Amy C Walters

Zechariah and the Angel – Luke 1:5-17

A big chunk of the angel’s message to Zechariah was a prophecy about who John would be and what he would do. We are told at the end of the prophecy that his job is “to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” That’s a huge responsibility.

The angel tells us that John “will bring many of the people of Israel back to the Lord their God.” So he’s gonna run this revival that will turn people back to God.

We also learn that he’s gonna “turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous.”

This is some strange wording here, but it alludes back to Old Testament prophecy in Isaiah 40 and Malachi 3 and 4 about the person who would come before Jesus, the person who would be the forerunner to the Messiah and prepare the way for him. 

John isn’t just some random person coming here. He has a very specific role that’s been prophesied and predicted to happen. That’s a heavy load for one person to bear.

I don’t know if you’ve ever felt the pressure of expectations placed on you, expectations from parents or bosses, teachers, children even. What does that feel like to have those expectations?

Maybe it feels good if you’re living up to them, but if you don’t feel capable of meeting those expectations, they can feel crushing.

So how is John going to fulfill this heavy responsibility that he’s been called to? God equips him and prepares him for it. 

We see that John is not to take any wine or other fermented drink. Wine was a common beverage in those days. Most people drank it, except for those that were set aside for a specific purpose.

For instance, there was the option for people to take a Nazarite vow. This was a vow set for a specific period of time, usually something that you wanted to seek God for or set yourself aside for. And in the Nazarite vow, you’re not allowed to drink wine, you’re not allowed to cut your hair, and other regulations.

So clearly, this wasn’t a full Nazarite vow because the hair cutting part was not in there for John. But the idea is that John would be set aside for a specific purpose. And this restriction would, in a way, be a reminder to him of that specific purpose. 

We’re also told that John would be filled with the Holy Spirit from birth. This is a really interesting comment. Because up to this point in history, the Holy Spirit would come and go on people for a specific purpose. But John’s going to be filled with the Holy Spirit from birth.

It’s interesting too how several times in Scripture, being drunk with wine and being filled with the Holy Spirit are in contrast. They’re opposites. So the emphasis here is that John is going to be controlled by the Holy Spirit and not by other outside forces, but the Holy Spirit himself.

So John has this specific regulation and this special empowering of the Holy Spirit on him.

We’re also told that John “will go out before the Lord in the spirit and the power of Elijah.” Again, this is an allusion to a prophecy in the Old Testament, where one like Elijah would come and prepare the way for the Lord.

Some people take this to mean that John was Elijah himself, but John says later on in the Gospels specifically that he is not Elijah. Instead, this references Elijah’s ministry and his characteristics, his way of serving.

So what do we know about Elijah that could inform us on what John would be like? For one thing, Elijah was bold. He ministered in Israel in a very difficult time when there was a lot of opposition. 

And he ministered at a time where lots of people were following after other gods. Elijah stood in opposition to those other gods and said, “Those are not gods at all. You must follow the God of Israel.” So he called people back to God.

We’re going to see similar things in John’s ministry too, that he has this responsibility of calling people back to God and that he’s going to face opposition for his position.

So John had this specific purpose, but we also see that God gave him special power to accomplish that purpose. He equipped him with exactly what he needed to carry out his purpose.

Now, we don’t have the same purpose as John. He was appointed for a very specific purpose at a very specific time. He fulfilled prophecies and led the way for the Messiah. So John alone is going to fulfill that specific role.

But God has prepared us for a specific role, too. We’re told in other parts of Scripture that God has good works prepared in advance for us to do.

And from this story, we can learn this key truth, that God will equip you for what he has called you to do.

Those works that he has prepared in advance, he’s going to equip you to do them. If he can do that for John, for this huge responsibility that John carried, he can do that for you.

Sometimes it’s even the things that we don’t like about ourselves, the things that we feel are limitations, that are the very things that God uses for his purpose.