The Gospel of Luke: A Final Footnote

Transcript

JRNT 67
08/18/2024
The Gospel of Luke: A Final Footnote
Luke 1:80
Jesse Randolph

Well, if you’re like me and you do a lot of reading, you’re inevitably going to come across those things called footnotes. You know what I’m talking about. There’s a tiny little number that’s embedded in the text of whatever it is you’re reading. And then that tiny little number then corresponds to the bottom of the page. Where you let your eyes drop to the bottom. And there’s that same tiny little number. And right next to that tiny little number is the text of information, that whatever the author thought was not going to go into the body of the text, but instead would go to the bottom of the page. And it’s sometimes an aside. It’s sometimes an addendum to the main point that’s being developed in the body of the text. That’s what the footnote’s purpose typically serves.
And knowing where we’d be going this morning in our study of Luke’s Gospel I did some digging this week. Into some of the weirdest, most bizarre, most strange footnotes that have ever been written. Here they are, for your listening pleasure. These are actual footnotes used by actual authors, of the actual published works. This is footnote #1: (these are all different authors, by the way) “This was revealed to me in a dream.” That’s the footnote. Footnote #2: “I forgot where I read this, but if my memory serves me, it was in some reliable source.” Footnote #3:
“What I have here written makes no claim to novelty in points of detail; and therefore, I give no sources, because it is indifferent to me whether what I have thought has already been thought before me by another.” And then, my favorite footnote #4: “I’ve lost the… reference and am confessing my carelessness to the world instead of spending the day looking for the exact [source]. Perhaps you could just trust me on this one.”

I’ve brought up this notion of these silly footnotes for a reason. Which is that in my studies for this morning’s sermon. I’ve discovered that the text that we’re going to be in today, Luke 1:80, is thought of by many commentators on this passage as being a footnote, of sorts, to these final words of the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel. Not a footnote in the sense of being of lesser importance. There is no such thing as lesser important scripture when we think about the fact that all scripture is breathed out by God. All of it is important, from beginning to end, from Genesis to Revelation. That includes passages in Leviticus that deal with lancing of boils. That includes passages from Psalms which reflect of the grandeur and the majesty of God.
So, verse 80 is a footnote, not in the sense that it’s of lesser importance, rather, verse 80 is a footnote in terms of its placement at the very end of this section of Luke’s Gospel.

So, if you’re not there already, I’d invite you to turn with me in your bibles to Luke 1:80. God’s word reads, “And the child continued to grow and to become strong in spirit, and he lived in the desolate regions until the day of his public appearance to Israel.”

The title of the message this morning is “A Final Footnote.”
And I know that we’re each guilty, I’m going to assume we’re each guilty, of not always reading the footnotes, when we read other material. But this is God’s Word. And this is not a footnote that we want to skip over. It’s not a footnote that we want to even blaze through, because it sets the stage for so much. And not only John the Baptist’s eventual entrance into the public eye in Luke 3. Where he makes a splash, and storms onto the scene by calling the religious rulers of the day a brood of vipers. But this footnote serves as a bridge between John the Baptist’s, the forerunner to the Messiah, arrival here on earth and then the arrival of Jesus our Lord at His first coming.
And as we’re about to see, Luke gets us started here, in Luke 1:80, by noting that this child who would go on to be known as John the Baptist enjoyed an otherwise pedestrian upbringing. A common place upbringing. That’s our first point this morning, if you’re taking notes, “The Pedestrian Advance,” And that title, that heading, is built around the fact, that as we see in our passage (and we’re going to go somewhat out of order here) first, “the child continued to grow,” and second, “he lived in the desolate regions.”

Let’s build each of those out. Starting with the fact, this child, the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth “continued to grow.” Now, that language there, “continued to grow”, it’s referring to John’s, his physical growth. Which Luke, a physician we remember, would have known something about. But Luke here, wasn’t drawing exclusively from his medical knowledge in explaining that this child John grew. It doesn’t take a medical degree to figure out that children eventually grow into adulthood. What Luke appears to be doing, rather, is drawing from several different Old Testament accounts. Where various key figures, whether patriarchs, or prophets, or judges grew in physical stature as they advanced into adulthood. We think of the account of Isaac in Genesis 21:8, it says, “And the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.” Or the account of Samuel in 1 Samuel 2:26, it reads, “Now the young boy Samuel was growing in stature and in favor both with Yahweh and with men.” Or the account of Samson in Judges 13:24, says, “Then the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson; and the child grew up, and Yahweh blessed him.”

