God Remembers

Transcript

Well, let’s seek the Lord before we start here. So let’s pray. Lord, as we open your word, we want to confess our utter dependence upon you for living out our lives. We need your light to shine on our path. So please let your word be that light. Come now with your Holy Spirit and guide us. Lord, let the truth of the gospel shine brightly and let me not be a hindrance. Glorify yourself. Help me to make much of Jesus. In Jesus’ name, amen. In his book, The Praying Life, Paul Miller states that cynicism is increasingly the dominant spirit of our age. In cynicism, we distrust or disparage the motives of others. When we pray for what we think we need and we don’t get it when we feel we need it, we question the active goodness of God on our behalf. Now the people of Israel had prayed for the Messiah for a long time based on the promises

of God. First God had promised that from the seed of the woman, Eve, that seed would bruise the serpent’s head while the serpent would bruise his heel. Later on, the scriptures revealed that this seed would come through Abraham when it says, In you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. Even later, we read that a seed would come through Judah, as it is written, The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. Then the scriptures further explain that the promised seed would come through David and that his name would be Immanuel and that wonderful titles would be given to him like Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. That he would be born in Bethlehem and that there would be a messenger who would come

before him who prepares the way for him. In Proverbs 13, 12, we find the saying, A hope deferred makes the heart sick. And Israel awaited their promised king. And they waited and they waited. And I’m sure the Jews in the first century before Christ asked for and prayed for the Messiah. And our text today is a story of the announcement of the forerunner of Messiah. John the Baptist formed a link between the revelation of the Old Testament and the revelation of God in the New Testament period. And this brings us to our text today in Luke 1, 5 to 25. So open your Bibles to Luke 1, 5 to 25. Let’s read it together. In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron and her name was Elizabeth.

A Righteous Couple’s Dilemma

And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and the statues 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 there appeared to him the 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. And the angel said to him, do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard and your wife Elizabeth will bear your 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 the mother’s womb. And 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.

— Luke 1

(ESV)

And Zechariah said to the angel, how shall I know this? For I’m 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 have taken place because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time. And the people were waiting for Zechariah and they were wondering at his delay in the temple. And 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. 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, thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me to take away my reproach among people. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. We sometimes think trusting in God is fine as long it is something you believe he can

do. And it’s funny that sometimes we find ourselves content to let God handle the ordinary things in life, like allowing us to do well for a job interview or score well on a test. But when it comes to the hard things that seem almost impossible, we have little faith that this, that they will happen. So we trust in our strength rather than in giving the problem up to God. Waiting on the Lord for the impossible is hard. Why are we so reluctant to give God the impossible things? We know that God has done the impossible, the unthinkable in the past. He created something out of nothing. He parted the waters of the Red Sea. He sent manna and quail to his children in the desert. When it comes to our obstacles, the things that have so stymied us, we are a total loss for a solution.

We often think of ourselves that, yeah, maybe God could do it, but it seemed to be so far fetched that he would. So we fight on alone, trusting in perseverance and determination to get the job done. Perhaps we think it is selfish for us to ask really big things from God. Or maybe it’s because we expect certain things to be done at certain times, and we are reluctant to adjust our schedule to his timetable. In our text, we see this couple that we can presume has been praying for a long time and not yet seen their prayer answered. And we see this in verses five to seven, where we see the couple’s dilemma. Where we read, in the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah of the division of Abijah, and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name

Historical Context and Background

was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and the statutes of the Lord. But they had no child because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years. Luke is the only one who brings us this story. And he does this to show us that the Messiah’s forerunner had an auspicious beginning in the same vein as the Messiah himself. In these beginning verses of our story, Luke gives us the historical backdrop of what’s going on at that time. It was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea. The king’s name tells us that we’re still in the dark ages of Israel’s history. Herod, by birth an Edomian, ruled as king over the land of promise by the power of Rome. Edomians were the descendants of Edomites, whom the Jewish Maccabean ruler, John Hyrcanus, had conquered and had forced to convert to Judaism more than a century earlier.

Herod’s father actually was half Jewish, but his father and Herod rose to power thanks to their connections with the Romans. While Herod acted sometimes as a devout Jew, most often he lived a decadent life that offended a lot of Jewish people. He erected pagan temples and organized pagan games. Herod was cruel beyond measure against any opposition. He even viewed his own family with a lot of suspicion and had many of them killed. So the hope of restoration of David’s kingdom was not realized and seemed as far off as ever. It had been 400 years since the Lord sent the last prophet to Israel. Jacob’s prophecy over Judah in Genesis 49 stated that the scepter would not depart from Judah until he came to whom the rule belonged. Well the Romans or their puppet ruler appointed the high priest and no descendant of David’s dynasty sat on the throne.

