"The Birth of John "

Hi there, this is Lon Solomon and I'd like to welcome you to our program today. You know it's a tremendous honor that God has given us to be on stations all around the nation bringing the truth of God's word as it is uncompromising and straightforward. And I'm so glad you've tuned in to listen and be part of that.

Thanks again for your support and your generosity that keeps us on the radio. And now, let's get to the Word of God. So in studying the Gospel according to Luke, we're going to study the most carefully researched autopsy of the life of Jesus Christ anywhere in the world. Luke has a tremendous penchant for careful research and investigation and attention to detail. Look at chapter 3 verse 1 for just a second, if you want to see that. Chapter 3 verse 1.

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, when Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, when his brother Philip was tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, when Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annaias and Caiaphas, the Word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert. Now here was a guy who had checked out what year this happened. True?

No chance of missing the year this happened. He dates it six different ways. This is Luke's character. He is very much given to detail. And so in studying the Gospel according to Luke, we're going to study the most carefully researched autopsy of the life of Jesus Christ anywhere in the world.

Now what happened? Verse 5 chapter 1. In the time of Herod, the king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah.

And I'm going to summarize a little bit. Zechariah was married to a woman named Elizabeth. Elizabeth and Zechariah were old.

They had no children. And one day, it says, verse 8, when Zechariah was on duty, he was chosen to go into the temple and burn incense. So he went in all by himself, and when the time came to do this, the assembled worshippers were praying outside. Well, while he was inside all by himself, verse 11, an angel of the Lord appeared to him standing at the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zechariah saw the angel, he was startled and gripped with fear. But the angel said to him, do not be afraid, Zechariah.

Your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John. You say, is this John the Baptist?

Yeah, this is he. Now, the angel Gabriel goes on to tell him a little bit more about this boy. He says that the boy won't drink wine. He'll be filled with the Holy Spirit from his birth, and God has a very special ministry for this little boy.

Look with me. Verse 16, many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. Verse 17, and he will go on before the Lord in the spirit and the power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Now, if these verses sound familiar, it's not just because they're from Handel's Messiah, but Handel got them from the prophet Malachi, who was the last prophet in the Old Testament. As a matter of fact, there's been 400 years since God has spoken in any kind of prophetic way to anyone in Israel. It's often called the 400 silent years between the time of Malachi, the last prophet of the Old Testament, and the beginning of the New Testament. But Malachi ended his prophecy by saying this, and you don't need to turn, but let me read it to you.

Malachi chapter 4. See, God says, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes, and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and will prepare a way for the Lord. So you know what the angel is telling Zechariah? He's telling Zechariah that this messenger, this herald, this announcer of the coming of the Messiah that was prophesied 400 years ago by Malachi is going to be his boy.

Wow. Now, needless to say, Zechariah was a little bit shocked. I mean, not only do you have this angel with the white robe and the wings and the halo and the whole nine yards standing in front of you, but then he tells him he's going to be a papa.

And then he tells him that his little boy is going to be the one who's going to announce the Messiah to Israel. You say, wow, what was Zechariah's response? Did he dance? Did he flip over? Did he do cartwheels? Did he yell out and scream, praise the Lord?

Well, not exactly. Verse 18, and Zechariah said to the angel, how can I be sure of this, huh? I'm an old man.

My wife is well along in years. I'm not so sure this is really going to happen. Who are you anyway? Where did you come from?

How did they get you in here? How do I know all of this is right? You say, Lon, are you sure you're putting the right twist on that?

Oh, yes, I'm absolutely sure. Whereas Mary, when confronted, Mary the mother of Jesus, when confronted with a very similar prophecy that looked impossible, Mary said, I'm the handmaiden of the Lord. Whatever you want, God is fine. That's not what Zechariah said. Zechariah said, hey, pal, I'm from Missouri.

I want you to show me how this is going to happen because I'm not so sure I really believe you. Do you understand? And I don't really think Gabriel liked his attitude. Verse 19, the angel answered and said, I'm Gabriel. Buddy, don't you know an angel when you see one? I'm Gabriel. And I stand in the presence of God. And I've been sent to speak to you and tell you this good news. How dare you ask me to prove it?

All right, I'll prove it. Verse 20, and now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day it happens because you did not believe my word. And so right then, Zechariah became speechless for nine months, minimum, probably a little more. Now, what happened? Well, it says in verse 21, meanwhile, remember the people, they're still all standing outside wanting to know what in the world is going on in there. Where is this guy?

