Luke 1:56-66 The Herald is Born

ReCAST Church of Mattawan

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You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsak preaches from his series,

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King Over All, from the Gospel of Luke. Let's listen in. Good morning.

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I'm Don Filsak. I'm the lead pastor here. And a special welcome to those of you that are visiting here maybe for the first time, checking things out.

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I recognize that it might feel risky coming and trying a new church for the first time, but I hope that you find your time valuable here.

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I actually hope all of us find our time valuable here, not just the visitors, but that we grow in our faith as a result of gathering together.

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Our goal, of course, as a church, those of you that are around here hear me say this often, our goal is to grow in faith, grow in community, and grow in service.

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And we believe that God has called us together as a community of faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, because he's called us together, because we need each other.

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We are not made to grow in isolation any more than a plant is made to grow without light. Plants flourish in the light.

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Humans flourish in community. When we gather, we spend a good chunk of our time focused on God's Word, because we believe that it is in knowing

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God as He has revealed Himself that we grow in our faith. That's what grows our faith, is coming in contact with His Word.

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Faith comes through hearing the Word, believing the Word, and going out and living according to His Word.

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This morning, we're going back in Luke chapter 1, and the start of Luke builds in slow anticipation toward the birth of Jesus.

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It's a long runway, as I've said the last few weeks. Today, our text brings us into the scene of the birth of Jesus' cousin and herald,

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John the Baptizer, I like to call him. John was born to be an Old Testament prophet who was the herald of the coming

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King, kind of born in the hinge between the Old and the New Covenant.

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Old Covenant still enacted, New Covenant coming in, in Jesus Christ. I think that there's something that fundamentally we might misunderstand about John.

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He might seem extra a little bit in the text. What's he there for? A lot is written about John the

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Baptizer, and it's like his significance might be lost on many of us, because we don't necessarily live in the day and age in which he came to live.

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Here's what you need to understand. Kings never showed up in town without first a herald going or a forerunner going before them, preparing the town for his arrival.

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In this sense, the only thing that we might be able to relate it to is the Secret Service showing up in a community before the president shows up in order to protect them and make sure that everything is prepared, but it's like that.

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The town had to be prepared for the arrival of the King. You don't want to be standing out in your overalls and all grubby and dirty when the

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King walks through town. And so there was a preparation. The herald came announcing the impending arrival of the

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King and preparing the people, and that was to be John's role. That's what he was sent to do.

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A significant and privileged role in their culture, something that's very misunderstood in ours in terms of instant communication.

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John was a bigger deal to their culture than he is to ours. We live in a time and an era of instant communication.

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We barely understand the significance or need for a herald, but preparing a community for the arrival of the King and being selected to be the voice declaring his arrival was a distinct and awesome privilege in their culture.

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And so in this passage, we see a narrative about the birth of John. All of this centered on, really, a longer section talking about the birth of Jesus Christ, but all of it building up towards that.

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So it's about the birth of John, but we also ought to give attention to the things that God is doing throughout this text.

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In our passage, we see that God is a God who keeps his promises. We see that our God is a

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God who creates wonder in his people. And further, we see that our God delights to utilize anticipation in our lives.

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Blessed are those, the scriptures tell us, blessed are those who wait for the Lord. Why is waiting valued?

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Why is waiting valued? And I believe it's because God is not a God offering instant gratification. He works through wonder, and through awe, and through curiosity, and even through a building anticipation.

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Is there any semblance of anticipation in your life regarding the things that God has promised that he will do?

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The Christian ought to live with some sense of anticipation over our lives. And so I encourage us all as we get ready to read this, lean into that building wonder within us.

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Lean into anticipation for the things that God promises that he will do. And so let's open our

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Bibles or your scripture journals or your devices to Luke chapter one, starting in verse 56 through verse 66.

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Luke 1, 56 through 66. If you turn over there, that way you can follow along as I'm going to read God's holy word to us.

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And like I like to remind us every week, recast, this is what God desires to communicate to you and me this morning.

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We get to hear from him through the pages of scripture. Luke 1, starting in verse 56. And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.

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Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth and she bore a son and her neighbors and relatives heard that the

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Lord had shown great mercy to her and they rejoiced with her. And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child and they would have called him

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Zechariah after his father, but his mother answered, no, he shall be called John. Then they said to her, none of your relatives is called by this name.

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And they made signs to his father inquiring what he wanted him to be called. And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote his name is

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John. And they all wondered. And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed.

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And he spoke, 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 up in their hearts saying, what then will this child be?

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For the hand of the Lord was with him. Let's pray. Father, you do wonderful things.

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You do amazing things. And things that we could spend days testifying of the great things that you have done in our lives and barely scratch the surface because all of these historical things would be in there too.

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All of these amazing movements that you, the ways that you move through human history to produce the right outcomes, to bring forth the

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Messiah, to settle our sin and our, the chasm between us and our heavenly father.