So yes, indeed, the scepter had departed from Judah and the people were waiting for the coming of Messiah. Malachi, the last prophet, had ended his message with hope. He stated, but for you who fear my name, the son of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. And a few verses later, he stated, behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. But the people were still in the dark at the beginning of our story. The light had not yet begun to shine. They were still groping in deep darkness and they had not seen a great light. Our story then focuses on Zechariah. The name Zechariah means the Lord remembered. When God remembers, he acts. Zechariah belonged to the Abijah division of priests. Priests were organized in these divisions, these groups, regularly performing duties in the temple, either from Sabbath to Sabbath or also during the high holy days.

So Zechariah was there in Jerusalem to help out. Now Zechariah and Elizabeth, his wife, were said to be righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. Righteous and blameless marks their devotion to God. What it means is that they believed the scriptures and tried to live by them. It doesn’t mean that they were sinless. Luke tells two more things about this couple. One, they were childless and two, they were advanced in years. The reason for their childlessness was Elizabeth’s barrenness. In ancient Israel, this fact is often seen as a negative because people at that time thought that children were a blessing of God. And Baroness was seen as God’s judgment for some secret sin, a mark of God’s displeasure. But Luke thinks differently. He states that this couple was righteous and blameless before God. They walked with the Lord despite their trying circumstances.

The fear of the Lord dwelt in them. They held on to God’s promise, hoping for Messiah while living in obedience to God’s word. Both Zechariah and Elizabeth were advanced in years. They were past childbearing age. They were too old to have children, yet priests were never too old to serve. So we find Zechariah ministering in Jerusalem at the time of her story as we read in verses 8 to 10 where we see Zechariah’s duty. Now while he was serving as priest before God, when his division was on duty, according to the customs of 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. So here we see him serving in the temple as even in his old age. The drawing of the lots appoints him to offer the incense in the temple.

Divine Encounter and Promise

The law commanded that incense would be offered twice a day in the morning and in the afternoon. Now there were often thousands of priests who would serve in the temple and according to Talmud, the priest could only burn the incense once in a lifetime. And some priests, because of the large quantity of priests there were, never had this privilege in their lifetime. And as the priest goes in, the people are praying in the temple. Calvin writes that the incense offering reminded the faithful that their prayers do not ascend to heaven except through the mediator, through the sacrifice of the mediator. And Israel was still awaiting the mediator to appear. As Zechariah goes in, something else happens and we read that when we read about his son that is being promised and the destiny of that son. In verses 11 to 17, 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 and 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 and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God and 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.

When a priest entered the holy place of the temple, he would stand at the right of the table of showbread and to the right of him would be the menorah that ornate candlestick before the curtain that divided the holy place from the holy of holies was the altar of incense. Entering the temple would be done with great reverence because they fully realized the wholeness of God and their own sinfulness. They realized his exaltedness and their own lowliness. They realized his majesty and their own humbleness. When any mortal person comes face to face with the heavenly being, anxiety and fear will overpower that person. These feelings are the typical reaction when encountering divine and that is also Zechariah’s reaction. But the angel comforts and puts him at ease. He says, do not be afraid, Zechariah. Following this word of assurance, the actual message is given as to why the Lord sent this

angel down. And this message is remarkable. The angel declares to Zechariah that God heard his prayer. We don’t know what the prayer was. The story doesn’t even tell that Zechariah had prayed. Was this a prayer for a child? Or did he pray the prayer that every devout Jewish person in Israel would pray, namely for the coming of Messiah? It doesn’t really matter which prayer it was because they were both answered. He will receive a child and this child will be the forerunner of Messiah coming in the power and spirit of Elijah just as Malachi had promised. And his name will be John, which means God is gracious. It refers to the grace of God that will descend on the people through the coming of Jesus. The angel then clarifies what effect that child will have on Israel. First, the angel states that many will rejoice at his birth for he will be great before the

Lord. This reference to joy is the first indication that the age of darkness is ending. Aslan is on the move. Winter is coming to an end. One commentator states it this way, this joy was not a personal feeling but the eschatological happiness brought about by the arrival of the Messianic age. Secondly, Zechariah’s child would have a task to do and for that task he should not drink wine or strong drink because the Holy Spirit will fill him even from the mother’s womb. The absence from alcohol indicates that personal holiness should mark this child. The fact that the Holy Spirit would fill him from his mother’s womb without whose help this child would not be able to do his task marks the importance of his duty. Thirdly, the angel describes the nature of his ministry as encompassing three tasks. He would go before, he would turn, and he would prepare.

