Words of a Proud Papa
Tom Shrader walks through Luke 1:57-80, covering John the Baptist's birth, his naming over family objection, and the restoration of Zechariah's speech after nine months of silence. Zechariah's prophetic song, the Benedictus, connects Old Testament promises made to David and Abraham with the imminent arrival of the Messiah, spoken in the past tense because God's word is as certain as if already accomplished. Shrader applies this to believers today, calling them to trust God's promises, embrace seasons of silence and reflection, and find security in the truth that nothing can snatch them from the Lord's hands.
“A promise is only good as the one who makes it. When God makes a promise, he doesn't say 1,500 years into it, oh, circumstances have changed — that promise of God is absolutely reliable.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: A Study Of The Life Of Jesus Christ (2003/2004)
Recorded: 2004 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 1 hr 15 min
Themes: trust, waiting on God, promises, silence, obedience, hope, prophecy, praise, waiting for answered prayer, struggling with doubt, new parent, father, feeling forgotten by God, season of silence, mature believer, experiencing discipline
Scripture: Luke 1:57-80, Luke 1:5-7, Luke 1:13-14, Luke 1:17, Luke 1:20, Luke 1:24, Luke 1:39, Luke 1:46-55, Luke 2:52, Luke 3, Leviticus 12:3, Exodus 4:25, Romans 12:15, Job 42:5, Psalm 18:2, Romans 1:16, Genesis 22:16, 1 Peter 5:8, 1 John 3:8, Ephesians 1:7, John 8:12, Matthew 13:43
Theological Themes: messianic prophecy, benedictus, covenant faithfulness, advent, sovereignty of God, salvation history, typology, sanctification
Full Transcript
Context and Background
Open your Bibles to Luke chapter 1, verses 57 through 80. Before we dive in, let me remind you of the context, since we have been away from this study for a couple of weeks.
In verses 5, 6, and 7 of Luke chapter 1, we are introduced to two people: Zacharias and Elizabeth. They are righteous people, walking blamelessly with the Lord, but they have no children. They are barren and advanced in years. This is going to play itself out in today's lesson, because that was a huge stigma in that day and age. People would see barrenness as perhaps lacking favor with God, with all sorts of spiritual ramifications attached to it.
In the midst of performing his priestly duties, an angel appears to Zacharias in verse 13 and says, "Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son. You will give him the name John." Verse 14 continues: "You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth." We are actually going to see the beginning of the fulfillment of that prophecy today. This would be a very special son. Verse 17 tells us he will go as a forerunner before the Messiah.
Zacharias' response, however, is not a good one. He said, "How will I know this for certain, for I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years?" Gabriel then pronounces a discipline on him. Verse 20 says, "You shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words."
The Story Unfolds
In verse 24, Elizabeth indeed becomes pregnant. When she is in her sixth month, the angel Gabriel appears to Mary — the Mary who will be the mother of Jesus — and tells her that she will give birth even though she is a virgin. She asks, "How can this possibly be?" And he says that all things are possible with God, and that her relative Elizabeth is now in her sixth month.
In verse 39, after this visitation, Mary says to God, in effect, just do whatever You want with me, and she races to be at the side of Elizabeth. She is greeted by Elizabeth and Zacharias, and the baby in Mary's womb leaps. The baby in Elizabeth's womb responds, and here is what you might call this dynamic duo — John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus, who will work so closely together — having their first encounter on this earth. Mary then breaks out into that extraordinary prayer called the Magnificat, recorded in verses 46 through 55.
Verse 56 tells us that Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then returned home. Elizabeth was somewhere around six and a half months pregnant when Mary arrived, and Mary stayed another three months. All of that is to say that it is likely Mary would still have been with Elizabeth at the event we are looking at today.
Today's Passage
What we are looking at today, verses 57 through 80, covers two main things. First, John is born, which takes us through verse 66. Then Zacharias delivers this prophecy. The Holy Spirit comes upon him, he begins to speak in a prophetic utterance, and he tells us things given to him by the Lord. These things deal with redemption and salvation, they speak to the nation of Israel, but they have great application and speak to us as well.
With that, let's look at those verses in their totality.
*When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy. On the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father, Zacharias. But his mother spoke up and said, "No, he is to be called John." They said to her, "There is no one among your relatives who has that name." Then they made signs to his father to find out what he would like to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone's astonishment, he wrote, "His name is John." Immediately his mouth was opened, and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God. The neighbors were all filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea, people were talking about all these things. Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, "What then is this child going to be?" For the Lord's hand was with him. His father, Zacharias, was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has come and has redeemed His people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, as He said through His holy prophets of long ago, salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to show mercy to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, the oath He swore to our father Abraham, to rescue us from the hand of our enemies and to enable us to serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for Him, to give His people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace." And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel.*
The Birth and the Rejoicing
Verses 57 and 58 give us the information surrounding the birth. The time had come, Elizabeth brings forth a son, the neighbors are there, the relatives are there, and they rejoice.
