Then He said to them, “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you. But behold, the hand of My betrayer is with Me on the table. And truly the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed!” Then they began to question among themselves, which of them it was who would do this thing.
This prompted me this week to think about the 1st Passover which is found in Exodus 12. So many details to consider all of which are a shadow of Christ to come!
When the Lord told Moses and Aaron that the Passover month was the first month of the year from that day forward.
1.That the man of the household was to take a spotless male lamb or goat on the 10th day and kill it at twilight on the 14th. I asked myself, could I do that. I wouldn’t want to! I would ask why, instead of having a heart of obedience.
2.The unleavened bread of being representation of the sinless body of Christ. In scripture, leaven is symbolic of sin.
3.The blood on the door posts and lintel at the top as it would be on the Cross
Exodus 12:8-9
Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entrails.
What a picture that is of Christ suffering and dying on the Cross.
Exodus 12:11-13
And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.
The Passover like the Communion was initiated by the Lord and belongs to him.
‘For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
Christ is our only escape from death and judgement. We accept the terms and conditions. If we reject the Cross, we reject our only escape. Without his blood covering us, which we have to accept in our hearts, we cannot escape the wrath of God.
Taking part in communion reflects the remembrance of the freedom given by God during the Egyptian exodus. We don’t have to kill a lamb like the Israelites do but we are set free by Christ who is the Lamb of God who has once and for all paid the price for our sins. Communion today is Permanent Peace after the War. We are alive because of Him.
Colossians 2:11-17
In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
Remember last time we looked in Luke, the Lord had been silent for 400 years since the prophet Malachi but even so, he will not abandon his people because he loves them. But not without fire! The Lord sent John the Baptist like Elijah to be a messenger that the Lord was coming to purify the sons of Levi. Judgement always begins first in the house of God.
Before Jesus comes again I believe he will purify the Church in the same way. Every Christian is part of the Royal Priesthood, better get ready!
At our Family First Retreat this week we had several Church leaders come and speak to us to give their view on how they saw Family First and how other churches do. One of the pastors had written to a number of Churches and got an interesting response both positive and negative. They gave us a warning not to bash the Pastors. The Churches are so busy dealing with the basics of the Gospel, evangelising, discipling the newly saved, baptising, giving marriage counselling, looking after young people, the elderly and so on that they have very little time to speak up on moral issues on the public square and they look to Family First to fill this role. This is not what we wanted to hear but nevertheless, it reinforces the point that we are all part of the Body of Christ and each must use their gifts and talents as the Lord distributes. The work of Family First is prophetic and tough and lonely because of it. When we read about John the Baptist, we can understand that his prophetic ministry was lonely and required perseverance in the Wilderness.
Remember this verse;
Malachi 4:5-6
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
A prophet like Elijah or John has that tough exterior. They are seen as hard nosed, judgmental lacking compassion. But Jesus said you will know prophets by their fruit. Fruit trees don’t grow fruit the next day after planting. The pawpaw tree takes 5-7 years. What was the fruit of the 60’s? What will be the fruit of this generation if things don’t change? Hard words need to be spoken to this generation. But if the fruit is that fathers and sons are reconciled in this country, that is evidence of a true prophet of God.
Prophetic ministry shakes the way things are, it doesn’t give a lot of warm fuzzies. It goes into the public square and it declares that Jesus is Lord and that people need to repent.
It is different to the ministry of the Churches which are looking after the sheep. Sometimes that will involve going to find that one lost sheep, to the places where few other than the closest family go - to the prisons, the cemeteries, the old folks home, the hospitals.
John the Baptist was not a pastor, he was a prophet. PCC is a Church and we need to remember to look after the sheep. That involves teaching the truth and correcting error but it’s normally compassionate, different to the ministry in the public square which has to be confrontational.
Here’s a brief video on the birth of John the Baptist which you will remember was a great miracle since Zacharias and Elizabeth were old.
Ask yourself during the video, are there any thoughts or words that stand out?
Did anyone have something stand out, these stood out to me;
Great mercy shown to Elizabeth, how?
John was one out of the box.
Who is the horn of salvation?
In the wilderness until his public appearing, a long time!
