Well, that was such a song of faith that we just heard and were able to sing out from Zechariah. But it wasn't always easy to get there. And this first account in the Gospel of Luke today as we consider the birth of Christ, the coming of the Messiah, we're going to be looking at the first account of Luke of the one who was foretold and the events that surround that through John the Baptist. So we'll be looking at verses 5 through 25 this morning of Luke chapter 1. I invite you to turn there 1016 in your Bibles. We will now give our attention to the Word of the Lord.
"In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named zachariah of the division of Abijah. He had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. But they had no child because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years. Now while he was serving as priest before God, when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. And And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb. He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared. And Zechariah said to the angel, How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years. And the angel answered him, I am Gabriel, I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you And to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time. And the people were waiting for zachariah and they were wondering at his delay in the temple. When he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home. After these days, his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, the lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me to take away my reproach among people
There will end today the reading of God's Word.
Well, one of the obvious challenges at this time of year uh for pastors all around, I don't think many people think about that but there's a lot of challenges that come at this time of year and of course You do realize that only two of the four gospels address the birth of christ you might have jumped on those other two john and mark for not giving enough attention to the birth of Jesus. Pastors get jumped on for this every year.
Well, my great fear is that it's not really about the birth of Christ that we're all in a tizzy about. That we're not really thinking about the incarnation It's about culture It's about family it's about baked goods, which aren't good for anyone, by the way. What we um are pushed to do is what the Scriptures do at this time with the birth of Christ: to help us with this. What we see in the record that is given to us of the birth of Jesus Christ uh is that there is a lot of struggle to believe it. And am I to think then that we have arrived so much further than these people to not think that even in the midst of such cultural celebration there might not be real struggle to believe this? Oh, I think there is. I think that would be a wrong presumption on my part to think that everyone just accepts this and believes this. All these accounts uh really at the beginning that are capturing for us and showing us the birth of the Messiah are pushing us to faith. They're pushing us to faith in the promises, and strongly they are doing that.
When we come to this particular account of zachariah and Elizabeth, what we have captured for us is that very thing: the the struggle to believe what God had always spoken and said in His Gospel and in His Word so many years prior. This is the great issue that Luke chapter one is is addressing, and it's meant to encourage us. It's meant to help us with one great truth: this great promise that God made all throughout history that God fulfills what He spoke. And God did fulfill what He spoke in sending not only the forerunner but especially the Messiah. The first scene as Luke begins his Gospel is capturing for us all these problems. There's just nothing but problems here that are going on in the text to show how difficult this was for this to break into history. uh these promises to become reality in history and so you'll notice there "In verse 5 that we read in the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah of the division of Abijah. He had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth."
Problem number one: Herod the king. He was a ruthless tyrant. Anyone who threatened him He was in danger of their life. He killed his own wife and two sons. He was an oppressive figure. He had been given authority from Rome, and the Scriptures present him as an Antichrist figure. Herod was a ruthless king. Herod was a wicked man. He was from the line of Edom, which really means that he was from Esau. There was nothing right about this man. So problem number one: nothing but political turmoil. Never heard anything like that.
Second problem: "They had no child because Elizabeth was barren. Both were advanced in years." When you read a statement like that Elizabeth, This should be not a new problem that we've studied. This is the problem perennial of all of Israel's history. It's the whole story of Israel embedded right here, captured at the beginning. In fact, I think that's what the author's doing. He's trying to capture the long struggle of Israel to believe this promise and receive her Messiah. All of Old Testament redemptive history testifies, and now comes to a head right here. Israel had no child. Israel was barren. And after many, many years, we come to the moment of fulfillment.
Barrenness was was always the struggle of Israel throughout history. How prominent of a theme! Right? How prominent of a theme! From Sarah with Abraham being old in age, they could not bear children to Rachel to Hannah God continued to put this even with Eve at the beginning when she had Cain. She thought, "I've acquired him," and it wasn't the Deliverer. This is the whole history of Israel and the dragon trying to stamp out the child. Here we have this come to a head here at the beginning of Luke, all of redemptive history at this moment.
