Scripture:
Luke 1.57-80
Translation: 57And the time
for Elisabeth to give birth and she had a son. 58And the people who
lived nearby and her relatives heard that the Lord had greatly exercised His
mercy with her and they rejoiced with her. 59And it happened on the
eighth day that they came to circumcise the child. And they were calling it by
the name of his father, Zachariah. 60And responding his mother said,
“No. Instead, he will be called “John.” 61And they told her that
there was no one among her relatives, who was called by that name. 62And
they were gesturing to his father what he might possibly want to call it. 63And
asking for writing tablet he wrote: “His name is John.” And they were all
amazed. 64And his mouth was opened immediately as well as his
tongue. And he was speaking praising God. 65And fear came over all
the people who were living close to them. And all these words were discussed in
the whole mountainous region of Judea. 66And all those who heard
took them to heart [lit. put in their heart] saying, “When then will this child
be?” because the Hand of the Lord was also with him.
67And Zachariah, his father, was filled
with the Holy Spirit and he prophesied saying, 68“May the Lord the
God of Israel be praised, because He’s looked at His people and accomplished deliverance
for them. 69And He raised a horn of salvation for us in the house of
David, His servant, 70just as He spoke through the mouth of His holy
prophets of old, 71salvation from our enemies and from the hand of
all those who hate us, 72to have mercy on our forefathers and to
remember His holy covenant, 73an oath, which He swore to Abraham our
father, in order to give us 74those who would fearlessly save [us]
from the hand of enemies, to serve Him 75in holiness and
righteousness before Him for all our days. 76But moreover as for
you, child, you will be called a prophet of the Most High, because you will go
ahead before the Lord to get His road ready, 77to give knowledge of
salvation to His people in the forgiveness of their sins, 78because
of the feelings of mercy of our God, because of which the dawn will look over
us from heaven, 79to shine on those who sit in the darkness and
shadow of death, to lead our feet to the road of peace.” 80The child
grew up and was empowered by the Spirit. And he was in the deserted areas until
the day of his commissioning to Israel.
Interpretation
1.
Structure
a.
John the Baptist is Born
and Named (vv.57-66)
b.
Zachariah prophesies by the
Holy Spirit (vv.67-79)
i.
Set up (v.67)
ii.
Praise to God because He is
Worthy (vv.68-75)
iii.
Prophesy about John’s Role
and Purpose (vv.76-79)
c.
Summary of John’s Youth
(v.80)
2.
Themes
a.
Fulfillment of
Prophesy/signs
b.
Inability to speak
c.
Naming
d.
Praising God
e.
God keeping His promises
f.
Prophesy
g.
The mercy of God
h.
Salvation
i.
Enemies
j.
Holy Spirit
3.
Doctrines
a.
The gift of prophesy occurs
by the Holy Spirit, and appears to still be alive and well in the church today
b.
God is faithful and true;
He cannot lie. He is immutable.
c.
Jesus is the Messiah that
brings salvation
d.
John is the Messianic
forerunner/preparer
e.
Jesus is God.
f.
God made a binding covenant
with Abraham and David.
g.
God is worthy of praise.
h.
God is omnipotent and can
do anything, including miracles.
Applications
1.
Outline
a.
May God be Praised: The
Spirit is creative, omniscient, and powerful; Let’s listen and respond to Him
in faith!
i.
The Spirit is Creative
1.
He comes at the right
moment
2.
He inspires beautiful
poetry
ii.
The Spirit is Omniscient
1.
The Spirit knew the right
time to come
2.
He knows the right words to
say
3.
He knows the past, present,
and future
4.
He knows the mind of God
5.
He knows the purpose of
John
6.
He knows the identity of
the Savior Messiah
iii.
The Spirit is Powerful
1.
He takes control of
Zachariah’s mouth and tongue
2.
He makes John powerful
iv.
The only natural response
is to praise God the Holy Spirit and live out that emotional and intellectual
response in our lives by listening and responding to Him when He speaks
1.
Whether that is speaking
through the Word
2.
Through prophets in the
church
3.
Or during times of
prayer/directly to you
b.
May God be Praised: Jesus
is the Promised Messianic Savior; Let’s trust and prioritize in faith
i.
Jesus is the Promised One
1.
Although John is the one
talked about in this passage, he we must remember, is only being discussed to
highlight how awesome and important and glorious and awaited Jesus is. Jesus
was promised and the fulfillment of the promise of John is of lasting importance
because of the promise of Jesus. Jesus is the one we are waiting for
2.
The promise to David and
Abraham and to all of God’s people was for a Messiah
ii.
Jesus is the Messiah
1.
Jesus is in David’s lineage
2.
Jesus is the righteous rule
coming to save
iii.
Jesus is the Savior
1.