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God, you have done so much for us. And I pray that you would help us to be a people who are quick in our

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Thanksgiving, just even as we think about this Thanksgiving season and we're moving quickly.

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It just seems like time just snap and Thanksgiving is this coming week. And Father, I pray that you would be moving within us a gratitude and a thankfulness and a readiness to speak it, not just even just only internalize it, but, but to express it to others, to testify of your goodness and your mercy.

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We see that all throughout the start of Luke, people experiencing your grace and your mercy on their lives and telling others and it's spreading throughout the countryside and all of the area of Judea, hearing about the, the mercy that you gave to Elizabeth and, and her sharing that and it's spreading and creating wonder and anticipation.

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Father, I pray that we would be a people of anticipation, not of fear for the future, but anticipation, knowing the hope that has been secured for us through the cross of Jesus Christ.

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I thank you for the gospel, the good news, the good news that starts with the darkness of our sin, but ends in glory for eternity, reconciled with our father through the blood of Jesus Christ, your son.

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And father, that is the basis upon which we approach you in worship this morning. Oh, we don't have to sacrifice goats and lambs and doves and only one priest able to enter into your presence through the holy of holies, but father, that has all been open and we thank you for your son who has opened that to us that we can step before your throne now in praise and gladness with, with hearts energized and fueled by the hope and the anticipation of the future that you have for us.

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What you've done in the past that we might praise in the present, looking forward to the future. We ask this in Jesus name.

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Yeah, I encourage you to get comfortable and reopen your Bibles or your devices to Luke chapter one, starting in verse 56 through 66.

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And if at any time during the message, you need to get up and get more coffee or juice or donut holes or use the restrooms, you're not going to distract me.

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So take advantage of that if you need to. These narrative sections of the gospel of Luke are recorded accounts of real life situations.

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These are not, not just stories or fables, but they are their true history. And from this standpoint, they all serve really two purposes as we're marching through narrative portions of scripture like this that tell a story.

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The first is to tell us straightforwardly what actually happened. So this is, this is an account.

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Elizabeth gives birth, they name him John, the people wonder, and then fear strikes them as his dad.

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Dad's voice is restored back just at the right time and everybody's in awe about what's going on.

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So it's kind of like there, I told you the text, could we just move along to the next one now? And from one standpoint,

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I mean, the narrative moves on and we're getting closer to the birth of Jesus. And, but Luke records this account for a deeper purpose.

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This is shown by the way he matches up this narrative that we're hearing here exactly with the predictive promise of the angel

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Gabriel to Zechariah about the birth of his son from earlier in chapter 1 of the same gospel. When we're reading narratives of Scripture, when we're reading the historical accounts or the things that actually transpired, we ought always to look one level deeper to the question, what is this teaching us about God?

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When we're encountering Scripture, that should be a fundamental question that's in our mind. And for that reason, each point in my outline this morning is going to follow the narrative movement, but also the theological point of the section.

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And so the first movement of the text is a herald born, and God keeps his promises, verses 56 through 58.

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The second is a herald named, God creates wonder, verses 59 through 63.

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And the third is a herald blessed, God instills anticipation, verses 64 through 66.

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So we'll start here in verse 56 with the idea of a herald being born, that God keeps his promises.

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So we're seeing the birth of the herald of the Messiah, the forerunner, the one who was sent to prepare the way for the arrival of Jesus, John the baptizer.

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God sent an angel to meet with a priest who had no children. It's a little bit of background here. He and his wife

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Elizabeth were getting up in age, and they were beyond child bearing years according to the text.

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And the angel told Zechariah that his wife would conceive a son, the baby would be born, they would name him

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John, and many would rejoice at his birth. And all of these promises come true in this text to a tee, like they all are fulfilled.

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All the promises that were given to Zechariah through the angel Gabriel come to fruition.

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We serve a God who can make promises in a way that you and I cannot. Do you know what I'm talking about? In a way that you and I can't make promises.

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We do, but my calendar has meetings several weeks out with some of you, and I have told people here in this room that I'm going to meet with them, except that I might not.

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I might get sick, I might forget, or worse yet, I might just croak between now and then. So, we just can't make promises like God can.

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To be human is to not know the future, and certainly not to be in control of the future. So that we're even told we ought to say, if God wills, when we make plans, right?

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If God wills, and it's not a technical thing that we ought to tack on like a mantra at the end of everything we say about the future, but we know that to be reality.

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But God, our God applies His sovereignty, His power, His omniscience, and His faithfulness to the making of promises and to the keeping of promises.

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Amen? He sent an angel to Zechariah to tell him of what would happen, and now in our text it happens.

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Wouldn't you know it? Just like God said. Mary, who came to visit her cousin in our text last week, the reason

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I'm starting back in 56 is it's a little bit of movement. Last week was all a song except for verse 56, and I just tacked it onto the start of this.