Luke 1:57-80
Now Elizabeth’s full time came for her to be delivered, and she brought forth a son. When her neighbors and relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her, they rejoiced with her.
Elizabeth had been barren so it was a great miracle that she had John in her old age. The Angel who came to Elizabeth used this fact to encourage Mary that nothing is impossible with God. So Elizabeth is reckoned to be in her 50’s or possibly 60’s. It signalled that God was doing something special as with Abraham, Sarah and Isaac. And it says the Lord showed great mercy to her. Firstly to take away that feeling of something lacking in her life, not having a child. But also, to have a son meant someone who could provide for you when you grow old.
So it was, on the eighth day, that they came to circumcise the child; and they would have called him by the name of his father, Zacharias. His mother answered and said, “No; he shall be called John.” But they said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who is called by this name.” So they made signs to his father—what he would have him called. And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, saying, “His name is John.” So they all marveled.
John means beloved of God. John was very special and what a joy that would have been to to Elizabeth and Zacharias. He would also be one out of the box. He was not named after his father but rather a different name to signal he was different. What they knew from Scripture was that their son was chosen to prepare the way for the Messiah and what an honour they would have felt at that thought.
Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, praising God. Then fear came on all who dwelt around them; and all these sayings were discussed throughout all the hill country of Judea.
News of a miracle travels fast !
And all those who heard them kept them in their hearts, saying, “What kind of child will this be?” And the hand of the Lord was with him.
Everyone knew John would be special. That’s a weight. If Elizabeth and Zacharias had known that John would end up living in the desert eating locusts and wild honey, what would they have made of that. Our children do not always turn out how we imagine and at some point we have to let them go. Our joy is that they follow the Lord whatever they may do in life. Nothing else really matters.
Now his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying: “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited and redeemed His people, And has raised up a horn of salvation for us In the house of His servant David, As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets, Who have been since the world began, That we should be saved from our enemies And from the hand of all who hate us, To perform the mercy promised to our fathers And to remember His holy covenant, The oath which He swore to our father Abraham: To grant us that we, Being delivered from the hand of our enemies, Might serve Him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life.
John was not from the house of David, it’s Jesus. Jesus is the horn of salvation, Often, Scripture’s mention of a “horn” is as a literary symbol representing potency and power. As in Daniel, the little horn that rises up is the Antichrist but in Scripture the horn of salvation is the Lord;
Psalm 18:2
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
Yes they knew the Scripture what it said about the Messiah but they probably imagined its fulfilment differently to how it would be worked out. Almost certainly they thought that the Messiah was coming to save them from the Romans and restore the King of Israel in Jerusalem just like David. If they could have seen their son John in the lonely desert and Jesus the Messiah dying on the Cross they may have felt differently in that moment. But we can’t rely on what we see. We have to walk by faith not by sight. If they had also seen the hundreds of millions of people that would go to Heaven because of the work of their son John and his cousin Jesus then again their joy would have been multiplied. We can’t rely on our emotions and what is immediately in front of us. We just have to trust the Lord. The Lord always fulfils his promises but not necessarily as we expect.
Now Zacharias specifically prophesies over his son.
“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, To give knowledge of salvation to His people By the remission of their sins, Through the tender mercy of our God, With which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace.”
So as Zacharias finished his prophecy, I’m sure he didn’t fully understand the part about the remission of people’s sins and what the price for that would be. Prophecy is like that. We don’t know in full, we see in the mirror dimly but one day it says we will see face to face. In other words, we will fully understand God’s plan and see that it was all working out for our good. Learn what the Scriptures say about the future, but don’t think you’ve got it all worked out as the Lord’s ways are not our ways, they are much higher than ours.
So the child grew and became strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his manifestation to Israel.
That is what prophetic ministry often looks like. John had many years in the Wilderness before his rise to prominence. Hard years spent persevering in lean times, learning to survive. A long wait for the fruit. But the harvest was coming and after that you really need the pastors!
For Communion this week we’ll read a short passage from Genesis 3 followed by 1 John 1
Before he made Eve, the Lord gave the one law about the tree of knowledge. This instruction was passed on to Eve by Adam.
