College Study #97: "Unmuted"

‘Behold, the Lamb of God’

ide o amnos tou theou

College Study

97^th teaching

1.26.2015

 

“Unmuted”

 

         

          Turn with me to Luke 1:57-80.

          “Now Elizabeth’s full time came for her to be delivered, and she brought forth a son. When her neighbors and relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her, they rejoiced with her.

          “So it was, on the eighth day, that they came to circumcise the child; and they would have called him by the name of his father, Zacharias. His answered and said, ‘No; he shall be called John.’ But they said to her, ‘There is no one among your relatives who is called by this name.’ So they made signs to his father—what he would have him called. And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, saying ‘His name is John.’ So they all marveled. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, praising God. Then fear came on all who dwelt around them; and all these sayings were discussed throughout all the hill country of Judea. And all those who heard them kept them in their hearts, saying, ‘What kind of child will this be?’ And the hand of the Lord was with him.

          “Now his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying: Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He was visited and redeemed His people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets, who have been since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to our father Abraham: to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life.

          “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, with which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace’.

          “So the child grew and became strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his manifestation to Israel.”

         

          Tonight’s study is entitled: “Unmuted”.

          Let me ask you a question: What is the value of speech?

          I mean to you personally, not some quantitative value but personally: How much do you value speech, our human ability to communicate with language? Surely you realize how incredibly precious speech is. It is right up there with the great inventions of mankind: our use of fire, our harnessing of electricity, modern medicine, the automobile, the computer, the written word… right up there with them is the spoken word: civilized, intelligible language.

          Often times we take language for granted. Nowadays you hardly hear English anymore, anyway. One of my favorite catch-phrases is to say “Rest in Peace, English Language”. But you’d really realize how valuable your ability to speak is if you couldn’t speak anymore. Freedom of Speech would seem a whole lot more previous if we no longer had the freedom to speak. Let’s say, perhaps, you’re in an accident and you lose the ability to speak. How would you get through life?

          I’m having one heck of a time at my job because I’m constantly reminded that I am not bilingual. There are several people I have a difficult time just simply communicating to. Get rid of the simplest thing—mere talk, chit-chat, storytelling—and all sorts of problems arise because of a lack of communication.

          So imagine you are Zacharias. Here you are, an old man, a priest, if you remember, unable to speak for at least 9 months, almost an entire year. Earlier in the chapter, we were told that this old priest was serving in the Temple, offering the incense before the altar and praying for his nation, when an angel named Gabriel appeared to him. Gabriel told him that he was going to have a son, and not just any son, but a child with a great destiny, one who would prepare the way for the Lord Himself. Gabriel tells him that his son would be named John: which means the Lord is gracious. In other words, this son would be a gift of God’s grace, an undeserved gift of God’s favor given to Zack and Liz there in their old age.

          Zacharias, though a righteous man, as we’re told, has a hard time taking in this information, because it is information that frankly crosses the line into the miraculous and even the absurd. The KJV of the passage tells us that Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth were “stricken with age”. They were old, remember. And if there’s something everybody knows about old people, it’s that they no longer get jiggy-with-it and have themselves some babies. And not only that, but their success rate for having children a whopping zero. They had never been able to have children their entire lives. So Zacharias meets Gabriel’s message with a heaping helping of doubt. He doubted the word of God brought to him by this angel.

          Because of that Gabriel told old Zack “…behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own time.” And you know what, I bet you anything that Zacharias, like ourselves, took the simple yet profound ability of articulate speech for granted until he no longer had that ability. As the poets have echoed through the ages: “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.”

          And so imagine yourself in Zacharias’ sandals, unable to speak for 9 months, at least, just waiting for the birth of this miraculous child. No doubt so many times during those months he tried to speak, but no words came. No doubt he wondered when the time would come that he could simply tell his wife he loved her again, or when he could speak to his congregation as priest, again, or when he might finally have a chance to fully explain the deep experience he’d had all those months ago when he disbelieved the words of an angel.

          What is the value of speech? Zacharias was learning its value.

          That’s where we pick up the story of this elderly couple again there in v.57…

          v.57-58, That is true community., one that rejoices with one another. That ought to be the community of God. Zacharias may have lost the ability of good communication, but he had not lost the care of a good community. Author J.C. Ryle: “How much more happiness there would be in this evil world, if conduct like that of Elisabeth’s relations was more common!”