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You'll notice that I read part of the last paragraph. But it's to highlight that she stayed through the birth of John.

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Mary is here in this account. She arrives to visit her cousin,

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Elizabeth, and she's six months pregnant, and then she leaves three months later. There you go.

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And there's no way that she waited until just the point where her cousin was about to pop and then left. So she definitely stayed through the birth, and I think we're meant to think that.

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But I want to point out that verse 57 is no small thing. Despite it being stated in simplistic terms, the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son.

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Simple statement, right? Any of the ladies here who have given birth know that there's a little bit more to that than just the simple statements at face value.

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Here in this text is the process of labor and delivery. With no modern medicine, no heart rate monitors, no surgical suite prepped for an emergency c -section should the need arise, no epidurals, no knowledge of the value of a sterile environment, women died in childbirth.

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Many, many, many, many babies didn't make it through this process in the ancient world.

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But God here is being sure that this one does. God is keeping his promise to bring mother and baby through this travail with gladness and joy being the outcome as promised.

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And it's a boy, just like the angel said. They didn't have ultrasounds.

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They didn't get a chance to look in advance, but the angel told her she was going to have a boy. And last time

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I checked, it's about a 50 -50 chance. The angel was like kind of rolling the dice. No, he knew. And God planned this.

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It's a boy. And the neighbors and relatives rejoiced with her, just like the angel said that they would. Everybody's happy with her.

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And their community identifies what is happening here. And it's a beautiful thing that they see happening. They see this conception in birth for what it truly is, according to the text.

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The neighbors and the family and the relatives and everybody gathers around. And they recognize that God is showing great mercy to this formerly barren woman.

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I think that's probably pretty much what they're rejoicing about at this moment. They don't quite know all the ins and outs of who he's going to be or anything.

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They're just celebrating with a friend. They're like, wow, you had a baby and you've been trying for years and unable.

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And then all of a sudden, boom, and then here we are. But according to verse 25 of this chapter,

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Elizabeth, you can look back at verse 25. It says this, thus the words of Elizabeth, thus the

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Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me to take away my reproach among people.

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Elizabeth had faced reproach prior to this among her people. They had been unkind to her regarding her lack of offspring.

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She was not fulfilling her societal responsibility according to cultural standards of the day.

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And I mean, I think we know this to be true. People were cruel back in the past. People are cruel today and people will continue to be cruel in the future.

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And that's she was a recipient of that cruelty. And yet that has all turned to an acknowledgement among the people with awe and wonder that God has seen fit in his mercy to give this older barren woman a child here in this text.

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God is keeping his promise to her. And in his promise, he is ticking off. He's really killing two birds with one stone.

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And I mentioned this in the first message way back a few weeks ago when we first started

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Luke. That actually is the second message, but that's just that he's bringing forth the herald doing two things at the same time.

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He's bringing forth the herald to prepare the way for the king. The king is on the way and here's the forerunner, but he's also doing something smaller than that.

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He's removing the reproach of Elizabeth, this woman. He is actually concerned for her personal life while also being concerned for the big picture of what he's doing on an epic historical scale of sending forth the forerunner and the

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Messiah and salvation and eternity for us that comes out of that. And so as the people rejoice,

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I consider this week that this model of celebrating the victories of God in our lives is a significant theme here at the start of Luke.

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And it happens to land on the week of Thanksgiving, going into Thanksgiving. And I just want to point out

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God is active. We thank him. We tell others and then they rejoice with us as the pattern that we see here at the start of the gospel of Luke.

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This is a life pattern and ought to be a life pattern for us. So much so that I feel like a broken record a bit here at the start of Luke and talking about us testifying to his glory, testifying of his mercy and his grace in our lives.

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But as Luke is recording the account of the birth narratives, praising, rejoicing, and celebrating over the things that God is doing is a consistent message here.

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One that God wants to keep driving home to us week after week after week because that's the message of these texts.

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And let me ask us, what about our neighbors? What about our relatives?

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Look again with me at verse 58, and her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her.

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Neighbors and relatives heard about God's great mercy to her.

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What about our neighbors? Will they hear of the mercy? What about our relatives? Will they hear of the mercy of God toward you?

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Will they be called to rejoice over the things that God is doing in your life? Have you received anything from the hand of God that you didn't deserve?

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Then you ought to be talking about it. Rather than, and I've heard a lot of this discussion,

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I've heard a lot of discussion about fear, about political conversations entering into Thanksgiving and Christmas, and anybody got a little bit of that in you?

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No one? Okay, nobody wants to admit it? I don't know, like I've talked with some of you in the room and you didn't raise your hand, so come on.

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You know, throw me a bone here. No, many are nervous about that, and maybe you're just nervous because I mentioned politics, right? Like you're just like, okay, that makes me nervous.