Now, from the very beginning of our study of Luke’s Gospel going all the way back to the prologue (the Sunday after Easter) in Luke 1:1-4, I’ve mentioned repeatedly in this series that Luke was a Gentile. Not a Jew, but a Gentile. And while we’ve seen Luke here, the author, record these accounts of different godly and pious Jews, people like Zechariah and Mary, who were themselves very intimately familiar with the Old Testament scriptures -- well, apparently Luke was, too. And that’s significant, because Luke unlike a man like Timothy wasn’t raised in the faith. He didn’t have a grandmother like Lois or a mother like Eunice pointing him to the truths of the Old Testament scriptures all the way going back to his earliest years of childhood. No, Luke was a Gentile convert. Meaning he came to faith in the true God, the God of Israel, the God of heaven and earth, at a later stage of life. And what that means is that he had a steeper learning curve in terms of what it meant to learn the scriptures and grow in your knowledge of the scriptures. But clearly by the time he writes this book he is familiar with those scriptures. Clearly he has done the work. So much so that now in describing John the Baptist and his physical growth and development here Luke is pulling in these Old Testament references as though he’s been steeped in the scriptures his entire life.

I hope that’s an encouragement to many in the room here, who maybe don’t have the conventional grow-up-in-church experience. Who maybe came to faith a little bit later in life. Or maybe it took you a little while longer to realize that your Christian upbringing, if you were raised in the church, eventually has to become your own. Maybe you got saved later in life. And the encouragement, even if you don’t have those decades of familiarity with the reading in the scriptures. And even if you can’t quite yet site every chapter and verse, for every biblical idea that passes through your mind. Even if it seems like you’re a few steps behind everyone else sitting to your left or to your right here. Be encouraged! Everybody starts somewhere. And you’re still here. You’re sitting under the Word of God preached. So, now the responsibility is yours, to take ownership. And to open up the book, to study the scriptures for yourself. And there are all sorts of ways that you can do so. There are all sorts of ways that you can be built up in your understanding of God’s Word. You can meet with one of our pastors to get some guidance and counsel and direction, as to how this looks to study the Word of God for yourself. These days, you can download a bible study app. Or a bible memory app. You can certainly join a weekday home bible study. And be built up in the faith through the Word of God. There are countless ways to become a student of God’s Word. But step number one, always, is cracking it open for yourself, and reading it. Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said that “a day without reading the bible is a wasted day.” And he was right! So, whether you’ve been at it for a long time or you’re just getting started, get in the Word. Be like Luke. Luke knew the Word. And it comes through here, in this description of John, when he says, “And the child continued to grow.”

Now, Luke, of course here, is emphasizing that John was growing physically. He was growing in height. His shoulders were broadening. The beard was starting to fill in. And note, even here, as we’ve seen throughout the early parts of Luke’s Gospel, there is yet again another parallel between the early years of John the Baptist and the early years of Jesus our Lord. Luke 1 has been laden with parallelism between John the Baptist and Jesus. It must have been a month or two ago, I used the illustration of the interstate and the frontage road. To describe the parallels between Jesus’ early life and ministry, and John the Baptist. This is just another example. Remember, the birth of John and the birth of Jesus were both foretold by the angel Gabriel. Both John and Jesus had godly mothers. Elizabeth, we saw back in Luke 1:6 was “righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and righteous requirements of the Lord.” That’s Elizabeth. And then there’s Mary, who in Luke 1:47 “rejoiced in God [her] Savior.” And in Luke 1:38 it says, “Behold, the slave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” So, they both had godly mothers. And then, we know that the conceptions of John and Jesus were both brought about in miraculous manner. John was conceived in the womb of Elizabeth despite her old age and her formerly barren womb. Jesus was conceived in Mary’s womb through the Holy Spirit. We know that John foretold the long-awaited Messiah. And Jesus was that Messiah. Both John and Jesus would call on the people of Israel to turn back to God. And then both John and Jesus would be put to death by the demands of their own people.

And even here in this footnote, Luke 1:80, there’s again this parallel between John and Jesus in how they developed and grew in their youth. John, we see here, “continued to grow and to become strong in spirit.” And Luke would later say of Jesus’ own growth in Luke 2:40, “the Child continued to grow and become strong, being filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.” Or just down the page from that, in Luke 2:52, Luke records that “Jesus was advancing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” So there you have it. Another parallel between the early life of John, and the early life of our Lord.

