Providence and Revelation

Birth of John

(Luke 1:57-80, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, December 23, 2018)

[57] Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. [58] And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. [59] And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, [60] but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.” [61] And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.” [62] And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called. [63] And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all wondered. [64] And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. [65] And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea, [66] and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him.

[67] And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,

[68] “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,

for he has visited and redeemed his people

[69] and has raised up a horn of salvation for us

in the house of his servant David,

[70] as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,

[71] that we should be saved from our enemies

and from the hand of all who hate us;

[72] to show the mercy promised to our fathers

and to remember his holy covenant,

[73] the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us

[74] that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,

might serve him without fear,

[75] in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

[76] And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;

for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,

[77] to give knowledge of salvation to his people

in the forgiveness of their sins,

[78] because of the tender mercy of our God,

whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high

[79] to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,

to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

[80] And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

Naming John: Jehovah has been Gracious

Let's talk Providence and Revelation in the Bible and in your life: What is providence? (Psalm 139:13-16, Luke 12:6-7) What is revelation? (Written: 2 Timothy 3:14-17, Visitation: Abraham-Genesis 12:2-3, 17:15-21, Zechariah-Luke 1:13-18)

However anyone evaluates the Judeo-Christian tradition, it should be clear that Jehovah/Yahweh/Adonai/Elohim is not a new God. The name “John” means “Jehovah has been gracious.” Yes He has, and He has been around a long time. Jehovah (I-AM) has been providing His providence and speaking His revelation for many centuries. The two—providence and revelation—are related. God often uses the first to convince us that we should listen to the second. Abraham and Sarah had a very hard time believing the Word of God until they began to see the provisions of His providence. The same is true for Zechariah. He was told by an angel about a son that should be named John. How could he believe that? Providence helped him, though it was not entirely pleasant. He lost his voice for nearly a year, and then received it back again. Meanwhile John arrived. He knew what the name of the boy had to be. He also knew that the end of the Old Testament prophets had spoken of this child. That “end” demanded further revelation. Malachi 4:5-6 spoke of God sending Elijah before the coming of the great and terrible Day of the Lord. That certainly opened up a question that had to wait for an answer. Who was this “Elijah?” We received the explanation of this and thousands of other critically difficult Old Testament riddles in the New Testament (Matthew 11:14).

We needed a speaking God to come and finish His book. Jehovah has been gracious. He sent John to prepare the way for His great arrival as the only God/Man, Jesus, whose name means “I-AM salvation.”

The Prophecy of Zechariah

Now that baby John was born and named, and now that John's father could speak again, more revelation was given through the very man who had trouble believing the revelation that had been given to him. What did God say by the Holy Spirit?

He spoke of John as the prophet of the Most High ... the Lord ... the Coming One who would visit and redeem. Jesus, the promised Son of David, would be “a horn of salvation.” Through Jesus, Israel would be “saved” from their “enemies.” They would receive “mercy” which had been “promised” to their ancestors in God's “covenant.” That “covenant” or “testament” was ultimately a book that we call the Old Testament, and it was also an arrangement by which God related to ancient Israel when all the rest of the world was following nature-based religions with their own stories to tell.

As a book, the Old Testament was quite challenging, because 1. It contained so many difficult interpretive questions that were not answered, and 2. It had no adequate literary ending within itself. (Torah: Deuteronomy 34:9-12 [confer Deuteronomy 18:15], Prophets: Malachi 4:5-6 [confer Jeremiah 31:31], Writings: 2 Chronicles 36:22-23 [confer Esther 1:1, 3:13, 4:14) The Old Testament believers were trusting in God for answers, but they had many reasonable questions about central issues of the “knowledge of salvation” and “the forgiveness of their sins.” John would “go before the Lord to prepare His ways.” He would begin to give answers to these open questions especially by pointing to the Passover “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). John would begin to give us the ending of the book that was left for 400 years in a status of being clearly unfinished. What great news it was that the ending contained a “way of peace” with God based not only on His uncompromising justice, but also on His “tender mercy!”

Christmas Guidance from Heaven

John was a gift from God who prepared the people for an even greater gift. Jehovah was gracious in giving Israel a prophet to prepare the way of the Lord. Even more grace has been bestowed on the world through the gift of Jesus, the “Sunrise” who has visited us from on high. He will “guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Two specifics for you:

1. Find the right ending to the revelation of the Old Testament. Don't settle for some fan fiction, or for the very unsatisfying solution of having no ending to the book at all.

2. Find the right ending to the puzzling providence of God in your life. Your life is an unfinished book. Who are you going to trust to write the ending?

Old Testament Reading—Psalm 89 – Remember, O Lord!