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In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. 

I seem to remember David Pawson commenting that the Christmas story is about two babies, not one, and Luke shows, from the beginning of his gospel, how the lives and ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus overlapped.

‘The careful structuring and interweaving of the stories indicates that John was a significant person whose birth was part of God’s plan and that Jesus was an even greater person than his predecessor. The story contains many echoes of the OT which show that God’s new acts were in harmony with his earlier mighty acts for his people and also in fulfilment of prophecy. The various supernatural occurrences recorded also mark out the two infants as God’s servant and Son respectively.’ I.H. Marshall: ‘New Bible Commentary’, p.981.

At one time, many scholars questioned just how accurate a historian Luke was. But over the years, the good doctor has been repeatedly vindicated by numerous archaeological findings. Having stated in the opening verses his commitment to producing an accurate account, here he is earthing John’s story in a particular historical moment.

Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, ² just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.

Today’s preachers cannot be ”eyewitnesses” – not in the sense in which the earliest disciples were – but we continue to be ”servants of the word.” It is surely stating the obvious to say that the Bible is not there to serve our purposes, but for us to serve its intentions. We are under its authority; it is not under ours. We are to flow along with the current of Scripture, not cut our own channels.

I heard about a well-known preacher whose habit was to prepare his sermons on his knees: a perpetual reminder to him that he was a man under the Bible, and not over it. I’m not suggesting every other preacher should do the same. It wouldn’t be physically possible for many anyway. But I am profoundly impressed by this individual’s heart- posture.

One other thought: I don’t know if Luke and John knew each other. But if they did, I feel certain they would have agreed that to be a servant of the word was ultimately to be a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ (John 1:1-18).

 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, ² just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. ³ With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, ⁴ so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

No one knows for certain who ”Theophilus” was, but his name means ‘Lover of God.’ It’s thought he may have been a high-ranking official: maybe a new Christian, or a genuine seeker after truth. David Pawson’s take is that his name means ‘Mr. God-friendly.’

Be that as it may, I believe it is important to note that the Luke who wrote this gospel (and also the book of Acts), was probably a medical doctor. Again, in Pawson’s words, he was someone with ‘a scientific turn of mind’. So, as we re-read the Christmas story (and indeed the gospel as a whole, along with the book of Acts – documents filled with miraculous wonders and supernatural events), let’s remember they were written by a careful researcher who clearly tried to get to the heart of what really happened.

You may choose to reject Christianity. But no-one should lightly dismiss it as some sort of ‘fairy tale.’ Should we reject, without seriously investigating, a faith many serious-minded people have embraced, and still do ? The fact that certain intellectuals are believers doesn’t make it true. But surely it says to us, ‘Take a careful look.’

”…I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning…’

Can you honestly say the same?

It pleased the Lord
    for the sake of his righteousness
    to make his law great and glorious.

Honour

Obey

Love

Your

Bible

It

Brings

Life

Everlasting

That’s what my beloved Pastor, George Tett, told me when I was just a wee boy. He sat me next to him on a wooden pew at the back of the Atherton Mission Hall, and taught me this acrostic, pointing out the letters ‘HOLY BIBLE’ on the spine. I’m sure he could not have imagined that a 60-odd year old man would still remember this wonderful, personal sermon decades later.

But I do recall his words; and not only his words. But also his own evident love for God’s Book. Even more, His love for its Author (and for the people of God). Such love outlives and outlasts a life, and still ‘preaches’ long after the person’s departure.

(Just a note to say that from next Monday, God-willing, we will start to work through Luke 1, and spend time in this great chapter until the end of the Christmas season. I hope to pick up at Isaiah 43 in the new year).

¹⁸ “Hear, you deaf;
    look, you blind, and see!
¹⁹ Who is blind but my servant,
    and deaf like the messenger I send?
Who is blind like the one in covenant with me,
    blind like the servant of the Lord?
²⁰ You have seen many things, but you pay no attention;
    your ears are open, but you do not listen.”
²¹ It pleased the Lord
    for the sake of his righteousness
    to make his law great and glorious.
²² But this is a people plundered and looted,
    all of them trapped in pits
    or hidden away in prisons.
They have become plunder,
    with no one to rescue them;
they have been made loot,
    with no one to say, “Send them back.”

²³ Which of you will listen to this
    or pay close attention in time to come?
²⁴ Who handed Jacob over to become loot,
    and Israel to the plunderers?
Was it not the Lord,
    against whom we have sinned?
For they would not follow his ways;
    they did not obey his law.
²⁵ So he poured out on them his burning anger,
    the violence of war.
It enveloped them in flames, yet they did not understand;
    it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.

‘Blindness and deafness in spiritual things are worse in those that profess themselves to be God’s servants and messengers than in others.’ Matthew Henry.

This seems to take us back to the time before the captivity in Babylon, and the principle reason why the people of God went into exile:

”For they would not follow his ways;
    they did not obey his law.” (24).

