“Eight Days a Week”- Luke 1:57-66
Pastor Donnie’s Sunday message 02.09.2020
1. Let’s Rejoice Together
2. The Exact Day Matters
3. Fear and Awe are Friends
We are going to be weaving our way fairly heavily through the Scriptures this week. There are a lot of verses that support God’s Character and heart and I want us to share in this carne asada burrito of God’s Word. It’s all about beans and rice and Jesus Christ and a carne asada burrito.
57 Now Elizabeth’s full time came for her to be delivered, and she brought forth a son. 58 When her neighbors and relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her, they rejoiced with her.
1. Let’s Rejoice Together.
This is obviously not the same, we had Super Bowl in the sanctuary and we got to rejoice in America’s holiest holiday, the Super Bowl. The game was really good, I did not watch half-time but I enjoyed rejoicing with the brothers and sisters hanging out and talking and being a part of the Family called Refresh.
Let’s Rejoice together. God’s truth has come to pass for us who are Christians. Let’s remember at this time of the story. God is setting his plan of redemption into motion now. The Rhythm of Salvation will show its beat. It’s real and it starts with the heartbeat of J the B. John the Baptist is here. Don’t forget that Zacharias’s name means “God remembers” and God does remember; He doesn’t lie. He is truth. He said what He means and means what He says. He said and spoke this to Zacharias.
-The word of God repeatedly says that we can trust God's promises of He Who Alone is worthy of the title "the God of truth" (Ps 31:5, Isa 65:16) Whose every Word is truth (Jn 17:17)... For those of you taking notes.
Here’s 3 passages from the New Testament and the Old Testament which speak on this.
Joshua 21:45 Not one of the good promises which the LORD had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass.
1 Kings 8:56 “Blessed be the LORD, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised; not one word has failed of all His good promise, which He promised through Moses His servant.
2 Corinthians 1:20 For as many as are the promises of God, in Him (JESUS CHRIST) they are yes; therefore, also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us. (I like the old KJV rendering - "For all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in him Amen" 2Co 1:20KJV)
Is this not worth Rejoicing? Rejoice in the Lord and again I say rejoice.
Can I give you a couple more reasons why we should rejoice in our truthful, never lying, faithful God?
Since that is the truth about God's promises "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful." (Heb. 10:23+) Because God is faithful, His promises are infallibly reliable! As John Calvin said "God is always like Himself."
Moses tells of God's faithfulness writing that "God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent (change his mind); Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? (Numbers 23:19) As Matthew Henry said "Though men are false, God is faithful."
Paul gives us the NT version supporting God's faithfulness writing "Paul, a bond-servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness, in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie (pseuds = "the non-lying God!"), promised long ages ago, (Titus 1:1-2+) .
Isn’t this something to get excited about? Our honest, consistent, all-loving cosmic Creator set motion in time his plan then his plan now. How amazing.
Circumcision of John the Baptist
59 So it was, on the eighth day, that they came to circumcise the child; and they would have called him by the name of his father, Zacharias.
2. The exact day matters.
Nerdy science time for everyone to see the magnificence of God and His perfect timing again. There is a piece of skin on males that for health reasons God wanted off and also to show an allegiance to God; to be set apart or different than the rest of the world.
In Genesis 17:12, God specifically directed Abraham to circumcise newborn males on the eighth day. Why the eighth day? In 1935, professor H. Dam proposed the name “vitamin K” for the factor in foods that helped prevent hemorrhaging in baby chicks. We now know vitamin K is responsible for the production (by the liver) of the element known as prothrombin. If vitamin K is lacking, there will be a prothrombin deficiency and hemorrhaging may occur. Hemorrhaging is when you get a cut and the cut and won’t stop bleeding. The blood wont clot. That’s why we get scabs and the like on our body because or body magically stops bleeding. And creates clots. Oddly, it is only on the fifth through the seventh days of the newborn male’s life that vitamin K (produced by bacteria in the intestinal tract) (your inside where you food digests) is present in adequate quantities. Vitamin K, coupled with prothrombin, causes blood coagulation, which is important in any surgical procedure. Holt and McIntosh, (2 real smart guys) in their classic work, (of course we have all read it who read scientific journals) Holt Pediatrics, observed that a newborn infant has “peculiar susceptibility to bleeding between the second and fifth days of life.... Hemorrhages at this time, though often inconsequential, are sometimes extensive; they may produce serious damage to internal organs, especially to the brain, and cause death from shock and exsanguination” (1953, pp. 125-126). (super important that babies don’t get cuts when they are new born and are in a clean environments) Obviously, then, if vitamin K is not produced in sufficient quantities until days five through seven, it would be wise to postpone any surgery until sometime after that. But why did God specify day eight?
