HOPE RENEWED (Luke 1:5-25)
INTRODUCTION:
This morning we lit the first candle on our advent wreath. The word advent means coming or arrival and the advent wreath is used to help us prepare our hearts for the birth of Christ, but it is also to focus our hearts on His second coming as well. The wreath is green and round to represent everlasting life, three candles are purple representing the royalty of Christ, one candle is pink representing God’s love. The fifth candle in the middle of the wreath is called the Christ candle and will be lit on Christmas Day to represent Christ, the Light of the world. Over the next five weeks we will make our way chronologically through the events of the first advent of Jesus. We will focus on the events leading up to the birth of Jesus Christ, we will focus on His birth, and on those who witnessed His birth. As we do, we will see these words associated with the advent candles fleshed out for us.
Our journey this morning begins at a time that looked hopeless for Israel. God had been silent for 400 years, there had not been a prophet, a vision, a dream, or anything from God since the prophet Malachi. I can only imagine that many in Israel thought that God had abandoned them. No hope. But not everyone believed their situation was hopeless, there were still some who remembered God’s promise to send a Messiah, and they retained the hope that He would keep His promise. Before looking at one such couple lets pray and ask God to open our hearts to the truth of His Word.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles this morning to Luke 1. We are going to read a little bit of history from the History Book of the Universe. What we have written here is true history just as all of the Bible is true. Please stand for the reading of God’s Word, follow along as I read verses 5-25.
Luke 1:5-25,
“In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah; and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. They were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both advanced in years. Now it happened that while he was performing his priestly service before God in the appointed order of his division, according to the custom of the priestly office, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were in prayer outside at the hour of the incense offering. And an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense. Zacharias was troubled when he saw the angel, and fear gripped him. But the angel said to him, ‘Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John. You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God. It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.’ Zacharias said to the angel, ‘How will I know this for certain? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years.’ The angel answered and said to him, ‘I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time.’ The people were waiting for Zacharias, and were wondering at his delay in the temple. But 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 the days of his priestly service were ended, he went back home. After these days Elizabeth his wife became pregnant, and she kept herself in seclusion for five months, saying, ‘This is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when He looked with favor upon me, to take away my disgrace among men.’” (Luke 1:5–25, NASB95)[1]
A FAITHFUL PRIEST (Luke 1:5-7)
God was about to break the 400 years of silence. God had brought all of the pieces into place and all of the people that He would use to bring His Son into the world. Paul wrote in Galatians 4:4, “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,” (Galatians 4:4, NASB95)[2] The fullness of time had arrived, and it was time to start the chain of events leading up to God sending forth His Son. The hopelessness that many felt was about to become renewed hope. It was time for people to be reminded that God had promised to send the Messiah to sit and reign on David’s throne. God was ready to send out messengers to deliver His announcements. Here in Luke 1, we have the first to receive an announcement from God, it was a couple from the priestly line of Aaron.
Not only was this couple from the priestly line, but Luke describes them as upright and godly. This was a couple who had not forgotten God’s promise to send One who would deliver them. All the way back in the garden of Eden God had promised that He would send a Deliverer who would be the seed of the woman and He would crush Satan’s head and Satan would bruise His heal. This couple believed this promise, they believed that God would do what He said He would do. They trusted that the Savior of the world would one day come. These verses that describe Zacharias and Elizabeth remind me of Abraham back in Genesis 15:6 where we read, “Then he [Abraham] believed in the Lord; and He [the Lord] reckoned it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6, NASB95)[3] Just as Abraham had believed in the promises of God, Zacharias and Elizabeth believed in the promises of God and Luke writes, “They were both righteous in the sight of God.” Because they believed God, they sought to please Him by keeping His commandments and requirements. They were faithful to God as they waited with hope for His promises to be fulfilled. Because Zacharias was a descendant of Aaron, he was a priest and served as a priest at the temple in Jerusalem for a one-week stint twice a year. This schedule for the priests to serve in the temple two weeks each year was designed and instituted when David was king of Israel as a solution to the overwhelming number of descendants of Aaron. Life for Zacharias and Elizabeth had only one downside, they had no children to carry on the family name and because they were both older and past the age of childbearing it looked as if they never would have a child. For Elizabeth this was a great disgrace not to have borne a son to her husband. The passage indicates that this matter of childlessness was something they prayed about often. Little did they know that God was about to answer that prayer in an extraordinary way and give them, not a priest, but a prophet. And not just any prophet but one that would be the herald of the promised Deliverer that they were waiting for with hope.
