Great Mercy
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Great Mercy
Great Mercy
This morning we have already lit the first advent candle, the candle of hope, and as this was being done, you heard some scriptures that tied into that theme. Something to keep in mind each advent season is that the candles are not simply to get us excited about Christmas. They are not only a Christmas tradition that brings warmth into our heart, but they are to prepare the hearts of believers ultimately to be prepared for the return of Jesus, our King and Lord and Savior.
Yes, we are reminded of prophecy fulfilled as we go through the advent season. We are reminded of the kindness of God that was manifest in the birth and life of Jesus, of the faithfulness of the many characters in the Christmas story, of the excitement of the shepherds, the longing of the wise men, the joy of the angels. We will remember that this child, the Christ child, was predicted for centuries through many prophecies, such as those on the banners in the sanctuary.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
These things about the Christmas story are well worth remembering and celebrating. But let us not leave our Christmas celebration as only a backward looking remembrance of Immanuel, God with us. Let our anthem for Christmas be the Hallelujah Chorus.
You have certainly heard that song, even if you did not know what it was called. It is the most familiar song from Handel’s Messiah. But the Hallelujah chorus has nothing to do with Christmas, at least it has nothing to do with the nativity story. The Hallelujah Chorus is straight out of Revelation 19.1-10
After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”
Once more they cried out, “Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.”
And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!”
And from the throne came a voice saying, “Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great.”
Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.
So keep that in mind when you next hear the wonderful hallelujah chorus. By the way, it may be worthwhile for you at some time to sit and listen to the entire Messiah oratorio. It is as close, I believe, to inspired music as you will ever get. Handel set orchestration to the Bible story about Jesus, and the reason kings stood to their feet at its conclusion, is because although the music was swelling and moving people, it was the story being told, which culminates in the Hallelujah Chorus, where we have moved all the way from “For unto Us a Child is Born”, also straight out of scripture, to these stunning lines from Revelation.
“Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! The kingdom of this world Is become the kingdom of our Lord, And of His Christ, and of His Christ; And He shall reign for ever and ever, For ever and ever, forever and ever, King of kings, and Lord of lords, King of kings, and Lord of lords, And Lord of lords, And He shall reign, And He shall reign forever and ever, King of kings, forever and ever, And Lord of lords, Hallelujah! Hallelujah! And He shall reign forever and ever, King of kings! and Lord of lords! And He shall reign forever and ever, King of kings! and Lord of lords! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
My friends, Handel wrote this not like some composers of his day, who wrote songs for the church, but may not have been a true believer. He wrote these songs with full faith in His Lord and Savior, Jesus, and I believe that just as God, by his Holy Spirit, enabled those men of ancient times to beautifully and artistically build the temple and all of the ornaments therein, Handel was likewise empowered from on high to write this music. I don’t know how else to understand how this song can move people to stand to their feet whenever and wherever it is performed.
So in the end, the Hallelujah Chorus, while it has nothing to do with the birth of Christ, it has everything to do with the final disposition of Christ, who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and who will reign forever and ever. So remember this every Christmas, that we thank God and celebrate his love that was demonstrated in the nativity and this should remind us of the glorious return of Christ that will happen someday, in a sudden and amazing way, and that those who are found to be faithful to Christ, will sing with that heavenly chorus.
Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus, as wonderful and moving as it is, is but a glimpse of that Chorus to come, that those who are in Christ will sing with the multitude in heaven, and so we light these candles, not simply as remembrance, but as promise yet to be fulfilled. We take the comfort of knowing prophecies concerning the Messiah were fulfilled in Christ, and this helps to preserve our hope that the future he has promised to all His saints is a certain future.
With all of that in mind, let us return to our study of Luke, and this morning we will briefly look at what happened at the birth of John the Baptist.
And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.
Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son.
And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.
And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father,
but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.”
And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.”
And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called.
And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all wondered.
And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God.
And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea,
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.
And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.
Last week, we looked at the Magnificat, Mary’s song of praise and worship. Her baby, so newly conceived that in a normal pregnancy, the mother would not have even noticed yet that she was pregnant, and yet, this child was very different, very special, and had caused a reaction from her cousin Elizabeth’s child, who leapt in the womb when Mary entered the house.