So, we’ve seen that John grew physically, “and the child continued to grow”. Now, what are we to make of this reference that he grew and he “lived in the desolate regions”? Or if you have an NASB, it will say “in the deserts.” Or you might even translate it, “in the wildernesses.” It’s a plural form there, “desolate regions”, “deserts”, “wildernesses.” Well, it doesn’t mean that John was living in several different places in the desolate regions or the desert or the wilderness. Like a modern-day Army family that moves from place to place. Rather, in describing where John grew up, his dwelling place, Luke is using that plural form when he says desolate regions in a more abstract way. He’s using it in an abstract way, a broader way, the way he uses that term in Luke 5, when he speaks of our Lord slipping away to the desolate regions to pray. Same word.
Or in Luke 8:29 it’s recorded that “He had commanded the unclean spirit,” that’s Jesus, of course, “to come out of the man. For it had seized him many times, and he was bound with chains and shackles, being kept under guard. And yet breaking his bonds, he was driven by the demon into the desolate regions.” In each of those cases here in Luke 1, Luke 5, Luke 8, Luke is using the plural to describe this broader more general locale. And in John’s case, that would have meant the Jordan Valley. This Judean wilderness territory just west of the Dead Sea.

Now, Luke doesn’t indicate here how long John lived in the desolate regions as its described here. He doesn’t even mention who was with John during this time. And we know that Zechariah and Elizabeth were elderly when John was born. We have no indication of how much longer they lived on this earth with John. So, we’re not even sure if they were with him at this point in the desolate regions. Luke just gave us, as the Holy Spirit directed him to write what he wrote, what he gives us here. And what we know, is that like our Lord, who went to the desolate regions to pray, Luke 5, John the Baptist, the forerunner, went to the desolate regions to prepare. To prepare to come to his people in fulfillment of the words of Isaiah, Isaiah 40:3, which says, “A voice is calling, ‘Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; make smooth in the desert a highway for our God’.”

Alright, so far in our study of this footnote we’ve seen that John the Baptist’s upbringing was pedestrian. Meaning commonplace. He grew up in a certain place. And he grew at a certain pace. That takes us now to the middle of verse 80. We skipped over it earlier. And we did so because I really want us to focus in on a point of emphasis here in this text. And I want us to take our time with it. Look at the text again, Luke 1:80. John, son of Zechariah, son of Elizabeth, this child as he’s referred to here, he not only grows in physical stature as he lives in the desolate regions. It says here that “he continued to grow and become strong in spirit.”
If you’re a note taker, our second point is “The Prophetic Antecedent.” That will make more sense in a few moments. I promise. But note that language there in verse 80. John became “strong in spirit.” Now, those are words, which if we take them from our modern-day vantage point and we think of all the psychology-infused fads that are out there in the realm of parenting, even Christian parenting, those words “strong in spirit” can get easily twisted. We might read those words that John was strong in spirit and our minds might go immediately to he was strong-willed. Which has become a parenting buzzword for many decades now. My child’s not being disobedient, he's just strong-willed. My child’s not in sin, he’s just strong-willed. My child’s not a hopeless, rebellious, little wretch, he’s just strong-willed. The Lord’s going to use it one day. It’s all a phase. He’ll grow out of it.

That’s not what Luke is saying here in describing John in his childhood as being strong in spirit. He’s not saying here that John was sinfully strong-willed like the child throwing a tantrum at the grocery store. Or the child talking back to their parents. Or the manipulative child. The sense here, rather. Is that in John’s inner being, in his inner man, what the bible calls the soul or the spirit, John had this tenacity and this doggedness and this determination to him. He was bold. And he was outspoken. But not in some reckless, rambling way. Not in a way that made him some sort of cantankerous crank. Instead, he was strong in spirit in a way that reflected that he was guided by the Spirit. He was controlled by the Spirit. He was submitted to the Spirit. Recall that one of the first things we learned about John in Luke’s Gospel, is that before he was even conceived in his mother Elizabeth’s womb -- in the womb he was what? He was, verse 15, “filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb.” So, John was “strong in spirit.” Meaning he was strong of conviction. And he was strong of character. But he was also, we know, “filled with the Holy Spirit.” Not only in his mother’s womb, but throughout his prophetic ministry as he served as a mouthpiece for the living God.

