Sermon Transcript (Transcript starts at 23:01)
Have you ever prayed for something for a really long time? Like, a really, really long time? I was reading recently about a community from the 17 hundreds in a german town that today is called Herrnhut, Germany.
And they had moved from czech, from what’s today the Czech Republic, because there was a counter reformation. They were being persecuted for their faith. And they started, after they moved to Hernehut, they started a church there. And they started with that church, kind of a revolution of prayer, a vigil of prayer 24 hours a day for 100 years. 100 years of 24 hours a day prayer.
Not missing a moment of praying before the Lord. Have you ever prayed for something for a really long time? Isn’t it hard sometimes to trust God when we’re waiting? We’re waiting for him to fulfill his promises? You know, there’s a story in the Bible that kind of reminds me of that sort of long wait for God to fulfill his promises.
In the first century, many of God’s people, in fact, were seeking God. We’re asking God to fulfill his promises to them. A lot of them were kind of national promises from God, that he would come and rescue them from the oppression of the Romans and that he would send the Messiah. And in their minds, the messiah was a political leader who would come and overthrow the Romans and lead the nation of Israel to victory, to the victorious life that they used to have. For some of them, though, it was more of a spiritual messiah, somebody that they were seeking to come and not only just free them from the oppression of the Romans, but to free them from the oppression of their sin as well.
And so they prayed for a messiah to come, not only to free them from human oppression, but from sinful oppression as well. And then in that same day, there were some people whose prayers were a lot more personal. People like Zechariah and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist, who we’re going to read about today. Their prayer was far more personal. They had gone, struggled throughout their whole lives.
They were old in age, and they were. Were waiting and waiting on this promise of the Lord. It seems almost had even given up on the promise of the Lord of a child. And so we’re gonna dive into their story today. Now, it’s difficult sometimes when we jump into a narrative in the scriptures to see ourselves in the story or really to see what does God want me to get out of this?
But I think there’s a lot for us to unpack in this story of Zechariah. And Elizabeth today for really a story that a lot of times we only go to around Christmas time, right. The birth of John the Baptist, the birth of Jesus. It might be tempting for us to kind of like, skim through that part of Luke chapter one and think, well, I don’t really. There’s not really anything here for me, right.
It’s just narrative. But there is so much here for us to learn to see about what God can do in our lives, because he is the God of promise. He is the God who remembers. So we’re going to read the story today at the birth of John the Baptist, and we’re going to learn to trust the promises of Goddesse, especially the promise of a savior who will take away the sins of the world. God is the God of promise.
What he promises he will bring about in his own timing. And sometimes he even does it in surprising ways. Today, we’ll learn from their story. We’ll receive a promise from God ourselves. Let’s dive into Luke chapter one if you want to turn in your bibles there.
We’re going to start out in verse five of Luke chapter one. Luke writes, in the time of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah. His wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive and they were both very old.
In his gospel, Luke introduces us to two humble servants of the Lord, Zechariah, a priest, and his wife, Elizabeth. Zechariah, whose name means the Lord, has remembered. Now, that’s important. Names mean something, especially in the Bible. And so Zechariah’s name means the Lord has remembered.
He was one of approximately 18,000 priests that served in the temple year round, day in and day out, 24 hours a day, served before the Lord, 18,000 priests that served at two weeks at a time. When their division came up, there were 24 of these divisions. So you can kind of do the math there. Twelve months of the year, 24 divisions, and they would serve for about two weeks at a time. And the other details that were given about Zechariah and Elizabeth’s life is that they are very old and that they’re childless.
This is something that I believe is put there to create some tension for us, and it’s a true fact from their life, but it creates some tension for the readers. Of Luke, especially those who understand the culture of first century Judaism. Because if you understand childlessness, you understand in that culture that childlessness was something that was seen as a sign of misfortune, and it was seen as perhaps even a sign of God’s disfavor on them. But Luke creates some tension here because he says that Zechariah and Elizabeth, that they were faithful servants of the Lord. They were devout.