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I don't even want to raise my hand about whatever you just said. But what would it look like for us to go into Thanksgiving armed with a couple of stories about the way that God has blessed us in 2024?

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About the things that he's done? Or maybe be the one to initiate that, like let's just share a couple stories about how God has blessed you and give thanks to him.

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I love Thanksgiving because it begs a question. Every Thanksgiving, it's one of my favorite holidays. It might actually be my favorite holiday, and it's not just because of turkey.

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I just love that we have a day of thanks, but it begs a question, does it not? Thankful to who?

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Thankful to who? Who are you thankful to? Has he given you anything worthy of praise in this last year?

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Why not make that a point of discussion when people ask you how you're doing? When people ask you how you're doing, talk about the good things that he's done for you in this past year.

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Tell them a quick story about God's goodness and encourage them to thank God with you. And I'm not trying to be overly simplistic here because I know that some of your relatives don't believe like you do.

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Some of my relatives don't believe like me. But thankfulness, I believe, can go a really long way in a conversation with people.

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Telling positive and encouraging, upbeat stories in a way to give light to a potentially dark mood is a blessing.

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Be salt and light. Let your neighbors and relatives hear of the ways God has blessed you in this past year.

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Elizabeth obviously spread the news. And maybe God would have you be the one at your Thanksgiving gathering to initiate this to say, hey, let's go around and say one thing that we're thankful to God for this year.

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Maybe that's you. Maybe he's tugging at you to be the one to offer more Thanksgiving to him. Once again,

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God proves himself to be faithful to keep his promises. And so be sure your positive stories don't end with you.

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Be sure that they point back to the prowess at work or your athletic achievements, but really ultimately giving him thanks and glory.

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Point to his faithfulness, your unworthiness, and his great kindness. Talk up God in thankfulness and thanksgiving to the one who keeps his promises.

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The narrative moves on from the birth to the rite of circumcision eight days later and the naming ceremony.

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And in these next five verses, we see a herald named God creating wonder, or God creates wonder, verses 59 through 63.

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According to the law in Leviticus 12, three Jewish boys were to be circumcised on the eighth day.

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And in this case, it's obvious that the circumcision event was tied to the naming of the baby boy as well.

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By the way, as much as we might want to like make points about that, and I've heard people say, well, they wouldn't even name them before they were circumcised because they weren't sure they were going to survive or things like that.

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There's just not much documentation for some of those myths. So when it really comes down to it, all that we know is that that's what they did in this circumstance, but we don't see a pattern and there's not really historical precedent for this that they named them at the circumcision, but they did here today.

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This was a religious event and not merely a medical procedure. That's clear from scripture. The circumcision of Jewish boys on the eighth day harkens back to the covenant that God made with Abram way, way, way, way, way back in Genesis, like between chapter 12 and 17.

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It was a reminder that God is a covenant God and that the Jews were supposed to be a covenant people committed to him as his people and him committed to them as their

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God. The communal nature of verses 59 through 62 seem pretty stark to our individualistic ears.

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I don't think there's a person in the room that quite doesn't bristle a little bit at the brass of these neighbors and relatives who are ready to name the baby.

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How many of you just kind of go like, wait, what? Like, you don't get to say what my kids called. Are you kidding me? And the neighbors are like all up in their business.

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And I mean, anybody else kind of just like, that doesn't jive with me at all. Like the way I was raised, I was like, you suggest a name,

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I'm calling him something different. Like that's the way my heart was raised. So why is this entire community present at this circumcision?

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But even more stark is why is this entire community brash enough to suggest names to Elizabeth? The community was geared up to name him.

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They already had a name for him. He's Zechariah. Maybe they've even been calling him that already.

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They're ready with Zechariah. This is a barrier, by the way. This is an intentionally put up barrier to the promise of God in this text.

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Well, Zechariah was already told to name him John. We know that from the text and the interaction with the angel, but they've got to go against the community.

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To follow through on God's promises, they have to go against their community. They have to go against their family.

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And this, by the way, would not be, they weren't raised like you and me. This would be a really tough call. This is a difficult thing for them to do.

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They don't have the individualism that strikes our hearts. They have a communal nature to the way that they've been put together, and they are eager to please others and to join in with the community.

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And the community says, Zechariah, and the angel says, you name him John. But Elizabeth disagrees, and she does.

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She stands. She takes a stand. And she disagrees with the relatives and friends gathered and stands her ground and says, no, he will be called

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John. Are you guys ready for this? The crowd's insistent.

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She names him to them, and the crowd and the people gathered are, they're celebrating with them, but they're insistent.

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The gall of this group is amazing. Mom says, we're going to call him John. And the group says, why?

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Are you kidding me? They challenge her. Can you imagine challenging the name given to a baby on a birth announcement?

