If you have your Bibles, will you open them with me to Luke chapter 1 verses 5 through 25. Luke chapter 1 verses 5 through 25 is going to be our passage of Scripture that we're going to consider this morning. Now, today is the last Sunday in November. Next week, we're gonna be in December. And next week, we're going to begin Advent, which Advent is every Sunday in December, we are preparing our hearts, preparing our understanding for the Christmas event. That is Jesus Christ born in a manger, the Son of Man, the Son of God, come to save those from their sins. And we're gonna begin that next week And so next week, we're gonna be considering in earnest this Christmas account. And so I think it's good the week before Advent to do a pre-Advent sermon, a pre-Advent understanding of what does this mean that Christ is going to come to this earth? And so we're gonna consider what happens here in Luke chapter one, verses 25, or I'm sorry, verse five through 25. In this account, what we're going to be considering, it was read to us earlier, that God made and kept a bunch of promises to a select group of people, specifically, and to a broad group of people, generally speaking. What we're gonna be considering this morning is that God makes promises to his people, he always keeps those promises, and we see this ultimately culminating in an eternal promise that this story that we're gonna be considering this morning is preparing us for that we'll see in earnest beginning next week. So our text is Luke 1 5-25. Since it was read to us earlier, since it's quite a bit of verses, and since we'll be walking through it, I'm not going to read it. We're just gonna walk through it, seek to understand what is being said, and then seek to understand the applications to us today. So let me begin us in prayer, and then we'll consider what our story is telling us in Luke 1. Father, thank you. Thank you, thank you for the goodness of your word. Thank you that we have the opportunity this morning of holding your word in our hands, seeing definitively what you have said, and being able to consider, hear, and dwell upon what it must mean for our lives specifically. Lord, please be with us this morning to give us ears to hear, eyes to see, and hearts to understand. Please apply this to our own lives so that this is not just an ethereal description of God, but a practical understanding of who God is and what we must be in God. Lord, we ask this in your name, amen. was we consider Luke chapter one, and as we begin just about any gospel, we expect any of the gospel accounts to have some familiar language to us. If you think about the very beginning of Matthew or in Luke specifically, you're going to be thinking about the Christmas story, and that's what many people think of. At the beginning of every gospel, it seems that there's a Christmas story. We think of Mary, we think of Joseph, We think of the betrothal, we think about going to an inn, we think about all of these things that happen with angels, and shepherds, and wise men, and the whole account of the manger and nativity scene. But what we're told here in the Gospel of Luke is that in the first chapter, we don't really see that. In chapter 2, we're going to hear the story of Christmas, of Jesus Christ being born in a manger, but here in chapter 1, we see a rather unusual beginning to the story of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It doesn't start with Jesus. It actually starts with a strange story of this man named Zacharias and his wife, Elizabeth. These are the parents of John the Baptist. This is a little bit of a strange and unusual story because this is one of the only accounts that we have in the New Testament of connecting the old to the new. What we see here in Luke one is that before Jesus, we're in the New Testament, they're still under the old covenant. The new covenant has not yet been realized because Jesus has not been born yet. So similar to the Old Testament, in looking forward to Christ, in preparing the way for Christ, Luke chapter one is going to do the exact same thing. We're gonna see God's people, the Israelites, in the old covenant still, preparing the way for Christ, which will soon be told later in the book of Luke. Our passage begins in verse 5, and in verses 5 through 7, we more or less get the setting of this story. We're introduced in verse 5 to a man, a priest, named Zacharias. Perhaps, probably in your translation, it's Zachariah. The reason why there's a little bit of a discrepancy here is that in the Greek, it ends with an S, and yet at other translations or other Ancient texts have an H at the end, so Zacharias, Zacharias, same person here. We're told that these events are taking place at the same time that King Herod, the surrogate king of Judea, is in leadership. And we're told some two corollary details here in verses five and six. Notice what we're told about Zacharias. We're told that he's from the division of Abijah. And then we're told his wife is from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. Now, it's easy to gloss over these descriptions of these historical details to help us out quite a bit. Both of these details for Zacharias and Elizabeth tell us a lot about this couple. This