WWUTT 2261 The Birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1:57-66)

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Zechariah and Elizabeth have a son. They name him John, which is what the angel Gabriel told them to name him.

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All the people marvel at this, and they wonder at what the Lord is doing through this family when we understand the text.

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Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it.

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Visit our website at www .utt .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

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Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Luke, we're still in Chapter 1. Reading today about the birth of John the

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Baptist, I'm going to start reading here in verse 57. Hear the word of the Lord. Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son.

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And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.

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And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they would have called him Zechariah after his father.

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But his mother answered, No, he shall be called John. And they said to her,

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None of your relatives are called by this name. And they made signs to his father inquiring what he wanted him to be called.

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And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, His name is John. And they all wondered.

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And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke,

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Blessing God. And fear came on all their neighbors, and all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea.

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And all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What then will this child be?

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For the hand of the Lord was with him. Now, that statement right there at the very end, these things were talked about far and wide among family, among the rest of their neighbors, among the hill country of Judea.

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People were already asking questions about the things concerning Zechariah and Elizabeth and the birth of this child they named

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John. And they wondered even what kind of child would this be?

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So there was already questions being asked, things being pondered about John the

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Baptist before he even grows up and goes out into the wilderness to begin his ministry.

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So John the Baptist was already very well known in the region before he begins preaching and baptizing.

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A lot of folks probably have an impression of, you know, it's just John being weird. He goes out to the desert and he wears camel skins and he eats honey and locusts.

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And he's saying things like, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. And him acting strange was the reason why people went out to the wilderness to listen to him speak.

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But it wasn't just that. People knew who he was. He was the son of a priest serving in the temple and people had known about the miraculous things that had occurred for Zechariah and Elizabeth, which was part of the reason why

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John the Baptist gets asked, Are you the Messiah that we are expecting? Because of all the stuff that people could remember surrounding his birth.

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This was well known in Judea. So we'll consider that some more as we get to the end of this section of narrative we're looking at today.

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Let's come back up to verse 57. Now, remember, this is all after Mary and Elizabeth had visited with one another.

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And we studied last week on the Magnificat or the song of Mary. And here we finally get to the day that Elizabeth comes to give birth.

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Remember, the way of women was no longer with her. She was like Sarah, Abraham's wife.

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Zechariah and Elizabeth were so advanced in years, had never had any children. And they figured that was it.

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They were never going to have kids. Elizabeth was already called barren because it was not possible for her biologically to even have children anymore.

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And yet an angel of the Lord appears to Zechariah in the temple, tells him that his prayer has been heard and Elizabeth is going to have a child.

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And Zechariah does not believe the angel whose name is Gabriel. And so Gabriel afflicts him with muteness, but still says those things are going to be fulfilled.

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Even though you don't believe for the whole time that Elizabeth is pregnant, you're not going to be able to speak.

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But when the child is born, you're going to name him John. So Zechariah was still going to see these things fulfilled, even though he lacked faith.

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And when he makes the sign that the child's name is going to be

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John, this is the act or the work, you might say, that Zechariah does to demonstrate that he does now believe what it was that the angel said to him.

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And so anyway, I'm kind of working ahead here, but let's come back to verse 57. The time came for Elizabeth to give birth and she bore a son just as was promised.

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Now, it was already said to Zechariah that Elizabeth would have a son. She believed that was going to be the case.

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But of course, they don't see. They don't know for sure until this child is born. And here he is.

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Here is the son that was promised by God through this angel and her neighbors and relatives heard that the

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Lord had shown great mercy to her and they rejoiced with her. Now, why is it that the neighbors responded this way?

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Because surely they already knew that she was pregnant. There's a couple of reasons. If you'll remember,

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Elizabeth kept herself hidden for five months. So it wasn't known in the very beginning that she was pregnant until she enters into her third trimester.

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Mary comes and visits her when she's six months pregnant. So then after that, I suppose it is now publicly known that Elizabeth is pregnant, but only by a few people, not by a whole lot of people.

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So it's not until she gives birth to the child. And then the people know, oh, my goodness, Elizabeth has had a baby.