They weren’t just priests in name only. They were devout followers of the Lord. But yet, according to Elizabeth, at least later on, this childlessness had brought them disgrace from the people around them. The reality is, as we’ll see in the story, God never left them. God never forgot them.
He remembers them. In fact, God acknowledges their devotion. So we see that Zechariah and Elizabeth were devout followers of God. They were devoted to God, and yet they still experience frustration and even devastation in their lives. And it’s easy for people to judge, isn’t it?
It’s easy for people to judge from the outside. It may even be easy for us sometimes to judge the misfortunes of others from the outside as a sign of God’s judgment. But we shouldn’t rush to judgments like that, should we? Especially when we see evidence in another person’s life that they’re striving to live a godly life. We shouldn’t rush to those judgments.
God often in the scriptures has compassion for those who are struggling, who are frustrated and yet remain faithful. His presence is often there with those who are devastated and yet remain devoted. And as we’ll soon see, God will answer these prayers of Zechariah and Elizabeth for a child in a very interesting way. Now, we could just move on in the narrative. Maybe if we were reading our bibles at home, we would just stop there, pause for a moment, think through the details and move on.
But I think it’s important for us to do something a little bit different this morning, something that may even be a little bit uncomfortable for us. I want us to reflect for a moment, to pause, and to take some things to the Lord. Now, we’re here in a crowded room, but we can still have a conversation with God, and God can have that intimate conversation with every single one of us as we turn to him. So before we move on, I want to do something a little different. I want us to pause here to take this opportunity, to take our frustrations to the Lord, to turn to God in the middle of our needs.
In your mind right now, if you need to close your eyes, to focus on God right now. Do that. I’d encourage you to take those frustrations to the Lord. I guarantee in a room this size that there are many of us that came in here today with frustrations and even dealing with devastation that we need to take to God. So what’s frustrating you right now?
Say it to God. Take it to him. Turn it over to him. Let’s pause just 10 seconds and let’s take those frustrations to God. Let’s do that.
Close your eyes if you need to. Bow your head. Focus on God. What’s frustrating? You say it to him now in the same way.
What devastation are you experiencing in your life right now? What grief? What loss are you grieving? Take it to God. Maybe it’s the loss of a job, loss of a relationship, a friendship, a marriage.
Maybe you’re grieving the loss of a loved one, the loss of mobility and strength because of health issues. Maybe you’re grieving today the loss of hope. Maybe you’re even feeling like you’ve lost your way with Jesus. Take that to goddess. As we do that, I want to encourage you with these words of the apostle Paul in Philippians chapter four, Paul says, do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, in every situation.
By prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Remember this, friends. God is with you in the midst of frustration and even devastation. And he loves you, and you can love him despite the agony of those frustrations.
You could take those things to God. He is listening and he remembers. If you’ve read the scriptures, you probably know that even though Luke creates this tension for us, you know that God is about to do something in the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth. And so turning back to their story now, now that that tension has been created, it set the stage for God to show up and to do something incredible like only he can do. And that’s exactly what happens.
We read in verse eight once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot according to the custom of the priesthood. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for Zechariah, something that was only allowed to happen once in the life of a priest. And so he was chosen to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside. Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him standing at the right side of the altar of incense.
And so for the people of Israel, in this daily occurrence, but in this once in a lifetime occurrence for Zechariah, a priest like him would only be allowed to serve before God in this way one time. Chosen by lot, determined who, chosen by lot to determine whose turn it was. God used that once in a lifetime opportunity, the pinnacle of Zechariah’s priestly career, to show up to send his message, to make an incredible announcement through his messenger, the angel Gabriel read in verse twelve. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped by fear, an understandable response to seeing an angel in the temple of the Lord. But the angel said to him, do not be afraid, Zechariah.
Your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you. And many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink.
He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Like many others, Zechariah understandably reacts in fear in the presence of God’s messenger. But also, like many others, he’s assured he has a proper response to the greatness, to the goodness, to the holiness of God.
