The Father’s Voice Is Heard At Last

Last week we looked at three lessons for this year:

·        There are consequences for doubting God

·        More faith is required to testify about what God will do than about what He has done

·        When God answers prayer, we respond with praise and total surrender

This morning, we are continuing to look at the life of John the Baptist

First look at his birth.

We need to remember the context.

God had been silent for 400 years.

Zechariah is in the temple, the Holy of Holies, and God sends Gabriel

The crowd waiting outside realizes something has happened

Stage is set for people to realize that the miraculous is connected between Zechariah and God

When word travels that Elizabeth is pregnant, greater emphasis is given to miraculous and the birth of this child

At John’s circumcision, a crowd is gathered to help celebrate

Zechariah, still mute, asks for a tablet to write that the baby’s name is to be John, and suddenly, his tongue is loosened

Luke 1: 64Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God. 65The neighbors were all 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.

Finally, for Zechariah, this is his opportunity to praise God, to testify, to do what God had intended for him to do all along

Now we see another lesson for 2009

With God, redemption and restoration are always the plan

·        God’s desire for Zechariah did not change. 

·        God’s plan for Zechariah did not change. 

·        There were consequences for Zechariah’s doubt of God

–     for the choice of fear instead of faith. 

·        But, Zechariah’s repentance and obedience led him to a point where God’s plan and His purpose for Zechariah’s life was fulfilled.

Redemption and restoration are always God’s plan

Think this through – connect the dots.

        The announcement of the person (John the Baptist) God specially created to announce to the world that He was sending redemption and restoration (Jesus Christ) to the world first involved evidence of God’s redemption and restoration (Zechariah)

And now we look at the evidence of Zechariah’s redemption and restoration

 67His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,  because he has come and has redeemed his people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us  in the house of his servant David (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us— to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And 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, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace."    

And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel.

First: Zechariah is filled with the Holy Spirit

Once God redeems us, it is His plan to restore us as He fills us with Himself

Second: Zechariah prophesies

After God has redeemed and restored us, He puts us on the path and involves us in the plan for which He has created us

Stepping out in faith, believing God will do what He has said He will do allows us to be positioned as the plan unfolds

Finally, Zechariah must entrust the fullness of the plan to God

• Very likely, John the Baptist was not raised by Zechariah and Elizabeth.  Instead, there is great evidence that he was reared from the time of a young boy by the Essenes in Qumran.

SLIDE OF ESSENE COMMUNITY EXCAVATION

•”And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel.”

Fast forward from this point to 1947 in Qumran.  Shepherd boy and the Dead Sea Scrolls – a voice crying in the wilderness once again.

SLIDE OF HILLSIDE IN QUMRAN

Connect the dots once again.  As the Jews are about to take control of the Promised Land once again, the Dead Sea scrolls are found

In a sense, God had been silent in Israel for over 1800 years this time, since Masada had happened about before 100 AD. 

SLIDE OF DEAD SEA SCROLL CAVERN

SLIDE OF DEAD SEA SCROLL CAVERN

When the Dead Sea scrolls are found, they are all documents affirming the Old Testament prophets.  Most of the books of the OT were found – and the translations of the Scriptures were so very incredibly accurate.

But along with the Dead Sea Scrolls, there were also documents describing the way of life of the Essenes.  And there was mention of a man who lived among them for a time, coming there as an orphaned young boy, and his name was John.

This John was so passionate about the Lord that he would go out into the desert and live off of locusts and honey.

This John was so passionate about God that he would cry out in the wilderness about what he had read about the Messiah in the OT, especially in Isaiah. 

This John, most scholars believe, was John the Baptist.

SLIDE OF VOICE IN THE DESERT

Of course, this saturation of the Scriptures was incredibly important for John the Baptist as God prepared him for the work he would do in “preparing the way of the Lord.”  The people who came to listen to John had incredible respect for him, as is evidenced by his need to clarify with them that Jesus was the One they should worship, not him.

But also, there is an incredible importance in what happened in Qumran in 1947, too.

Think about it.  God had been silent in Israel for 1900 years.  Then the OT scrolls are found, re-igniting not only an interest in the Jewish people, but also in the words of Scripture. 

But, there was an absence of the whole word of God, as the Dead Sea Scrolls are all OT.

Praise God, though, as those historians – those Jewish and Muslim historians – who dug through what was found in Qumran and did the tedious work of translation, and comparison and documentation, they also uncovered the presence of the “voice in the wilderness crying ‘prepare a way for the Lord.’”

Do you see how God’s plan transcends the limitations of time and space?

Do you see how what God has purposed and intended to reveal and redeem and restore, He will do?

God wanted Israel – in 1948 – not only to know the truth of His word, but He also wanted them to see the connection between His word and the presence of John the Baptist whose very existence was created to point them to Jesus Christ.

Wow!

There is a phrase frequently used in weddings, “What God has joined together, let no man tear asunder – or tear apart.”

There are other phrases in Scripture which promise what God has purposed to do, He will do.

God intends to reveal His Son, once again, to Israel. 

God also intends to reveal His Son in Mecca.

He intends to reveal Jesus in Lyford and Rockville and Montezuma and Clinton.

God intends to reveal Him – and part of His work for this body of believers is to be that “voice in the wilderness” who is crying out to prepare a way for the Lord.

Just as Zechariah’s voice was silent, then released by God to testify,  let us be anxiously praying for the times and opportunities ahead of us to speak boldly, with confidence and faith about what God is doing, and will continue to do in our lives and in this place.