          In other words, if more people were happy for the blessings that others receive, this world would be a better place. Heck, let’s get closer than that. The church would be a better place, no I dare say let’s get even closer: our college group here, our friendships, our families would be better and happier if we were just glad for others when they are blessed by God. Rather, we can easily find ourselves smiling for them on the outside but inside we are covetous, jealous, and full of envy. We’re like children that have been taught to be polite on the outside, when on the inside we don’t want to share our toys and quite honestly we should like to get our fingers on everybody else’s toys too. I confess I’ll struggle with this. I’ll hear about the favor of God being shown toward somebody else and more often than not, I get depressed, envious, and even angry rather than happy for them.

          “Rejoice with those who rejoice… weep with those who weep…” Romans 12:15.

          My wife, who is just a fount of wisdom—and yes, that’s why I married her—texted me these words today: “A shared joy is a double joy, a shared sorrow is half a sorrow.”

          Share in somebody else’s joy. Be happy for others, like Elizabeth’s neighbors and relatives here who rejoiced with her for how the Lord had shown great mercy to her. And great mercy is right. Let me say, as a soon-to-be-father: pregnancy is beautifully terrifying. I pray that God would give my wife His mercy and show us His goodness in bringing our first child into the world healthy and whole. But the suffering my wife goes through, yikes! I get tired just looking at her. I can’t imagine what the discomfort, the nausea, the insomnia, the chemical imbalances, the expectation, the aches and pains are like.

          Now think about what that would be like for an old woman like Elizabeth, stricken with age. I mean, use your imagination. How old was she? How old is stricken-with-age old? Her husband had already possibly lost his hearing. What had Elizabeth lost? Could she get around easily? Did she need a cane? Could she get out of bed by herself on a good day? Did she need help getting the restroom? Had she already lost her driver’s license? Then picture that same old and frail woman being pregnant, with all the pains that come with it and you can hardly imagine a woman in the world going through it without the amazing grace and the great mercy of God ever-present at her side.

          Baby John’s conception was miraculous, but so was his being carried to term. This spoke to me, ladies and gentlemen. Sometimes there are things in life, seasons in life that just seem unbearable, as unbearable as being a ninety-year-old pregnant lady. It’s uncomfortable, painful, agonizing, unbearable, but God grants us perseverance, strength, endurance until the end of that season, the end of that term of life, however long it is.

          Hebrews 12:1, “…run with endurance the race that is set before us…” Last week we compared our lives to jigsaw puzzles. Now take in another metaphor: our lives as races. But these races are not thirty-yard dashes. They’re not “I’ll race you to that tree and back”. They’re races of endurance: they are disciplined marathons. But God can give us the endurance we need to bear the unbearable for as long as He needs us to.

          Whatever you’re going through right now may seem intolerable, but it is just a term. It’s just a season. You are going through it to learn something and to grow and mature, for as long as you need to. Maybe you’re going through it to learn to look to God for endurance for the unbearable.

          v.59, this was the custom since the time of Moses. Flip over to Leviticus 12 and would someone volunteer to read it to us, to see what exactly they’re observing here?

          Back to Luke 2. Beyond the customary law of circumcision on the eighth day, there was also the custom of naming the child. Apparently, there was a general custom of naming the son after the father, thus John the Baptist came dangerously close to being Zacharias II the Baptist, which doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, does it?

          v.60, evidently, Zacharias had communicated to his wife that the angel had told him the name of this child already.

          v.61-62, Now this is the old man’s moment of truth. This was the final test. He’s got these people coming to him and asking him what the child is to be called. Custom was to name the boys after their fathers. Zacharias the second. Perhaps in old Zack’s heart of hearts it did have a kind of ring to it. It would have been so easy at that point to pick up his writing tablet and write the words “yes, call him Zacharias, after me” and really make it all about himself. He could have easily decided to make this child his own legacy, to carry on in his footsteps, rather than turn him over to the unknown destiny that God had for him.

          That moment in Zacharias’ life may have been one of the hardest if not one of the most serious. Would he get it right this time around? Would he trust the angel’s words and name his son John, or would he go for the custom, the routine, the traditional naming of the son after the father, Zacharias Jr. Here, old Zack had to choose: himself or God, his will or God’s will, his glory or God’s glory, trust in himself or trust in God, his own words or God’s words, customs and traditions or the adventure into the unknown mystery of faith.

          I find it incredibly similar to another moment back in Exodus when the mother of a baby that would be named Moses took him and put him in a basket and left him in the river Nile. Standing up from that basket and turning away may have been the hardest thing Moses’ mother had ever done, a moment of intensely practical faith, when it all came down to the wire with one decision: trust God to protect her baby or trust herself.

          v.63, Zacharias passes the test!