Eve was Adam’s wife proving that marriage is for man and woman from the beginning.
They had no shame in their innocence, everything was good.
But when Adam and Even ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge, they realised they were naked and felt fear and shame because of their sin.
The Lord placed a curse on the serpent, and sad consequences for Adam and Eve and all mankind.
Genesis 3:17-21
Then finally to Adam saying, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.” And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.
So the body (bread) and the blood (by the death of an animal) were there at the beginning but they were reminders of their sin. They could only look back in regret.
We can remember what Adam and Eve did to break our fellowship with God, to make us lose our place in Paradise.
But we can now remember the sacrifice Jesus made that brought us back to God and ultimately back to Eden.
Jesus said the bread is his body broken for us and that the wine is his blood poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. He took our fear and shame and said take his body and blood in exchange. Our sins are washed away and removed as far as the east from the west.
Now when we take Communion He said to do this in memory of him. We might remember our own sin but we are reminded that Jesus’ death on the Cross triumphs over our sin!
1 John 1:5-10
This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
The devil fools us to thinking we can sin and it won’t touch us but thanks to the price Jesus paid, when we come into the light, we live in fellowship with God and with each other and his blood cleanses us from all sin.
As we learned from Skip Heitzig last week, when we start at the beginning in Luke, God had been silent for 400 years since the prophet Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament.
When you read Malachi, you will see that God was very unhappy with Israel at that time. They were an evil generation. They had repaid his love with evil. They had given him their second best and had not honoured God. They had left God’s ways. They had betrayed their wives. They had worshipped false gods. The priests were corrupt and wouldn’t tell the people the truth about their sin.
Malachi 3:1-3
“Behold, I send My messenger, And he will prepare the way before Me.
That’s John.
Then Jesus
And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,” Says the Lord of hosts. “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire And like launderers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge them as gold and silver, That they may offer to the Lord An offering in righteousness.
Even though the Lord was silent for 400 years, he will not abandon his people because he loves them. Bun not without fire! The Lord sent John as a messenger that the Lord was coming to purify the sons of Levi. Judgement always begins first in the house of God.
Before Jesus comes again I believe he will purify the Church in the same way. Every Christian is part of the Royal Priesthood, better get ready!
Malachi 4:5-6
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
If fathers and sons were reconciled in this country, that would empty the prisons. What an amazing promise.
Suddenly after 400 years of silence, the shakeup started;
Luke 1:5-12
There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
These were bad days for Israel. Rome had taken over and appointed Herod the « King of the Jews ». But Zacharias and Elizabeth remained faithful. The Lord is looking for faithful ones in evil times.
But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years. So it was, that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense.
It was a dangerous thing for a priest to go into the temple. You needed to be ritually prepared and follow the procedure as per the law of Moses. The people were outside praying for him and themselves!
Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.
God had been silent for 400 years, suddenly he turned up and Zacharias got quite a shock. How many of us would fall on their knees if God actually turned up in glory like that.
Luke 1:13-20
But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
This would be great news for any godly parent like Zacharias and Elizabeth. John was of good stock, a pastor’s s kid if you like. Their child was to be a hero of the Faith, like Elijah.
But being great in the sight of the Lord usually means trouble because it brings you into direct conflict with the World.
And Zacharias said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.” And the angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings. But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own time.”
When God makes a promise, it will come true, we probably shouldn’t bother when. Zacharias had doubts, he was like Abraham’s wife Sarah. And Gabriel was indignant. « I am Gabriel! » With God, you’ll need to believe the impossible is possible. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Unbelief is a block. It blocked Zacharias from being able to speak.
Luke 1:21-25
And the people waited for Zacharias, and marveled that he lingered so long in the temple. But when he came out, he could not speak to them; and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple, for he beckoned to them and remained speechless. So it was, as soon as the days of his service were completed, that he departed to his own house. Now after those days his wife Elizabeth conceived; and she hid herself five months, saying, “Thus the Lord has dealt with me, in the days when He looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”
So if we want to understand the character of John who is such an important figure in the Gospel of Luke, we need to remind ourselves a bit about Elijah, because John would be like him.