The Joy of Shared Celebration
For those of you who are parents, try to remember the joy of the birth of your first child. For those who have been present at such an occasion, especially a first birth, there is such excitement, such enthusiasm, such exhilaration, such joy surrounding that event. If you take what you have experienced and multiply it by five or six, you probably get a sense of what was going on here.
Here are two people who never dreamt that this was going to happen to them. They were pretty confident there was no way they would ever have a child. And beyond that, what has become clear to them is that this child they will indeed raise is one who has been blessed and touched by God in a very unique way. So there is excitement, and the neighbors and relatives and others are gathered there. This is the fulfillment of what Gabriel had said in verse 14, that many would rejoice.
Rejoicing With Those Who Rejoice
This moment is also a principle for us. Romans chapter 12, verse 15 says, "rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep." That is a command for us. Some of it seems like an unnecessary command, but consider the weeping side first — that, in my experience, comes pretty naturally.
If you get a call from somebody today and they say they just got back from the doctor and have a disease the doctors are not sure how to cure or treat, and that in about a month or two they will be dead — your instinct is to reach out. Or if somebody says they have a child who just ran away from home, don't you just instinctively feel yourself reach out? You say, "I'll be praying for you, is there anything I can do?" That reflex is not necessarily the same one you have when somebody brings you good news in their life.
When a close friend calls and says, "Remember my crazy Aunt Mary? She used to save money and nobody knew it. Someone told her to buy Microsoft, and she started buying the stock. When she died and they went into her house, they discovered she had about 20 million dollars — and she just left me 15 and a half million." You say you are excited for them, but you do not get the "I'll be praying for you, can I bring you some food" response, do you?
As I was going through this at the 8 o'clock service, I began to think about why that is the case. Why don't we simply rejoice with everyone? Almost always the reason is us. If a good friend is blessed by God in some extraordinary way, why wouldn't you be happy for them? A failure to rejoice is more of a reflection on you, isn't it? It is more a sense of jealousy or pride in your own life.
I can see it even in spiritual terms. Maybe you are a teacher, and God has blessed someone else extraordinarily in that same area. You watch people respond to him, hundreds of thousands listen to him on the radio, and it is extraordinary. I had to stop and say, "That is really great for the kingdom." The same thing has to apply in your life.
The Naming of the Child
There does not seem to be any great challenge for the neighbors and relatives to rejoice in this moment — but there is a challenge that arises. Verse 59 tells us: "It came about on the eighth day that they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to call his name Zacharias, after his father."
Notice the shift here to the plural personal pronoun — "they." It is the eighth day, and under the Mosaic law, as laid out in Leviticus chapter 12, verse 3, on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin was to be circumcised. This was usually performed by the head of the household, though Exodus chapter 4, verse 25 shows that in some instances the woman would perform it. It was generally, however, the responsibility of the head of the household.
They proceed to the circumcision, and then comes the question of the name. What are they going to call him? Zacharias. That is probably a reasonable idea — you would have big Zach and little Zach, Zach senior and Zach junior. But it is more than just a naming convention, and I will show you that in a moment.
Elizabeth responds, and what does she say? No indeed — absolutely not, no way. He will be called John.
Elizabeth Stands Firm
Elizabeth has the benefit of knowing that God has spoken through this angel and given this information to Zacharias. She has a little bit of information the others don't have, but she stands firm. And it is a big deal — way bigger than we think.
Look at verse 61. They say, "There's no one among your relatives who is called by that name." Who cares? I remember when we had the girls, we didn't have any boys' names at all. People kept saying, "Well, you could have a boy," and I said there was no way — I just didn't want a boy.
Where we ended up on a boy's name: I went through a couple of options. I went through Austin — I kind of liked Austin. I had a friend who named his son Montana Duke, so I started thinking along the lines of Alabama Benjamin and things like that. I landed, I think, on Emerson Kennedy Schrader, and I have no idea why, except that he sounded fast. That's all I could think of — he sounds fast.
Sarah was easy. For Haley it was a little more difficult because Susan and I couldn't agree on a name. What we did was get legal pads and just sit there writing a first and middle name, passing them back and forth until we wrote the same name. It was Haley Elizabeth, and we said, "Great," and never revisited it. My mom and dad didn't call and say, "We don't have any Haley Elizabeths."
Isn't that a strange thing when you see what the relatives say to Elizabeth? When you were reading through, didn't it just stop you in your tracks? It should have. There is some important information you need here.
