6 | A DV E N T: D O N OT F E A R
DO NOT FEAR SERIES LESSON TWO YOUR PRAYER HAS BEEN HEARD Luke 1:5-25
QUESTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION 1) Why do we pray? What is the purpose of prayer? 2) If God already knows what we need, why pray? 3) What does it say to me when my prayers don’t seem to be answered, or not answered in the way that I ask? 4) Do my prayers affect world events or world politics?
INTRODUCTION The passage of Scripture that we are considering today is the announcement the angel brought to the priest Zechariah of the coming birth of a son who would eventually become known as John the Baptist. Before we consider the story of John’s birth, we will jump ahead to look at an overview of John’s life and ministry. His own teaching on the subject of prayer will help us understand how God answered the prayer of his parents. A relative of Jesus, John the Baptist will be the “set-up man” for the ministry of Jesus. In the spirit of the prophet Elijah, John will begin a ministry that foreshadows the work of Jesus, and that carries forward the message of the Old Testament prophets in several ways: their emphasis on a humble and contrite spirit, and their focus on service to the poor as a sign of true righteousness. First, God will only respond to a person with the proper attitude. A humble and repentant spirit is required of one who would be accepted as righteous in the eyes of God. In the spirit of the former prophets, John challenged his hearers by attacking their heritage as Israelites, or members of God’s chosen people. He made it clear that God didn’t need them; He could create a chosen race out of the rocks that they walked on every day. In fact, as so many prophets had spoken in their past, John proclaimed that the ax of God’s judgment was already being prepared to cut down those trees (the people of Israel) that failed to produce fruit (righteousness as defined by God). John’s point is that they need God’s help, not the other way around. Second, John emphasized that an attitude of repentance is only the first half of what is required of God to be righteous; it must be accompanied by a lifestyle of righteous living. A righteous heart will bear fruit that is visible in the life that is lived out in culture.
This thought is at the heart of John’s message to those who came for baptism. His challenge to those who came to him looking for help was to “bear fruits worthy of repentance.” (Luke 3:8) As Luke describes the ministry of John, he tells us that the crowds were so moved by his powerful rhetoric that they asked him what they needed to do to receive the benefits of God’s mercy. Like the prophets of old, John called them to a life of service to the poor: Share clothing and food with those who need them, don’t cheat in their businesses (specifically tax collecting), and don’t extort money when you have power over others (especially those who were soldiers). (Luke 3: 11-14) John was confronting two of the power groups in Palestine at this time, the soldiers of Rome and the Jewish tax collectors being paid by Rome. Returning to the distinctive marks of the ministry of John, in addition to repentance and righteous treatment of the poor we see an emphasis on baptism. Although Christianity would later adopt this practice as a sacrament of faith in Christ, John apparently saw it simply as symbolic of washing away the transgressions of one’s life prior to repentance. In Matthew 3, we are told that people were being “baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.” (3:6) Luke calls it a “baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” (Luke 3:3) In Matthew 3, verse 11, John himself described the purpose: “I baptize you with water for repentance.”3 Thus, we can observe in the Gospels that John the Baptist was a powerful preacher, who had a significant impact on the people that heard him speak, across all strata of society, both Jewish and Gentile. It is this very John the Baptist who the Angel promises will be born to Elizabeth and Zachariah in Luke 1. So, let us go back and look more closely at the encounter Zechariah has with the Angel.
THE ANGELIC ENCOUNTER In opening paragraph of this chapter, we are told that King Herod is the ruler in Palestine under the overall authority of Rome. This is a position that he inherited from his father, Agrippa, who had been granted Palestine in recognition of his service to Julius Caesar and the Roman General Pompey. We learn that Zechariah is a priest, and not only that, but his wife Elizabeth is also a descendant of Aaron, the brother of Moses whose line has always supplied the position of High Priest. These individuals were well placed in the religious traditions of Judaism. Luke tells us further that they were not only well placed genetically, but that they
3 QUESTION FOR CONSIDERATION: How does Christian baptism both include the ideas of John’s baptism, and go beyond it? If baptism is a matter of faith and the action of the Holy Spirit, not merely an act of confession and repentance, how does that bear on the Wesleyan acceptance of infant baptism along with the practice of confirmation?