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You get the birth announcement in the mail, and you'd write them an email and go, I don't like the name. I think you got it wrong there.

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Are you kidding me? That's what's going on in this text. They even come with reasons. In verse 21, nobody in your family's named

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John. Come on. Come in line with our culture. Come in line with the way that we do things around here.

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You've been a part of our community your entire life. Just name him Zachariah and be done with it.

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None of your relatives are called John. What are you doing? You can't do that. There's a lot of cultural expectation here coming out in our text.

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Even today, there's some expectations that might be on the naming process. We obviously have a lot more individualism, but there are many who name their kids after family members.

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As a matter of fact, all three of my own children carry a family name as either their first, middle, or both.

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A lot of us do that. Many of us don't. But Elizabeth insists that he will be called

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John, which means God is gracious. Now, the choosing of this name would call attention to that meaning pretty substantially.

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The sudden and jarring name of this child outside of societal norms calls attention to the meaning.

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Clearly, the name is being chosen to communicate something beyond family affiliation. That's what needs to be highlighted about the name

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Zachariah. Zachariah means God remembers, which would be a perfectly good name to remember the promises of God.

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Why don't they go with Zachariah? Why don't they just go? That just kind of basically means the same thing. God is gracious or God remembers.

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By remembering, we're talking about his faithfulness and his commitment to keep his promises. But what would the community think if they went with Zachariah?

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They're naming him after his dad. That would be the end of the thought. It's because of family affiliation.

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So, arresting the naming process from that family affiliation and from the culture is actually driving the significance of the meaning.

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They all have to think, why would you name him John? Why would you name him God is gracious?

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And they have to think about it. The meaning is significant. God is voicing his graciousness through the birth of this forerunner of his son who will come to save his people, who will be king over all kings.

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But back to the narrative, the family and friends are challenging Elizabeth to her face. And so, they go, okay, mom, you're out.

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Let's see what Zachariah thinks. Let's see, does he vote team community or does he vote with his wife?

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Oh, Zachariah is in a tough spot all of a sudden. Now, it's not at all usual for a man to be silent over these matters.

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As a matter of fact, we might have wondered before this, if we didn't understand the full story, why in the world is

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Zachariah not spoken already? Men certainly participated in the naming of their children during this time.

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So, we might be surprised at this silence if we hadn't started reading from the beginning of Luke, understanding that Zachariah has been rendered mute.

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He can't speak. And it isn't until we reach verse 62 that we also find out that he's quite likely been rendered deaf as well.

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A little bit of a misunderstanding in one particular Greek word. But he's probably both deaf and mute during this nine months of pregnancy.

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He doubted the words of the angel earlier while he was in the temple serving as the priest. And the angel came to him and told him he was going to have a son.

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He doubted that. And so, he asked for a sign. And so, the ironic twist was that a sign was given by the angel.

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The angel said, yeah, sure, you get a sign. And the sign is that you're not going to be able to talk and you're not going to be able to hear until the boy is born and named.

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And once those things come to pass, you will be released. The word for mute in Greek is a catch -all term that can mean both unable to speak or unable to hear or any combination of those two.

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Translators would probably do well to identify him as both mute and deaf because the people make signs and hand motions to him to ask him what he wanted the baby to be called.

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You don't need sign language for someone who isn't deaf. If he can hear but he just can't speak, well, they could just talk to him.

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But one thing is for sure, Zechariah has had nine months of time out to sit maybe in the corner with his own thoughts and consider what

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God is doing. At least his life slowed down quite a bit during that nine months and unable to communicate.

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But we will see next week that he's had a lot of thoughts waiting to get out, and they're really good thoughts.

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So that's going to be, we're going to see the words of Zechariah's praise next week. But they handed him,

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I'm sorry, in two weeks. Next week is the Thanksgiving thing and you're going to get a chance for open mics and stuff, so it's actually in two weeks. But they hand him an iPad with an

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Apple Pencil and he writes out his name. It says tablet right in the text. I mean, come on, I'm not, you know, he writes out his name is, his name is

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John. Well, it wasn't an iPad, but it was probably a wax -covered slate, a piece of rock with wax over the top of it that could be could be melted and reformed.

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But what he writes is definitive, isn't it? His name is John. And by the way, the Greek construction here indicates that he doesn't perceive himself to be naming the child.

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He's not naming him. He's not naming him, he's declaring what his name already is. He is declaring what has been true from before his birth.

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His name is already John. It is. This is actually an act of faith on Zechariah's part.

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He who had doubted the message of the angel is now acting on it. God had promised that he would be mute until the baby was born and named.

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And here in this moment, snap, he regains his speech. Why is this account recorded for us to be discussed here this morning in 2024 in Matawan, Michigan?

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It exists to serve as one more testimony to the miraculous and unique nature of the arrival of our

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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And God produced a desired result in the family and friends gathered to celebrate on this day.