Two unborn children, not potential humans, not simply embryos, are in some way relating to one another.
Elizabeth and Mary had both experienced God’s gracious provision. In Elizabeth’s case, a child, after she had long given up hope of motherhood. In Mary’s case, the gift of being selected by God to carry the Messiah, God with skin on, as some people like to say. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit because of her encounter with Mary and the unborn baby Jesus. She recognized that Mary’s baby was her Lord.
And Mary reacted with that beautiful confession of faith; she was a Psalmist and a prophet at the same time, and she, a young woman, or we may even say a girl, spoke words so beautiful and eloquent and powerful and true that they became for all time part of holy scripture. Remember this. Our confession of faith is that scripture is breathed out by God, it is without error, and infallible. So we are certain that Mary truly said those things, and so did Elizabeth.
Now, in verse 56 it says that Mary remained with her (Elizabeth) about three months and then returned to her home. If we do the math, she came to Elizabeth when Elizabeth was in the 6th month of her pregnancy, so it is possible, maybe even likely, that Mary was present at the birth of John. One writer even suggested that Mary may have delivered this baby! However, we can not be certain. She stayed about 3 months, so she would have been there either until right before John was born or right after.
That she returned to “her” home, and not to Joseph’s home indicates that they still have not began to live together.
Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son.
This statement is very straightforward, and sometimes we may ignore something like this because it seems so obvious. It was time to give birth and she gave birth. Not many of us describe our own experiences this way. I don’t think I have ever said anything about my girls being born that way. The time came for Jenelle to give birth, and she bore a daughter. We tend to say much more, to describe the timing, and the hospital, and so on. How long was the labor? What was the height and weight? How many fathers have been chastised, when they have called family or friends to say, “It’s a girl!” only to be grilled on the height and weight and all of that other stuff that grandmothers and aunts want to know about.
And many of us fathers, well, we don’t worry so much about those things. So most of us would not simply say, like verse 57 “the time came to give birth, and she bore a son”. Well, maybe an engineer would keep it that simple. But if you are like me, you may say, as I did when Gaby was born, “We were at my brother-in-law Mike’s birthday party and the water broke, and he was hoping she would be born on his birthday, but the labor went until 3:17 the next afternoon. It was exhausting that it took that long!… And it was rough on Jenelle, too.”
Yet in the simplicity of verse 57, let us remember that the very birth itself needs no embellishment, nor does it need to record the weight in pounds and ounces nor the height, how many inches the boy was. So for all the aunts and grandmothers out there, may I say with certainty that the bible does not record these details, so they must not be that important. So when a new dad doesn’t know the height and weight, give him a break! Hopefully by the second child he will know that this is vitally important information that must be conveyed to all interested parties.
And what is the response of the neighbors and relatives? The same response we ought to have for any good news, especially the birth of a child. Luke1.58
And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.
Of course they did! Good neighbors and good relatives rejoice with those who rejoice. And in this case, it had to be known that this was not the typical pregnancy. And so they rejoiced. Why? Because they had heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her. Elizabeth had joined the likes of women who were legends to the people of Israel, yet nothing like this had been recorded in centuries!
Sarah, Rachel, Hannah. Now Elizabeth. This was very significant. Remember, these are people who only had known about things God had done in the ancient past. This was not something that was the normal course of things. There had been no prophet, none of the miraculous, not in their lifetimes, not even in the memory of anyone they knew. Suddenly, God was acting in a real and tangible way in their midst! Though the infant Jesus was yet to be born, and many years from beginning his ministry, John’s birth was a sign that maybe, just maybe, God was beginning to work in this generation.
And is it not the same for us? We seem unaware of God in the personal way. We’ve heard of him, we maybe know something of his Word, but it is impersonal, it doesn’t make sense to us. Until. Until God Himself, through His Word and by His Holy Spirit, brings us to himself. And this miracle of rebirth happens today. Every time a sinner repents and puts faith in Christ, there is a miracle of birth. The rebirth of a person into the family of God, and into the Kingdom of God.
