Luke 1:57-80 A Song Breaks the Silence
Good morning! I want to thank Elder Joel for bringing the Word last week, it was wonderful, you’re hired!
Let’s pray.
We are going back to the Gospel of Luke this morning. Turn with me to Luke 1:57-80, page 856 in the pew Bibles.
To bring us up to speed with the story so far, the angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah and told him that he and his wife Elizabeth were going to have a baby boy in their old age and that they should name him John, Joanees in Greek.
Zechariah didn’t believe the angel and his doubt was rewarded with dumbness, he wasn’t able to speak, and, as we will see in our text, he may very well have been struck deaf as well. The same angel appeared to Mary and told her that she too would have a baby boy by the Holy Spirit. Instead of doubt, Mary responded in faith and humbly submitted to the Lord’s will. Mary then went to visit Elizabeth her relative. When Mary arrived and greeted Elizabeth the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leapt for joy and she was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke a wonderful blessing on Mary and Mary responded with a song that we call the “Magnificat.” Mary stayed with Elizabeth and Zechariah for three months, presumably until the birth of their son, and that’s where we pick up the story in verse 57.
I want to look at this passage in two pieces, the actual birth of John the Baptist and then Zechariah’s response to it. The first part is one of the funniest passages in Scripture in my opinion.
Let’s look at verse 57.
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.
So this really is a story of a miracle. Elizabeth and Zechariah were well beyond child bearing years and they had never been able to have kids. So when the time came for the baby to be born it drew a lot of attention from family and neighbors.
It was tradition to wait until baby boys were circumcised to name them, this was the case with John and would later be the same with Jesus. But when the time came there was disagreement about what the baby should be named.
This is where I think this story is funny. This committee of friends and relatives that showed up for the birth and circumcision ceremony decided amongst themselves to name the baby Zechariah after his father… This is the problem with committees. Who exactly did they think they were? Who names somebody else’s baby?
Elizabeth speaks up and says, “No, his name is John.”
And like any reasonable committee they respond with, “Of course, you’re right, your baby, John it is! Yay John!” Nope.
“None of your relatives is called by this name.” That’s their response, who on earth do these people think they are?!
Finally they turn to Zechariah, the baby’s father, imagine that, to get his opinion on the baby’s name.
Now remember that Zechariah couldn’t speak, and verse 62 says, 62 And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called. It’s this verse that suggests that Zechariah was also deaf.
It’s also possible, according to my own experience, that because he couldn’t speak they just spoke really loud and made signs to make sure he got the message…
Zechariah asked for a writing tablet, which would have been a piece of wood with wax smeared on it, and wrote the words, “His name is John.”
And where Zechariah’s initial doubt about what the angel had told him was rewarded with dumbness, his eventual obedience to the instructions from the angel was rewarded with speech.
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.
The silence of unbelief was exchanged with a song of praise.
After nine months of silence Zechariah speaks. He doesn’t speak words of complaint about his condition, he doesn’t chastise the committee for trying to name his kid the wrong name, he doesn’t shake his fist at God lamenting why a loving God would do something so terrible to him.
Instead he sings a song of praise that gives us a wonderful outline of how Old Testament believers understood Messiah. The scholars call this, “Old Testament Christology,” Old Testament study of Christ, of Messiah.
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 [John the Baptist] grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.
Warren Wiersbe breaks this song down into four parts, the opening of a prison door, the winning of a battle, the canceling of a debt, and the dawning of a new day.
Verse 68 describes the opening of a prison door. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people…
The Greek word translated, “visited,” means to “be present to help,” or, “to be on hand to aid.” As Psalm 54:4 says, “Behold, God is my helper: the Lord is the upholder of my life.”
Yahweh is the helper of His people, and He has also redeemed them. The word, to redeem, means to set free, to liberate, to deliver. Easton’s Bible dictionary says redemption is to purchase something back that was lost by the payment of a ransom.
Make no mistake, as Joel reminded us last week, mankind is under the curse of sin. Since the fall of Man in the Garden we have been prisoners of sin, but God, the Lord God of Israel is present to help and has paid the ransom so that the prison door could be opened and people could be set free from sin and its penalty.
Verses 69-75 describe the winning of a battle.
[He] has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, (a horn is a symbol of strength in the Bible) 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.
“To be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us,” can easily be misunderstood and mistaken for a political or social statement. What I mean is, if you read this and are Ukrainian, you might think it’s about the Russians, if you are conservative you might think it’s about the liberals, if you’re liberal you might think it’s about the conservatives, and so on and so on.
Zechariah’s statement was not political nor social, it was spiritual. We only have one enemy and he is not people, people are not our enemy, Satan is our enemy. He tries to trick us with sin that promises joy and life but only leads to the grave. He wants to destroy us, to destroy people, to get people to deny Jesus Christ, to turn away from faith in Him and die.
The devil and his demons are the ones that we are at war with. Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:12, For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Resisting temptation and praying for the release of the captives of Satan are how we fight. Telling the other prisoners about freedom through faith in Jesus is how we win. 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.
Verses 76-77 speak of canceling a debt.
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,
The ministry of John the Baptist was to go before the Lord Jesus and prepare the way for Him and His ministry, John called people to repentance, to turn away from their sin, where Jesus called people to faith to be forgiven of their sin.
Jesus spoke of sin as a debt in Luke chapter seven which we will get to later. JP Lange wrote, “[There is] no salvation without forgiveness of sins; no forgiveness of sins without the knowledge of the truth…”
Jesus came to give the knowledge of the truth, so that people could have their sins forgiven and their debt erased, so that they could have salvation. John 19:30 records Jesus’ last word from the cross was the word, “tetelastai.” We translate that to, “it is finished,” but more accurately it means, “the debt is paid.” Jesus’ death of the cross paid our debt and he paid it in full.
And finally, verses 78-79 speak of the dawning of a new day.
78because 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.”
That sounds a lot like the words of Isaiah 9:2 that we read every Christmas, The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.
Those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death are those who do not know Jesus yet. Once that was us! And now we have the light of Jesus to guide our feet into the way of peace.
The way of peace is the way of peace with God through faith in Jesus, who is the only way to peace with God. Paul described living that way of peace in Titus 2:12-14:
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
Amen.
