John the Baptist Part 3

C. Zacharias was offering the appointed incense when an angel appeared unto him in the temple. LUK 1:8-11. 1. This was one of the hours of prayer. Note the association of incense and prayer. PSA 141:2; REV 8:3-4. 2. Mind that duty is not a substitute for prayer, nor prayer a substitute for duty. The people who may be most expected to receive blessing are a people who respect the service of God’s house and that His house is a house of prayer. MAT 21:13. 3. The angel stood on the right side of the altar of incense. ct/w ZEC 3:1. a. Zechariah the prophet was the last person in the O.T. record that was John the Baptist 6-29-25 Page 3  conversant with an angel. ZEC 1:9. b. Zacharias the priest is the first person in the N.T. record to be conversant with an angel. c. The angel was Gabriel who also appeared to Mary (LUK 1:19, 26) and earlier to Daniel. DAN 9:21. 4. Dr. John Lightfoot (early 17th C. English churchman and rabbinical scholar) calculated that the course of Abia by the Jewish calendar corresponded to early summer (June-ish) and the portions of the law and prophets that were read in synagogues at that time agreed with the corresponding focus in the temple: the law of the Nazarites and the conception of Samson (NUM 6; JDG 13). a. This would be quite remarkable in view of what Gabriel was about to announce to Zacharias in vs. 13-15. b. Also, if Lightfoot is correct, and if we assume that Zacharias and Elisabeth conceived John shortly after Zacharias’ course was completed, this would place the conception of Jesus Christ in December-ish since there was about a six month lapse between the conceptions. LUK 1:36. D. The angel Gabriel’s presence troubled Zacharias but Gabriel comforted him and assured him of glad tidings. vs. 12-17. 1. NOTE: A righteous, blameless man was troubled and afraid at the presence of this angel who would announce the coming of the man whose preaching would be the beginning of the kingdom of God (LUK 16:16). How much more should we fear our God Who gave us the kingdom? HEB 12:28-29. 2. The word spoken by this angel was, typically, stedfast (HEB 2:2), i.e., fixed, secure. It was to be received as God’s word, and believed. 3. Zacharias’ prayer was heard, come up for a memorial before God. c/w ACT 10:4. a. The context later implies that Zacharias had given up on praying for a child (v. 18), but God remembered the earlier prayers. b. Sometimes our prayers seem to be futile but present silence does not necessarily mean perpetual silence. Sometimes it is a “not yet,” not “No.” c. Pray always (1TH 5:17) for good things subject to God’s will since we do not have a certain word from God to stop asking, as did Moses. DEU 3:26 c/w LUK 18:1-8. 4. Elisabeth would bear a son that would take away her reproach among men. v. 25. 5. “...and thou shalt call his name John” (v. 13), not merely a prophecy but an imperative. c/w MAT 1:21. 6. “And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at this birth” (v. 14). a. Family and neighbors rejoiced (v. 58) and the people marvelled. vs. 63-66. b. Years later when he ministered, people mused whether he were the Christ. LUK 3:15. c. The Jews were “...willing for a season to rejoice in his light” (JOH 5:35). d. Mind that when John was born, Zacharias by the Holy Ghost first blessed God for Jesus’ conception (LUK 1:67-69)! The Holy Ghost always glorifies Jesus Christ. JOH 16:14. 7. “For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord...” (v. 15), a greatness confirmed by Jesus, Who was/is always in perfect accord with the Father. MAT 11:11. 8. “...and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink...” (v. 15), indicative of a Nazarite. a. One theory is that John was in the priestly line and this prohibiton referred to the command of Moses to the priests in LEV 10:9. But that command was to priests going to minister in the tabernacle (and would have applied John the Baptist 6-29-25 Page 4  later to the temple, ISA 28:7) and John’s ministry was not in the temple but in the open public forum, beginning in the wilderness. LUK 3:2-3. b. Jesus said that “...John came neither eating nor drinking...” (MAT 11:18) and he indeed observed a very ascetic diet (MAT 3:4), as would a Nazarite. NUM 6:3-4. c. He would be “...filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb” (v. 15), filled with the spirit, not the spirits. c/w EPH 5:18. d. One could be a voluntary Nazarite for a season but John would follow in the vein of Samson and Samuel who were Nazarites from the womb. JDG 13:7; 1SAM 1:11. e. As a Nazarite, John would have been “different” and “separate” and under other restrictions. NUM 6:1-8. f. “This separation was in ordinary cases temporary and voluntary: only Samson (Jdg 13:7), Samuel (1Sa 1:11), and John Baptist were Nazarites from the womb. It was fitting that the utmost severity of legal consecration should be seen in Christ’s forerunner. HE was the REALITY and PERFECTION of the Nazarite without the symbol, which perished in that living realization of it: ‘Such an High Priest became us, who was SEPARATE FROM SINNERS’ (Heb 7:26).” (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary on LUK 1:15) 9. “And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God” (v. 16). a. But not all. LUK 7:29-33. b. John even turned such away from his baptism. MAT 3:7-10. John the Baptist 6-29-25 Page 5