A FEARFUL PRIEST (Luke 1:8-17)
God always chooses the time and the place where he wants to speak to us. He knows exactly when we will be ready to listen to what He has to say. The time had fully come for God to intervene in history and break the 400 years of silence and to begin to fulfill His promise. We are told that the exact time that God had chosen was during one of those weeks when Zacharias was serving at the temple with his division. During their week in which they ministered as the priests their different tasks were assigned to them by the casting of lot. During the particular week that Luke records for us the lot that fell to Zacharias was the offering of the evening incense in the holy place of the temple. This was a great honor and was bestowed on a priest only once in his lifetime if at all. Every priest had rehearsed many times in their mind how this honor was to be carried out so that when their time came if it ever did, they could do it properly because they had committed to memory the steps in offering the incense on the altar of incense which was a symbol of the prayers of the nation. Every priest knew the history of the two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, who had offered incense before the Lord when He had not commanded it and fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them and they died before the Lord. So, every priest wanted to make sure that they performed this service in the proper way. Evening came and there stood Zacharias performing his duties and praying. No one else was in the holy place with him, only the priest making the offering was there. Luke tells us that the worshippers were outside the holy place in the court of the men and the court of the women praying. Suddenly standing next to Zacharias at the right side of the altar of incense is an angel. His sudden appearance and the realization of who he was startled Zacharias and then filled him with fear. The Scripture says that he was gripped with fear. I have at times had nightmares where I am so filled with fear that I cannot even speak and when I try to scream for help only moans and groans come out of my mouth. This must have been the fear that gripped Zacharias at that moment. He must have thought that he had done something wrong in performing his duty and God was about to execute His divine judgment upon him. The angel quickly assures Zacharias that he does not need to fear, his mission is not one of judgment; instead, it is one of good news. The angel goes on to tell Zacharias that the good news is that God has heard your prayers and He is going to answer your prayer by giving you and your wife Elizabeth a son. Then the angel continues and tells Zacharias that he is to name his son John and then he lists six things that this son will do. First, this son will bring joy and gladness to you and your wife. He will take away the disgrace and reproach that you and your wife feel because of your childlessness, and many will rejoice at the grace of God shown to you in the birth of your son. This good news should be cause for great rejoicing. Second, the angel continues and says that John will be great in the sight of the Lord. God had plans for this son that He was giving to this godly couple. He would serve the Lord to fulfill prophecy concerning the coming Messiah. Third, this child was never to drink wine or other fermented drink, he was to be a Nazarite for life. A person who made a vow of a Nazarite was one who devoted himself to God to be used of God and during the period of their vow they did not cut their hair or drink wine or anything from the grapevine, or any other strong drink. He was not to defile himself in any way. The only other two men that are mentioned as being Nazarites from birth are Samuel and Samson. Fourth, the angel said that John would be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb. The Holy Spirit would fill John to fulfill the ministry that God had planned for him, and it would be evident even before he was born. Fifth, John would be used to turn many of the Israelites back to God. He would refresh their memories to the promises of God and specifically to the promise of the Messiah and many would turn back to God who had forgotten the promise and had forsaken God. Their hope would be renewed. The sixth distinguishing mark upon this son was the most remarkable and would set him apart from all the other prophets as he would fulfill prophecy by being the herald of the coming Messiah and he would do this in the spirit of the prophet Elijah. Zacharias’ son would be the forerunner of the coming Messiah, the promised Deliverer. The time had fully come! God was fulfilling His promise to send a Savior and Zacharias and Elizabeth would have a part in the fulfillment. This son would fulfill the prophecies made by the Malachi the final prophet of the Old Testament. This was good news indeed, God had heard the prayers of Zacharias, and God was going to answer that prayer with a son who would be the herald for the coming Messiah. Zacharias had reason to rejoice.