The Significance of the Name John
Let me quote from one of the writers. He said, "It's difficult for us to appreciate what a jolt this was to the family, because in that culture, children were always named after someone in the family. John, which means 'the Lord has given grace,' was the most fitting name for the child's calling as a forerunner of the Savior. But there is more to this, because by giving the boy a non-family name, God was indicating that his mission and power would come from outside the natural order. Who he was could not be explained by his being the child of his parents. The name John was meant to stir their spiritual imaginations." Something special is taking place here.
Now they make signs to his father. What do you want to call him? Remember, Zacharias cannot speak — he has not been able to speak for over nine months. We don't know for certain, but it may be that he was deaf as well. So they are asking, "What do you want to name him?" And in verse 63, he asks for something to write on. They give him a tablet, and he writes: "His name is John." Now they are all astonished.
God is sending a strong message. There is no way that we, sitting here in Gilbert, Arizona, would grasp the weight of this without study and background. A natural reading alone won't get you there. This is huge. This is sending a clear message to everyone around that this is a special child and something special is happening.
The Silence Is Broken
At once — immediately, instantaneously, at that very moment — Zacharias's mouth is opened, his tongue is loosened, and he begins to speak. He has not spoken for nine months and some days, and the silence is broken. He has been in time out — that is what I wrote in my notes — in time out for nine months. And now he begins to speak.
We will see exactly what he says in a moment, but at this point Luke simply tells us that he speaks praise of God. Zacharias has experienced and expressed disbelief. That disbelief has now been replaced by praise of God. What has been pent up inside of him, built up inside of him, now pours itself out. We will look at that when we get to verse 68 in a moment, but it is praise for God and for who He is.
Here is what strikes me as a significant point: Zacharias learned his lesson. How many times have you, or people you know, done something wrong or foolish, paid an extraordinary price for it through discipline, and then gone right back and done it all over again? You pay the price, and then you repeat the same thing. You go through the whole ordeal and come back having never learned a thing. I love the fact that Zacharias learned. I would say to you — especially those of you who may be in the midst of discipline or a difficult season — learn the lesson that God has for you.
The Patience of Job
I reread the first few chapters of Job the other day, and it is fascinating. You can take people who have never read the Bible, do a word association exercise, say "Job," and they will say "patience." You ask where they heard that, and they say they don't know — they just always heard it. Well, as you open up that book, you know the story. Job faces this onslaught — wave after wave after wave of one thing after another in his life. He turns to his wife for help and comfort, and what does she say? "Curse God and die." That was not what he was looking for. And as you read on, it builds further still, with his friends now telling him he must have done something wrong.
The Depth That Comes With Walking
Job reaches a place where he says, "God, I want to ask you something." Job is frustrated. God says, "All right, Job, but just a second — I want to ask you something first." Then there are two or three chapters of God asking Job questions. Where do we keep the snow? How does the eagle fly? Two or three chapters of questions like this. And when God finally says, "OK, Job, what was it?" Job says, "I'll get back to you. I don't know. I forgot what it was."
At the very end of the whole experience, when much of what Job had has been restored, Job says in Job chapter 42, verse 5: before I had seen You, or before I had heard of You, now I have seen You. That is what should be happening in your life. You should more and more be saying, "I have seen You. I have heard tapes about You, I have read about You, God, but now I have seen Your work."
There is something almost contagious about a new believer. There is such an exhilaration and excitement in their life. They get all excited and carried away, and there is this freshness — you see real conversion in their life, and you almost get swept away with it. But if you are just patient, in almost every case, it fades away. What was a daily time consumed in God's Word now becomes every other day, every third day, once a week — I'll take care of it on Sunday when I'm there.
It always strikes me as odd that this takes place, because exactly the reverse should be the condition. Before, I was hearing about You — but now, as I am walking with You and seeing You work in my life, now I am seeing Your work. Now my faith is growing deeper. Now when I say, "Praise the Lord, praise Jesus, thank God for who You are and what You have done," I am saying it from a depth and a wealth of experience, not just from somebody else's experience.
Zachariah's Season of Silence
Here is what John Piper writes: Zachariah had nine months of silence to brood and ponder, pray, and meditate on his Bible — the Old Testament. His silence may have been a divine rebuke for his unbelief, but God always turns His rebukes into rewards for those who keep faith. Remember that, you who right now suffer from the scars of past sins. If you will keep faith now, God will turn the marks of sin into memorials of grace — where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.
Zachariah sits there, and it is a genuinely interesting thought to consider that he may have been deaf as well. He sits in absolute silence — he cannot speak, he cannot hear — and all of a sudden he has nothing to do but really think about his circumstances, how he got there, and what he knows.