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They are all moved to wonder, says in the text. They're moved to wonder, like awe, like surprise, and curiosity about these things.

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The things that God is doing here in the text are really unique, and the accounts are arranged in a way that they're widening the circle of wonder.

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Our God is a God who likes to surprise us. I think he's glad when we delight ourselves in the quirkiness and ironies of life.

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And have you seen some of those twists that's all of a sudden, and have you ever been impressed by the perfect timing of an unforeseen encounter with an old friend?

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You ever had that happen where it's like, how, you're here? Are you kidding me? Same concert? How does this happen?

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And you haven't seen them in years, and all of a sudden, boom, they're right there at the coffee shop with you, or you're just like, what, how, and what do you say, like, is this coincidence?

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Or is there a God who's orchestrating these things? Have you ever pondered the bad things that missed you by minutes or inches?

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You ponder those things and think about it. Have you ever wondered at the wide and awesome expanse of the skies, or the intricate details of a fallen leaf?

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Wonder, wonder, wonder. God has created and crafted a world full of wonders, and then placed us here as the wondering ones.

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I watch my cat. My cat doesn't wander, but wanders, but it doesn't wonder. Animals, they do animal things, right?

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Primarily get food, and reproduce, and that's it. But we ponder, we reflect, we consider, and we are curious about our world.

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We wonder, and he crafts the awesome surprises. A barren old lady gives birth.

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She goes off script and names him God is Gracious, and they all are left wondering, curious as to what these things might mean, when suddenly,

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Zechariah says his first words in over nine months, and then in this next section, we see the third movement of the text, a herald blessed,

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God instills anticipation, verses 64 through 66. And note what

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Zechariah does first. What's the first thing that he does when he regains his speech and his hearing? He praised

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God immediately. What do we do first when God shows his mercy and kindness to us?

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I'm convinced that we're in a season and time of social history in which it is more important than ever that the church rejoice and celebrate together, that we do this well.

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Much of our culture is lost in darkness, and despair, and rot without much to celebrate about at all. Are we not called to bring light and preservative, salt and light into a dark and rotten world?

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We must celebrate together and celebrate in the world, not gloat in the world, but celebrate the good news as our only hope.

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Jesus Christ, our only hope. Zechariah's impulse after plenty of time to contemplate is praise.

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The result of his alone with his own thoughts is to praise God. The wonder on the part of the gathering from verse 63 gives way to fearful awe in verse 65.

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You can see a bit of a turn. They're in wonder, like, oh man, this is amazing, to fearful awe by the time you get to verse 65 when he starts to speak.

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When she names the baby John, and they start to think, maybe something bigger than just the birth to a barren couple is going on here.

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Maybe there's a little bit more to this. I mean, naming him off script, naming him John, and naming him

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God blesses, but then you get to verse 65, and all of a sudden his dad starts speaking. They are all aware that Zechariah hasn't been able to talk for nine months, and then at this event, in this moment, as the angel promised, all of a sudden he's able to speak, and now they're moved to fear.

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Wonder turns to fear. I would suggest to you that this gathering here is moved,

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I mean, the gathering there is moved to increasingly deeper thoughts about the things God is doing among them, and I've experienced that here in this church over the years.

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I went from surprise when people started coming, and we went from five couples to 40 people in the storefront.

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I went from surprise to wonder when people began to give their lives to Jesus, but I have gone from wonder to a holy fear as we've moved from what could once be called a church plant to what

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I think is fairly called a full -fledged church. As the blessings of God mature, so ought our responses to those blessings mature as well.

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From surprise, Elizabeth's having a baby, to wonder she named him John, to fearful awe,

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Zechariah's mutinous has come to an end at the naming of his promised son. Zechariah's life in these accounts shows a maturing that is good for us to consider and think about.

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It shows growth on the part of a man who is already living a pretty good life when we first meet him. He's actually declared righteous, which doesn't mean that he is good in himself, it means that he took the sacrifices in an old covenant kind of way.

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When he sinned, he did sin, he had sinned, but when he sinned, he took the sacrifices to the temple, and he was a good upstanding man in regards to his community and to his

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God. And so loving God and loving others as much as he could doesn't mean that he was perfect, but he's grown.

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He's grown in his faith, he's increased in his understanding, he's doubt shed in increased faith.

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And verse 65 tells us about the spread of the good news of these strange events. Luke records that these events didn't stay in Podunkville.

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Bad news spreads and so does good news, right? So let me just encourage all of us to be spreaders of good news.

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We are such an increasingly negative people, are we not? It doesn't take much to shine bright in a workplace or in a neighborhood or in a family gathering if you choose to be one who blesses others.

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The blesser stands out because complaining and grumbling is common. I'm convicted about this, and this is something that, by the way,

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I live with a woman who gets this right nine times out of ten. She's very optimistic, she's very positive in the way that she thinks and looks at the world.