People disregard God’s Word, preferring their own way, seeing it as the route to freedom. But they find themselves in deep trouble. (Mind you, the illusion of freedom can linger long, before we realise, to our horror, that we are in chains).

 ”Which of you will listen to this
    or pay close attention in time to come?” (23).

Will we?

”These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.  So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” (1 Cor.10:11,12).

We ignore God’s ”great and glorious” Word at our peril.

‘The law is truly honourable, and, if men will not magnify it by their obedience to it, God will magnify it by punishing them for their disobedience.’ Matthew Henry.

“Hear, you deaf;
    look, you blind, and see!
¹⁹ Who is blind but my servant,
    and deaf like the messenger I send?
Who is blind like the one in covenant with me,
    blind like the servant of the Lord?
²⁰ You have seen many things, but you pay no attention;
    your ears are open, but you do not listen.”

“What consumes your mind controls your life.”

Unlike the Messiah (1-6), Israel was a failed servant, and paid for her sin in the years of Babylonian captivity. She had ”seen many things” (20). In other words, the nation had been the recipient of great privileges (e.g. promises, prophecies, and not least God’s Word – see v.21). But we can live in proximity to remarkable spiritual realities, and yet not pay attention to them.

In the Bible, privilege brings responsibility.

Our privileges are even greater than theirs, living as we do on this side of the Cross and the Resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit; possessing, as we do, a complete Bible. But how’s our attention span? We live in an increasingly distracted age. Are we failing to see the many ‘burning bushes’ all around us?

Progress in the Christian life is enabled and encouraged by giving time and attention to the things of God.

Pay attention!

“For a long time I have kept silent,
    I have been quiet and held myself back.
But now, like a woman in childbirth,
    I cry out, I gasp and pant.
¹⁵ I will lay waste the mountains and hills
    and dry up all their vegetation;
I will turn rivers into islands
    and dry up the pools.
¹⁶ I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,
    along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;
I will turn the darkness into light before them
    and make the rough places smooth.
These are the things I will do;
    I will not forsake them.
¹⁷ But those who trust in idols,
    who say to images, ‘You are our gods,’
    will be turned back in utter shame.

‘It is no secret what God can do’, says a popular Christian song.

How we need what God can do – ”the things” He will do (16).

This passage poses a challenge: where does our trust lie really? (17). In what, in whom are we trusting? Where is our confidence? Let us examine ourselves.

I am aware that I have used this quote in the recent past, but it seems relevant to today’s passage:

“When we rely upon organization, we get what organization can do; when we rely upon education, we get what education can do; when we rely upon eloquence, we get what eloquence can do. And so on. But when we rely upon prayer, we get what God can do.” A.C. Dixon.

When we are praying for God to move, there can be a ”long time” of waiting on Him and for Him (14). But when it is time for God to demonstrate His power, things can change very quickly (vv15,16). These verses refer to miraculous things that only God can do.

God was going to bring His people back to their homeland, supernaturally overcoming every obstacle. ‘Now is the time for Israel to be ”delivered” from bondage, just as a baby is delivered during child-birth.’ Tom Hale: ‘Applied Old Testament Commentary’, p.1041.

He still brings people out of captivity to sin, evil, and death by His own miraculous power.

PRAYER: May the world see in the church the works of Jesus, performed in the power of Jesus for the glory of Jesus.

“For a long time I have kept silent,
    I have been quiet and held myself back.
But now, like a woman in childbirth,
    I cry out, I gasp and pant.

Matthew Henry sees verses 14-16 (which we will come back to tomorrow), as picturing the deliverance of people from captivity to sin, even as it describes the literal return of the Jews from Babylon. Speaking about God, he says:

‘He shall cry, in the preaching of his word, cry like a travailing woman; for the ministers of Christ preached as men that travailed in birth again till they saw Christ formed in the souls of the people, Gal. iv.19.’

‘For a long time I have kept silent,
    I have been quiet and held myself back.
But now…’

It may be that you find yourself caught in a delay. It can feel frustrating, I know. But although it may be stating the obvious, it needs to be said (and understood) that God’s timing is perfect.

Last year, on 21st November, I recorded this extract, from ‘The growth of a work of God’ (the story of missionary Hudson Taylor) in my journal:

‘Delays and difficulties explained themselves, and how thankful Mr. Taylor felt for the restraining Hand that had kept him from leaving England previously…He had found himself at last, found life’s best and deepest, not in the way of his own choosing, but in the ”good works which God had before ordained” that he should walk in them…

It rather took Mr. Taylor’s breath at first! But it had come about entirely apart from his seeking, and in such a way as to leave no doubt that the one who had led him to settle in East London was opening to him also the drawing-rooms of the West.’

Taylor had experienced challenging delays to his plan to return to China, but then he found doors open to be able to inform influential people about the Chinese mission, and he garnered remarkable support.

God’s view is higher and broader and deeper than ours. He sees further, and He knows what He is doing, even when we don’t. It goes without saying that He is worthy of our fullest confidence.