couple is set apart for the work of God, for the glory of God. The fact that Zacharias is from the tribe of Abijah, the division of Abijah, we're told in 1 Chronicles 24, 7-18, that this means he's going to be a priest. That is the family line that he's been born into, a specific line of priests with specific duties. They were also told that Elizabeth is one of the daughters, or from the daughters of Aaron. This is Aaron, Moses' brother, who was the very first high priest. And a little historical fact is in Exodus chapter six, verse 23, Aaron's wife is named Elizabeth. So we're seeing that Elizabeth is to say Zacharias and Elizabeth are set apart to do work for the Lord. And that's validated in here in verse six and what we're told about them. We're told that they were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and the requirements of the Lord. Now, so far, everything adds up. They're born into priestly families. Zacharias is fulfilling priestly responsibilities, and we're going to see a high priestly responsibility that he's going to do here in a moment. Elizabeth is also from a priestly line, and notice their lives are bringing glory to God. They're obeying the Lord. They're living blamelessly. They're doing all that we would expect them to do. Be holy, righteous, blameless, and pleasing to the Lord. But we're told something in verse seven that all of a sudden makes our math not add up anymore. It makes sense if they're from the priestly tribes, that they're glorifying God, and we would assume then everything is going well with them. But verse seven tells us they have a problem. They have a problem that maybe for some of us in here, we've experienced. They're barren. They're childless. They cannot and have not had children. And to add to that problem, they're now old. They're no longer spring chickens. It's not as though they are still in their childbearing years and have a hope, well, maybe we'll have a child if maybe this will happen. They've given up all hope. They're not gonna have any children. They're too old, they're past their childbearing prime. And we remember from the Old Testament that children are a sign of blessing. Genesis 128 gives us that indication. And so we look at this couple, and this is important to understand the story, and there's a friction here. They're doing what is right, they're from the right families, and yet it seems as though they're being cursed by God. Who don't have children? What type of people don't have children? The people that have sinned against God. This is like what Job's friends tell him after he's been afflicted, right? After God has allowed affliction, they say, you must have done something against God, right? Because God blesses those who are obedient. He curses those who are disobedient. We see a curse here on Zacharias and Elizabeth. Therefore, they must be cursed. It's an odd pairing here, that they are doing the right things, living in obedience, and yet they're being seemingly cursed by God. An important thing for us to note is that God, in his timing, is fully dependent only on himself. rather than on anyone else and any perceived interest of anyone else. God will do exactly as he pleases, regardless of the situation. That's important for us to see going forward, because God's going to do something that we would consider, rightly so, miraculous. And we need to understand the setting of the story to understand this miracle. God is not dependent or defined by anything that we would consider normal. He is dependent upon himself. But the story then really goes into full force starting in verse 8. In verses 8 through 10, we see that Zacharias was selected by lots. You might remember that lots is a way of casting down a form of dice. It could have been sticks and stones or some sort of way of determining what is the will of God. This is before Pentecost, before the Holy Spirit worked and moved in the hearts of believers. And so Zacharias was chosen by these lots that were cast down to be the priest, this is a high responsibility, to be the priest who burned incense at the offering in the Holy of Holies for the people, for the sins of the people to satisfy the wrath of God for a time. This is a high honor that Zacharias is given. It would only be one person a year from the tribe of Abijah that would be chosen to do this. Chances are not good that you would be chosen to do this. There were so many of these priests, and yet Zacharias is chosen. And we see how important this event is by all the people gathering. Notice how we're told in verse 10, a whole multitude gathered to pray. Why are they doing that? Because that's the significance of the incense offering, to appease the wrath of God. And so what Zacharias is doing here is no small thing. This is a big deal of what he's doing, and the people are all wanting it to go well. He's going to petition us before God, he's going to sacrifice this incense for our sins, and God's wrath will be satisfied. But however, instead of burning incense and retreating from the Holy of Holies as any other priest would do, we see an unusual event happen. An angel came and spoke to Zacharias. And from verses 11 through 20, we see this declarative prophecy given to Zacharias. And