          Note that they all marveled. Many things can be faked. Smiles can be faked. Love can be faked. Even sincerity can be faked. Faith cannot be faked. Real faith that places its trust beyond the customs and traditions, that says “you know what, I’m not going to do things the old way just because that’s how we’ve always done it”, real faith that acts upon the Word of God will always shock the world. The world may never be shocked by the size of our churches, the hipness of the worship, the sleekness of the technology or the dynamism of our preachers, but the world will always marvel over real faith that acts upon the Word of God as if it really meant something.

          v.64, notice something here that we may have missed in just a cursory reading. When did Zacharias regain his ability to speak?

          Not when his son was born. This is eight days after his son was born. Perhaps old Zack had tried to speak that very moment that he held his newborn son., there at the end of Elizabeth’s labor. But there was nothing. No words came. Perhaps he began to doubt, wondering “What had the angel really said to me? Didn’t he say I would be mute until these things we’re fulfilled? Here’s the baby… so…”

          Notice, it was not until Zacharias picked up that writing tablet and wrote out the words “His name is John” that he was finally able to speak. Why? Because that meant he believed the word of God so much that he was willing to act upon it. Different than just passively holding his newborn son for the first time, now he actively stood upon what God had told him through the angel Gabriel that this child would be named John. That is the moment of faith that freed Zacharias’s speech and unmuted his mouth. He had learned. The long months of silence had dispelled his doubting heart and replaced it with a heart of faith.

          And look at the very first words that come out of Zacharias’ mouth! I wonder what our first words would be after such a length of silence. I wonder what we would say if we knew how much words mattered, if we thought about what some of our final words might be? Zacharias was old, he didn’t know if he would ever speak again.

          When he does, does he say “Finally! It’s about time, God!” Does he show that some bitterness had crept into his soul? Does he show that he’s learned nothing through this affliction? No, on the contrary. He has shown that his heart has grown deeply more in touch with the Lord through his affliction because the first words out of his mouth are praises to God.

          Understand that when God decreed that Zacharias would be mute for all this time, that it wasn’t just some random punishment, nor was it any cruelty on God’s part. God does not chastise, discipline and punish for no reason. He punishes with a purpose.

          Zacharias was a righteous man, yes, a man of prayer, sure, even a man who served the Lord, but was he a man of worship? Was he a man whose heart yearned to praise God? Was he a man who was driven to glorify the Lord of glory? If not then, then surely now. Zacharias reminds us that the hard things we bear we do not bear in vain if we continue to seek God through them. In his case, Zacharias saw God more clearly not more dimly not more bitterly, through this great affliction of silence. You want to see God more clearly? You want a heart that seeks him? You want to finally and freely worship him? Maybe you need an affliction to launch you in that direction. You can see God most clearly through broken lenses, through affliction and suffering.

          Also, in Zacharias we’re reminded that there is a profound connection between faith and worship. Often times what makes worship dull and lifeless is that the lifeblood of worship is gone: faith. If faith is gone, if an abandoned trust is abandoned, if there’s no more a kind of falling upon the Lord in our desperation and need for Him, looking for His goodness, His grace and love, if a real sense that the words you are singing are real, if all of that is gone than the songs we sing to God become mysteriously hollow, where they may have been songs we sang with meaning in our lives mere months earlier. If faith is gone, worship becomes a corpse on display, a beautiful cadaver.

          There’s music and instruments and repetitive lyrics and bothersome bridges and dragging choruses and emptied lyrics. Sometimes hype comes in to try to replace the missing component, like people who talk louder to sound smarter, the music gets louder, the singers sing louder, the instruments twang and bang and clang louder and louder to try to mask over the gnawing sense of perfect emptiness underneath all that tonal façade.

          Yet for all the noise—and that’s what it becomes: mere noise—it remains empty, an experience, yes, but an empty experience. “Worship” in our time has become a kind of commercial machine, largely more interested in selling tickets and albums than in directing glory to God, mere lyrics strung together in haste to be marketed, packaged and sold and filtered into the consumeristic Christian industry. And look, one old man’s first words after a long time of silence were more worshipful than much of what we hear today.

          Why? Because his praise exploded from a heart that had learned, a heart that hurt, that had suffered, that knew silence and despair and doubt, that now had come through it all trusting on the faithfulness of God and praising Him for it. I don’t think there’s anything more to it than that: sincerity and realism. Quite simply, you speak what you believe. In the same way, you’ll only sing, really sing, what you believe. Zacharias believed and he spoke, and worshipped. Faith unmuted the doubting soul.

