I am a sucker for birth stories. I mean, if you have a kid and we're sitting down to eat, I don't care if I don't even know you that well yet. I know birth stories kind of get into our personal business in a way that we don't normally go to those parts of who we are very often in polite conversation. But it's like when it comes to bringing babies into the world, it's all just fair game. And we talk about how it all went and the pressure and the stress and the memories. Birth stories always have all these little tiny details that on any other day you would forget that so-and-so said this or so-and-so said that. But on a birthday, like a first birthday, everything gets recalled. Our birth stories from our three kids, I love telling people those when they're polite enough to listen because it makes my wife and my kids look awesome. That mom and that baby, they had to fight together to make life happen. And that ordeal is a metaphor, not just for coming into the world, but it's a metaphor for the hardest things we go through in life. Yeah, I could go on and on how proud I am of my wife for locking in and being an Amazon warrior and delivering life to my children. I really do love these kind of stories, but there's a reason I'm bringing this up. And that is that birth stories, in addition to just being enchanting and fun and awesome, historically they've been regarded also as something that can give us a sense of what is to come with the one who is being born. Now, in a pagan sense, we're talking about omens or portents of things to come. But this isn't just a pagan thing, this is also a biblical thing. There was an assumption in the mind of the people of God that from time to time God would ordain that a certain person would play a certain role, a great role, and that how they were brought into the world would tell part of that story. So outside the Bible, we get these sort of legendary birth prologues from people like Julius Caesar, Cyrus the Great, Sargon of Akkad. But in the Bible, we get these great birth prologues and early childhood prologues with characters like Moses and Jacob and Esau, how they were born. That tells a story. And relevant to our conversation here about the Gospel of John, there's a great birth prologue with John the Baptist that we've been working on for the last couple of days. And not only is it just a great story, but it also is theologically rich. So this birth prologue for John the Baptist does not happen in the Gospel of John. It happens in the Gospel of Luke, the previous book to John. And John, the way he writes, as we go through the Gospel of John more, you're going to see it looks like he's assuming that the audience is pretty familiar with Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It would seem that John the evangelist was very familiar with Matthew, Mark, and Luke as well. And John is writing so that people would see Jesus and believe that he's the Son of God and by believing have life in his name. In service of that, John keeps a very heavenly perspective, a very big picture theological perspective. He doesn't just write a combination of Matthew, Mark, and Luke so that he can say, Oh, I wrote a gospel too. Look, I was there, I did one, see guys. No, he's trying to fill something in. He's trying to contribute one more voice to this conversation about Jesus. John is trying to seal the deal. He's trying to convince people who've been understanding a little bit of the stuff about Jesus that they should lock onto this, that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and that they should be among those who believe in him and experience that life. So it ain't weird at all that John the evangelist does not give us the whole birth prologue of John the Baptist all over again because it just got covered in the Gospel of Luke. And so far, what we've figured out is that John the Baptist was born during the time of Herod, king of Judea. He is going to be born to a guy named Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth. Zechariah is descended directly from Abraham and then Levi and then Aaron and then a guy named Abijah. He's got this rich family tree, this rich priestly line, and yet they don't have kids. It says Elizabeth is barren, and it's not because these, you know, were they didn't do anything. She's just barren. What are you going to do? So then the time comes for Zechariah's division of the priesthood. They're up, and so it's his time to do priestly duties, and even more than just his normal priestly duties, he is chosen by Lot to be the guy from his division of priests to go in to the Holy of Holies, where theoretically the presence of God is. And so while he's in there, something that hasn't happened in a very long time occurs. The angel of the Lord shows up. Some sort of supernatural demonstration of the presence of God occurs, and Zechariah is startled and gripped with fear. That's a pretty common response when people encounter angels in the Bible. But the angel said to him, This is Luke 1:13, do not be afraid, Zechariah. Your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. He will be a joy and a delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth. I mean, talk about a 14-point swing, right? Oh no, it's the presence of the Lord. I'm gonna be blinded or killed or struck down. And then the angel's like, No, that's good. Actually, I've got some great news for you. And it is great news. He goes on, it'll be a joy and a delight for you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. And then this gets paid off in Matthew 11, 30 some years later. Literally, the Lord, Jesus, says that John the Baptist is indeed great, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. That's the promise that Zechariah gets from the angel Gabriel here in the John the Baptist prologue. And then you turn over to, I missed it. It's Matthew 11. Hang on. You turn over to Matthew 11, 11, and Jesus says this about John the Baptist. I tell you the truth, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist. Well, there you have it. That I mean, that's a direct, explicit affirmation of the promise that Zechariah received from the angel. So this is going very, very well. I didn't get any visit like this when I found out that my wife was pregnant with any of our babies. He will be a joy and a delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. Okay, all of that's awesome, but now it takes an odd turn here in verse 15 of Luke 1. