Him will clinging to all your sin.
Repent of your sin, approach Him in humility,
And He will equip you to serve God.
