Christmas is a time of giving. A couple years ago the kids came home from Awana and had a bunch of gifts to give Annie and I. The program arranged a bunch of little gifts the kids could take home for their parents. Cecilia was super-excited while she handed me my gift bag. I opened it up and there was a big plastic mug with a top and a small thing of deodorant. I was excited for my gifts but she wanted to make sure I knew what they were. In her sweet little 5 year old voice she said, “This is a cup to put soup in and you can microwave it” Then I said, “Oh I like that. And look you got me deodorant” to which she quickly explained, “It’s for your armpits.”
Zechariah is given a gift at Christmas: a son. Like my gift had a purpose, the angel explained that so did Zechariah’s: “He’s for turning Israel back to the LORD.”
This December we are going to preach through Luke 1 and the beginning of Luke 2. We are going to see the build up to the birth of Christ and then in Luke 2 the actual birth of Christ. The build up is seen in Zechariah and Elizabeth’s story of expecting a child in old age, in Mary’s unexpected news of being pregnant with the the Christ, her visit to her relative Elizabeth and her magnificent song praising the Lord. Then finally on Christmas we’ll visit that obscure manger in Luke 2 to see the incredible event of the birth of Jesus Christ.
Today we begin in Luke 1. Let me summarize our text and then pull out several points for us. We’ll also have some take aways as well. In this text Zechariah and Elizabeth are an old couple who have no children. Zechariah is a Levitical priest and is visited by the angel Gabriel while serving in the temple. He is told that he and Elizabeth will have a child and are to name him John (this will be John the Baptist). Zechariah hesitates in doubt and so the angel says he will be a mute until John is born. He leaves the temple, unable to speak, and he goes home and Elizabeth becomes pregnant. The passage ends with Elizabeth’s praise of God.
Lets go through 3 points: 1) Zechariah’s Faithfulness (5-10), 2) Zechariah’s Message (11-17), 3) Zechariah’s Silence (18-25)
ZECHARIAH’S FAITHFULNESS (5-10)
So we are introduced to a man named Zechariah who is married to a woman named Elizabeth. Lets read verses 5-10….
First, we see their character, verse 6 says, “….” Both of them were righteous in the sight of God. Both of them. They both walked with the Lord. They both followed the Lord. They both trusted the Lord. They were equally yoked in the faith. He was a husband who was a match for her and she was a wife who was a match for him. Theirs wasn’t a mismatch like the noble Job and his faithless wife, or like the noble Abigail and her faithless husband. No, both of them followed the commands of God blamelessly. There is no iron sharpening iron like that of a husband and wife who together trust in the Lord.
APPLICATION: If you are a spouse who is not walking with the LORD then begin today.
APPLICATION: If you are married to someone who is not walking with the LORD -believer or not- then you walk faithfully in that context. That is the situation you are in that God has you in and it is your situation to be faithful in. If you are a wife, then be like Abigail. If you are a husband, then be like Job.
APPLICATION: The only eyes that matter are God’s. They were righteous “in the sight of God.” God help us when we take comfort in the approval of man while being disapproved of by God. May the acceptance of man never be more important to us than the acceptance of God. “Am I now trying to win the approval of man, or of God?” Paul told the Galatians? “If I were trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” (1:10).
Second, we see Zechariah’s pain: he and Elizabeth have no children (v7). And they are “very old,” so the years for having children are long past. But the longing was still there. The pain was still there. How were they affected every time news of a young wife became pregnant? Genuine rejoicing for sure, but an ache for sure too. I’m sure they went through the struggles of “Why, God? We are doing everything right, so why? The Romans just throw their babies out and here we are aching to have just one!” I’m sure they devoted themselves to mentoring others in the ways of Jehovah, and so they talked about how they had “spiritual children” in that sense. And I’m sure they thought many times of how much they had in common with Abraham and Sarah. And I’m sure they had accepted it was just the two of them a long time ago and learned to live with it.
APPLICATION: They loved, served and obeyed God even when their deepest longing was not fulfilled. They were blessed by God in many ways, but not that one way they wanted so much. Yet they didn’t serve God to bargain with him. They loved him, trusted him, and served him no matter what. Like Job. Like Abraham. Like all the true saints throughout the ages.
