No Ordinary Prophet!

57 When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. 58 Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy. 59 On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, 60 but his mother spoke up and said, “No! He is to be called John.” 61 They said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who has that name.” 62 Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. 63 He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s astonishment he wrote, “His name is John.” 64 Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to speak, praising God. 65 All the neighbors were filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. 66 Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, “What then is this child going to be?” For the Lord’s hand was with him.

Reflection:
Elizabeth and Zechariah receive what the angel had prophesied to them. Even in her old age, Elizabeth was to have a son. This was very important in those days, because a son carries on the family name. And then they did something counter cultural. They named him something other than the family name of Zechariah. This was in obedience to the command the angel gave them. It also was another sign that John would be different. He would grow up in the Nazerite tradition, where no wine would touch his lips. He would be filled with the Holy Spirit, and his mission would be to prepare the way of The Lord. This was the role of the prophet, yet the sense was he was no ordinary prophet.

Prophets turn the hearts of the people back to God. They were given to Israel when they have strayed from God's commands and began to worship idols. Sometimes they listened to the prophets and got back on track, and returned to a right relationship with The Lord. Sometimes they didn't listen and even physically abused them. Jeremiah, for instance, was beaten and put in stocks in prison. But God's Word cannot be chained. God's Word would be fulfilled whether they listened to the prophet or not.

The question is who are the prophets today! How are they calling us back to God's purposes? What types of things would they say to us? Where have we strayed from God's Word? May I suggest a couple of areas, which are only my opinion. I don't necessarily have a word from The Lord these.

1. We have lost touch with God's Word. I meet Christians all the time that don't have a basic grasp on the Old and New Testaments. The problem with this is that we begin to conform to the value system of the world versus the values we have in the bible. As we meditate, reflect and respond to God's Word the promise is the Holy Spirit will lead and guide us to the faithfulness required by God's Word.

2. The essence of God's Word is His calling us back to Him through Jesus' life, death and resurrection. This is the central purpose of all Scripture to make us wise unto salvation. If we make number one about rule keeping, we will have completely missed the point of it. The only way we can be changed begins with the gospel and an understanding of the radical nature of God's grace and unconditional love for us. Much of our preaching today is based on Law versus Gospel, so that people think being made right with God is by trying to be a better rule keeper.

3. So when we see immorality, greed, dissension, divorce among Christians that is little or no different than the world, "Houston we have a problem!"

Please hear this is not meant to be condemning. I struggle with this probably as much as you. But if there were prophets today I have a good feeling they might say something resembling the above. So what can we do about it? Well the message here hasn't changed in 2,000 years either. Repent and turn to Jesus for forgiveness. This is the way God's power has always been unleashed in the people of God. Amen.