On the eighth day, the amount of prothrombin present actually is elevated above one-hundred percent of normal—and is the only day in the male’s life in which this will be the case under normal conditions. If surgery is to be performed, day eight is the perfect day to do it. Vitamin K and prothrombin levels are at their peak. WOW.
We don’t call this a coincidence but God’s perfect timing and plan!
No Jews would ever know anything about this. No evolution of man would ever lend itself to this. This is God ordained truth of the Bible again and we can trust God.
60 His mother answered and said, “No; he shall be called John.”
61 But they said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who is called by this name.” 62 So they made signs to his father—what he would have him called.
63 And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, saying, “His name is John.” So, they all marveled. 64 Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, praising God. 65 Then fear came on all who dwelt around them; and all these sayings were discussed throughout all the hill country of Judea.
3. Fear and Awe are Friends
Have you ever been in the ocean? You know if you’ve ever been surfing, or just swimming in the ocean, the ocean’s tides shift. You enjoy several sets of manageable sized waves and then the bigger set comes in…you see it coming and you are filled with FEAR. While you paddle for your life, either in to shore or out past the waves, you reach safety and then, Praise God, you are able to stand in AWE of the large set!
If you’ve ever been in a car accident, you are in fear as it all happens and then as you walk away from the accident, you stand in awe of God’s protection and provision.
When things are awesome and God is doing something amazing, it’s worth talking about it with everyone who will listen. Bliss fills my heart; Holy Spirit goose bumps are always so much fun.
I heard another story in our church that when we prayed for her that God spoke her via a person in prayer circle that she needed to let it go. It was truly humbling that she had been told that a few times by few different servants of God at prayer meetings that same word. About a week later, she gave us huge praise report; she let it go! I find it interesting at this time also that this sister asked to be prayed for one thing and God wanted to do another thing in her life. Truly, truly amazing and I was filled with fear and awe because God used us in a prayer circle at Refresh to allow this to happen.
Let’s read the last verse now.
66 And all those who heard them kept them in their hearts, saying, “What kind of child will this be?” And the hand of the Lord was with him.
How do you keep something in your heart and how does that work?
They kept THEM in their hearts. It important we all remember what things God has done with us and through us.
Do you want the Hand of the Lord on you?
I came across this thought and I want to share it with today.
THOUGHT - "What will you turn out to be? What will you become?" We usually ask these questions to people that are young. We need to be asking these questions of ourselves right now, no matter what our age. I don't care if you are five, fifteen, twenty-five, fifty-five, or eighty-five. What will you become? What will you be ten years from now if Jesus doesn’t come? Will you be faithful to live for Christ or will you fizzle out? Beloved, what you are tomorrow is affected by what you have done and the choices you have made in your past. More importantly, what you are tomorrow is being determined by what you are and do today. The foundations of your life in the future are laid by your past and present. Yesterday is gone, but today is a new day. You can do something about it today. If you have failed in the past, then today, you can make the decision to get your life right with God and others and take the steps to be faithful to the Lord from this time forth in your life. The power of being faithful to Christ rests in what happens today. Yesterday is gone and tomorrow is not here yet. You do, however, have today to make your life count for Jesus Christ. Your past may be filled with great blessings and achievements for Christ, but you can foul that up today. You cannot live in the past for that time is dead and used up. Today is a new day to live your life for the Lord and make your life count for Him. If you will take one day at a time to be surrendered to Christ, you will finish your life in victory and faithfulness. You will turn out to be a Christian that honors God.
Yesterday is HISTORY, tomorrow is a MYSTERY, today is a gift…that’s why it’s called the PRESENT!
If you are having a hard time being happy and rejoicing, serve with someone, find a need and fill it. When we take our eyes off ourselves, we tend to gain perspective. We have a man who serves here in the community by filling the need of taking church to people who can’t get themselves to a church building. This brings tremendous joy to the people being served and the ones doing the serving. Do you need joy? Serve with someone! We have opportunities for you to serve today.
The exact day does matter. God does everything according to His plan and His timing and wants to you know He has all the days worked out for you.
Hey church, let’s start believing and talking about the Goodness of God and sharing what He’s doing. Let’s believe in God. Let’s allow ourselves to be so amazed and so in awe that we expect Him to do amazing things.
There are not 8 days in week like the Beetles sung about, 7 are enough and 7 is what we need.