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Isn't it awesome how God brings opposites together? Now, I like to just call myself a realist. Any other realists in the room?

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They just say, like, realism, let's go, right? And that means, those of you that raised your hand, if you're like me, it means that we make excuses for our grumbling and complaining.

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And wherever you're at, my fellow complainers, listen up. This is for you. We must start by recognizing that grumbling and complaining is actually sin.

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And we are never to be okay with sin. God isn't calling us to a sappy kind of saccharine fake gladness, but it is good for us to acknowledge the reality of the lavish blessings that God has given to us.

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There are tough things, there are bad days, and we don't need to ignore that reality to also remember that we have every blessing of forgiveness and hope in Jesus Christ, amen?

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For the follower of Christ, oh, it might be cancer. It might be the death of one we love.

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It might be financial loss. It might be a really hard marriage that we've been in for years.

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But there is always for the believer in Christ an and.

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It is cancer and eternity. It is loss and eternity. It is financial struggle and eternity.

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It is a hard marriage and eternity with our Lord and Savior who is returning for us.

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Which reality will you allow supremacy in your heart? Which reality will you allow to rule?

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Which one will eclipse the other? Will you let the darkness eclipse the sun, the brilliant sun of his blessings and mercy and grace and hope?

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Or will you allow it to flip and allow the sun to eclipse and melt off all of the darkness, all of the hardships and all of the difficulties because you know what's coming for you?

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How many of you know what's coming for you, by the way? You know some promises of God. You know the good ending. You've read the book.

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You know where it's going. How can we be down looking at our feet all day long in sorrow and just grief when we know where this goes?

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We know how he fixes it, how he's already sent his son to take care of it. Oh yeah, there's tough days, but there's always for us the end of the glory of where it's going.

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All of this, can we agree with the Apostle Paul who called all of this life light, momentary affliction?

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Light? Well, it doesn't always feel light. How many of you have heavy days? There's some days that feel heavy, but the heaviest it can get is light, momentary, as in temporary affliction.

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That's the calling on us to recognize and spread good news.

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The word on the street throughout Judea was that God was doing amazing things through the birth of a baby named John, and the word is spreading.

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And as the word spread, the people were moved to consider the significance of this child in their heart. What then will this child be?

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And this question has to be set in the backdrop of anticipation. This baby will prove to be the first prophet in over 400 years.

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And sometimes when we're thinking biblically over these timelines and things like that, 400 years, yeah, you know there are 400 years between the writing of Malachi and the birth of John and approximately.

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And so, you know, 400 years, yeah, there's 400 years of silence between the two testaments. 400 years is a long time.

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I don't know if you noticed that. It's a really long time. 400 years ago, Jamestown was a settlement.

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400 years ago, Jamestown was a settlement. 400 years ago, there was not a man -made structure on the island of Manhattan.

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Anybody been to Manhattan? All of that has occurred in the last 400 years.

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No streets, no streets in America, no steam engines, no electric lines, no air travel, not a single city in the

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United States. A lot can happen in 400 years. And it has been 400 years since a prophet has spoken in Israel when

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John is born. The promise was that a prophet would be sent as a herald and forerunner of the

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Messiah. One would come and pave the way for the arrival of the rightful king. And the people now are left in anticipation and wild imaginations about what this child might be.

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Now, there's some misunderstandings in their hearts about who John is. They're not even sure. They're thinking, is he the one? Is he the

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Messiah? And he's like, no. They even have to ask him. And he's like, no, I'm not the one. I'm not the one, but I'm the one that's sent to prepare yourselves for the one.

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But the text concludes here in this text that the hand of the Lord was with him. People noticed that there was something unique about the arrival and something unique about God's blessings on this child as they watched him grow.

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The sentence, by the way, the hand of the Lord was with him could summarize what every parent should want for their kids. What do you want for your kids?

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Those of you that are raising them. God's will to be done in their lives. His hand guiding them to spiritual strength and vitality.

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His hand with them. Not the wealth of man with him. Is that what the text says? No, it doesn't say the wealth of man was with him.

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Not the knowledge of university degrees with them. Not the strength of travel sports guiding them into a future as a pro athlete.

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I want to ask and I want to address the fathers in the room right now. I mean, the ladies can listen in to, but I want to particularly address the fathers in the room.

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What do you want for your children? What do you want for your children? I think many of us, if we're honest, we want power or strength or fame or income or beauty, or do you want that the hand of the

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Lord would be with them regardless of those other things? They may get some of those other things along the way.

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It's not mutually exclusive, but what do you want? What do you want men for your kids?

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And then what are you doing toward that end? What are you doing? I mean, you're doing some great things because you got them here.

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Most of you have them here right now and you're investing in them. You're bringing them to the gathering. You're bringing them to church.

