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!
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