The birth of John the Baptist

Welcome to Series 1 and Episode 7. This is the story of 'The birth of John the Baptist'

Introduction and Recap

We are studying in Luke 1: 57 - 80. If you have been following this series, you will know that after three introductory episodes - where we looked at Luke's explanation of why he wrote, at John's big picture view and then Matthew's and Luke's account of the ancestry of Jesus - we then settled into Luke's account where we have been for the last three episodes; a continuous narrative that Luke gives us that tells us the story of two remarkable and related children who were being conceived at this time: John the Baptist and his relative, Jesus.

We are now in the fourth and final part of this particular story and this is when John's birth takes place. If you haven't read the previous episodes, I hope this will help you to orientate yourself towards the story: Luke sees the birth of John the Baptist and Jesus as two parallel stories and he weaves them together in his narrative - not only because Mary and Elizabeth, the two mothers were in the same family, but because the purpose and the destiny of these two children, Jesus of Nazareth and John the Baptist, were closely entwined. They were to function together. John the Baptist was to serve Jesus; to prepare the way for him; to be a prophet for him; and to prepare the people of Israel to receive him, as we shall see in future episodes.

We started in the Temple in Jerusalem when Zechariah, a junior priest, was in the Temple and had an angelic visitation from the angel Gabriel telling him that he was going to be a father in his old age for the first time, and that his wife Elizabeth was shortly going to become pregnant. This was a great shock to him and he temporarily lost his power of speech between that moment and the birth of his child, as he was really not sure whether he could believe what the angel said. The angel then appeared to Mary, a virgin betrothed, or engaged, to Joseph. They both lived in Nazareth in Galilee and we heard the amazing story of how the angel revealed to Mary that she was going to be the mother of Jesus and it would be, literally, a virgin birth - before she had any sexual relationship with a husband or any other man. In the last episode, we saw Luke joining these two stories together because Mary's immediate response to hearing this amazing news was to pack her bags from her hometown of Nazareth and travel about 80 km into the Judean hills, further south, where she was going to visit her relative Elizabeth and Elizabeth's husband, Zechariah.

We saw a moving, powerful and prophetic encounter that took place as Mary and Elizabeth met. Elizabeth, heavily pregnant with John the Baptist and Mary having just become pregnant, but not visibly so. Immediately there was a recognition prophetically between them and a coming together in fellowship, friendship and common purpose between these two mothers who knew that their two sons were going to be significant to each other, and were going to have a great purpose in their lives - a purpose that went way beyond their families. They knew they were going to be sacrificing their sons to a wider life and ministry; they were going to be away from home and the reality, ultimately, turned out to be that both were executed by the authorities in the days to come. So it was a sacrificial, and yet joyful, anticipation that Elizabeth and Mary had.

We ended the last episode with Mary speaking out a wonderful hymn of praise, with lots of prophetic content, anticipating what God was going to do in the nation of Israel, and beyond the nation of Israel, through the coming of her son and through the coming of John, who was to become John the Baptist.

Birth of John the Baptist

We now come to the final part of this particular story and are in verse 57. We are going to recount the actual birth of John the Baptist and then the remarkable prophetic declaration made by John the Baptist's father upon his son's birth. It is a moving account which is really worthy of our study. 

“⁵⁷When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. ⁵⁸Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy. ⁵⁹On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, ⁶⁰but his mother spoke up and said, “No! He is to be called John.” ⁶¹They said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who has that name.” ⁶²Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. ⁶³He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone's astonishment he wrote, “His name is John.” ⁶⁴Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to speak, praising God. ⁶⁵All the neighbors were filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. ⁶⁶Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, “What then is this child going to be?” For the Lord's hand was with him. ⁶⁷His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: ⁶⁸“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them. ⁶⁹He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David ⁷⁰(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), ⁷¹salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us— ⁷²to show mercy to our ancestors and to remember his holy covenant, ⁷³the oath he swore to our father Abraham: ⁷⁴to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear ⁷⁵in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. ⁷⁶And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, ⁷⁷to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, ⁷⁸because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven ⁷⁹to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.” ⁸⁰And the child grew and became strong in spirit: and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel.”

Luke 1:57-80, NIV

The birth of a baby in any community is always a cause of celebration. Neighbours, friends, relatives always tend to gather round the new born child, the mother and the family. We have different ways of doing it in different cultures. In rural cultures, this is often stronger than in urban cultures - people are living in community and this was the case here in the hills of Judea where Zechariah and Elizabeth were a very well-known couple, and well-respected. They were from the priestly family, which was a respected family, and they lived a godly life. The birth of John was very exciting for them. It was a very unexpected event for the community because people knew, as they do, that they didn't have any children, that they wanted to have children, and that they were past the years of childbearing; they were getting old. People have an intuitive feeling about the pain, suffering and shame that that you might feel in this situation, and that was discussed in the community. Some of you may be well aware of these emotions and thoughts, and ways of relating in local communities. That is exactly what happened here. When Elizabeth became pregnant, that great sense of expectation and excitement amongst the relatives and friends in the community was even greater than it might have been if she had been 30 years younger and it would have been a more normal circumstance; because of her advanced years, it was a remarkable circumstance. She would, almost certainly, have been the oldest mother in the community by a significant margin of years - and people were excited for them.