The years of time spent out in the wilderness then, those were years in which the Spirit which filled John fashioned him. And shaped him. And molded him. And prepared him for his prophetic ministry. A ministry which we’re going to see, in which John made many different bold declarations. In fact, get your thumbs and your index fingers ready. We’re going to do a lot of turning today, ok? Turn with me, if you would, to Mark 6, where we’re going to get a feel for how verbally John was strong in spirit. Mark 6 is the recording in Mark’s Gospel of his encounter with King Herod, Herod the Great. Look at Mark 6, and we’ll start in verse 17. It says, “For Herod himself had sent and had John arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, because he had married her. For John had been saying to Herod, ‘It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.’” Now, right away, that’s a pretty bold statement to make to a king. That’s a good indicator that John was strong in spirit. Well, his strength of spirit, as we see here, had some consequences. Read on, it says, “Now Herodias was holding a grudge against him and was wanting to put him to death and was not able; for Herod was afraid of John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he was keeping him safe. And when he heard him, he was very perplexed; but he used to enjoy listening to him. And a strategic day came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his great men and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee; and when the daughter of Herodias herself came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests; and the king said to the girl, ‘Ask me for whatever you want and I will give it to you.’ And he swore to her, ‘Whatever you ask of me, I will give it to you; up to half of my kingdom.’ And she went out and said to her mother, ‘What shall I ask for?’ And she said, ‘The head of John the Baptist.’ And immediately she came in a hurry to the king and asked, saying, ‘I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.’ And although the king was very sorry, yet because of his oaths and because of his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. And immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded him to bring back his head. And he went and beheaded him in the prison, and brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl; and the girl gave it to her mother.”
Strong of spirit, John’s strength of spirit cost him his head. It cost him his life.

But there’s more. In fact, go back to the Gospel of Luke with me, to Luke 3 now. So, we’re in Luke 1:80 today, but just jump ahead a chapter and a half or so, to Luke 3. Another chapter and a half, we’re going to start in Luke 3:1. Right at the beginning of chapter 3 of Luke’s Gospel. This is how Luke records John’s entrance onto the scene of history, redemptive history. Luke 3:1, it says, “Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. And he came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins; as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. Every ravine will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be brought low; the crooked will be straight, and the rough roads smooth. And all flesh will see the salvation of God.’
So he was saying to the crowds who were going out to be baptized by him, ‘You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham for our father,” for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. But indeed the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore, every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

So, there’s John, referring to God’s wrath. Referring to sin. Calling for repentance. Bringing up fire. Referring to his crowd, those around him, as a “brood of vipers.” John was a truth-teller. He wouldn’t have made it in politics. He cut it straight. And why? Because of what we see back in verse 80 of chapter 1. That this Spirit-filled prophet had become strong in spirit. And that link between being strong in spirit and being a truth-teller exists yet today, does it not? It sure does. It takes spiritual strength to tell somebody who is in sin that they are in sin. It takes spiritual strength to refuse to go along with the crowd. It takes spiritual strength to be willing to lose a few votes. And a few invites. And a few opportunities. And a few friends. It takes spiritual strength to call evil “evil.” It takes spiritual strength to tell the truth. And it takes spiritual strength to face the consequences of being a truth-teller. That was John. He didn’t slink away from this prophetic witness. He didn’t stand down from his prophetic responsibilities. No. He stood on truth. And he proclaimed truth, even if that truth was hard for others to hear. And even if it ultimately would cost him his head.

Now, one more thing here, about John being strong in spirit. We’ve seen that the Spirit of God would fill him in the womb of his mother Elizabeth. We’ve seen in our passage, verse 80, that he was developing and becoming strong in spirit while growing in the wilderness. Here’s another thing about John. And this takes us back to verse 17 of chapter one. In fact, go back with me there, to Luke 1:17. Look what it says, “And he will go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, To turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Now, recall those are the words of angel Gabriel to Zechariah, in the temple in Jerusalem . . . about that son that would soon be born to he and his wife, Elizabeth. And those words tell us what? Those words tell us, see it there at the beginning of verse 17, that this one who would come, this son who would be born to Zechariah and Elizabeth, would minister “in the spirit and power of Elijah.”