Third we see Zechariah’s career: he was a priest (v5, 8-10). The priests came from the tribe of Levi. The sons of Levi were organized by King David into divisions and the divisions were put on a rotation (1 Chron. 24:10). There were many duties for the priests when they were on duty and Zechariah was to burn incense to the Lord. This was the daily duty of the priests to make sure the incense was burned in the morning and the evening every day (Ex. 30:1-10). It sounds simple, BUT, when you realize that the golden altar for this task is placed literally right in front of, almost touching, the curtain to the Most Holy Place, it becomes cosmically important! Zechariah, and all other priests who have to do this job, are literally the closest to the Most Holy Place out of everyone in the world. The only person who gets any closer than them is the High Priest on the day of Atonement when he goes behind the curtain once a year. Other than that, in the morning and evening a priest is merely inches away from the Most Holy Place. There is no nonchalant or casual approach to this task in the least. It is done with the utmost reverence and fear. Think about that: and then think about the fact that while doing that, sweating and trembling out of fear and reverence for the Most High God just on the other side of that curtain, all of a sudden an angel appears! I’m sure the only reason he didn’t faint in that moment was because God held him up!
So the man that is going to be honored with being the father of John the Baptist is an honorable man, with an honorable wife. His character is devout, obedient, faithful, reverent, righteous, blameless. His position is that he is a priest in Israel, and a faithful priest. John the Baptist didn’t come from scandal, he came from great parents. His birth, unlike Jesus’ was not shrouded in the appearance of scandal. He was an incredible man with incredible parents. The FAITHFULNESS of Zechariah.
ZECHARIAH’S MESSAGE (11-17)
Or the message FOR Zechariah, read verses 11-17….
So an angel (Gabriel, v19) appears to Zechariah, probably making him jump right out of his skin. I like how it points out that the angel appeared on the “right side” of the altar of incense. The right side in the Bible always indicates power and authority and honor. “The strong right arm of the LORD is raised in triumph and has done glorious things” shouts Psalm 118. God told Moses, “Watch what my right arm can do” (Numb. 11:23). God said in Isaiah 63:12, “I put my arm of glorious power at Moses right hand.” And of course, where is Jesus seated but at the right hand of God. Now the angel appears at the right side of the altar, in power, honor and authority. Not only at the right side of the altar, but immediately in front of the veil to the Most Holy Place. So you have Zechariah looking at an angel, they are both in front of the Most Holy Place, and the angel is on the right side. Listen up Zechariah!
Of course, I also like how it says Zechariah was gripped with fear. That’s the effect on people when they see angels or God. They are terrified and overwhelmed with awe. Of course angels can be inconspicuous like Hebrews tells us, but I’m talking about when they come clearly as angels the only human response is terror and awe.
Then the angel Gabriel tells him a message: you’re going to have a son. That son is going to prepare the way for the Lord.
***As a sidenote, Gabriel seems to be the angel that God turns to when he wants a message about the coming of the Messiah to be sent to someone. In Daniel 9, Gabriel appears and gives prophetic information regarding the coming of the Messiah. After telling Zechariah his son will prepare the way for the Messiah he is going to go to Mary and inform her that she is pregnant with the Messiah. When it comes to Messianic messages Gabriel is the go to angel for God.
So anyway, follow along and listen to this incredibly good news for Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth, read verses 13-17….
The birth of John the Baptist is connected to the birth of Jesus Christ, which we celebrate here at Christmas time. John the Baptist is born a few months earlier, begins his ministry a little bit earlier, and dies a little earlier than Jesus. And everything John the Baptist did was to point all the people of Israel to Jesus Christ who would come after him. As we see in the Gospels he wanted his own disciples to leave him and go on to Jesus. How symbolic as the last OT prophet: leave the Old Covenant and go on to the Christ who is establishing a New Covenant (a plug for our 10am class!)
APPLICATION: We are not John the Baptist, but let us all be John the Baptists! Let us all point people to go on to Jesus.