Now, the third problem maybe doesn't really strike you as the problem immediately from the text. "The lot fell on zachariah Now while he was serving as priest before God, when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord, and the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense." The third problem that we're going to see develop here is unbelief captured Gabriel. says, it "You did not believe the gospel." It's a striking statement. Politically, it's a disaster. Barrenness has come all throughout history to struggle to bring forth the child. And we have a capture of no faith.
Well, let's see this develop here, because I think that third issue is the big one here. The whole multitude of people were praying outside at the hour of incense. Remember, right in front of the second veil was put this altar of incense in the temple. And you'll notice how that's explained here it's it's assuming what we know about the structure of the temple. It was before the ark, historically, and before the mercy seat and the testimony. And so this altar of incense played a huge role in Israel's history. It was symbolically right before the Lord. And so what was done on this piece of furniture what this piece of furniture was so important for was to burn incense on it every morning. And the priest would come in and tend to the lamps, and then he would burn the incense before the Lord. And the smoke would go up into the most holy place. Israel understood that the altar of incense was right before God's face. Smoke came up into His nostrils. The Scriptures will say, to give us language to help us comprehend what's being taught.
The priest would then come right before the throne of grace and burn this incense. David thought this was quite a spectacular thing. In Psalm 141, he writes: oh Lord, I call to you. Come quickly to me. Hear my voice when I call to you. May my prayer be set before you like incense. May the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice."
The the Israel looked at what David said there, and they knew throughout history this hour of incense burning was very important for prayer before the Lord. The priest would go in. He would burn the incense right before the face of God. And as that's going on the hour of incense the people. would be outside praying the incense was always intended to represent the prayers of the people so revelation 8 speaks you can see the altar of incense and the smoke going right up into the throne room of god and god hearing the prayers of His people. and god answering the prayers of his people So this was very highly symbolic, but it also was meant to encourage the people to pray. that there's intercession happening for you. Prayers are being made for you. So pray. Join in. This was all about the hearing and answering of prayer through the intercessory work of the priest.
We know what all that means from Hebrews. As the priest offered it up, the people would gather outside. They would begin to pray. This happened morning and evening in israel it's the morning and evening sacrifice. Which, if somebody says, "Where's any biblical case for morning and evening, one day of the week to gather on the Sabbath?" this was the practice of Israel throughout. So it was important: gathering together to worship and being a house of prayer morning and evening on the Sabbath. It would have been unthinkable not to do that.
Okay, so here we are. Beautiful scene is set up. They were praying together as God's people. What year is it? It's, well, if you're following our calendar, it's about 4 BC. Years they had been praying. Praying for what? Well, it seems to be the point of the text. What are they praying for? angel says to Zachariah, all of a sudden, as he's there, the angel appears in the room and says, "I've heard your prayer."
Now, that's not just Zachariah's prayer. That's him representing the prayers of the people. What was the prayer? "I've heard your prayer, and here it is: and your wife Elizabeth shall bear a son You see, Israel's Elizabeth's barrenness represented Israel's barrenness. So the people of the Lord were praying. The devout ones now who who's in the temple day and night? We're going to look at tonight. Who's there doing this? What kind of people? Simeon, Anna, praying in anticipation. They're praying for a son. They're praying that God's promises would be fulfilled.
Well, it says here that zachariah and Elizabeth are well advanced in year to the point of humanly speaking, that it's utterly impossible. It's absolutely impossible. This is a long history. They should have known this history. But here the announcement has come by the angel: God's heard your prayer! And now the one is coming through your wife's womb who will prepare the way.
You can't help and stop to think about Israel as a whole and what's represented here. I thought to myself: was the heart in that prayer? Was the heart in the prayer? Had they stopped praying? Did they pray? Did they believe that through all these years of difficulty and struggle that anything was ever going to change? Did they believe that the promise would really be fulfilled? Did they believe that there would be everything that God had spoken? Did they believe that it actually would happen? That seems to me a really fundamental question of the text.