What's he doing? And so he finally came out. And when he came out, he couldn't speak to them. They realized that he had seen a vision in the temple because he kept making signs to them, but remained unable to speak. Wouldn't that be frustrating to come out and try to tell all those people what just happened to you without being able to talk, to try to tell them an angel came and what he told you? I mean, you come out and you go, wow.

Can you imagine? He said, man, he's been breathing too much of that incense in there. And that's the way life went for old Zechariah. Well, the Bible says that after this, he went home and his wife got pregnant, just the way the Bible said. And let's skip nine months down the road now and watch the birth of John. Verse 57, and when it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son.

And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy. And on the eighth day, they came together to circumcise the child. In Jewish culture, the eighth day circumcision is a gala event, and that's when the boy would be named. And so it says that they were going to name him after his father. They were going to call him Zechariah, Jr. But his mother spoke up and said, no, he's to be called John. And they said to her, what do you mean he's to be called John?

There's nobody in your whole family named John. What are you naming him John for? So not being satisfied, the Bible says they went and made signs to his father.

Remember, his father still can't talk. So they went over and made signs to his father. You want him named John? And his father, the Bible says, took a writing tablet and to everyone's astonishment wrote down, his name is John.

Why did Zechariah do that? Didn't he want the boy named after him? Well, remember, didn't the angel say, name him John? After nine months of not being able to talk, I don't think Zechariah has any intention of naming this boy anything else but John. What do you think?

That make sense? His name is John, Zechariah said. John, everybody understand that?

J-O-H and John. And the Bible says immediately, his mouth was open, his tongue was loosened, he began to speak and praise God. And you can see from verse 68 through 79, the great praise that he gave to God.

We're not going to read it, but you can. And then it says that the neighbors were all filled with awe throughout all the healed country of Judea. Verse 66, and everybody who heard about it wondered about it saying, what is this child going to be? This is some kind of special kid for the Lord's hand was on him.

I mean, it was pretty obvious to them, this kid had a special place in the plan of God. But that ends our passage for this morning. And you know, it's been a while since we've kind of been back in a regular passage study of the word of God. And so this is the time where we all need to be ready to say something.

But I know that maybe sometime you can forget. So I brought along a little friend to help us. What is it that we need to say?

Ready? Very good. What's the thing that impresses you the most about this account of John the Baptist's birth? Well, I don't know what impresses you the most, but I'll tell you what impresses me the most, is that Zechariah didn't believe that angel.

I mean, isn't that obvious? He doubted the word of that angel. And as I began to think this week, it occurred to me there are a lot of other people the Bible talks about who also doubted God at certain times in their life. How about Abraham and Sarah? When God talked to them, did they doubt God?

You bet. How about old Moses? When God appeared to him at the burning bush and said, You're going back there and leave the Israelites out. Moses said, Oh, no, I'm not. You're absolutely wrong, God. You made your first mistake. I'm not going anywhere. I like these sheep.

Besides, the poor will never let me go. How about Gideon, who said, I'm going to take 300 men and go down there and beat all those people. Are you crazy, God?

300 people? How about Jonah? Old Jonah got the first submarine ride in history because he didn't believe God.

True? There was an apostle like this. You remember his name? His name was Thomas. We even have a nice little nickname for him. We call him what?

Doubting Thomas. And so as I began to go through, I thought, You know, Zechariah is not the first guy to ever do this with God. But it also occurred to me that there were two other names that ought to be added to this list of Abraham and Sarah and Moses and Gideon and Jonah and Thomas. And those two other names are yours and mine. Yours and mine. It's a dangerous thing to be in a position where you're doubting God. Let me give you some suggestions, if you're there, as to how to deal with it.

Number one, and these come straight from D.A. Doubters Anonymous. Ready?

Here we go. Number one, be honest with God and admit you need help. Be honest with God and admit you need help. You know, if you're on the ropes, tell God about it. But don't just stop there.

Appeal to God and ask for his help to get out of your doubt. There's a great passage back in the Gospel according to Mark. It's in Mark chapter 9.

I'd like to ask you to turn back there if you would. Mark chapter 9. It's the story about a father who had a boy that was epileptic and demon-possessed. And he came to the apostles and he asked the apostles to heal his boy and they couldn't do it. So finally they took it to Jesus himself. And look what Jesus said to this father. I'm in Mark chapter 9, verse 21. And Jesus asked the boy's father, how long has he been like this?