ZECHARIAH’S SILENCE (18-25)
Then we see Zechariah’s silence in verses 18-22…
So Zechariah is stunned and asks “How can I know for sure? I’m old and my wife is old.”
First off, notice that “knowing for certain” is a theme of Luke. In verse 4 Luke said to the guy he was writing to, “so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.”
Second off, Zechariah’s question highlights how he was thinking. He wasn’t thinking of what God could do in this situation. He was only thinking of what he and his old wife couldn’t do. He was seeing his own human limitations. He wasn’t seeing God as God. It goes deeper: Zechariah’s question shows all of our tendency to think that just because *we* can’t, therefore God can’t. Its the tendency to limit our view of God to our own limitations. It goes even deeper than that: its our tendency to think God is like us. Remember this man is blameless, devout, righteous, obedient and highly favored by God. And he stumbled like this. He was a priest, who remember that AT THIS VERY MOMENT he was the closest human being to God! And yet his thoughts were so far from God.
APPLICATION: Being close to God does not mean being “in his house” at church. Closeness to God is seen in the impulse to trust God in our situations. I’ll say it even better than that and borrow Jesus’ words: Closeness to God means seeing that with me as a man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Zechariah saw that with him it was impossible, but he was not seeing that with God all things are possible – even getting pregnant in old age.
APPLICATION: Lets not project onto God who we are. Let God tell us who He is in the Bible. He revealed who He is in His Word. So how we think of God should be shaped by God’s revelation, not by our projection.
Then Gabriel tells him he’s going to be unable to speak until his son is born. Because he doubted the message.
Now, Im not saying the angel was wrong, but I have a little more sympathy for Zechariah! He was terrified, overwhelmed, overawed, given some fantastic news that not only he had given up hope on long ago, but it was way beyond anything he ever would’ve dreamed of. Anyway, I used to wonder how he could give such a hard consequence to Zechariah. And I was confused by Gabriel’s explanation. But if you slow down and look carefully at what the angel says it makes sense. He says, “I stand in the presence of God and God has sent me to tell you this news.”….. “I stand in the presence of God – the God of truth, in whom there is no darkness or lie. The God whose every word is true and never fails.” In other words, Zechariah’s doubt of the angel is actually doubting God. Doubting God’s messenger is doubting God himself! Zechariah’s doubt – as impulsive and seemingly bewildered as it appeared – was treating God as though He does not tell the truth.
The consequence of silence is interesting because it “fits” the offense: “I spoke to you and you doubted what I said so now you won’t be able to speak.” As you read the Bible watch how every time God gives consequences or judgments the judgments fit the crime perfectly. This is lex talionis – the idea of justice where the type of and severity of the punishment fit the type of and severity of the offense committed. For instance, an OT king used to cut off the big toes and thumbs of his enemies and finally one day the Israelites beat him in battle and cut off his big toes and thumbs! Lex Talionis.
I was reading an article not too long ago about a UFC fighter Michael Bisping who lost his eye in a UFC cage fight. The guy who hit him and permanently damaged his eye is a Christian and is always talking about Jesus in interviews. The day before the fight Bisping told the other fighter “Jesus doesn’t exist.” The next day he lost his eye in the fight. Bisping was asked about it and said, “I told him: ‘There is no Jesus,’ But maybe there is, because I ended up with a detached retina after that fight. Maybe that was God paying me back.” Bisping spoke from his spiritual blindness and so God took one of his eyes. Lex Talionis. “You don’t believe what I’m saying Zecharias, you don’t get to say anything at all until my words come true and your son is born.” And by the way, as homework, go read the end of chapter one later to see the incredible things Zechariah prophesied when he was finally enabled to speak again at John’s birth.
So he walks out, mute, and all the people waiting for him realize something supernatural has happened. Imagine how bursting inside Zechariah must’ve been wanting so badly to tell everyone what just happened and yet he was completely unable to talk!
Well while Zechariah couldn’t speak, his godly wife Elizabeth could: and she praised God. Look at verses 23-25 with me…
Take-Aways:
- Life comes from the Lord
- Just because its impossible for man doesn’t mean its impossible for God.
- Jesus was given for my salvation.