Nothing ever seems to change, does it? To put together this scenario: they had been promised a kingdom without end. They had been promised a king who would sit on David's throne forever. Powerful deliverance. Emmanuel would come. "God with us," Isaiah 7. They had been promised the seed all the way back from Abraham. But the whole experience has been nothing but struggle and delay. A ruthless tyrant's on the throne. We have no son. We have no son. Where has God been? Why didn't He answer? It captures a whole lot of frustration.
With the last words that we often quote and at times don't feel very comforting: "Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage. He'll strengthen your heart." But wait, wait, wait. Whatever seems to change? And what happens to prayer? What happens to hope? What happens to drive as a people? What happens when God's seeming inactivity is that it seems to be a refusal to hear prayer?
What happens to us? is Are we really here's here's the heart of it, I think Are we really believing what we confess are we really believing what the Scriptures have told us?
I've often said: how many years have people prayed about the return of Jesus Christ? If you can't find a parallel here, I don't know where you'll find it. Do you ever hear that prayer much anymore? Do you ever pray it? It's a fair question, isn't it? Do you ever hear the prayer? We live really believing He couldn't come today.
Peter captured this when he said, "You know what the scoffers say, right? They live their whole life de facto scoffers." You might even say, "Where is this promise coming? The world has gone on as it's always gone on. And hey, we're making lots of money. Life's good." I don't think that's unbelievers. I think it's people in the church saying that, the scoffers who stop believing it. "I see no kingdom. I see no king. So we will take matters into our own hands. Nothing changes."
The issue that Gabriel raises with zachariah is this here's what i love about this text it's time it's time for what you might say the coming forerunner of the Christ. It's time for something else. We miss a heart of this text. is something else we miss this is the moment zachariah is doing his priestly work in intercession with the incense, and there appears to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.
Now, of every problem I just answered here, the angel addresses the angel zachariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell on him. But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, zachariah for your prayer has been heard. God heard your prayer. And God has answered."
Even when prayer is weak, even when prayer is light, even when prayer is you feel pathetic, the Lord hears the prayers of His people. That's who Zechariah represented. Some of you have been praying for a long time for things. Felt that God has not answered or that He's far from us, that He is distant and does not hear, and nothing changes.
This is the most glorious moment in all of history, beloved! God was making good on His promise from Genesis 3.
How so? "Your wife Elizabeth will bear a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord."
Now, here it is here's here's what I think we miss in this: "And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord" (verse 17). "He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the people back to the Lord."
So this is this is glorious. You have to understand what's being said here of John the Baptist. It's a fulfillment of everything that God had promised in the past. This was right from Micah: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day that the Lord comes, and he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction with curse."
The promise was this: the forerunner will come, and first he will make people's hearts ready again. Have you thought about that? He will prepare the hearts again. He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God in the spirit and power of Elijah.
You know what Elijah's prayer was? Remember on Mount Carmel when all of Israel was worshiping the bales Here was the prayer that brought down the fire to end it all. At the time of the sacrifice, oh, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: "Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, Lord. Answer me so these people will know that you, Lord, are God and that here you go you are turning their hearts back to you again."
Spirit and power of elijah john will do it. Just like Carmel, he will turn Israel's hearts, of the people, back to their God. As soon as that prayer went out, the fire fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood and the stones and the soil, and licked up the water in the trench.
We're in the same position as zachariah in a sense a much better position. Jesus has come and he's fulfilled the plan. And for 2 000 years we've been waiting for what seems like the same struggle: a kingdom that doesn't look so glorious right now with a lot of political turmoil. And we've been waiting on the same promises. And these promises seem slow, and they seem like they're not coming, and there seems to be nothing but conflict and difficulty and discouragement.
But what we're pressed with here is the third problem: Are we believing?
Every week, God sends messengers, preachers, heralds of the King to announce good news of the kingdom. That He's coming. That's right. That the end of all things is at hand, that the time is short, and that salvation is now. The day is now. Get your hearts right with the Lord. Be prepared. Christian ministry is that. It's preparation for the second coming. The ministry is to prepare your hearts for the coming, to make you ready. How many calls in the New Testament are saying, "Be ready, be ready. We're almost there. We're almost there"?