Jesus will save His people
as promised as the Messiah
a.
From enemies
b.
From sin
c.
From darkness/despair
iv.
The response that Luke
wants us to have is to trust in Christ as our Messiah and Savior and prioritize
Him
1.
Trust Him for eternal life
and spiritual vitality
2.
Prioritize Him
a.
At home
b.
At school
c.
In your relationships
d.
In your goals
e.
In your struggles
f.
with your time
g.
with your whole heart
c.
May God be Praised: God
faithful, merciful, and Sovereign; Let’s worship and serve Him in faith
i.
God is Faithful
1.
He kept His promise to
Zachariah by giving John
2.
He kept His promise to
David by sending Jesus the Messiah
3.
He kept His oath to Abraham
by sending Jesus to save
4.
He kept His covenant to His
people by sending the Promised Messianic Savior and John to prepare His people
for Jesus’ arrival—the Lord promised to come and He did in the person of
Christ.
ii.
God is Merciful
1.
He had mercy on the
patriarchs by not destroying the Jewish people
2.
He felt mercy for His
people, so He sent Jesus to save them from their blindness, depression, and sin
3.
He had mercy on Zachariah
and Elisabeth who had wanted a child for a long time.
iii.
God is Sovereign/Powerful
1.
God keeps His promises and
knows the future, but one of the reasons this is true is because He controls
the past, present, and future.
2.
God controlled whether
Elizabeth would get pregnant with John when she had sex with Zachariah
3.
God controlled whether
Zachariah could speak
4.
God controlled what name
was given to the child
5.
God controlled what words
were spoken in prophesy
a.
Past prophesies and
promises
b.
Zachariah’s prophesy
6.
God controlled the destiny
of John and his ministry
7.
God controlled all of
history
8.
God is always in control,
and He has to be for Him to be able to be faithful and merciful
iv.
The only natural response
to truly seeing our God for Who He is is praising Him and worshipping Him and
serving Him in faith
1.
Praising Him everywhere all
the time
2.
Worshipping Him through
speech, song, art, action
3.
Serving Him at school, at
home, in public, in private, on the streets, in the U.S. and in the other
countries of the world
a.
By using your Spirit-given
gifts
b.
By sharing the Gospel
c.
By doing all things for His
glory
2.
Discussion Questions
a.
Have you ever heard the
Holy Spirit speaking to you? If so, when and what did He say? If not, do you
think there is a reason you haven’t?
b.
Have you ever put your
faith in Jesus be you Savior? When? Do you still trust Him to save you?
c.
Have you ever been so
overwhelmed with emotion that you had to praise God? If so, when and why and
how?
d.
How often do you praise
God? Are you content with how often you praise God? Do you think God is
content?
e.
How often do you share how
awesome God is with others (including Christians and non-Christians)?
f.
How faithful has God been
to you? also name some times His faithfulness has been clearly shown to you.
Illustrations/Explanations
1.
Who’s ever had a crush? Ok,
most of us if not all of us have had a crush at some point in time. what
happens when we have a crush? We feel all happy and enamored with the other
person, we start recognizing all the good qualities of that person and we start
telling other people about how amazing this person is. we have all those
butterflies when we talk to them. And if by some chance we start hanging out
with them or even dating them, we’ll start telling them what we love about
them. We’ll praise their hair or eyes or compassion or strength or
intelligence. Why do we do all that? Because we see something, we see who they
are and we can’t help but praise them. Praise is the natural response to
admirable qualities. It is no different with God. When we see Him for Who He
is, we just have to praise Him. He’s so awesome we just have to do it! The only
difference between God and our crush is that after six months we will only see
more and more of how awesome God is, but a lot of times after six months our
crush doesn’t seem so great, because now we are more able to see that person
for who they really are. They are disappointing. but God, man, God isn’t ever
like that. Yeah, sometimes we don’t understand what He is doing, and sometimes
He brings us pain, but at some point we see how GOOD He is was for doing what
He did.
2.
Do you know how to find a
good plumber or employee? You find someone with a good reputation. Well how
does someone get a good reputation, they have to be so faithful to their
commitments and so good at what they do that people praise them for it, and
they praise them enough so that that praise gets around. Eventually all that
praise builds up and people recognize that the person has good character and is
worthy of being trusted and praised. If we look in this passage we see the same
thing applies to God. There are numerous people just in this passage who have
gotten a glimpse of Who God is by how He has interacted with them and acted
towards them. Zachariah breaks out in praise because He sees the character of
God, that He is a faithful, holy, sovereign, trustworthy God. God was faithful
to Abraham, David, the forefathers, His people in general, to Zachariah,
Elisabeth, and John. So we should likewise share in Zachariah’s praise, because
of the kind of God we have!
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