One author writes this: If we do not seek out silence, we will probably not feel the stupendous significance of God's work in the history of our lives. It would be a rare thing to be gripped and deeply moved in a noisy room. It is much more likely that someone might be gripped in their quiet time this afternoon than in the middle of the third quarter or when Kid Rock is singing at halftime. It is unlikely you will be gripped with a stupendous thought of God at that moment — although. There is a close correlation between stillness and a sense of the stupendous. The most astonishing things about reality will probably be missed by those who use the radio and television as a constant background drone. Be still, be deaf, be dumb, and know that I am God.
Theology and the Practice of Pondering
We have been using this definition of theology lately, and it is certainly not what you are going to find in a formal theological study, but theology is limited man studying a limitless God. Here you are, in your puny finite mind, trying to get your arms around the limitless, infinite God. While we can never achieve that completely, what will enhance that pursuit are times where we stop and think and wonder and pray — and we do that generally in a sense of silence.
Verse 65 tells us that fear comes upon all those living around, and all these matters are being talked about throughout the area. The word "fear" here means awe — there is a sense of awe that comes upon them. And all who heard these things kept them in mind, kept thinking about them.
Kent Hughes writes this: It is a great privilege to treasure spiritual truth and ponder it in our hearts, and then ask the right questions about who we are and who God is. I would change that order — I would ask the right questions about who God is first. I would not spend a whole lot of time trying to figure out who you are, because once you figure out who He is, who you are is going to get answered pretty quickly.
There is a word in there that we do not use much anymore. You see it? It is an old-fashioned word. Ponder. Thinking. Deliberating. Meditating. We do not put much value on that, and you can prove it to yourself tomorrow. Go into work, get a cup of coffee or juice or whatever it is, go into your office or your cube, sit down, and begin to do some thinking. People are going to walk by, look at you, and wonder what is going on. Pretty soon somebody is going to come in, and here is what they are going to say — and this tells you a lot: "Are you OK?" "Yeah, I'm OK." "What are you doing?" "I'm thinking." "What?" "I'm thinking."
Pretty soon the word is going to spread all through the office — back to the home office even. "We've got a guy down here thinking." The manager is going to come in, sit down, and say, "What are you doing?" You are going to say, "I'm just thinking." And she is going to say, "We don't pay you to think" — which is evidence for why everything is screwed up.
Pondering God's Word
To ponder is not simply to read and meditate. My tendency is to attack, to hunt, to figure it out, to dissect it, to break it apart. And when all that is done, I have a tendency to think I am finished. But it is really at that moment that I am in a position where God can truly use it to speak into your life. It is important to understand what Scripture says, but it is even more important to understand what it means to you and to me now.
The Hand of the Lord
Going back to verse 66, it says the hand of the Lord was certainly with John. Isn't that what every parent would want to say for their child — that the hand of the Lord was with them? We talked about this last week. Our objective is not to say, "I want to give my kid all that the world has to offer." I talk to parents who are doing what I consider foolish things, giving so much stuff to their kids. When I ask what the logic is, they say, "I want to give my kid everything I never had." Well, how about giving them what you do have?
Susan and I proved in 1979 that we knew how to make a baby, but we did not know much about raising one. God converted me in March of 1980 and converted Susan in July of 1980. Very quickly, this became our mantra for raising our kids: we want them to be independent of us, but dependent upon God. That is a huge distinction, because I meet all sorts of parents trying to raise their kids to simply be independent.
Jesus says no one can serve two masters. Jesus never says you are a master — He says we are all slaves. You are never truly independent. You are either going to be enslaved to God and the things of God, or to this world and the things of this world. So if you are raising a child, about the best thing you can say is that the hand of the Lord was upon them.
Now, all of us who are grown adults need to understand that we, too, are children of God. There are times — and this may sound goofy, especially in the midst of circumstances that seem overwhelming, when I do not know what to do and I feel frustrated — when I will just sit quietly, close my eyes, and remind myself that I am not merely in good hands with Allstate, but I am in the arms of God. When I get my imagination around that, when I understand that I am in the arms of the Lord, I immediately feel a sense of comfort, strength, safety, security, and peace. And that is Him.
The Benedictus: Zacharias Prophesies
That brings us to verse 67, where God speaks through Zacharias about His promises. Zacharias is filled with the Holy Spirit and begins to prophesy. This is the first prophecy the nation of Israel has had in 400 years. For 400 years they had been waiting to hear from God, and now they do.