John's Name

As the story unfolds, we come to that key moment with infant children which is the naming. In the Jewish context, the male children were named in relationship to being circumcised (which was the custom of the Jews). Everyone was expecting the son to be named after the father. This was customary, as it is still in many more traditional cultures of the world today, where children take, either as a first name or as a second name, the family name or the name of the father; or in a girl's case, maybe some other family name or the name of the mother. Everyone was anticipating that this child would be Zechariah, Zechariah Jr, but no! As they were talking about this and anticipating this reality, Elizabeth declared, quite clearly, that another name was going to be given to him - that was the name of John. How did she know that? It had been revealed to Zechariah in the Temple, by the angel, that it was God's purpose that he should be called John. The name John means 'grace', expressing God's grace and his mercy to the people, so it was a very significant name. Although Zechariah had not been able to speak since that remarkable encounter in the Temple with the angel, as we described in a few episodes ago, he had been able to write down messages to his wife and communicate, very clearly, what the name was going to be. She reiterated that to the people around:  “He's going to be called John.” Of course, there was a tension about this. This seemed a really odd thing, socially, to the people around. They looked to the father and, because he couldn't speak, the only thing he could do to communicate his will (and it was the father's will that was final in that social context in terms of naming a child) he wrote down, on a tablet - “His name is John.” As he wrote that, not only did it settle the question irrevocably but it released him from that temporary loss of his speaking ability, that had happened as a sign from God of the ambivalence and slight unbelief he'd had when the angel had spoken to him. Suddenly, his voice  was restored completely - he hadn't suffered any damage to his voice, or anything like that, it wasn't a medical condition or an injury - it was just something happening physically because of things that were happening spiritually. Suddenly he could speak. The community had another thing to be amazed about, because they knew that something had happened to Zechariah in the Temple; he hadn't been able to speak for months (you couldn't have a conversation with him, he would have to write things down; it is all a bit awkward socially); they also knew that Elizabeth was having a baby and that looked rather miraculous. Elizabeth would have told some of her friends some of the things that would have happened and the baby came - which was wonderful enough in itself - and then suddenly Zechariah speaks again. As soon as he speaks, he starts to prophesy. His voice was going to become particularly powerful and it is interesting that it says the people of the hill country of Judea were talking about all these things. It really was a big story in their area - such an unlikely series of events had taken place. I hope you get the feeling of the dynamics of the event. It was really quite a remarkable thing.

What isn't stated in the story, but is probably true, is that Mary was still with Elizabeth at this time. We don't know for certain when she went back to Nazareth - remember she had been there for three months and she might have just stayed long enough for the baby to be born and then gone back to Nazareth. We will pick up her story, very shortly, in Luke 2 which describes the birth of Jesus.

Zechariah's Prophecy

However, for the moment, our focus is on Zechariah's prophecy. The interesting thing about this prophecy, above all else, is that it refers, in several ways, to the special agreements that God had made between himself and the Jewish people - known as covenants (binding agreements, made on God's terms, by his initiative, by which he promised to do certain things and required certain responses.) There are several, direct and indirect, references to the covenants. For example, verse 69 “He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.” We mentioned before about the covenant with King David. In verse 73, he speaks about  “the oath he swore to our father Abraham”, which I referred to in the previous episode, In verse 77, he speaks of giving his people “the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins” which also relates to a particular covenant promised by the prophet Jeremiah. This is a poetic prophecy rather than any systematic teaching but I think it is fair to say that it refers, in passing, to God's covenant with King David, God's covenant with Abraham and also to the covenant promised by Jeremiah - known as the New Covenant.

Let us pause for a moment and reflect on this more carefully. You always have to remember, when dealing with the New Testament, that this is the continuation of a long story: many chapters have been written in the Old Testament. It is characteristic for Christians, and those enquiring about the Christian faith, to be much more familiar with the New Testament and more focused on the New Testament then they are on the Old Testament. However, we need to connect the two together in our minds very clearly.

