A Sermon I preached on December 7th, 2005

“Focus on Jesus: The Preparation”

Scripture: Luke 1:57-67

1. Grace mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Today’s message is entitled “Focus on Jesus: The Preparation” and is taken from the Gospel of Luke 1:57-67. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ. My mother, Elaine Taggatz is a very good housekeeper. You could come to her house at any time and never find a thing out of place. There’s never a bed unmade or a dirty dish in the sink. You’d never find clothes on the floor or a dirty sock hiding under the bed! For my mother there’s a place for everything -- and everything in its place. When I lived at my parent’s house things often looked fine to me, as my mother is a great housekeeper. But I can still remember what it was like when she knew that company was coming. She brought out the broom, the mop and pail, sponges, window cleaner, bathroom cleaner, dust rags, and furniture polish (show these items). Then she called my two brothers and I together and assigned each of us the jobs that we were to do. When we were finished, my mom always checked to make sure that no speck of dirt or dust remained.
2. Can you imagine what it would have been like around our house if we’d been expecting a visit from a king? Well, that’s what I want to talk to you about this evening. A king is coming -- not just any king -- the King of Kings! Jesus Christ. That’s why the message today is entitled, “Focus on Jesus: The Preparation.” The Jews during the time of Jesus had waited a long time for the Messiah to come. In fact, it had been about 400 years between the last prophet Malachi and the coming of John the Baptist to prepare the way for Jesus who was coming into the world. But, really the Jews had been waiting longer than 400 years. They had been preparing for the coming of Jesus, since the Creation of the world when God promised Adam and Eve that their offspring would conquer Satan and the power of sin. God said in Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
3. Now we’re entering into the story of John the Baptist and the events the occurred before his birth. God had prepared many of the people for the birth of this great Prophet of God. At John’s birth many people came to see what had happened. They found out that the prophecy had been true. Elizabeth had a son as the angel Gabriel had told her. When the neighbors saw how kind God had been to her they rejoiced. They were rejoicing because of the fulfillment of Gabriel’s prediction and they were joining with Elizabeth with the joy that her barrenness was no more. How long had Elizabeth waited for a son? Until she was of old age in the same way that Abraham and his wife Sarah had waited. The Bible doesn’t say how old Elizabeth was, but she could have been at least 50-70 years old. She had many years to prepare for her son John to come into the world. Now God had finally given her one.
4. But there was a problem. When John was born, the people wanted Elizabeth to name the child after the father, Zechariah. But, Elizabeth knew that this was not what God wanted. Luke tells us how this problem was solved in Luke 1:59-66 which says, “On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, but his mother spoke up and said, "No! He is to be called John." They said to her, "There is no one among your relatives who has that name." Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone's astonishment he wrote, "His name is John." Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God. The neighbors were all filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, "What then is this child going to be?" For the Lord's hand was with him.”
5. As you can see there was a lot of meaning behind these events. This passage from Luke is one of the earliest accounts for the Jewish practice of connecting the naming of a child with circumcision. But, there’s a problem here. There are no Biblical sources that show that there was a Jewish custom of naming a boy after his father. However, the mysterious events that had occurred with Zechariah’s vision in the temple and his losing the ability to speak may have brought them to wish that this young boy be named after his famous father. From Luke’s account we can see that God was doing many things in order to prepare the people for the coming of Jesus Christ. Here with the naming of John the Baptist we can see meaning behind his name. Elizabeth knew from the angel Gabriel that the boy was to be named John. She knew this because Zechariah had written it down for her after his experience with the vision in the temple. She asked him to respond for her using a tablet of paper. After all, he’d been told what the boy’s name was to be. It’s sort of humorous in the story to see that the people began asking Zechariah what the boy should be named using all sorts of signs. Zechariah had lost his speech, not his hearing. The people must have thought that since Zechariah couldn’t speak, he must also not be able to hear. But, this isn’t true. When Zechariah was in the temple the angel Gabriel told him that he would lose his ability to speak, but not his hearing. It must have been hard for him to hear all of this happening without the ability to tell the people what the baby’s name was to be called.
6. The events that occurred after Zechariah wrote down on a tablet the name “John” are miraculous and full of joy. I’m actually quite fond of the name John, since it happens to be my first name. Regardless of what I think, the meaning behind John’s name is important. Because it prepared the people for the coming of Jesus our Lord and Savior. The Christ child who was to be born to show all humanity the way to heaven through His suffering and death and through His glorious resurrection three days later. The name John means “God has been gracious.” This is ironic because John the Baptist preached a message of doom and gloom. “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near, turn from your wicked ways and come back to God.”” In the Bible the warning of judgment and doom is a necessary means to turn people away from the darkness of sin to the light of the Gospel. We as human beings need both Law & Gospel. This is why John’s name is so significant. He was sent to prepare the people through the use of God’s Law to show them that they were sinners in need of Savior. Today, he continues to prepare our hearts through the words that He spoke in the Bible so that we may see that God is gracious in giving us Jesus Christ to save us from our sins.
7. Here’s the best part of the story. After Zechariah named his son John his speech returned to him, the miracle of his healing was a sign from God. This child was destined by God to prepare the coming of the Christ Child. What did Zechariah do after he regained his speech? The answer’s simple. What anyone would do after they’ve been healed by God. He praises the Lord and uses his voice to prophecy about what his son would do. The people became afraid after they saw what was happening. This was a fear of reverence. A fear of the Lord as they saw that God’s presence was upon them. The people could see that God was preparing their hearts for something big. Much in the same way that my mother would try and prepare our house for the coming of a guest. God was preparing their hearts just as he prepares our hearts today. He did this in many ways before the birth of John the Baptist. God did it through Zechariah’s vision in the temple, his inability to speak after this experience, Mary’s visit to Elizabeth and the baby John jumping for joy in Elizabeth’s womb at the name of Jesus. The fact that a baby boy had been born as the angel Gabriel had foretold. The naming of the boy John and the immediate healing of speech given to Zechariah after he announced John’s name. Even Zechariah’s prophecy pointed to the importance of how God was preparing the people for something huge to happen.
8. Zechariah’s prophecy is one of my most favorite parts of Scripture. In his prophecy Zechariah says that Christ will shine His light upon all people who are in darkness and they will have joy. They will be enabled to live their lives for the Lord and serve Him all the rest of their days. This is what God asks and wants for us. Since He sent His Son Jesus to come down to this earth to save us from our sins, we’re now enabled to live our lives in service to Him. We’ve been called out of darkness and God has prepared a place for us in Heaven. He wants us to prepare for His Son’s return by reading the Bible daily, going to church as we are now, receiving the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper where we eat and drink Christ’s body and blood and receive the wonderful forgiveness of all of our sins. We’re no longer in despair and hopeless because of sin. We have a Savior who will lead us into the path of peace. We have the assurance of the forgiveness of sins. God continues to shelter us from the storms of life and give us a message of hope. May He continue to prepare our hearts this Advent Season for the time when we remember Jesus’ birth into this world. May He continually prepare us through His Word so that we may remember that He will once again in glory take all of us to live eternally in heaven with Him someday. This Advent season may we continue to Focus on Jesus and to prepare our hearts for Him—the coming of Jesus Christ, the King of Kings! AMEN.