From childhood, the father answered. And the demon has often thrown him into the fire or the water to kill him. Lord, if you can do anything, please take pity on us and help us. If you can do anything, Lord, help us. And Jesus said, if you can, what do you mean if you can?

Of course I can. Everything is possible for him who believes. Do you understand what Jesus was doing? Jesus was saying, you want that boy healed?

Well, of course he wanted him healed. Do you love that boy? Of course I love that boy. Would you like to see that boy put back in his right mind?

Of course I would. Then everything is possible to you if you can just believe. The father, looking at his own heart, says, I want to believe, but there's still unbelief in there.

I've kind of got a little bit of both. But watch what he did. Instead of hiding it, instead of trying to pretend like it wasn't there, instead of trying to justify the doubt away, look what he did. He cried out to Jesus, the Bible says, verse 24. Immediately he exclaimed, I do believe, Lord. I want to believe, Lord.

Help me with my unbelief, Lord. You say, Lon, that's a paradox. That's a contradiction. No, it isn't.

No, it isn't. It's an honest man saying, part of me believes and part of me doubts, and I don't know how to fix it. But my boy's health's on the line, God. I've got to figure out how to fix it.

I need help. Is that a good prayer? It's a great prayer. It's an honest prayer.

And I believe there are times in every one of our lives where that can be our prayer, and that should be our prayer. Lord, I want to believe. Help my unbelief, because it's there.

And I don't know how to fix it myself, but you can help me. And you know what Jesus did? Jesus didn't say to him, what do you mean, help me with your unbelief? You got unbelief in your heart?

Sorry. No, Jesus healed his boy, because the man was honest. Friends, if you've got doubt in your life about the way God's running things, I've got a piece of advice for you, number one. Be honest with God. And if you need help, ask for it. Number two, immerse yourself in the Word of God. Immerse yourself in the Word of God. So often when we're facing times of deep doubt and deep discouragement, those are the times we let our time in the Word of God go. Those are the times where we'll say to ourselves, well, you know, I'm too stressed out right now, and I'm so tired, and I'm so exhausted. And there's other things I need more.

I mean, I need sleep, and I need recreation, and I need exercise, and I need relaxation, and I need just to sit here in front of the boob tube, and I just need to be able to dream my life away. But what I don't need is to pull out the Bible and start reading the Bible. Wrong.

Wrong. That's exactly what we do need more than any other time in our life. Don't let your feelings trick you and lie to you. They'll tell you, you don't feel like reading the Bible. You don't need the Bible right now. The Bible is just something else you need to throw on top of the rest of the schedule, and it'll just stress you out more.

Wrong. It's in the Bible, friends, that God shows you how He was faithful to every other doubter like you. It's in the Bible, friends, that God reassures you and me that He loves us in spite of our doubt. It's in the Bible that we can see God's power on display. It's in the Bible that God assures us that His plan for our life really is perfect, even though we don't agree with that right now. It's in the Bible that God gives us His promises of comfort and strength and hope, and I maintain the time you need to be in the Word of God the most is when you've begun to doubt God and question Him. Is it possible to overcome our doubt without being in the Word of God?

Yes, it's possible. It's also possible to cut your lawn with a push mower instead of a lawn boy if you want, but it's a whole lot harder. Want to make your life easy? Immerse yourself in the Word of God and let God speak to you in your time of doubt. Number three, third suggestion is relearn how to abide in Christ.

What do you mean relearn it? Well, let me show you. Let's turn back to the Gospel of John. That's on the other side of Luke, John chapter 15. I'm often asked by people who are young Christians or who've led somebody to Christ, what's the very first thing I ought to teach them in the Bible? Should I teach them about the deity of Christ? Should I teach them about the virgin birth? Maybe it's important to go back to Genesis chapter 1 and make sure that they've sworn off evolution, or maybe I ought to take them there to the flood and make sure that they've dealt with the flood. Maybe we ought to talk about abortion, or maybe what should we talk about long? What's the very first thing you ought to teach a young Christian? The very first thing you ought to teach a young Christian is how to live the Christian life right before somebody else teaches them how to live it wrong, because there's all kinds of people out there teaching people how to live it wrong, and the very first passage I suggest you teach a young Christian, where you learn as a young Christian is John...