The first task is that he would go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah. Here they are quoting Malachi 3.1 which says, behold I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me. And also Malachi 4.5, behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. Even today Orthodox Jews believe that before Messiah would come there will be a forerunner who would come in the power of Elijah. The second task is that he would turn many to the Lord their God. Again there is a clear parallel between Elijah’s and John’s ministry. Elijah preached repentance and proclaimed the need of the people to return to God and John would do the same thing. While Elijah’s ministry is marked by astonishing miracles, John’s ministry would display the power of God’s word. When John preached God’s word, it changed people’s view of God and it changed the world.

It changed people’s lives. The third task is that this forerunner would prepare the way before the coming of the Lord. Luke’s and Malachi’s point is that the work of this forerunner would call people to repentance. Fathers and sons would no longer live self-centered lives and the disobedient would turn to the wisdom of the just. It is also clear that John is the herald of the Messiah but not the Messiah himself. John understood this but we read in the gospel of John 3.28 when he said I am not the Christ but I’ve been sent before him or two verses later he says he must increase but I must decrease. This statement is also the message for us today. He must increase and we must decrease. Why must we decrease and he increase? Because we owe it all to him. As sinners we deserve God’s condemnation. Let’s look at the brokenness of our own lives but the good news is that Christ bore our

sins on the cross. He took our penalty by dying on the cross and turned aside God’s judgment and wrath. Our wayward broken lives he restored and our shadowed relationship with the father he mended. He did this all out of grace. We receive this by faith when we repent of our sins and turn to him and confess him as Lord and give him control over all our lives. The father invites us to trust Jesus finished work on the cross and we know that Jesus finished his work and paid for our sins because on the third day he rose again and he sits at the father’s right hand. So if you have not yet trusted in Jesus, he invites you to confess your sins, repent, and trust him with your life. It is never too late to trust him as the criminal hanging beside Jesus on the cross discovered

Zechariah’s Doubt and Consequence

when Jesus promised him that same day he would be with him in paradise. If you are a believer, Christ invites you to walk with him daily and trust him because his word is truth. You don’t have to be perfect. He does ask you to be faithful and when you stumble to confess your sins and you will find him faithful. Trusting Jesus is a long life task. Trusting God was something that Zechariah seemed to have a hard time with as we read in verses 18 to 20 when we read about Zechariah’s doubts. 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, 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 he did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time. With this question, how shall I know this? He’s really asking for a sign. It is interesting that Zechariah and his wife probably had prayed for years to have children. But when he gets his word, this word from the angel, he reacts with unbelief. It could be that he had an, maybe an attitude of humbleness that he could not fathom that he and his wife would be singled out for such an incredible honor to be the parents of Messiah’s forerunner. Cynicism had taken hold of him. And this cynicism is pervasive in our worlds. In the 19th century, faith in God took a sharp decline and brought forth in the 20th century, a religion that did not have God as its object.

In his book, The Praying Life that I mentioned before, Paul Miller states that our society has put its faith in naive optimism. This optimism puts their hope in scientific advancement, human ingenuity, man’s goodness, but not in the goodness of God. When circumstances shatter their optimism, it gives way to cynicism. As they have abandoned their faith in the good shepherd leading them through the valley of deep darkness, this world maintains its sanity with cynicism. The cynical stance attempts to keep their balance in a world gone mad. And maybe that is also us. Maybe we have become so cynical that we go through the motions of prayer without believing that God will answer. Instead of cynicism, the Lord invites us to trust him. He will not abandon you. His son’s sacrifice should instill in us hope in the love of God since he loved us in this

incredible way, namely that he sent his son to die for us. Zechariah looks at himself and sees no hope. He says, I’m an old man. Gabriel responds, I’m Gabriel, and I stand in the presence of God. Zechariah’s lack of faith is not just a distrust of the angel, but also of God who sent the angel. Yet the angel standing before him should have convinced him that this message was true. Most of the many examples in scripture of barren women being touched by God so that they could conceive should convince them also. Look at Sarah. Look at Rebecca. Look at Rachel. Look at Samson’s mother. Look at Hannah, the mother of Samuel. It seems Zechariah had gotten accustomed to pray for something without expecting the Lord to answer. He considered his wife, he considered himself, and concludes that babies are not born to people like them.

