Luke 1

As Luke begins what he says will be “an orderly account” for one who is a lover of God, he does so with the confidence that his words can bring a certainty to those who read them, a certainty concerning things that they have heard. Though he is aware of other narratives of these events, and though he has heard many things from eyewitnesses, and listened to the preaching of many ministers of the Word, he indicates that the message that he brings is more than a work of historical research by a human author. It is a Word from the God who we have come to love, a Word that comes from His sovereign authority, a Word that speaks with certainty.

This account now begins with the parents of John the Baptist, who will be the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ, preparing the way of the Messiah. His father Zechariah was a priest, and his mother Elizabeth, also from a priestly family, was barren. Like Abraham and Sarah so many centuries earlier, not only were they unable to have children, they were now well-advanced in years. This couple is said to be “righteous,” not meaning that they had no sin, but that they were following God as a part of the religious community, attending to practices that God appointed for Old Testament life. At this late moment in his life, Zechariah receives a message from God while he is doing his priestly duty of burning incense before the Lord in the temple in Jerusalem. Incense was a symbol of the prayers of God’s people coming up before Him in heaven, and even as Zechariah was performing this ritual, the people of God were outside praying. The angel tells the man who will be the father of a great prophet that his prayers have been answered.

Elizabeth will bear a son, and he is to be given the name John, which means “the Lord is gracious.” He will be a consecrated servant of the Lord, filled with the Holy Spirit, fulfilling prophesies about him from the Old Testament, and ministering a Word of both correction and hope in the Spirit of the prophet Elijah, who served in the northern kingdom during the dark days of Ahab and Jezebel. John’s ministry will be characterized by two things: a turning of hearts and lives away from evil, and a preparation for the immediate arrival of an appointed and expected Savior. God will use this man in a very powerful way, bringing the hearts of God’s wandering children back home to the Lord, and turning some in positions of authority back to a right concern for those under their charge. This is the prayer of the righteous in every age. Zechariah was given an unusual sign by the angel when he sought some reassurance from this mighty being with a name, who was sent to proclaim this good news as one who stands in the presence of God. The father of John the Baptist would be unable to speak until the birth of his son.

Elizabeth was soon with child by her husband, but what is announced next is an even greater miracle. The same angel is sent to Mary in the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. Mary will bear a son by the Holy Spirit. Her Son will be God with us, the one for whom John will prepare the way. Mary and Joseph are from a different tribe than Zechariah and Elizabeth. They are both descendants of David, according to the promise of God to give an eternal king, Jesus, from the tribe of Judah. John will be in every sense the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth. Jesus will be the Son of Mary, but He will also be the Son of God, a Word that Mary submits to and believes.

Soon after this, when Mary travelled to visit Elizabeth, the wife of Zechariah felt the quickening of John in her womb, and she called Mary, “the mother of my Lord.” Mary also spoke forth a great Word where she calls God her Savior. God has done amazing things for her and for Israel. Especially, the Lord has remembered His promise to Abraham and to his offspring. God had promised that it would be from the descendant of Abraham that all the nations of the world would be blessed. Now Mary is carrying the One within her who is the Lord’s greatest provision for those who meekly receive Him.

When Zechariah again is granted speech at the birth of John, his message by the Holy Spirit is very similar to Mary’s. He too speaks of the promise to Abraham, and deliverance from the hand of powerful enemies. This great Son of Mary, who is the Son of God, will be the fulfillment of everything that Abraham believed in when God credited it to Him as righteousness. He is the fulfillment of all the covenant promises of God. The enemies that He will defeat will be sin, death, and hell. How else could we serve God without fear, unless Jesus took away the danger of our having close fellowship with God? How else could we have redemption, and how else could we serve the Lord all our days if not through Jesus?

This is our eternal destiny in Christ, the One to whom John will point. John is to be a great prophet, but Jesus will be the Messiah. He will bring salvation at the cost of His own life. By His facing God’s wrath that was against us because of our sins, we will find forgiveness through faith in Him. He will be the best expression of the tender mercy of God to a desperately needy people. He will be a light to many who sit under the shadow of a death that is swiftly drawing near to us all. He will be a Lord who, even now, guides our feet along the way of peace. He is the fulfillment of the eager prayers of the righteous who have heard the merciful and just promises of the Lord, and who have believed.