And yet this messenger Gabriel tells him, do not be afraid. And in this one pronouncement, we have several things that we need to consider. First of all, God is doing something new in his temple, something that he’s never done before, but in a way that his people would recognize that. The readers of Luke, including us, including Zechariah, who was there for this, should recognize the way that God has done things before. He’s doing it in a new way, but in a similar way to the way he announced the births of other children of promise in the Old Testament, children like Isaac, like Samson, Samuel, and even eventually Jesus the Messiah.
And not only is the stage set for this promise to Israel, but God is answering this deeply personal prayer of Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth. He answers both promises with the birth of a son, a prophet who will be named John, who will be the forerunner of Christ. In a great way. And think about this. The joy of simply having a child would have been enough to fulfill the prayers of Zechariah and Elizabeth.
But God goes even further. Their joy would be even greater because their son would be great in the sight of the Lord. He’d be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he was born, and he would go on before Jesus and the spirit and the power of the prophet Isaiah. And so we see that God answered their prayers with a promise. God is always faithful.
He’s always faithful in answering his promises. When his people are devoted to him, we learn to ask for things that align in our hearts with the heart of God as we conform our lives to the life of Jesus. Jesus tells us himself to ask for what we need in his name, and then he makes us this promise. He says in John 1624, until now, you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
Let me ask you this. What prayers do you need God to answer with his promise?
Remember, if God makes a promise, he’s going to fulfill it. He’s faithful to that promise. And so we need to remember that when we get frustrated or when we feel like there’s a delay in God answering those promises, we need to remember that for God, that he is patient. For him, a thousand years is like a day, and a day is like a thousand years. So we can trust God’s word when he speaks.
But sometimes, just like Zechariah, we need to learn that lesson more deeply. We read in verse 18, Zechariah asked the angel, how can I be sure of this? I’m an old man and my wife is well along in years. The angel said to him, I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.
And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time. It might be easy for us to criticize Zechariah in this instance, for us to think, well, there was an angel standing right there. What more do you need, man? What more of a sign do you need? It might even be easy for us to blame God here.
God. It’s a little harsh, don’t you think? This guy’s gone, his whole life, childless. You’re answering his prayer, but you’re taking away his speech. And even later on, we see that God even took away his hearing as well.
Consider this as a priest of the Lord Zechariah knows the stories. He knows how God can work. And at this point we need to ask ourselves why might God act in such a way? You see, Zechariah had more to learn about trusting God’s word. And so goddess made him silent.
It’s like God is saying, listen, if you’re going to use that mouth that I gave you to question me, maybe you’re not going to use that mouth for a little while, right? If you’re going to use those ears to not hear me out when I’m saying what I’m promising, maybe you’re not going to use those ears that I gave you for a little while. I might be so bold to say it this way, that Zechariah’s mouth wrote a check that his faith could not cash. Right? You follow me?
He is speaking, he’s questioning God’s promise. Zechariah knew the stories of God’s pronouncements, of miraculous births in the Old Testament of children of promise. And at any rate, it’s clear that the response that God required of Zechariah in that moment was not the response that was given. And so what does God do? He silences him, not to harm him, but to teach him.
He disciplines his son especially in how to trust his word. The Hebrews writer tells us in Hebrews eleven, chapter eleven, verse one. Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. And it’s like Zechariah was saying to God, okay, you’re saying this is true, but I want to see it. Show me the proof that this is really what you’re going to do.
God. And that’s not faith. And Hebrews eleven goes on to commend what faith is, especially in the Old Testament. Chapter eleven, verse two says, this is what the ancients were commended for. And two of those ancients who were commended for their faith were Abraham and Sarah.
And so the Hebrews writer goes on in verse eight of chapter eleven to say that by faith Abraham, when called to go to a place where he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. And Zechariah knew that story. By faith, Abraham made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. Zechariah knew that promise.
He knew those stories. Verse ten, where he was looking forward to the city with foundations whose architect and builder is God and by faith. Even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful, who had made the promise. Zechariah knew that story. We know those stories.
So faith in God’s word, trust in his promise, is of the utmost importance. It’s God’s priority for his people.