Many of you may not even have to worry about your retirements. Repent and believe the gospel. It's good news for you. It's just a different time and placement. But what do our prayers say?
How many of you feel right now all truth be told totally indifferent? Does it bother you? It bothers me. Are we looking? Are we ready?
Here we are. You realize that the turning of many hearts back in Israel to the Lord was a work of grace. This is what's most needed right now. We are hearts of a generation that are drifting. Some have so much in life they have no desire for the second coming. It's too good here for them. Some are weary and beaten and discouraged by sin and death, and they feel little hope. Some are discouraged because there's really, it seems like, little strength to draw close to the Lord at all.
And let me say with the text today: you don't turn your hearts back to the Lord. You have it wrong. It's His mercy that turns us back. Your heart is cold. You are often unbelieving, and you're living in fear, and you're living in worry, and you're living in distress, and you're forgetting promises. That's reality, isn't it?
How does he turn hearts back? And here's where the passage challenges us this morning: it's the focus on the response of Zachariah. "How shall I know this? For I'm an old man, and my wife is advanced in years."
That seems reasonable, doesn't it? It may not seem like a wrong question, but it's kind of a long history that probably means that the spirit behind the question was, "Are you serious? How could it be?" And if he knew the Scriptures, he knew that Abraham and Sarah asked the same question: And "How could it be? My wife is past childbearing," said Abraham. Did they have a child? We see it in Gabriel's answer. It was unbelief. angel answers: "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and bring to you this good news. I was sent to bring to you good news. An angel from heaven just preached to you the Gospel. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day these things take place because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time."
See, that's where it challenges us today. Zachariah did not believe the good news preached to him. There are many failings of us in this life, and the Lord calls us to come back even for unbelief and confess. But unbelief that flat out rejects and does not listen to the promise and does not believe the promise is intolerable.
Why is this being shown to us? Martin Luther once said, "Gospel is glad tidings; it's good news; it's welcomed information a shout or something that makes one sing and talk and rejoice."
What does unbelief do? It closes up your mouths. When the Gospel's not believed, the evidence is: our mouths might as well have been sealed up by the angel, for nothing ever comes out to testify to what we believe.
Unbelief always questions everything. Faith embraces the truth of the Gospel that's announced to you, the good news that's heralded to you: Christ has come, and Christ is coming again. Believe it. God has promised that he gave his son to die to release you from sin. See, notice that song of faith we sang from Zachariah was so powerful? To deliver his people in their sin, from sorrow, from emptiness, from misery, and to secure for you heaven. And he's coming to take you home.
Everyone makes choices in this life, and what people make the choices to do have their consequences. You have choices. you can be not believing. And you can live a life mute. But when God turns your heart, has it been turned? It's through the preaching of the Gospel.
"You believe that Christ Jesus came in this world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." And your mouth is open. Like Elizabeth's: "Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when He looked on me to take away my reproach from among the people." She spoke. She lifted up her voice in praise to God, and we read it to this day.
God desires from us today the celebration of the gift of His Son. He desires from us that we would believe Him at His Word. He desires that we live ready as a people for the second coming. What God has told you in His Word will come to pass. It will. So believe it. And loosen your tongues with the angels and say with them, as what should be said every day of our lives, glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good news, Gospel, among those with whom he is pleased."
May we be a people of his pleasure as we praise him in faith. Amen.
Let's pray.
Lord, thank you for your Word to us, and thank you for such a glorious text that shows us your promises and fulfillment in history. Thank you for turning hearts back to you through the preaching of the Gospel, to make a people ready. May we be a ready people, a believing people, a people whose prayers reflect our trust in all that you have spoken in your Word. Encourage your people of your steadfast love. May they be challenged to know, O Lord, that you have this Gospel preached to them because you love them and have delivered them. Let us receive all these blessings by faith. In Jesus' name, amen.