          You might be able to gather together the most talented musicians and singers, with the latest and greatest technology, the best atmosphere and ambiance, the most expensive instruments and equipment money can buy and yet church history attests to the fact that the best musicians, instruments, technology and atmosphere can still leave you with incredibly empty worship if there’s no faith behind it fueling it, giving it heart and soul, reflecting upon the words the deep realism and sincerity of all the struggling and the hurt and the worry and the desperation and even the indifference that we know so well, casting them upon God in these moments of worship and relying on Him to take hold of our lives.

          There’s a profound connection between worship and faith. Remember that. Remember Zacharias the next time you find worship falling flat.

          One more note on Zacharias before we move on. He reminds us that faith is the key to worship. He also reminds us that faith is the key to evangelism.

          Real faith is a contagious faith, a faith that wants to be shared. Real faith that changes hearts and casts out doubts is faith that wants to be found. You speak what you believe, and contrariwise, you will never share about what you don’t really believe.

          Constipation sucks. Just ask Zacharias. Doubt kept him plugged up for more than 9 months! How? He knew his Bible. He served the Lord. He took in the Word. He was being spiritually fed. Yet he had a faith blockage.

          Perhaps we find ourselves in a similar situation. How many of us grew up in the church? If so, you have heard more sermons than you can imagine. You know all the analogies, the catch-phrases, the illustrations, the jokes and the puns used from the pulpit. You know who’s who in the Bible. You know more or less how to navigate through the Word. You’ve got more knowledge at your fingertips than people from other countries in most of the rest of the world. You’re one of the best spiritually fed people on the planet.

          Yet why the frustration? Why does Christianity seem like a sweaty battle? Why does it seem like you’re straining so hard to be a Christianity? Maybe it’s because you’ve got no natural outlet. Maybe it’s because there’s a blockage. You’re taking in tons of faith building facts and Scriptures and knowledge, but it isn’t getting out of you. You’re spiritually constipated, feasting on the truth but unable to get it out. We’ve got a lot of depressed and downcast Christians, a lot of lazy feet-draggers and lolly-gaggers because of this very fact.

          I don’t particularly like this analogy for a lot of reasons, and I’m sure you’ve heard it before. Can we really compare constipation and pooping to healthy and natural evangelism? No, we can’t and we needn’t.

          What our bodies do with physical food isn’t just turn it into waste. What our bodies do is convert food into energy. What our souls should be doing naturally, albeit spiritually, is converting the truth of the gospel into energy. Is your Christian walk anything but energetic? Is it dead or dying, passionless, indifferent, listless, restless and weak? It’s possibly because you aren’t, by faith, converting the truth into energy, an energy that speaks that truth to others, a contagious and energetic faith.

          “But I never know what to say to people!”

          Stop whining! What do you mean by that? You’ve got a hundred-thousand things to say to people, you’ve been hearing this stuff all your life if you’ve grown up in the church. Why not tell your family or your friends about what you learned tonight at your college bible study. It’s as simple as that. It’s not like you have to go out and preach five-point sermons to people. Just be ready and available and look out for the moments that God will allow you to have a conversation, or answer somebody’s question, or comfort somebody who’s suffering, or whatever it is. But whatever it is, realize that you speak only what you believe and that you have to get this stuff out of you somehow.

          We may be well-fed sheep but the danger of being so well-fed is that we may have become constipated, spiritually speaking. Become unmuted by faith. Convert the truth into energy, don’t poop all over people. Ever seen some really bad evangelists, like people who get into other people’s faces about how the devil is running America and so on? Just the weirdest platforms for preaching the gospel? That’s pooping on people. Just be energetic in your faith, be magnetic, be inspiring, jump into those conversations at work or at school about God, speak into somebody’s life about some things you’re learning. Just speak what you believe to be true. You believe therefore you speak.

          v.65-67, these are going to be the final words we’ll get out of Zacharias before the narrative moves beyond him. He was a priest, now he’s a prophet. This prophetic song of Zacharias has a fancy Latin title: the Benedictus. Remember the song of Mary we covered several weeks ago? It was known as the Magnificat, a title taken from the opening words in Latin. Magnificat means “My soul magnifies”. Similarly, the Benedictus gets its title from the opening words of this prophetic song in Latin: Benedictus Dominus Deus Israel, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel”.