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. I think that Zechariah's brain, when he got told this, would have immediately gone to the idea of the Nazarite vow in the Old Testament. There's a very famous character, even if you're new to the Bible, you've probably heard of this guy. There's a very famous strong man named Samson in the Old Testament, in the book of Judges, and he took this Nazarite vow, and there were rules about how he would live and what he would eat and drink and personal hygiene and things like that. And somehow it was all tied to his strength. The promise of God imbuing Samson with supernatural strength was tied to Samson keeping these vows. And Samson, his story plays out more like a tragedy than a story of triumph. But in the end, he does just enough to serve in his role as a guy to defeat the oppressors of his own people. I think Zechariah would have caught that immediately. He would have been like, oh, I mean, you're you're hinting at we're going to do a Nazirite vow thing here with my kid, and he's going to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Well, the Spirit of the Lord was upon Samson in the Old Testament. That was the source of his strength. So John the Baptist is going to be strong, maybe not like strongman, literally superhero strong, but there's going to be a strength to him. He's going to be from the power of God. Well, in the mind of Zechariah, and I think for you and me as well, the question that everybody should be asking here is, Whew. Well, Samson didn't pass the test of really neatly keeping those vows and using the strength and the presence of the Lord rightly. He didn't wield that sharp instrument very well at all times. But will John the Baptist be different? Can he pass the test? Samson liked to point to himself with all of his strength, but it looks like John the Baptist's role is to point to someone else. Can he pull it off? So there's a tension developing in this birth prologue because of the rich story that all of this is happening against the backdrop of. It goes on. Verse 16: Many of the people of Israel he will bring back to the Lord their God, and he will go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. That's a remarkable promise on its own. But it's even more remarkable when you discover that there's a whole bunch of Old Testament Bible prophecy being referenced here, and it is very important Bible prophecy. It's stuff that Zechariah would have known like the back of his hand, because the stuff that's being quoted at Zechariah here by Gabriel, the angel of God, it's the final verses, it's the final word that God gave to the Jewish people before the Old Testament wraps up. In the book of Malachi, which is the last book of the Old Testament, the tone of Malachi is exhaustion mixed with hope. Malachi is a prophet who you can feel the weight of the whole Old Testament on his shoulders. Man, we tried everything. We tried anarchy, we tried monarchy, we tried being ruled by other people and operating within their political system. We tried making a bunch of rules, we tried intermarrying. We tried having two countries. We tried civil war. We tried everything, and we were not able to please God. We were not able to uphold his standards. We were not able to sustain a righteous existence as God's chosen people set apart. So Malachi is looking forward to God completing his redemptive plan, but it's also very clear coming out of Malachi, God is going to have to do the work. We simply cannot solve this on our own. So he urges the people in the closing lines of Malachi to remember the law of Moses, but then here is the final, I mean, we're talking literally the final sentences of the Old Testament, the final sentences of the Bible Zechariah read. It goes like this Malachi 4, 5. See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, or else I will come and strike the land with a curse. Did you catch the stuff that Gabriel was just specifically saying to Zechariah? Let that passage ring in your ears. See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of their fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers. Now let's go back over here to Luke 1. Many of the people of Israel he will bring back to the Lord their God, and he will go on before the Lord in the spirit and the power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Think about that. And now it would have hit Zechariah's ears. It's old, like he doesn't have a kid. He's just hoping to finish out his priestly days and just wishes they would add a kid, but now they're old, and it's probably never going to happen. And then he goes into the Holy of Holies where God is supposed to be, but he's never really in there anymore. And there's actually a manifestation of the power of the Lord, a messenger of the Lord in there. He's terrified. The messenger of the Lord is like, hey, it's okay. Don't be afraid. In fact, I got something cool for you. You are going to have a son. And little bonus, you know that last verse of the Old Testament that you think about all the time and that you have memorized and that you yearn for and pray for that fulfillment and that day to come, and you pray that you'll see it in your lifetime. Yeah, that new Elijah who is to come, that's going to be your kid. And he's going to succeed in turning the hearts of the children back to their fathers, not just mending generational relationships, but turning the hearts of the children back to their distant forefathers, the one who God revealed himself to and revealed his law to. Yeah, that's right. I'm the angel Gabriel, you're Zechariah, old and childless. And all that's about to change, and what else is about to change, is the entire unfolding of God's redemptive plan. And it's going to happen through your family and your kid. Whoa. We're not talking here obviously about like a reincarnation of Elijah. We're talking about someone occupying that role, taking on the mantle of Elijah, having that passed on to him. You know, are we sure that this is really John the Baptist, though? Well, Jesus confirms it in that same passage that we just looked at a minute ago in Matthew chapter 11, where he says, I tell you the truth, among those born of women there is not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist. Then he goes on a couple verses later, and he says, From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. He who has ears, let him hear. Dang, it's all true. This isn't just a normal birth story like you have or I have, or maybe something funny happened, or the doctor said something funny. Those are good birth stories. I like those. But this is a birth story for the ages. This is a birth story that completes thousands of years of history. This is a birth story that not only reverses the fortunes of a faithful elderly couple who've done the right thing for their whole lives, but this is a birth story that reverses the fortunes of all of creation, all of humanity. Light and life is to come. And this guy, John the Baptist, is the prophet who is going to point the way, point the finger at the one who is the light, who is the life, who is the word, who is God in the flesh, who is God with us. And Zechariah is the first to hear, standing here dumbfounded in the Holy of Holies. And while that dumbfounding is about to become literal in the next part of the passage that we're going to look at tomorrow. All right, that's plenty for now. I'm Matt. This is the 10-minute Bible hour podcast. Let's do this again soon.