Zechariah refused to believe this good news to him. But if God was unable to restore Elizabeth’s body’s reproductive processes, what hope is there for us that he will be able to deliver us from corruption and revive us? Being struck dumb was a kindness of God since the angel provided a sign of his word’s veracity, although it was also a sign of Zechariah’s unbelief. This interaction with the angel delayed Zechariah in the temple as we read in verses 21 to 23 about his deferment. And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple. And he came out, and he was unable to speak, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple, and he kept making signs to them and remained mute. When his time of service had ended, he went to his home. The Talmud tells us that the high priest who entered the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur

did not dawdle there. There is a strong sense of God’s presence in the temple, and even the priest who would burn incense would perform his duty and then quickly get out. People were used to a certain time frame that this burning of the incense would take, and so they expected him to be out at a certain time. So when the priest then would come out, normally he would pronounce a blessing like the priestly blessing of Numbers 6. But for a priest who can’t believe the word of God’s messenger, it would be better if he would not pretend to pronounce the blessing. His lack of belief in the possibility of divine intervention indicates a deeper problem. He is going through the motions without real conviction of God’s willingness or ability to intervene. So when the people noticed Zechariah’s delay when he came out, they discovered that he

was unable to pronounce the blessing. So they knew that something had happened while he was in the sanctuary. We don’t know why they concluded that he had seen a vision, but it seemed to be the plausible explanation. And all he could do is just making some signs. So after his week of service was over, Zechariah went home, and God was true to his word as we read in verses 24 to 25 where we read about Elizabeth’s deliverance. After these days, his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, Thus the Lord has done for me in these days, when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people. So the angel’s word came to pass, and Elizabeth became pregnant. She then keeps herself secluded for five months, and Luke doesn’t tell us why she does that. Her pregnancy would have gone unnoticed probably during this time.

She does acknowledge that God had removed the shame and stigma of being childless. Maybe she didn’t want to try to convince the family and neighbors that after being barren for so many years, and now in her old age, she had become pregnant. With her husband returning from his duty unable to speak, there were a lot of things going on in their lives. Only after the fifth month, when it was undeniably true that she was pregnant, did she break her seclusion. What these stories of barrenness seem to indicate is that God’s spirit seems to hover over the humanly hopeless places. God specializes in the impossible. He majors in the exceptional. What is impossible, exceptional, improbable, is possible, ordinary, and natural for God. It is in the wasteland that God speaks the world into being. These empty voids seem to draw God’s attention in ways where he speaks and announces something

God’s Faithfulness Revealed

new. John Piper says it about this story. It is clear from Luke’s narrative that God loves to exalt his sovereign reliability by keeping his word where humans can see no possible way for it. I am an old man. My wife is barren and advanced in years. I can’t believe it. Let’s not be like Zechariah. Let me end with a few applications here. First, Zechariah’s unbelief doesn’t proceed from a life of sin. Both he and his wife were faithful, faithful in walking with the Lord, faithful in keeping the commandments. It is good to be faithful, but it doesn’t mean that everything will go as we expect it, but it will always go in the way that God planned it to go since he is sovereign. Secondly, even faithful believers sometimes fall in unbelief. When we see unbelief in our own lives, we should confess and repent and put our hope

again in him, for there is forgiveness for us in Christ. As we see here, God did not cast away Zechariah, but gave him more than he could imagine. Third, even faithful Christians don’t always understand the whys in their lives. Keep your eyes on Jesus because he is faithful, and he will not abandon you. He will show up in our lives in the most unexpected ways. When he shows up, lives will be changed forever. Fourth, prayer always seems to precede the mighty movements of God. Zechariah was astonished when God answered his prayers. While he might have been cynical, he continued to pray, and God honored that, seemingly hopeless prayers for recovery, healing, and even pregnancies are fine with the Lord. He welcomes them. Fifth, Israel had prayed for centuries for the coming of Messiah. The faithful ones in Israel had prayed consistently. They had waited for a sign of the coming Messiah to change their circumstances, which were

beyond their control. The good news is that God’s promises are reliable and will be fulfilled at the right time. He is the God of the impossible, improbable, out-of-this-world fulfillments. Sixth, we serve a sovereign, faithful, compassionate God. Approach him with boldness. He will do what is best for us because he gives good things to his people. Let’s pray. Father, we praise you that you did send John the Baptist to announce the coming of Jesus. We thank you that through this text, we can see that you can be trusted, or we sometimes encounter heartaches. You have the power to turn that pain into joy. Through your sovereign power, you can turn the barren wasteland into fertile grounds. The barren one can bring forth children. Those who are sad and downcast can, by God’s kindness, hold their heads lifted and their joy restored. Your word says, delight yourselves in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of

your heart. As we wait for you to work in our lives, help us to do this. Help us to wait graciously. Help us to understand that your answer, not our wants, but our needs, and our need is, first and foremost, to glorify you forever. What we need most is for Jesus to increase and for us to decrease. Lord, revive our hearts. Lord, revive this city, so help us to pray for God to bless, clearly, everything that we do, our testimony, our city, with the gospel, so that new believers will be added who lift up your name, so that your kingdom will advance. We pray this in the wonderful name of Jesus the Messiah. Amen.