          Zacharias opens this prophetic song with those words of praise to the God of Israel. He goes on: “For He has visited and redeemed His people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David.”

          Peculiar thing to notice here: Zacharias’ son has just been born, but who is Zacharias talking about? Is he talking about his son, John?

          Can’t be. He speaks of salvation raised up in the house of David, the lineage of Judah. Anyone remember, which tribe of Israel was Zacharias and his family from? Luke 1:5 says he was of the division of Abijah and his wife was a descendant of Aaron. Both Zacharias and Elizabeth were in the lineage of Levi, not Judah. They were in the lineage of Aaron, not the house of David. So then Zacharias’ prophecy, strangely enough, overlooks his own newborn son, which you think would be the old man’s focus, and looks beyond John the Baptist to whom? Who is Zacharias’ prophecy about?

          Christ Jesus. He would be a descendant of David. John the Baptist his forerunner was a descendant of Aaron the priest, from a family of priests. Christ was a descendant of kings.

          He says the Lord has visited and redeemed His people. Has He? The last time that happened in the Jewish mind would have been at the Exodus and that was several thousand years ago in Zacharias’ time. This prophecy looks forward to the literal visitation God would give to His people, literally visiting humanity by taking on humanity. This was the Spirit speaking through Zacharias about things to come: the incarnation, the redeemer coming and dwelling among us, Immanuel “God with us”.

          The phrase “horn of salvation” here has particular meaning in that ancient culture. The horn is the part of the animal that represents strength, power and beauty. Horns can be an animal’s weapons and defense. Horns can also be ornamental, providing the animal with a look of dignity and regality. The prophets of the Old Testament often used the imagery of the horn to evoke the sense of power and beauty. It’s the same idea here.

          Behold the power and the terrible beauty of the cross. There is nothing like it in all the world, a place where hideous pain and infinite love met, where death and life embraced, where the satisfaction of God’s wrath occurred so that peace could be made between humanity and divinity. Prophetically, could there be a better image than the horn to evoke the sense of raw and brutal power and of deep beauty that represents the salvation we receive through Christ the crucified? The cross combines all the dignity, regality, strength and power, vengeance and beauty and ferociousness that went into dealing with sin and securing our salvation. Zacharias refers to the brutally beautiful fact that Jesus Christ died for your sin and mine as the “horn of salvation” raised up in the house of David.

          v.70, there’s no time for it now, but suffice it to say that the Old Testament is full of promises of this coming salvation. You’ll remember when we took an overview of the Old Testament how full it is of references to the coming Messiah, the Savior. If you’re at all curious about that or need to reference the information on Old Testament prophecies sometime, I recommend you look up our notes on the subject under the title: “Making Sense of the Old Testament” parts one and two.

          v.71, which enemies? In the contemporary minds of Zacharias’ day, “enemies” would have meant Rome, the Gentiles, the pagans, Herod. Did Jesus Christ deliver His people from Rome or the Gentiles or Herod. Not really. And that’s certainly not the point of the cross. The cross offers salvation to mankind not from physical empires and tyrants and people, but as Hebrews 2:14 says Jesus “through death… [destroyed] him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.”

          Sin was defeated at the cross. Death was defeated at the cross. Satan was defeated at the cross. Your flesh was crucified with Christ, it’s no longer I who live but Christ in me, as Paul says. Our enemies were defeated at the cross.

          v.72-73, The name Zacharias means “God has remembered”. This old man recognized that as true in his life. God remembered him and gave him back his voice. Now he turns his eyes beyond himself and Zacharias speaks of God remembering His promise, His covenant agreement, His oath to the fathers, to Abraham, that through Abraham all the world would be blessed, blessed through Jesus Christ the Savior.

          v.74-75, it is time to serve the Lord. Let us serve Him without fear.

          There are so many things we take for granted. One of them is the New Covenant. Imagine living under the Old Covenant, under the hard laws and restrictions and rules that could get you in deep trouble if you broke them. People served God in fear back then, fear of messing up, breaking the laws and getting punished for it. I can imagine that many priests probably lived in constant fear serving in the temple. You wouldn’t want to mess up a job like that, knowing that people in the past have died in messing up while serving God.

          But guys, not anymore. We needn’t fear God like that anymore. He has extended His grace toward us, unmerited favor. The only fear that may keep us from serving God now is the fear of man, whether that’s a fear of not getting into ministry because you’re afraid of what it might do to your free time, or you might be afraid of what people might think, or you might be afraid that people will discover who you really are in ministry and you’ll be kicked out, or you might be afraid that you don’t know what you’re getting into if you got into ministry. But all of that is just the fear of man. The Bible says the fear of man brings a snare, a trap. Fear can keep you from serving God.