Just as Mary's prayer is called the Magnificat, this prophecy of Zacharias is called the Benedictus — a Latin word drawn from its opening phrase, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel," or in Latin, *Benedictus Dominus Deus Israel*. The Benedictus runs from verse 68 through verse 79. Notably, only two verses — 76 and 77 — deal with John the Baptist. The rest is Zacharias's heart overflowing with joy and thanksgiving for the promises of God.
J.C. Ryle writes this: "It is clear that the souls of the Old Testament believers fed much on God's promises. They were obligated to walk by faith far more than we are. They knew nothing of the great fact which we know about Christ's life and death and resurrection. They looked forward to redemption as the thing hoped for, but not yet seen. And their only warrant for this hope was God's covenant, God's word, God's promise."
Promises as Good as Done
As we look at this book from Genesis chapter 1 through Revelation chapter 22, what we see is God's story, God's plan for redemption. What Zacharias is doing here is prophesying, connecting Old Testament promises with what is about to happen — yet it has not yet happened. And notice what he does in verse 68. He speaks in the past tense: "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people."
He is speaking of an event — Jesus coming into this world, Jesus living the perfect life, Jesus dying on the cross, Jesus rising from the dead — yet he speaks of it some 33 years away as though it has already occurred. In the original language, this conveys the idea that something, though future, is as good as done. It is like you and me speaking of heaven. We are as certain of heaven as the saints who are already there. If you are a Christian today, your salvation cannot be lost. You are in the hands of the Lord, and nothing can snatch you out of His hands. And so even though it is a future event, we speak of it as something already accomplished.
These are all promises, and something you must remember about a promise: a promise is only as good as the one who makes it. I promised myself on Friday that I would go watch one of the high school teams play — a team that has quite a few kids who attend here. I told myself I would go Friday night. Thursday afternoon I could feel something coming on, and by Friday morning —
The Reliability of God's Promises
This thing is just completely socked in here, and I had promised Chris Mueller and Kirsten and everybody here that I'd be here for an all-day seminar. I wasn't involved in it — I would just attend it. And then I had promised a couple we'd go out to dinner with them last night. Friday afternoon, I just made an arbitrary decision, saying: circumstances have changed. I don't think I can go through all this Friday evening, all this Saturday, and then do six services on Sunday. I don't think I can make it. So I broke my promise.
I called and said, listen, I'm not feeling well, circumstances have changed. Do you understand that I had every intention of making those three engagements, but circumstances changed? So my promise, though it was sincere, was really no good, because things change. When God makes a promise, He doesn't say, 1,500 years into it, "Oh, circumstances have changed. Oh, I didn't know." That promise of God is absolutely reliable. It's as good as done. Why? Because He who gave that promise never changes. Those are important truths for us.
The Promise to David: The Horn of Salvation
We'll move through this very quickly. He is speaking first of the promises to David — this whole idea, in verse 69, of the horn of salvation that will be raised up. Psalm 18, verse 2: "The Lord is my rock and my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation." The idea of the horn here is a symbol of strength. He is not exalting John the Baptist here. He is speaking of the Lord — the promise God made to David, the promise that out of his lineage would come this Messiah, this Savior.
Verse 70 speaks of a salvation that would save us from our enemies, from the hands of those who hate us. He is saying: listen, we have seen God protect us as a nation, but this is moving into something far bigger than that. This is salvation not just for the Jew, but for the Gentile. Romans 1, verse 16: "I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and then also to the Gentile." So he is thinking about that.
The Oath to Abraham
In verse 73, he moves not from the promises made to David, but to a promise — an oath — that God made to Abraham. It is recorded in Genesis 22, verse 16, at a significant moment in Abraham's life. Abraham has just been called by God to sacrifice his son. But God was more specific than that. God didn't just say, "Abraham, sacrifice your son," because if He had said only that, Abraham would have said, "Ishmael, grab a bag — we're going somewhere." He said: sacrifice your son, your only son, Isaac.
Abraham takes Isaac up and places him on the altar, with every intention of sacrificing him, of killing him. Then God says, "Stop." There is magnificent imagery there, isn't there? It is the imagery of God giving His own Son — although when those hands were raised to pound the nails into the arms of Jesus, no one said, "Stop." At this moment, after Abraham had in a sense passed this test, God said: "I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, I will surely bless you. And not only you, but through your offspring all the nations on earth will be blessed because you have obeyed." That is speaking of the One who is coming. It is speaking of Jesus, the Messiah, who has been granted to us, and through whom we have been delivered from the hands of our enemy.
Delivered to Serve Without Fear
You and I have been delivered. All who believe in Him have been delivered from the hands of the enemy. Why were you delivered? He says here: you were delivered so that you might serve Him, and do it without fear. You don't have to be afraid of anything or anyone anymore. You serve Him fearlessly, in holiness and righteousness, and this will be done all the days of your life.