It’s of the utmost importance to God that we trust him at his word. God will never tempt us to sin, but he does test our faith and he does discipline us like sons and daughters. Any good father will discipline his children. God does that with us. And so this pronouncement was a test of Zechariah’s faith.
But he still had more to learn about trusting God’s word. So God disciplined him. He took away his speech and his hearing. Fortunately, God is good and he’s patient. And although he’s willing to teach us a lesson, almost said to learn us a lesson that would have come out better, though he’s willing to learn us a lesson, even though he’s willing to teach us a lesson, God is patient with us as we learn those lessons.
And he was patient with Elizabeth and Zechariah as well. We read in verse 24 after his wife. After this, his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. The Lord has done this for me, she said. In these days, he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.
We see continual praise and faithfulness from Elizabeth. In fact, she is the model for us in this passage. If we should follow anyone’s example in this story, it should be the example of Elizabeth, because especially as she’s feeling the weight of the burden of childlessness, the judgment of the people around her in that culture. And I want to be really, really clear, I want to pause here for a moment and be really clear. Elizabeth did nothing wrong.
She and Zechariah were suffering childlessness, but it was of no doing of their own. And anyone can go through the same struggle with infertility today, and they have no reason to feel like goddess has anything against them. If anything, what we can learn from the judgment of the people around them is what not to do from the failures of their culture to support and encourage them. We can learn to support and encourage those who are going through those struggles, as we see in the next few verses. God uses that brokenness, though, to bring great joy to Elizabeth.
In verse 57, moving ahead, it says, when it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy and they shared her joy. Do you see how the tables have turned, how the story has flipped now? And how those same people who were judging them before are now the people that share in their joyous verse? 59.
Luke writes, on the 8th day, they came to circumcise the child and they were going to name him after his father, Zechariah. But his mother spoke up and said, no, he is to be called John. They said to her, there’s no one among your relatives who has that name. They made signs to his father and to find out what he would like to name the child. Now, again, I want to pause here for a moment.
Can you imagine being Elizabeth at this point? How frustrating that must be. Like you’re going to ask him. He has a dog for nine months. Come on.
She’s carried this baby, but she still speaks up boldly for what the Lord has said her son would be named. We need to recognize how difficult that must have been for her. She fights against the pressures of her culture, the same people who she felt disgraced from for her barrenness. Those are the same people that now had turned and are rejoicing with her. Imagine the emotion of that moment.
And Zechariah obviously had communicated with her somehow what the Lord had said John’s name would be. But he’d been unable to speak or even hear for the full term of her pregnancy. And so how could she defend herself and make a case for what was right? Thankfully, God remembers and he’s good on his promises and he answers in an incredible way. We read in verse 63, Zechariah asked for a writing tablet.
And to everyone’s astonishment, he wrote, his name is John. Immediately his mouth was open and his tongue set free. And he began to speak, praising God. All the neighbors were filled with awe. And throughout the hill country of Judea, people were talking about all these things.
Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, what then is this child going to be? For the Lord’s hand was with him. The name John, interestingly, means the Lord is merciful. And again, oftentimes in the Bible, names mean something. And throughout this whole story, we’ve seen God’s mercy poured out at work in the lives of two of his faithful servants, Zechariah and Elizabeth.
That God remembered them, God fulfilled his promise to them. But as we back out, we get a full view of God’s greater plan and we see the role that John the Baptist plays in God’s redemptive plan. And we see that God’s mercy is not only playing out for Zechariah and Elizabeth. His mercy is being shown to all of us through Jesus because God is faithful in that promise. Also, God was about to bring about his plan of salvation through Jesus, the messiah for whom John would prepare the way.
What we see is that God fulfilled his promise to Zechariah and Elizabeth by completing his plan to send Jesus. So what do we learn from the story of John’s birth? It reminds us that the Lord is merciful, that he remembers us in our moment of need, that John was the one who will go on before the Lord in the spirit and the power of Elijah, that he would turn the hearts of the parents to their children, the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. John prepared the way for Jesus because God’s plan for salvation from sin for the world through his mercy came through Jesus. The apostle Paul tells us in two corinthians 120, no matter how many promises God has made, they are yes in Christ.