Now, let’s take an exploratory little detour here, to see what that means. We’re only covering one verse this morning, we’ve got the time. Okay? What does it mean that John the Baptist, that his ministry would be carried out “in the spirit and power of Elijah”? Well, to answer that question, we’re going to need to do a mini-study on the prophet Elijah. And the parallels between his life and ministry and those of John. Now, Elijah was a prophet to the northern tribes of Israel in the ninth-century B.C., some 850 years before the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. And there are several interesting data points that the scriptures give us about Elijah. About his persona. About his appearance. About his witness. About his methods. For instance, on the surface we know that Elijah was a man who had somewhat, you could say, of a rugged appearance.
If fact, stay with me in the Kings with me for a little bit. Go back to the Old Testament. We’re going to be flipping around 1 and 2 Kings for a while here, for the next few minutes. So, if you get over to Psalms, keep going left. Okay? Nehemiah, Esther, keep going left. Chronicles, keep going left. Make your way over to the book of 2 Kings, back in the Old Testament. And then, I’ll set some of the scene for you here. Here we have in 2 Kings, King Ahaziah is a king in Israel. He’s a king of some of the northern tribes. King Ahaziah was the son of Ahab and wicked queen Jezabel. And what Ahaziah had done, as he had consulted a false god of one of the surrounding nations that surrounded Israel when he got ill, when he got sick. And his consulting one of the false gods drew the ire of the true God. Who then communicated back to Ahaziah, through the prophet Elijah what was going to happen to him for his disobedience and for seeking out after false gods.

So, that should have given you time to get to 2 Kings 1. Now, if you look at 2 Kings 1, we’re going to pick it up in verse 5. 2 Kings 1:5. It says, “So the messengers returned to him,” that would be King Ahaziah, “and he said to them, ‘Why have you returned?’ And they said to hm, ‘A man came up to meet us and said to us, “Go, return to the king who sent you and say to him, ‘Thus says Yahweh, “Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you shall not come down from the bed where you have gone up, but shall surely die.” And he said to them,’ this is the king to his messengers, ‘What kind of man was he who came up to meet you and spoke these words to you?’ And they said to him, ‘He was a hairy man with a leather girdle girded about his loins.’ And he said, ‘It is Elijah the Tishbite.’ ” So, there you see it. In appearance, Elijah was a hairy man with a leather girdle girded about his loins. The point is, he stood out.

Not only that, but Elijah was known to live off the land. And he depended upon the Lord for his most basic provisions and needs. Keep going left, if you would, over to the book of 1 Kings, just a few chapters over to 1 Kings 17.1 Kings 17 and look at verse 1. It says, “Now Elijah the Tishbite,” that’s the same man, same prophet, “who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, ‘As Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.’ Then the word of Yahweh came to him, saying, ‘Go away from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. And it will be that you will drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to sustain you there.’ So he went and did according to the word of Yahweh, for he went and lived by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. And the ravens were bringing him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook.”

So, Elijah’s appearance was distinctive. And he also had ravens now bringing him bread and meat. Elijah was not a customary guy in any way. But here’s the next thing we need to learn about Elijah. And this is what really stands out. Which is that he had a holy boldness about him. He called out kings. In fact, go just one over, to a page to your right, to 1 Kings 18. 1 Kings 18:17. It says, “Now it happened when Ahab saw Elijah,” that’s the King Ahab, “that Ahab said to him, ‘Is this you, you troubler of Israel?’ And he said,” this is Elijah speaking now, ‘I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have, because you have forsaken the commandments of Yahweh and you have followed the Baals.’ ” The false gods of the land. So he called out kings. And not only that, we know from Elijah’s ministry, that he called out professors and practitioners of false religion and false idol worship, which was so prevalent in Israel in his day.