Now, make sure you understand what is at stake. 1 Peter 5, verse 8: "Be sober and on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls like a roaring lion seeking someone to destroy." But what he is speaking of here is the One who will come, the One who will deliver us — the promise the angel made to Joseph: Mary will bear a son, you will call Him Jesus, He will save His people from their sin. 1 John 3, verse 8: "The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil." We have been redeemed. Why? So that we can serve Him without fear, and live in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life.
The Role of John and the Forgiveness of Sin
In his exuberance and exhilaration, Zechariah speaks of John. Remember, this is the first prophetic utterance in 400 years. Those who know the Scripture are sensing that something is here — a climax is about to take place. Here is the promise: you are going to have this son, he will be the forerunner, he will be the one who prepares the way. He is the one who will say, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." And now this redemption is going to take place, this forgiveness of sin. Ephesians 1, verse 7: "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of trespasses according to the riches of his grace."
The Light of the Messiah
Then Zechariah summarizes by speaking again of Jesus. For us, this is so clear — we are looking back. But those sitting there are piecing it together. Remember, there are potentially as many as 33 Old Testament quotations woven together to form this prophecy. What they are hearing is: the Messiah is coming. Indeed, the time is here. It has been done. God has visited us.
We, in the New Testament, know the words of Jesus. John 8, verse 12: "I am the light of the world, and whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, and we have light." And then, "The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father," in Matthew.
John the Baptist and the Silent Years
In verse 80, Luke simply summarizes roughly thirty years in a single sentence: "And the child continued to grow, to become strong in the spirit. He lived in the desert until the day of his public appearance to Israel." We don't hear anything else about John until Luke chapter 3, where it says the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah — the same man we have been looking at. This John is John the Baptist. He came into all the districts around the Jordan preaching exactly what he was called to do: a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin.
If you flip just a page over to Luke chapter 2, verse 52, Luke does something similar when he covers what we call the silent years of Jesus. We see Jesus at about age 12, and then we don't see Him again until about age 30. What happened in between? Here is what we know: "Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature and favor with God and men." That is all we know. That is what was taking place during those years.
God Keeps His Promises
So what is the point of all this? There are a number of lessons here, but one of them is that God keeps His promises — and that ought to mean an awful lot to us. As I was leaving my office this morning to come over for the 8 o'clock service, I went to Google and typed in "the promises of God." I got 1,130,000 entries. I didn't have time to go through all of them, but I came across one titled "Seven Promises of God," and I thought that would be a good place to start.
For those of you who are Christians — those of you who took communion, those of you who said Jesus is my Lord, Jesus is my Savior, Jesus is my Master — these promises belong to you. He promises to supply every need we have. He promises that His grace is sufficient for us. He promises that His children cannot be overtaken by temptation. He promises us victory over death. He promises that all things work together for good for us. He promises the forgiveness of our sin. And He promises that we will have eternal life with Him. Those are extraordinary things to hold onto.
Our Discontentment with God's Promises
But here is what I have discovered: we even become discontent with the promises of God. He promises to meet all our needs, but we are not content with that very long, are we? We are not content with Him simply supplying food and clothing and shelter and companionship and love. It has to be the right kind of food, the right kind of house, the right kind of clothes.
We are no different from the Israelites in the wilderness. I love being with people when we read those Old Testament stories and they say, "How stupid were these people?" About as stupid as we are. The Israelites went out into the desert with nothing to eat and were going to die. God gave them manna. They were thrilled — an incredible provision from an incredible God. But after a period of time, what did they say? Manna, schmanna. We've had manna every way you can have manna. We've baked it, we've made it every which way, and we don't want any more manna. Let's go back to Egypt.
That is inherently a problem we have. We are not satisfied simply reading the Word, believing the Word, and resting in it. We want deep, meaningful experiences, and once we have those experiences, they are not enough, so we push for more and more. But God has promised these things to you, and you need to rejoice and understand that it is as good as done.
The Certainty of God's Word
This is not a promise from me to meet you for dinner, or a promise to make it to a seminar, or a promise to get to a kid's high school game. This is a promise from God, who declares that everything that needs to be accomplished has been accomplished. It is as good as done. That is an extraordinary promise.
That is exactly what we are watching as we read about the nation of Israel in these passages. These people are filled with anticipation for God's arrival. They have not heard from Him in 400 years, and now it is as though He is right there. There is excitement in the air. That same sense of anticipation and joy ought to be present in our lives today.