this is really the heart of what we're seeing today. We're told in verse 12 that the sight of this angel was terrifying to Zacharias. And because of this angel sighting, because of this event, he was troubled and fear completely gripped him. Let me just make a quick side note here. This is not the point of my sermon. I don't think it's the point of the text, but I think it's good to note. Angels throughout scripture are almost always a terrifying event. When a person experiences an angel or an angel comes to speak to a person, it's not a little baby in a diaper floating around saying, I hope you're blessed today. This is a terrifying event. Almost every time we see angels in the Bible, people are terrified about seeing them. They're so unlike us, they invoke fear. Fear. Now, I don't want to just remain here with the thinking of, wow, angels, what must those be like? Let's rather think of the God who made the angels. If angels invoke fear instead of just cute, cuddly, make us feel better about ourselves, then what response should we have to the God who created angels that evoke fear in us? We should have fear and trembling when it comes to God, the Father, because he has more power, he is more daunting, and he is more sovereign than any angel that has ever been created. The angels have been created, God has never been created. But we see here, that Zacharias is terrified, and rightly so. This event would have been terrifying. In verses 13 through 17, this angel, who will be told later in verse 19, is Gabriel, the archangel. He gives a prophecy to Zacharias. Notice what he says to Zacharias. He tells Zacharias to not be afraid, again, showing us how fearful Zacharias is. He tells Zacharias that he will be given a son, and this son is to be named John. That's gonna be a very important detail. This future child, John, is then described in extremely significant and specific ways. Notice what he says about who this man, John, will eventually be. He's going to, in verse 14, bring great joy and gladness, not just to his parents, but to the people. We're told in verse 15 that he won't drink any alcohol. That's significant. Not because he's just a good person, but that's a definite understanding that he's set apart for God. He will not be filled with alcohol. It's possible that that means he's gonna be a specific priest tribe, but it really means he's just gonna be focused and filled with the Holy Spirit, not with anything else, which is then what we're told later in verse 15. He's going to be filled not with alcohol, but with the Holy Spirit, even when he's in the womb. Even when in the womb, he's filled with the Holy Spirit. And then we're told in verse 16, his ministry is gonna be one of repentance for all of Israel, that they will repent to the Lord. In verse 17, to close out this initial prophecy, he's going to fulfill Malachi chapter four, verse six, this child is going to prepare the way for another child, that is, Jesus the Lord. Now, a few brief things for me to note about what we see here in verses 13 through 17. This prophecy that we see from Gabriel to Zacharias, I think we need to make sure that we understand what's going on. First, we must not miss or understate the unusual nature of this prophecy. This is a very strange thing to say to an old man, and we don't wanna miss it. We're told in our text in verse seven, we're told later in chapter one in verse 36 and in verse 58, that both Zacharias and Elizabeth are very, very old. We don't know their exact years, but we know that these are old people. These are what we would consider today senior citizens. And in fact, We notice some similarities with this couple with another couple from the Old Testament. And the similarities are necessary for us to see. Zacharias and Elizabeth are heavy reminders and reflectors of Abraham and Sarah. Notice the parallels between Abraham and Sarah and Zacharias and Elizabeth. Both Zacharias and Abraham were very old men. We wouldn't expect them to have children, and that's the point. Both Zacharias and Abraham believed God, but they sinned initially. Both of them ultimately trusted the Lord and had faith, and both of them, because of their faith, received the promise of God, and then both of them had a son who was the promise of God, who in some way prepared the way for the Lord in some capacity. This is what Paul said of Abraham's faith, which we're gonna see similar faith in Zacharias. In Romans chapter four, verse 18 through 22, Paul says, in hope against hope, do you hear that, hope? He believed, this is Abraham, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken. So shall your descendants be. Without becoming weak in faith, he contemplated his own body. Now good is dead. Since he was about a hundred years old and the deadness of Sarah's womb, Paul's making sure we know they shouldn't have children. Yet, Verse 20, with respect to the promise of God, he Abraham did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God and being fully assured that what God had promised, he was able also to perform. Therefore, it was also credit to him as righteousness. What we see. are a lot of parallels between these two men, and what we see is a promise of God made to people of God who