They are yes in Christ. And so through him, the amen, Paul says, is spoken by us to the glory of God. God is the God of promise. And all of his promises, all of God’s promises are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And it can be easy for us to forget that God is always faithful in the midst of our frustration and our devastation, when we’re struggling in those things that we need to take to God.
But God is faithful even when we’re devoted to God, though we may still have struggles in this world, we need not see those things as judgment from God, but as opportunities to respond in faith to the God who’s faithful. We may fail, though, to fully trust God, just like Zechariah did. We may write checks with our mouths that our faith can’t cash, and that may bring us into a place where God needs to discipline us and teach us to trust him more fully, especially at his word and this personal story from real people. It can teach us a lot about God and his character. First of all, we see that the only timing in which God fulfills his promise is in his own timing, which is always righteous and it’s always wise.
We see that God is sovereign over our speech and even our own hearing, that he’s willing to discipline those who are faithful to grow their faith even more, just like he did with Zechariah. And we learned that even in the middle of frustration and devastation, God is still there, and he renews his mercies every day. Another thing we can learn from is from the faithfulness of Elizabeth. Notice that throughout the entire narrative of Luke, Elizabeth is always faithful to God. She’s always praising God in spite of her circumstances.
We would do well to learn from her example, no matter what we’re going through, to turn those things to God and to turn to him in praise. Can we say that we praise God no matter what we’re going through, no matter what frustration or devastation we experience? And finally, we can learn from the way in which Luke ties this telling of John’s birth to the greater plan of God that’s fulfilled through Jesus alone. The way to salvation came into the world through Jesus, and that still matters today. It’s timeless.
God’s plan and the role which John played in it show us how God had every detail in place before we ever arrived on the scene. God knew exactly how he would bring our redemption into the world through Jesus. The gospel message then, that message of Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s ultimate promise to all of us. He fulfills that promise because he loves you. He promised us because it’s the only way.
And God always keeps his promise. What we learn then and what we should take away from today, if you’re going to take anything away from today’s message, it should be this. To trust God’s promise as he walks you through the process, we need to trust God’s promise as he walks us through the process. And so, having looked at this story, we might ask, how can we apply it to our lives, what we’ve learned today? I want to give you some simple ways that you can do that.
First of all, we can be prepared for God, and we see him at work in our lives through Jesus. We can follow his plan for our lives through Jesus, namely, to be saved by his grace through faith in his son. We have to humble ourselves before God and be willing to take the path that he calls us to instead of going our own way. We shouldn’t see struggles in life as evidence of a lack of devotion or an abundance of sin. Even those who devote, devote their lives to God struggle.
We learn from Elizabeth how to faithfully take our grief to the Lord, to turn it over to him, and to rejoice in him always. Despite our circumstances. We learned from Zechariah that God may choose to discipline us even though we’ve been devoted to him. And he does this not to harm us, but because sometimes we mess it up. We make the wrong choices, not necessarily always in a sinful way, but at times, God commands us to do something or promises us something.
And sometimes we lack the faith to believe that God will do it. Sometimes we hesitate to trust him or obey him. And that makes an opportunity for him to correct us in a loving way, like a father corrects his children. It makes us more like Jesus, his son, who never failed but always followed the will of his father. And finally, we learned to trust God’s faithfulness.
Always. We may not always understand why God has delayed his response or why his answer came contrary to what we desired. The reality is that God sees the future and he sees all things more clearly than we do. He knows all things. And it may just be that God is going to answer our problem through his promise to fulfill his plan in our life in a way that we never expected, just like he did for Zechariah and Elizabeth.
So as we come to a close, what good things have you been longing for from God? What promise of the Lord do you need to trust? We need to follow the example of Zechariah and Elizabeth. What God promises he will perform, only he will do it in his time and sometimes in surprising ways. So trust the God of promise to deliver you as he walks with you through the process.
Trust the God of promise to deliver you as he walks you through the process.