Three Old Testament Covenants

In the Old Testament, there are five fundamental covenants God made that shape the destiny of mankind and point out his pathway to salvation, relationship with him, forgiveness of sins and being part of his family. The first is the covenant made with Noah, which we see back in Genesis, after the Great Flood. This is not a covenant made with the Jewish people - who weren't formally in existence at that point - but if you look at the end of chapter 8 and the early part of chapter 9 of the book of Genesis, you will see that God promises to all mankind the stability of the natural environment; he wouldn't judge the world again by universal flood. He was basically saying there is going to be a time of stability and grace and opportunity for mankind for huge periods of time ahead - unspecified.

Then comes the second covenant, which I mentioned in the last episode - the covenant with Abraham, which formed the Jewish people. This is described in Genesis 12 onwards and it appears in stages through the subsequent chapters where we see that God promised Abraham a name, a nation and a blessing. Three different things: a name, a nation and a blessing. He said that he would give him a name: in other words, his family name will continue; he will have a son and children. At that time, Abraham didn't have children and his wife was childless for a long period of time but then a promised son, Isaac, was born in their very advanced years. God gave him a family but also a name. He was also going to give him a nation: that is a national people, in a national land - the land of Israel. So the Jewish people in the land of Israel is a covenant promise that God gave to Abraham. He promised, thirdly, in Genesis 12: 3, that Abraham and his descendants would be a blessing to all the nations of the earth. Somehow, Jewish people in that land would bless the whole world - and that is what was going to happen through Jesus Christ, who came from that Jewish background and lived in that Jewish land of Israel.

The first covenant is the covenant with Noah. The second is the covenant with Abraham, that forms the Jewish people and focuses it on its general destiny. The third covenant is the covenant that God makes with Moses in the time when the Jewish people are coming out from slavery in Egypt and they are just about to enter the Promised Land of Israel. This is a covenant of law and regulation and worship which sets the structure for Jewish national life.

Then comes the covenant with King David and summarised in the verse in 2 Samuel 7: 16, where God says that the monarchy that followed David would be an eternal monarchy. In other words, there will be a biological successor to David who will form a divine monarchy - or kingship; the Kingdom of God on earth. We found out, as we discussed in the last episode, that Jesus was related biologically to David and would fulfil that role as being his agent of the Kingdom of God coming in the world.

Finally, there is what we might call the New Covenant spoken of, very clearly by Jesus later on, but is prophesied in the Old Testament in Jeremiah 31: 31 - 34.

“³¹The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. ³²It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,”(that's a reference to the covenant with Moses, the Mosaic Covenant) ³³“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. ³⁴No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” ...“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

Jeremiah 31:31-34, NIV

Through the prophet Jeremiah, God promised a new covenant - a covenant that wasn't about laws and regulations but a new relationship with God based on forgiveness of sins. That is exactly what Jesus came to bring, and this forgiveness of sins was anticipated in Zechariah's remarkable prophetic song: “to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins” (chapter 1, verse 77). Zechariah went on to prophesy, very particularly, about John's own work - his son John, who we know is John the Baptist. Verse 76 onwards is very significant:  “and you, my child, will be called a prophet of the most high.” So Zechariah could see that John was going to be a prophet - someone who heard from God and spoke from God with authority. “You will go on before the Lord to prepare a way for him and to give his people the knowledge of salvation.” He had got a preparatory ministry: he was going to speak the word of God to the people of Israel to prepare the way for God to come through someone else, or something else - and that someone else was Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God; and that something else is the New Covenant that he would bring. John was going to be very significant in the nation of Israel.

This is a remarkable passage, a wonderful passage to read and think about with really moving human dynamics. If you imagine the village communities in the Judean Hills, so excited about this surprising and wonderful birth to a much-respected older couple. Then Zechariah began to speak again and prophesy and people began to think that there was something very significant that was going to happen. The final verse says the child John “grew and became strong in spirit and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly in Israel.” At some point he left home; we don't know when - perhaps in early adulthood, and he lived in what is described here as ‘the wilderness.’ The Judean Hills are close to a very small, semi- desert area known as the Judean wilderness. This is the area that John would have gone to. He lived the life of an outsider, a monastic type of life: he wasn't married; he didn't have a family; he lived very simply on his own. He was waiting for God's call to re-enter national life which he did, very dramatically, in the days to come - as we will see as we go through our studies.

Reflections

Some final reflections. This is the turning point in salvation history. The Jews had been waiting for 400 years. There had been no new authorised prophecy or writings of the Old Testament in 400 years. The nations of the world had not yet received God's salvation in any significant measure but the Old Testament covenants indicate that there would be a king who would bring God's Kingdom; David's son, would bring in a New Covenant and would be a blessing to all the nations of the world. The prophetic clock was beginning to tick; events were beginning to happen and John was going to be preparing the way for Jesus. We will see how that happens in subsequent episodes.

Thanks for joining us.