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We didn't even know she was pregnant. And so the relatives hear that the Lord has shown great mercy to her and they rejoice with her.

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So now we're throwing the baby shower. Now we're having the party after she gives birth to the child that they previously didn't know about.

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That could be one possible explanation. Another explanation for this is that the fact that she gave birth to a son means that the family name, the lineage gets to continue through that child.

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So that's the reason why the neighbors rejoice. I mean, it would have been a marvelous thing anyway, even if Zechariah and Elizabeth had had a girl.

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But it was even more meaningful for them that the only child they have, even though they are so advanced in years, gets to be a son.

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So they're rejoicing over that. The rest of the relatives as well. They hear that the Lord has shown great mercy.

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So they're all going to rejoice together. And they come, they descend upon Zechariah and Elizabeth's house.

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And again, they're throwing a baby shower. They're having a great party over the birth of this child.

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And on the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child. Now, that's a little curious as to the way that's worded.

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So on the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child. Does that mean that Zechariah and Elizabeth went to the temple?

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That would be the most likely explanation. Because if you'll remember from Luke 2, we're going to get to this in a couple of weeks, two or three weeks or so.

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But when Jesus comes to his eighth day, he's taken to the temple to be circumcised.

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So it could be that the phrasing of this, that they came to circumcise the child, means that they came to the temple for his circumcision.

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But the other possibility is that there were religious officials that came to do the circumcision at Zechariah and Elizabeth's rather than doing it in the temple.

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That could be the other possibility. Because where it says they were going to call him Zechariah after the name of his father, that's not

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Zechariah and Elizabeth that are making that decision. That's the people who are with them. That's the rest of the family.

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Zechariah is unable to speak. And typically, the name of the child comes from the father. And so since he's not able to speak, well, then the rest of the family is going, well, you know, here's

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Zechariah over here. And that's what we should name the child. This is Zechariah Jr.

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So that's what they're ready to name him until Elizabeth refuses. His mother answered, no, he shall be called

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John. So anyway, on the wording of verse 59, it could be either that Zechariah and Elizabeth are going to the temple for John to be circumcised on the eighth day, or there are people that come to Zechariah and Elizabeth to do the circumcision, still keeping with the commandment that it is to be done on the eighth day, as it was said in the law.

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So they come to circumcise the child. Again, they would have called him Zechariah after his father. Verse 60, but his mother answered, no, he shall be called

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John. So Zechariah has already informed Elizabeth, though he cannot speak.

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He's written to her everything that has happened and that the child's name is going to be

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John. So Elizabeth is already caught up with all of this. And they said to her, none of your relatives are called by this name.

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Very common thing for a child to be named after a name that is in the family, which was the reason why it made sense to just go ahead and call him

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Zechariah. When Becky and I got married and when we started having kids, we wanted to name our children names that were shared on both sides of the family.

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So our first son was Zachary. I wanted to name him Zachary because I was supposed to have a brother years ago.

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When I was a kid, my mom was pregnant with a son and he died in the womb.

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And if he had been born, my mom and dad were going to name him Zachary. And so I wanted my first son to be named after the brother

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I never got to meet. I will one day. I'll see him in heaven, I truly believe.

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But I wanted to carry that name on through my first born son. So Zachary got that name.

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But then when it came to picking a middle name, Becky and I were trying to figure what to go with. And so we chose a name that was one of my brother's names and her grandfather's name.

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So it was like, hey, we've got a name that's shared on both sides of the family. And so that became his middle name. But then the funny thing was, when our daughter after Zachary was born, so our oldest,

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Annie, she's got a name that's shared on both sides of the family. Zachary has a name shared on both sides of the family.

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But then when our third child, our daughter, Aria, was born, we could not think of a name.

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We could not find another name that was shared on both sides of the family. And it was like, well,

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Drat, we thought we were onto something here because she's got a pretty sizable family, and so do

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I. We're looking for names that are shared on both sides. We couldn't find any more. It was a pretty surprising thing to both of us.

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We did not expect that we were going to run into that. And so we gave her a name that isn't on either side.