          No more. Let us serve the Lord. As the prophet Haggai encouraged the people of his day to get up and pour into the house of God. He pleaded with them “Can you dwell safely in your paneled houses while the temple of God lies in ruins?” The church needs her members. It’s time to rise up, young men and women of God. It’s time to become the teachers and the preachers and the evangelists and the comforters and the ushers and the facilitators and the workers that the church requires. Rather than sway here and there with every whim of our emotions and lusts and faithlessness, why not just rise up and act, and serve God without fear.

          “And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” (Romans 13:11-14)

          *Now Zacharias does turn his prophetic attention to his son, John. He will have an intense ministry of serving the Lord ahead of him.

          v.76-77, John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way of the Lord for His first coming. The Bible says that Jesus Christ will return at His second coming. Question: John prepared the way for Christ’s first coming, but who will prepare the way for His second coming?

          That’s you and me, the church. We are the church. We are the ones now to preach the gospel and to preach repentance, as John did two-thousand years ago. We are the ones now to serve the Lord without fear. We are the ones who must prepare the hearts of those around us to meet their Maker when He comes, to give knowledge of salvation.

          v.78-79, the word “Dayspring” is a unique and beautiful prophetic title that really just means the dawn, the sunrise. Just a few weeks ago we sang the lyrics: “O come Thou Dayspring, come and cheer our spirits by Thine advent here disperse the gloomy clouds of night, and death's dark shadows put to flight.” Those lyrics to that Christmas carol reference the words of Zacharias here.

          The Dayspring is Christ Himself, the “Sun of Righteousness” as Malachi called Him, the “day-star” as Peter so named Him, the “bright and morning star” as it says in Revelation. Jesus is the Light of the world, the Dayspring.

          v.80, I think there’s a bittersweet note to this final verse of Luke chapter 1. John has a bright future ahead of him with a meaningful ministry and the chance to meet and even baptize the Messiah, the Lamb of God as John would later call him. But note that he’s still referred to as a child and yet the same verse tells us that he was in the deserts till the day of his manifestation to Israel. Was he already in the wilderness as a child awaiting his call to ministry?

          Possibly so, why? Because his parents were old. And that’s the last we’ll see of Elizabeth and Zacharias. They were already very old at the time of John’s birth. Can we expect that they were around for much of his childhood, or had they already passed on at this point and gone home to be with the Lord, leaving little John to depart for the deserts?

          This time in John’s life would have shaped the great man that he was to become, but perhaps it took him leaving his parents behind as a security blanket, and going out and seeking God for himself. For those of you younger folk in here, these are your formative years. God will either become your God or He will remain the distant “God of your fathers”, sought for out of tradition rather than out of your need for Him.

          It’s time to make Him your own. I’m not talking about salvation, unless you haven’t received Him by faith yet. But I’m talking about what we talked about last week: seeking God for yourself, pursuing God now as a young adult, without mommy or daddy holding your hand and telling you to go to church and read your Bible and pray. Now you don’t have them as your covering anymore. Now you’re an adult. Now you must go out and seek Him yourself.

          And the spiritual decisions you make today will become the spiritual habits of tomorrow which will decide the kind of person you will be: hateful, spiteful, miserable, lustful, wanting, unsatisfied, depressed, embittered, disillusioned or joyful, magnetic, inspiring, blessed, happy, satisfied, content, holy, pure, loving and loveable. Skipping out on this or that, on church, on time in the Word, on meaningful prayer, on helping others, on serving the Lord today will only turn those things into habits, and eventually you run the risk of sitting further and further back in church until you’re only sitting outside of the church.

          I give you this stark warning not to be deceived by the deceitfulness of sin and your flesh. This isn’t something to play around with. The glory of God isn’t something to play around with. The service of the church isn’t something to muddle over in your mind for eternity. The eternal fate of your friends and family members and coworkers is nothing to delay over. We can be turned away from the work of God that He has called us to do so easily as with a gentle whisper from our flesh to give in to the fear of man, the fear of losing time, the difficulty of disciplined seeking of God, the nakedness of ministry, the hardship of Christianity.

          It’s time to tell ourselves no more. It is time to become unmuted Christians. It is time to pour out the energy you’ve built up through years of Bible study. It is time to speak because you believe. It is time to serve the Lord.