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*Next week we will begin looking at Luke chapter 2 — the birth of Jesus and His presentation in the temple.*
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*Father, thank You for this truth, this Word. Let these promises fill our hearts with joy. We ask it of You in Jesus' name. Amen.*
The Baptism of Jesus
We are in part eight of our series, and today we are looking at what I'm calling "Words of a Proud Papa." We're going to be in Matthew chapter three, and we're going to look at the baptism of Jesus.
Let me read the text. Matthew 3:13–17:
"Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, 'I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?' Jesus replied, 'Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.' Then John consented. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, 'This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.'"
Those are the words of a proud papa. Let's pray.
Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You that it is living and active. I ask that You would speak to us today through this passage. Open our eyes, open our hearts, and may we encounter You in a fresh way. In Jesus' name, amen.
Setting the Scene
I want to start by painting the picture of what is happening here. Jesus has been living in obscurity for thirty years. He grew up in Nazareth, which was not exactly the most prestigious of places. Nathanael would later ask, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" That gives you a sense of its reputation. For three decades, Jesus has been living a quiet, ordinary life — working as a carpenter, honoring His family, going about His business — and then suddenly He shows up at the Jordan River.
John the Baptist has been out in the wilderness preaching a message of repentance. People have been coming from all over Judea and Jerusalem to be baptized by him, confessing their sins. His baptism was a baptism of repentance. So when Jesus shows up and asks to be baptized, John is understandably confused. He says, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?"
John understood something that many people around him did not yet grasp — that Jesus was the one who was greater, the one whose sandals John was not worthy to carry. John recognized his own sinfulness and the sinlessness of the one standing before him. So the question is completely natural: why does the sinless Son of God submit Himself to a baptism of repentance?
Why Jesus Was Baptized
Jesus answers John's objection with a phrase that deserves careful attention: "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Jesus is not being baptized because He needs to repent. He has nothing to repent of. He is not being baptized to wash away sin, because He has no sin. He is being baptized to fulfill all righteousness — to identify completely and fully with the people He has come to save.
This is the great mystery and wonder of the incarnation pressed into a single moment. The Son of God steps into the waters where sinners have been standing, not because He belongs there, but because we do. He is taking our place. He is identifying with us. From the very beginning of His public ministry, Jesus is doing what He will ultimately do on the cross — standing in the place of sinners, bearing what we should bear, fulfilling what we could never fulfill.
There is something profoundly humbling about this. Jesus does not begin His ministry with a display of power or a demonstration of authority. He begins it by going down into the water alongside broken, repentant people. He begins it with an act of solidarity and substitution. This is the kind of Messiah He is.
The Heavens Open
Now notice what happens immediately after Jesus comes up out of the water. The heavens open. That phrase — "the heavens were opened" — is not a casual description. Throughout the Old Testament, an open heaven signals that God is about to act, that He is breaking into human history in a decisive way. The prophet Isaiah had cried out, "Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!" And now, at the baptism of Jesus, that prayer is being answered.
The Spirit of God descends like a dove and rests on Jesus. This is the anointing. This is the moment when Jesus, who has always been the Son of God, is publicly designated and empowered for His mission. The Spirit does not come upon Him because He lacked the Spirit before — He is the eternal Son. But this is the Father formally commissioning the Son for His public work, just as a priest or a king would be anointed for service.
The dove is significant. In the days of Noah, it was a dove that brought back the olive branch, signaling that the waters of judgment had receded and that peace had come. Here, the dove descends on Jesus as He comes up from the waters of the Jordan, and it signals something similar — that through this man, the peace of God is coming to a world under judgment. The mission of redemption is underway.
The Voice from Heaven
And then the Father speaks. "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." These are the words I want to camp on for a moment, because they are extraordinary. Think about what has happened in public ministry terms — absolutely nothing yet. Jesus has not preached a single sermon. He has not healed a single person. He has not performed a single miracle. He has not done anything publicly that the crowds could point to and say, "Yes, this is why He deserves approval."
And yet the Father says, "With him I am well pleased." The pleasure of the Father is not based on performance. It is not contingent on what Jesus is about to do. It flows from who He is — the beloved Son. Before the work begins, the love is declared. Before the ministry is launched, the approval is given. The Father's delight in the Son is not earned. It is grounded in relationship.
This is one of the most important truths in this entire passage, and I believe it has profound implications for how we understand our own relationship with God. So many of us are living our Christian lives trying to earn the Father's approval. We think that if we pray more, serve more, sin less, and give more, then God will be pleased with us. But the voice from heaven is saying something different. The Father's acceptance is not something we earn. It is something we receive — in Christ.
Belonging to the Beloved Son
Here is the good news of the gospel pressed into this moment. If you are in Christ — if you have trusted in Him, if you have been baptized into His death and resurrection — then what is true of the Son is true of you. The same voice that said over Jesus, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased," speaks over every believer who is hidden in Christ. You are beloved. You are accepted. Not because of your performance, but because of His.