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In fact, it's very unique in the sense that there's no one on my side of the family or on her side of the family that has

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Aria's name. And then our daughter Mariah came along, and Mariah actually has

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Becky's middle name. And then our son Ezekiel, now his middle name is shared on both sides of the family.

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So we were able to find boy names that were shared on both sides, but we couldn't do it with the girl names anyway.

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So that was a tradition that we were hoping to start, and it just didn't work out. It didn't go as we expected it to.

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I guess we could have planned a little bit better than we did. But this is a pretty common thing. You've probably also seen it where all of the kids' names will have the same first letter in them, or they will rhyme or something to that degree.

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And we haven't done that either. All of our kids' names, I think, are pretty unique. You don't detect a certain pattern.

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We have two AJs. That's a problem, especially when we're initialing the tops of our water bottles.

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So you know who is who. There's two girls that have the same initials, and that doesn't work.

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I guess we could have thought that through a little bit better. But anyway, all that to say, you've got some traditions in the way that you name your children and these were the traditions that existed among the

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Hebrews. John was a fairly common name. Of course, we know of other Johns. There's John, who was the brother of James, who was the beloved, the youngest of the disciples and the one that was nearest to the

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Lord. So John was a pretty common name among the Hebrews.

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It just wasn't in Zechariah and Elizabeth's family. So it was unusual for them to want to name a child

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John. And Elizabeth insists his name is to be John. The angel said that was going to be his name.

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And so we're sticking with that. That's going to be his name. But they tried to sign to Zechariah concerning what he wanted him to be called.

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And that's in verse 62. They made signs to his father inquiring of him what he wanted the baby to be called.

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Now, the fact that they have to sign to him indicates that Zechariah was more than just mute.

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He was also deaf. So he's deaf and mute. For the 40 weeks of Elizabeth's pregnancy,

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Zechariah can't speak, can't hear. The people are signing to him, and he gets a writing tablet, and he writes down his name is

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John, and they all marvel at this. All the people are totally astonished at this.

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Why? Why the name John? Why would you be so insistent on it, on picking a name that was not in your family?

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Apparently, this is so rare a thing that it even makes the people marvel at the fact that Zechariah insists on this.

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But then in verse 64, immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he spoke, blessing

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God. Now, we don't know exactly what that means with regard to how he was blessing

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God. I heard one preacher one time say that the prophecy that we read in verses 67 to 79 is what

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Zechariah opened his mouth saying. But we don't know that for sure. I mean, it would make sense since he opens his mouth, blessing

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God and speaking prophecy that would come from God. Okay, I could see the connection there.

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But most likely it was it was that Zechariah begins speaking, praising the

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Lord. He's just singing praises to God, probably quoting from Psalms or an Old Testament prophecy or something to that degree.

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And so fear come on all the neighbors, and all these things are talked about throughout all the hill country of Judea.

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Now, why does fear come over all the people? Because they realize, they recognize that God is working among them.

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And all the things that have been going on concerning this miraculous pregnancy had been known to and whispered about among the people.

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And remember that when Zechariah was in the temple, when he came out and he couldn't speak, and he's probably got his mouth agape, and his eyes are wide.

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And he's attempting to say things to the people, but he can't say anything. He was in there for a long time as it was the people were starting to murmur.

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How long does it take the guy to go in there and light some incense? What is going on? This is a scary thing.

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Does somebody need to go in there and check on it? And he comes out and he's not able to speak anything. And the people marvel because they know he had to have seen a vision from God.

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He can't tell them about the vision because he can't talk. But they know he's seen a vision and something's going on.

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So all of this has already been talked about. And here is Zechariah mute, unable to speak for 40 weeks,

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Elizabeth, the way of women no longer being with her. And yet here she is pregnant, able to have a child miraculously given this son who would be born to them.

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Now, if there was anybody who knew for sure that she was incapable of having children, it was

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Elizabeth. It's not like she went to a doctor who x -rayed her abdomen and could see that not everything was functioning there properly.

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And suddenly she is having a child. They weren't able to medically verify this, but Elizabeth knew for sure that she could not have children anymore.