A FAITHLESS PRIEST (Luke 1:18-22)
Zacharias had just received wonderful news from an angel of God. The man should have been rejoicing, but at the moment of truth, Zacharias wavers in his faith. He looks at himself, an old man. He thinks of Elizabeth, his wife, an old woman past the age of childbearing and he questions God’s ability to bring about this good news. He questions God’s Word, isn’t this always where we begin to waver in our faith, when we begin to doubt God’s Word. Zacharias was not remembering his history, the history of the nation he belonged to was built on the promise of a son to an old couple, way past the age of Zacharias and Elizabeth. Abraham had been 100 years old and Sarah 90 years old when God gave them their son Isaac. God is the God of the impossible. Zacharias wavering in his faith asks the angel for some sort of assurance that God’s Word is true. Before we are too hard on Zacharias let’s examine our own lives. Have you ever doubted God’s Word, have you ever doubted His ability to answer your prayers? Have you ever asked God for some sort of assurance that His Word was true and could be trusted? I know I have acted like Zacharias and asked for assurances when I should have by faith accepted God’s Word as fact. God’s Word is always true, God does not and cannot lie, His Word can always be trusted and should never require signs or assurances. God’s Word is always true, and He expects us to know that and accept it by faith. God will bless you for your faith in His Word. The angel answers Zacharias in a way that I am sure was not what Zacharias had in mind as an assurance. The angel declares, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.” The angel declares who he is and that he stands in the presence of God, God had given the message of good news to Gabriel to deliver to Zacharias and that should have been all the assurance he needed. This was not secondhand news that Gabriel was bringing, God had communicated with Gabriel directly while Gabriel was in His presence and God had sent him to deliver this message. Then because of Zacharias’ unbelief and his doubt of God’s Word, Gabriel strikes Zacharias mute. Zacharias had just received the wonderful news that his prayers had been answered and God was giving him a son and he would not be able to tell anyone because he had doubted God’s Word. What a lesson this should be to us that we can accept God’s Word by faith, we do not need assurances that God will keep His promises or answer our prayers. This is not the assurance that Zacharias was looking for and I am sure he was saddened by the fact that he would not be able to share this good news with anyone verbally, especially his wife. I am sure that Zacharias asked forgiveness for his unbelief as he stood there beside the altar of incense.
While all this was happening the people outside in the courts began to worry about Zacharias and what was taking him so long in the temple. When he finally emerged he could not even give the customary priestly benediction to the people, he was to raise his hands and say, “The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24–26, NASB95)[4] Instead, he made signs to the people until they understood that he had seen a vision in the temple.
A FAVORED PRIEST (Luke 1:23-25)
I am sure that Zacharias had a hard time finishing up his week of priestly service at the temple, not only because of his inability to speak, but more from the excitement that was in his heart and his desire to be home and share the excitement with Elizabeth. At the same time there must have been some disappointment in his heart knowing that he would have to write down the good news to be able to share it with her. The Scripture passage tells us that it came about as God’s Word had said and Elizabeth became pregnant. We are also told that she went into seclusion for five months, probably after the time that she began showing, she did this most likely because of the excitement and curiosity that it would draw from the surrounding neighbors that a woman so old would be having a baby. During the time that she was in seclusion she rejoiced in God’s mercy shown to her and her husband in giving them a son. She must have also rejoiced in knowing that the birth of her son would also mean that God was about to fulfill His promise of the long-awaited Messiah, the promised Deliverer who would crush Satan’s head. Truly the time had fully come! Zacharias and Elizabeth were most favored to be a part of the fulfillment of God’s promise when He renewed the hope of His promise.
CONCLUSION:
Hope is the expectation of something that you have waited for that is finally going to happen. In this history lesson about Zacharias and Elizabeth we find that hope, the expectation in the coming of the Messiah, the Deliverer promised all the way back in the garden of Eden 4000 years earlier. The hope that God’s long awaited promise was to be fulfilled; the hope that the time had fully come and God would intervene in this sinful world and provide an answer for sin that had entered into the world 4000 years earlier in the garden of Eden when Adam ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in direct disobedience to God’s command. Hope was renewed because God provided the world with a Savior who would die and take the punishment required for sin, whose blood was shed to pay the penalty for our sin, who would be buried and three days later would rise from the dead so that we by believing in this could be forgiven for our sin and be made acceptable to God by the righteousness of His Son. We who have put our faith in Jesus Christ have passed from death over to life, eternal life. This is definitely something to hope for, that we will spend eternity with the One who gave His life for us. We also find hope in the fact that God fulfilled His promise to send the Savior, which gives us the faith to hope in Christ’s Second Advent, when He returns as King and Conqueror. This is our hope.
But we cannot leave this passage this morning without drawing spiritual truth from it. This passage teaches us about faith and God’s Word. God’s Word is always trustworthy and can always be trusted. God’s Word is the foundation of our faith, when we as God’s children begin to question the trustworthiness of God’s Word or ask for extra assurances that His Word is true, we are casting doubt on God’s Word and showing that we do not believe it. This is what Satan did to Eve in the Garden of Eden. He cast doubt on God’s Word when he said, “Did God really say…” When we do not in faith take God at His Word, we can be sure that God will discipline us to help us see that our unbelief and doubt are unfounded. Why does God discipline? Because He loves each of His children and He wants us to totally trust Him by faith. We have a whole history book of His faithfulness; we should trust it without question. God wants each of His children to be able to receive the blessings that come through believing and trusting His Word. Let’s remember the judgment of Zacharias when we begin to have doubts about God’s Word or His ability to fulfill His promises and to answer our prayers.
[1]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[2]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[3]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[4]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995