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You're bringing them into the community where they're most likely to come in contact with the Lord. What do you want for your kids?

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God is producing in the people in anticipation over John's life here. Our God is not a God of merely ancient history, church, but he is also the

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God of the anticipation of the future. He has a plan. He is working that plan and God always keeps his promises.

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And our part in this present is to trust and believe him as he works. We wonder with curious eyes as he's weaving a future.

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We wait in anticipation knowing that good things are coming for those who are his. So let's consider some ways to apply this passage to our own lives.

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There might be other things that I've said here that the Spirit would use in your life to apply, but here's three things that I thought of this week.

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The first and common is trust him to keep his promises. He didn't promise, church, he didn't promise to make you wealthy.

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He didn't promise to give you health. He didn't promise to make everything easy for you if you'd just serve him real good.

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He promised to never leave you, and he promised to rescue you from the consequences of your sin if you would accept his

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Son as your Savior and Lord. He promises to come back or when you die to take you to be with him.

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He promises resurrection. He promises an eternal life without sickness, pain, or death in the life to come.

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He promises strength to withstand the storms, and he promises to keep to the end all who are his.

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Trust him. Trust him. Trust him. The second thing, take a little more time to wonder.

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This might be a schedule shift. It might be an attention shift. It might be a little less screen and a little more outside.

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I don't know. And it's not that there's something magical about the outside. It's just that that's where I've encountered him a lot.

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Anybody would testify that you've encountered him more outside than you've encountered him on a screen? That's just routine.

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Look around you and try to be more curious. I think we outgrow curiosity as we settle into the routines of life and adulthood, but God has created a vibrant and detailed world in which we are set to wonder.

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It's part of our function, part of our responsibility. I'm convinced that much of our darkness and depression of our lives comes to us when the wonder gets squeezed out.

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We stop delighting in the things that God is doing around us. We stop identifying and seeing the beauty of a rose or the sunsets.

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We stop taking the time to actually wonder at his creation and being in awe and thankfulness to him.

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I would encourage you to foster a life of curiosity by getting out and exploring God's world. He is active.

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He is doing stuff around us all the time that we might not have eyes to see. I don't even know why I'm just sharing this, but it sounds strange and I'm not sharing it as if there was a moral to the story.

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I just had this experience. I was out for a bike ride this past summer and I watched two crows playing catch with a garter snake.

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It created some wonder in my mind and in my thoughts. I mean, they literally were flying up. I'm riding my bike in a neighborhood really close to my house north of North of Matawan, and one crow would grab the snake, fly up in the air, throw the snake, and his little crow friend would catch him, and sometimes miss.

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I actually stopped my bike and watched this. I was like, is this really happening? Is there a message in this?

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I don't know. Obviously, the wonder that is felt in verse 63 is a little different than my wonder at two crows playing with a snake, but the connecting point is that the

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God of this world, our God Church, is creating moments for our attention if we would have eyes to see so that we would be moved to wonder, to awe, to just like, what is this world?

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Lastly, I encourage you to live in anticipation. Lean into anticipation. God has a plan.

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He has let us in on some of that plan, and we do not do well to have a pessimistic, dark view of the future.

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Fear of the future is never a good thing in the life of a believer. Instead, we are those who live our lives with anticipation.

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I occasionally find myself, it seems like it's most often in my car, but driving around and looking to the sky thinking, today?

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Is it today? And church, here's what's crazy. One day somebody will do that and be right.

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One day somebody will look to the sky and say, Jesus, you coming today? I say, yeah.

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Give me about an hour. I'll be there. That gives me chills. That gives me chills.

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Anticipation. Are you living in that anticipation of that day when He will return and make it all right? Oh. This morning we've talked a lot about the herald, but not as much about the king.

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He came to proclaim, so let's turn our attention to remember what Jesus came to do. If you've asked Jesus Christ to be your

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Lord and Savior and you're at peace with others here, then come to the tables to take a cracker to remember His body broken for us.

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And as I say every week, take that cup of juice to remember His blood that was shed for us. Jesus Himself instituted this on the night

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He was betrayed, telling us to do this as often as we do in remembrance of Him.

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That's the point. So let's remember Him together, and then let's leave here to launch out into a week trusting

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Him, wondering at His great works in anticipation for our future with Him.

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Let's pray. Father, I thank You for the way that You have structured and ordered things to produce within us in anticipation for the future.

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We have hope because of the past that we can praise You, worship You, and wonder in awe at Your works here in the present with trust and anticipation for what

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You're going to do in the future. Father, I pray that You would move us all to be those who testify of Your kindness and Your goodness,

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Your mercy, Your grace in our lives. Father, even now as we come to these lines and remember, that You would help us to genuinely reflect on the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ on our behalf.

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The hope that unifies us as a church is found in this activity of communion, that we are all those who are busted and broken, redeemed and saved by Your work on the cross for us.