Paul says in Ephesians 1:6 that God has "freely given us" His grace "in the One he loves." The Greek word there is the same root word — the beloved. We are accepted in the beloved. We are brought into the circle of love that the Father has for the Son. That is the staggering claim of the gospel — that through faith in Jesus Christ, you and I are brought into the family of God and receive the same standing before the Father that the Son has.
This does not make us Jesus. We are not the eternal Son. But we are adopted sons and daughters, and the Father's love for His adopted children is not a lesser love. It is the same love, flowing from the same source, grounded in the same righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed to us by faith. This is why the baptism of Jesus matters. It is not just a historical curiosity. It is the beginning of the mission that secures our belonging.
The Trinity on Display
Before I move on, I want to point out something that is easy to miss if you are reading too quickly. At the baptism of Jesus, all three persons of the Trinity are present and active simultaneously. The Son is in the water. The Spirit descends like a dove. The Father speaks from heaven. This is a Trinitarian moment. And this matters because it tells us that the salvation of humanity is not a solo project. It is the unified work of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The Father plans and declares. The Son obeys and fulfills. The Spirit empowers and anoints. All three are involved. All three are present. This is not a committee with different agendas — this is one God in three persons, working in perfect harmony for our redemption. The love that the Father has for the Son is the same love that overflows into the world through the Spirit. And that love is reaching for you.
I think we often reduce the Trinity to a theological formula — something we affirm in a statement of faith but do not actually live in. But the baptism of Jesus invites us to see the Trinity not as an abstract doctrine but as a living reality. We were made for relationship with this triune God. We were made to be loved by the Father, saved by the Son, and indwelt by the Spirit. That is not just theology. That is your destiny.
The Mission That Follows
Now, it is worth noting that immediately after this glorious moment — the open heaven, the descending dove, the voice of the Father — Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Matthew tells us this in the very next verses, in chapter four. The affirmation of the Father does not protect Jesus from the wilderness. It equips Him for it.
This is an important word for all of us. You may be in a season of wilderness right now. You may have had a moment of genuine encounter with God — a moment where heaven felt open and the presence of the Spirit was real — and then life got hard. Temptation came. Difficulty came. Uncertainty came. And you are wondering what happened. I want you to see from the life of Jesus that the wilderness does not mean the Father has withdrawn His love. The same Spirit who descended on Jesus at the Jordan also led Him into the wilderness.
The wilderness is not punishment. For Jesus, it was preparation. It was the place where He proved, under the most intense pressure, that He would not use His relationship with the Father as a means to escape suffering. He would not grasp at comfort. He would trust. He would quote Scripture. He would remain faithful. And because He remained faithful in the wilderness, He can be our faithful high priest when we are in ours.
What This Means for Us
So let me bring this home. What does the baptism of Jesus mean for you today? I want to offer three things.
First, it means that Jesus is fully on your side. He did not stand at a safe distance from your sin and call you to come to Him. He stepped into the waters of judgment where you were standing and took your place. He is for you. He is with you. He is not distant or disinterested. The incarnation and the baptism together declare that God has drawn near.
Second, it means that your acceptance before God is secured in Christ, not in your performance. The voice of the Father over Jesus is the same voice that speaks over every person who is hidden in the Son. You are loved. You are chosen. You are well-pleasing to God — not because of what you have done, but because of what Jesus has done. If you are constantly striving to earn what has already been freely given, you are not living in the gospel. You are living under the law. Rest in what Christ has secured for you.
Third, it means that the Holy Spirit is not a reward for the spiritually elite. The Spirit descended on Jesus at the beginning of His public ministry, before He had done anything. And Jesus promised that the same Spirit would come upon all who believe in Him. If you belong to Christ, the Spirit of God dwells in you. You have been anointed. You have been equipped. You are not doing this alone.
A Closing Word
I titled this message "Words of a Proud Papa" because I think there is something deeply personal and tender in what the Father says at the baptism of Jesus. "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." These are not the words of a distant, unfeeling deity issuing a formal declaration. These are the words of a Father who delights in His Son.
And the staggering news of the gospel is that this same Father — the one who spoke those words over Jesus — has made a way for you to be called His child. Through faith in Jesus Christ, you are adopted into the family of God. You become an heir. And the Father who loves the Son also loves you — completely, unconditionally, and eternally. That is not a feeling. That is a fact established by the blood of the cross and confirmed by the resurrection.
May you go from this place knowing that you are loved by the Father, saved by the Son, and empowered by the Holy Spirit. And may that knowledge — not your performance, not your record, not your striving — be the foundation on which you stand.