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And to be called barren meant that she would never have kids. And yet the

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Lord granted her a son. And so Zechariah and Elizabeth are rejoicing over this.

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The people are marveling at this. And here's Zechariah saying his name will be John and then is able to speak.

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And he opens his mouth and he starts blessing God. And the people are astonished by this. They marvel. Fear comes upon them because they know that God is working in their midst.

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And it not only remains among the people, but all who heard about this laid it up in their hearts.

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It spreads throughout the hill country. They said even what then will this child be?

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For they knew that the hand of the Lord was upon him. Remember that part of the prophecy that was given to Zechariah was he would be filled with the

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Holy Spirit even from the womb. And so people are already starting to ask.

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And surely there would have been a watchful eye on John all through his childhood.

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And as he is growing up and the people are wondering about this, they're talking about this.

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Remember all of the crazy things that happen surrounding Zechariah in the temple and then not able to speak.

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And Elizabeth gets pregnant when it was impossible for her to get pregnant. And then they had this child and Zechariah can speak again.

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And he's blessing God. And he even gave prophecy. And all of this stuff being talked about throughout

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John's young life, there was already an eye on him to see what would happen with him.

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The people knew that God was working in their lives. And there's just never really been a good narrative concerning John the

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Baptist in any of the movies or television portrayals of this story.

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I find John the Baptist to be one of the most captivating persons in the

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New Testament, other than Christ, of course. I mean, there's a lot of preachers that will invest a lot in John the

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Apostle or Paul the Apostle because of how much they wrote in the New Testament. I've always been utterly fascinated by John.

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And he's kind of a throwaway character whenever you will see this cinematically portrayed.

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I'm not calling for yet somebody else to do another portrayal and do John the Baptist correctly, because it means we're going to see another false

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Christ in these shows and movies that people tend to do the chosen being the biggest among them.

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And it's a false Christ. It's a completely false narrative doesn't follow the biblical narrative whatsoever.

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Dallas Jenkins is just telling his own story and using people from the Bible because they're popular.

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That's why. Anyway, regarding John the Baptist, though, this was not just a mysterious person that pops up in the wilderness one day and starts captivating the people.

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The people were thinking about John and watching John and knew Zechariah and all these events that were going on in this family before John the

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Baptist even gets out to the wilderness to fulfill those things that God is appointing for him to do.

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And so he was a well -known man, whereas like in the chosen, when they portray

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John the Baptist, he's just creepy John or whatever nickname they give him in the show. Weird John.

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You know, some of us have been out there and seen him. Have you gone and seen him? No, I didn't go see him. It says all of Judea came out to him to be baptized.

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Oh, he was well known and hated among the Pharisees. Of course, we'll read about that as we continue on in Luke.

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But God is clearly working through this family, through this person who is fulfilling.

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John the Baptist is fulfilling those things that have been prophesied about him from the prophet

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Isaiah, from the prophet Malachi and other prophecies that we find in the Old Testament, that there would be this forerunner who would come in the spirit of Elijah saying, make way the coming of the

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Lord, make his path straight. And as the angel had said to Mary concerning Elizabeth's pregnancy, the angel said, nothing will be impossible with God.

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God is doing all of these miraculous, amazing things that are causing the people to talk because the

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Messiah is coming and the people are being prepared for his arrival.

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John the Baptist will be the one whom God had chosen to prepare the people for the

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Savior. The Savior has come to us, and it is by faith in Jesus Christ that we are forgiven our sins and have everlasting life.

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Believe in him, my friends, and you are saved. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we have read concerning John the

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Baptist as we're going to come tomorrow to read about Zechariah's prophecy. May we continue to be filled with wonder and with hope, with wonder in the way that you are working and accomplishing things through Christ, with hope knowing that you will be faithful to fulfill those promises for us in the future.

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For us who believe in Jesus Christ, there is laid up for us eternal reward in heaven above.

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Convict our hearts of sin. May we be cleansed of all unrighteousness and walk in the way of holiness after our

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Savior Jesus. It's in his name that we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the

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Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website, www .wutt

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.com, and click on the Give tab in the top right corner of the page. Join us again tomorrow as we continue our