SERVICE VIDEO (link)TEXT: Luke 1:67-70,76-79; Isaiah 9:2,6-7

When I think about John the Baptist I sometimes think about Good Shepherd. Good Shepherd is a small church that, by the grace of God, has a big reach and impact for the Kingdom of God. While we gather in relatively small numbers week after week, we have been faithful in proclaiming and teaching the Gospel message to successive generations. We have had a steady stream of people grow up in and come through our church through youth ministry, internships, and active membership. I think of Jason and Josh Hinton, Pratt and Ashley Butler, Carter Robinson, Nadine Ellsworth (Moran), Courtney and Wes Butler, Karen Katibah, Paul Hamilton, Greg Joines, Jeremiah Caughran, Mark Ashbaugh, John Drexel, Mariah Woodbury, Bess McLawhorn, Claire Mackie, and even more others before them. They’ve gone on to pastor and plant churches, go to the mission field, lead campus ministries, work in the marketplace, and become faith leaders in other churches as they’ve moved to different part of the city or country.

They (and you!) all have something in common with John the Baptist. They believed in the promises of God and they are committed to telling the story of what God has done and is doing in the world. That’s the mission of our church as well – not to make a name for ourselves, but to equip you to make much of the name of the Lord and point people to what God has done and is doing. With that in mind, let’s look today at John the Baptist!

John had a simple outdoor ministry with a simple but significant message: “Repent! The Messiah is coming!” He was always pointing away from himself to what God was doing. He was not about gathering people to himself or making a name for himself. He was all about the coming Kingdom of God.

His calling and ministry started even before his miraculous birth. An angel told his father Zacharias that he and Elizabeth would have a baby. They were old and had never been able to have children. It was reminiscent of Abraham and Sarah of old. The angel Gabriel came and told Zacharias that he and Elizabeth would have a baby who would be a great prophet like Elijah, called to turn the hearts of the people back to God. When Zacharias asked for a sign, the angel took away his voice, saying that it would return when the baby was born.

When John was finally born everyone assumed the parents would name the baby after his father. But Zacharias wrote on a tablet that his name was to be John and at that moment his voice was restored and everyone marveled. That was when Zacharias spoke the words in today’s text from Luke. I want to look at that text and the one from Isaiah to consider the promises of God and what it means to tell out that story.

The Great Promise (Isaiah 9)

Let’s start first in Isaiah, one of many places where God’s great promises to save His people (and the world) are spoken. Isaiah is writing to God’s people who have lost everything, have been exiled, and who are desperate for rescue and restoration. The promises to them were provisionally fulfilled when they returned home from Exile, but in the days of Zacharias and Elizabeth the Jewish people, under the boot of Rome, were still longing for the kind of rescue and restoration described in Isaiah.

Isaiah wrote, “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.” (9:2) And then a little bit later in that chapter he speaks of a child to be born, words we probably know so well because of Handel’s Messiah. But Zacharias would have known them well, along with all the Jewish people at that time, because they held so much promise for God’s deliverance, for THE Messiah:

6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;And the government will rest on His shoulders;And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor,Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.7 There will be no end to the increase of His government or of pe