So they rejoiced and celebrated, because the Lord had shown great mercy to her. In fact, I think we can say, and be on solid ground, that through this birth, He was showing great mercy, not only to Elizabeth, but to all of Israel. In time, this baby would be used by God as a prophet who called people to repentance and prepared them to receive Jesus as Christ. Isn’t that great mercy? And the pattern is the same today. John’s preaching called people to repentance. And once they truly repented, and were baptized in that repentance, they were then prepared to understand and receive the ministry of Jesus and the faith in Him that brought salvation. Indeed, this is great mercy.
And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father,
Circumcision was part of the covenant, and was ordained by God for the people of Israel, that on the eighth day after the birth, boys would be circumcised. This was done with great celebration. So people came to be part of this celebration. Now we get to an interesting point. It says they would have called him Zechariah after his father. Now, who is “they”, from verse 58-59, the neighbors and relatives. In Israel in those days, did the neighbors and relatives name the child?
No, the parents did. And if the parents did not agree, the father would have final say. So why does it say they would have called him Zechariah? Well, this seems to me to be a way of saying they just assumed that he would be named after his father. Now, it was not automatic that the first born son was named for his father. We can see this in the many genealogies throughout scripture. Yet, it was the case that sometimes the first son was named for the father. This was probably more likely if the father had been a person of status, which Zechariah was, since he was a priest.
So they would have called him I think just means that was their opinion. Luke1.60
but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.”
Elizabeth either was told by Zechariah, by writing about his encounter with the angel Gabriel. Or perhaps Elizabeth was told by the Holy Spirit. But she knew the child was to be named John. Normally the naming was up to the parents, as I said earlier. But in the miraculous accounts of scripture, there are times when God himself determines the name. When God does this, he is making clear that this child is under his authority. The one who names is the one who has that authority.
So not Zechariah, but John was not a name anyone in the family had: Luk1.61
And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.”
So the neighbors and relatives still think this is strange. Ok, so you aren’t naming him after his father, but at least name him after one of your relatives. Now, this conversation, it seems, had been with Elizabeth. Remember Zechariah still is mute. Now they bring Zechariah into the conversation. Luke1.62
And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called.
They made signs to him. Some have thought this means that he was not only mute, but also deaf during his time of silence that Gabriel told him about earlier. It is possible for this. Luke1.20
And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.”
Silent and unable to speak, the translators say, could possibly mean he was silent (couldn’t hear) and unable to speak. This seems like a very plausible explanation of why they made signs to him.
And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all wondered.
So picture the situation. They have had this discussion with Elizabeth, and she insists on the name John, now they make the father understand that they want his take on this, and he answers the same. And he does not say his name will be John, he says his name is John. When the angel of God says something is determined by the Lord, it is going to happen. Certainly Zechariah, having had 9 months of being unable to speak, and possibly deaf as well, had decided in his own heart to simply obey God.
And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God.
Zechariah, being freed from his silence, uses the first words, the first opportunity to speak in 9 months, to worship. Next week, Lord willing, we will learn more about Zechariah’s song, known as the Benedictus. For now, let us note that his first words were used to bless God.
And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea,
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 word fear here does not mean frightened. It is probably reverence or respect. Remember what they are witnessing. This is something completely outside of the realm of any experience that any of them to this point had encountered. They had heard of how Zechariah came out of the temple, unable to speak. It was known he had seen a vision there. The old woman Elizabeth gave birth. Now, at the circumcision ceremony, after confirming the name of this child, Zechariah is suddenly able to speak, and so it should not surprise us at all that this shook people up a bit.
So people talked and wondered, and this was probably the main topic for some time. And certainly, years later, when John began his public ministry, some of them remembered this unusual birth.
These things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea.
What do we have to talk about?
Many people have no idea what Christmas is about. Will you tell them?
If you have been drawn by God himself to faith in Christ, who will you tell?
If you have experienced his great mercy, who will you tell?
Why was he named John? One simple answer: God said to name him that.
What does John mean? Gracious.
The grace of God is that he prepares people to receive Christ by doing a regenerating work in them. This regenerating work begins with conviction of sins...
This conviction of sins leads to godly sorrow...
Godly sorrow leads to repentance....
Repentance is the pathway to faith, but it is all a gift.
Put faith in Jesus.