Look just down the page there, 1 Kings 18:20, this is quite a fascinating and entertaining account. I’m going to read the whole thing, just to give you a sense of Elijah’s prophetic ministry. And the zeal and the boldness that he had. 1 Kings 18:20, “So Ahab sent a message among all the sons of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel. And Elijah came near to all the people and said, ‘How long will you be limping between two opinions? If Yahweh is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.’ But the people did not answer him a word. Then Elijah said to the people, ‘I alone am left a prophet of Yahweh, but Baal’s prophets are 450 men. Now let them give us two oxen; and let them choose one ox for themselves and cut it up, and place it on wood, but place no fire under it; and I will prepare the other ox and put it on the wood, and I will not place fire under it. Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of Yahweh, and the God who answers by fire, He is God. And all the people answered and said, ‘That is a good word.’ So Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, ‘Choose one ox for yourselves and prepare it first for you are many, and call on the name of your god, but place no fire under it.’ Then they took the ox which was given them and they prepared it and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon saying, ‘O Baal, answer us.’ But there was no voice and no one answered. And they limped about the altar which they had made. Now it happened at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, ‘Call out with a loud voice, for he is a god; either he is occupied or relieving himself, or is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and needs to be awakened.’ So they cried with a loud voice and gashed themselves according to their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out on them. Now it happened when noon had passed, that they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice; but there was no voice, no one answered, and no one paid attention. Then Elijah said to all the people, ‘Come near to me.’ So all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of Yahweh which had been pulled down. Then Elijah took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of Yahweh had come, saying, ‘Israel shall be your name.’ And with the stones he built an altar in the name of Yahweh, and he made a trench around the altar, large enough to hold two seahs of seed. Then he arranged the wood and cut the ox in pieces and placed it on the wood. And he said, ‘Fill four pitchers with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.’ And he said, ‘Do it a second time,’ and they did it a second time. And he said, ‘Do it a third time,’ and they did it a third time. And the water flowed around the altar and he also filled the trench with water.” You see where this is going, there’s no way that that altar is going to be burnt up, right?

“Now, it happened at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, ‘O Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, today let it be known that you are God in Israel and that I am Your slave and I have done all these things at Your word. Answer me, O Yahweh, answer me, that this people may know that You, O Yahweh, are God, and that You have turned their heart back again.’ Then the fire of Yahweh fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And all the people saw it and fell on their faces and said, ‘Yahweh, He is God; Yahweh, He is God.’ Then Elijah said to them, ‘Seize the prophets of Baal; do not let one of them escape.’ So they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slaughtered them there.”

Talk about holy boldness. Talk about fiery zeal. Whatever you want to call it. Elijah was a man of conviction. And it cost him.
In fact, I won’t read it now, but just down from there in 1 Kings 19:1-4, we learn that after what he did, what he did to the prophets of Baal, humiliating them and then ultimately slaughtering them, word got back to Ahab’s wife, Jezebel. And through a messenger she then scared him off. Which then really ran him aground into this place of despondency and despair, even self-doubt.
So, have we got that all? Elijah was unconventional in a lot of ways. In appearance, for instance. He was dependent on the Lord for provision and sustenance. He was unashamedly fierce in standing for truth. He stared down the religious and political rulers of his time. And then, he was hunted down by those in authority who didn’t appreciate his message.

Now, let’s turn back to our subject of study, John the Baptist. In case I’ve lost you, we are still in Luke 1:80. Where Luke describes John, again, in his childhood, as growing “strong in spirit.” Which was in furtherance of him being Spirit-filled even while yet in his mother’s womb. And which was going to be demonstrated as his ministry moved forward “in the spirit and power of Elijah.” Now, let’s trace through some of the details of what scriptures would reveal, about the type of life that John would live. And the nature of the ministry that he would perform. And as we do some of this, let’s see if any of it sounds familiar to you.

For starters, turn with me, if you would, to Matthew 3. The very first book here of the New Testament in terms of placement in the canon. Look at Matthew 3:4. And what this tells us about what John wore and what John ate. Matthew 3:4 says, “Now John himself had a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey.”
In other words, like Elijah before him. John didn’t necessarily conform to the wardrobe standards or dietary rules of that day. And not only that, he depended on the Lord to supply him with the food he needed from the very wilderness in which he lived.

And then, look at the very next verse, verse 5. We’re going to see that, like Elijah, John had absolutely no hang-ups about confronting the deceived religious rulers of his day. This is Matthew’s version of what we read back in Luke 3. But look at Matthew 3:5. “Then Jerusalem was going out to him, and all Judea, and all the district around the Jordan; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, as they confessed their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, ‘You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, “We have Abraham for our father”; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. And the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand; and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.’ ” Again, John wasn’t tiptoeing around his religious opponents. No. He took it right to them.

And not only was John unafraid of confronting the religious apostasy of his day. We already saw back in Mark 6 he wasn’t afraid of confronting the political elite, the political establishment, as he did with King Herod and his wife Herodias.