We start our Gospel series at Luke 1. Like any good story, the main characters are often introduced from the beginning. In this case Mary, his mother who was present with Jesus from the moment of birth to the moment of death. Not many of us will be able to say that about our Mum! The other main character is John the Baptist.
We’ll let Mary give the sermon today and Johann Sebastian Bach put it to music.
Bach wrote the music for the Magnificat, called Mary’s song after her response to Elizabeth telling her by the Holy Spirit that she was blessed among women, that Mary was the mother of her Lord, and that John had leapt in her womb at the sound of Mary’s voice. It’s an amazing piece of music which I heard for the first time this week with many parts to it, overall nearly half an hour. This is part of that piece.
What strikes me is that no musician in the orchestra dominates. Even the drummer is understated, very different to the drumming in bands today.
And that’s true in the Church, each part works together to complement the other.
Figuratively speaking.
I might write the lyrics
Someone else writes the music
Someone plays the guitar
Someone plays the drums
Someone is the conductor
But no one dominates.
So, as we understood from the Parable of Talents, every Christian has been given gifts and talents by God to put to use, to build up his wealth, that is the Church. No individual can do it on their own. We need to put our talent to action alongside others to create a beautiful musical piece.
Bach wasn’t much of a lyricist in this song repeating the word « Magnificat » over and over but he wrote the stunning music, Mary spoke or sung the words.
Luke 1:46-51
And Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. For He who is mighty has done great things for me, And holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him From generation to generation. He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
We live in an age of imagination, of fantasy, of delusion. John Lennon wrote the song for our age called Imagine. It’s a very beautiful song but it is antichrist.
Imagine there’s no Heaven, it’s easy if you try. No Hell below us, above us only sky.
Imagination can be very beautiful but is very dangerous when it becomes separated from truth. Honestly how can a man think he can become a woman. It is impossible, it is delusional, it is madness. Mary said « he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts ». Pride comes before a fall. Satan fell from Heaven because of pride.
Luke 1:52-55
He has put down the mighty from their thrones, And exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, And the rich He has sent away empty. He has helped His servant Israel, In remembrance of His mercy, As He spoke to our fathers, To Abraham and to his seed forever.”
If you’ve been a Christian for a while, you’ll probably know that this passage is known as the Magnificat. But did you know that:
⁃The Magnificat has been part of the Church’s liturgy since its earliest days.
⁃For centuries, members of religious orders have recited or sung these words on a daily basis.
⁃It is the longest set of words spoken by a woman in the New Testament.
⁃It is also the first Christmas carol ever composed.
⁃Parts of Mary’s Magnificat echo the song of Hannah (found in 1 Samuel 2:1-10) and are also reminiscent of the anguish of the prophets.
⁃In the past century, there were at least three separate instances of governments banning the public recitation of the Magnificat. Its message, they feared, was dangerously subversive.
During the British rule of India, the Magnificat was prohibited from being sung in church. In the 1980s, Guatemala’s government discovered Mary’s words about God’s preferential love for the poor to be too dangerous and revolutionary. The song had been creating quite the stirring amongst Guatemala’s impoverished masses. Mary’s words were inspiring the Guatemalan poor to believe that change was indeed possible. Thus their government banned any public recitation of Mary’s words. Similarly, after the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo—whose children all disappeared during the Dirty War—placed the Magnificat’s words on posters throughout the capital plaza, the military junta of Argentina outlawed any public display of Mary’s song.
Dietrich Bonheoffer recognized the revolutionary nature of Mary’s song. Before being executed by the Nazis, Bonheoffer spoke these words in a sermon during Advent 1933: « It is instead a hard, strong, inexorable song about the power of God and the powerlessness of humankind. »
The Messiah that Mary anticipated is referred to as the Mighty One who topples rulers, scatters the proud, and sends the rich away empty-handed. However, He also is mindful of the lowly, exalts the humble, fills the hungry with good things, and helps His servant Israel.
He is one who turns the tables upside down. After all, God chose for Him to be born of a “lowly servant girl” instead of a woman of prominence. The Rich and powerful are afraid of the lower classes rising up. We see that in the World today as all manner of means are used to divide the people.
But Mary’s poem on its own without music would not have the same effect.