So, both of these men, Elijah, John, they were distinctive in how they lived. Both were Spirit-directed and Spirit-guided. Both were committed in their firm stands on truth. Both stood up for the God of Israel. And both called on the people of Israel to repent of their wickedness and their idolatry and their sin. And then last, both of these men were great. Elijah was great. That’s why Elisha, his successor, would ask before Elijah was taken up in a chariot, he would ask for a double portion of his spirit. John was great. That’s why the angel Gabriel, you might remember the angel Gabriel said to Zechariah in Luke 1:15, “he will be great in the sight of the Lord.”
And Jesus, Himself, later on in Matthew 11:11 would say, “Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist!”

So, all of that. The future ministry that John would perform. The views he would hold. The words he would use. The things he would say. The consequences he would face. The comparisons to the prophet Elijah. All of that ties into what Luke says here in verse 80 of Luke 1. Which is that John would “be strong in spirit.”

With that, we get to our third and final point here this morning which is “The Public Appearance.”
Let’s take the whole of verse 80 once more here. It says, “And the child continued to grow and to become strong in spirit, and he lived in the desolate regions until the day of his public appearance to Israel.” That’s our final point of emphasis this morning. John grew. He grew both physically and in spirit. Which prepared him eventually, as we just looked at, to minister in the power and the spirit of Elijah. And then John went through that phase of growth in these desolate regions, the regions of Judea, “in the desolate regions.” And he did so, we now see, “until the day of his public appearance to Israel.” We’re not told for how long. We’re not told how many months or years he was there, in the desolate regions. But what Luke does tell us, is that John remained in those desolate regions until he appeared publicly to Israel.

Now, the Greek word there for “public appearance.” It’s one word in Greek. It’s an interesting one because the word typically refers to somebody really important rolling into town. Like a diplomat or a prince or a king who makes his way triumphantly to the city center or some other common area, or a palace or some sort of religious landmark like a temple or a shrine. As we’ve seen this morning though, John was at least outwardly no man of prominence. Sure, he came from a priestly family. But in the immediate context he came out of the wilderness with camel’s hair for clothing and locusts on his breath. That’s how he came.

And that really drives home an important takeaway for us this morning. Which is that on “the day of his public appearance to Israel”, whenever that was, the focus wasn’t on him. The focus rather, was on the ministry, his ministry that pointed to the ministry of our Lord. The focus always with John was on Christ. Which is why he would say, during his ministry, in John 3:30, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” John wasn’t the Messiah. John wasn’t the Lord. John went “before the Lord” as it says. He paved the way. Once again here. Here’s Isaiah 40:3, which pointed toward and prepared for John’s ministry, “A voice is calling, prepare the way for Yahweh in the wilderness; make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.”

Well, believe it or not, we’ve made it! We’ve made it through 80 verses of Luke 1. We did it in 16 sermons. We did it in four-and-a-half months. Congratulations, friends. We’ve got 23 to go.

Let’s pray. Father, again, we come before You with hearts of gratitude and awe as we consider the shed blood of our Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ on our behalf. I think of the hymn, where it says “There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel’s veins. And sinners plunged beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains.” God, that is who we are, if we’ve believed upon the name of Jesus Christ. Our sins have been purged and cleansed, declared as far as the east is from the west. “Amazing love, how could it be, that thou my God shouldst die for me.” That’s what we remember. That’s what we’re commemorating and celebrating today. That our God, the God-Man died for us. I pray that for we who have believed upon Christ, in His atoning death, that we would hold onto those truths. Regularly reflect upon those truths often. As we think about how far removed we were from You. How distant we were from You, God. How estranged we were. But that through the blood of Your Son, You brought us back to You. What a payment. What a cost. The shedding of our Savior’s precious blood. May that precious blood be in the forefront of our minds, wherever we go and whatever we say, and with whomever we interact. And, God, this morning, if there’s someone here who doesn’t know You, if they have yet to put their faith in Jesus Christ, I pray that they would hear these words. That it is not about attending church. It’s not about being a good person. It’s not about being better than the next person. It’s not about getting a certain number of gold stars on the chart. One is made right with You, the living God of the universe, the holy, just, creator God of all, by putting one’s faith in Jesus Christ. What He did on the cross, the sacrifice He went through, the blood He shed, it is all hinged on Calvary. So, God, if there’s someone here who has yet to put their faith in Your Son, I pray that today would be the day of salvation. And we would rejoice, and heaven would rejoice alike, knowing that another has been added. Thank You for Your word. Thank You for Your character. Thank You for Your Son. It’s in His name we pray. Amen