responded ultimately in faith and in so doing received the promise of God. That's what we're seeing in both Zacharias and Abraham, Sarah and Elizabeth. But we see a second point from this prophecy given in verses 13 through 17 as well, and that is something that is gonna be our bigger theme here in a moment, and that is God makes and God keeps promises. And this is where it applies specifically to us. I'm fearful that for many of us, we might be hearing all of this historical details, explaining the story, and we might be tuning out. Because we think, well, that's great, but what does that have to do with me? What does it have to do with me that this old couple had a baby? How does that have anything to do with me? It has everything to do with you because God makes promises. He always makes promises and He always keeps those promises. Let me put it this way and hopefully this will make it clear. God is a God of keeping promises because He's God and can do nothing else but be God. That's a lot of just saying God, but let me say that again and let's make sure we understand it. God is a God of keeping promises because He's God and can do nothing else but be God. You see, His ways are greater than our ways. His thoughts are greater than our thoughts. That's Isaiah 55. And what we see here is that Jesus Christ, and ultimately God, is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And if God makes promises to His people in Luke 1, and He makes promises to us today, He's going to keep those promises. If He doesn't, then He's not God. If God changed from keeping promises, then he's not God any longer. The hope of God keeping his promises are grounded not in us receiving what we want, but instead knowing God in his character because he keeps his promises. What I want you to see is that God is the promise keeper, and we're going to see that in this text. He makes a promise. And He's going to keep it, regardless of how seemingly insignificant, how seemingly ridiculous, or even seemingly disastrous it might be. God keeps His promise. Now we see the blight of Zacharias when we continue into verse 18 of our text in Luke 1. Thus far, everything seems to be going well, doesn't it? We see that Zacharias and Elizabeth, they don't have children. They haven't had children. It doesn't look like they're going to have children. And then Zacharias has been promised, you're going to have a child. If only Zacharias had responded, thank you, Lord, we'll do whatever you say. That would have been the right response. But verse 18 tells a different story. It tells the human story. It tells the story of you and me, doesn't it? Verse 18 is so often yours and my response. We look at the promises of God and what do we say? Look at what Zacharias says. How will I know this for certain? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years. Do you see that what Zacharias is doing here, he's not really questioning Gabriel, the angel. That's not really what he's doing. He's not saying, did you get that message wrong from God? Did you need to check that and make sure that that's really what he said? No, he's saying, God, I don't think that's gonna happen. I know myself. I know how I'm needing a cane. I've seen my wife. She's going downhill too. We sit at home every evening and we don't do anything because we have no energy. God, there's no way we could have a child anymore. That's well behind us. He's questioning the will of God, and what we're seeing here is that for us, when we question God's will in our lives, that is disobedience, and disobedience is always judged. Friends, hear this now. Disobedience in your life will always be judged by God. There is no such thing as rejecting the will of God, whether it's through the revealed or the sovereign will, trying to reject who God is, reject His plan, reject what He has said to us, and then nothing happening. God's saying, okay, I'll give you a free pass that time. I'll just, we'll sweep that under the rug as if it didn't happen. No, there's always going to be a result. there's always going to be judgment. You see, God is not just the promise keeper, though he certainly is, he's also the judge. And the judge always renders a verdict. That's what we're gonna see here in verse 19. Zacharias, who had questioned God, uncertain about what God is going to do, there's no way this can happen, and Gabriel responds to him, by saying, since you have disobeyed God, since you have questioned the limitations of God, thinking He is unable to do the seemingly miraculous, you are going to be mute. Literally, He will not be able to speak until all of these things have come to pass. What things have come to pass? The promise that God has made to Zacharias. The child, and then the child being named John. And we see that that's exactly what happened. If you read later on in chapter one, after Mary and Elizabeth talk together, after Mary has her prayer that she gives, we see the conclusion of this story. We see that Zacharias is mute for a long time. We see that he can't speak, and so he has to write down everything that he wants to communicate. And the only time that his voice is given back to him is not only when John is born. We would have thought, okay, when John's born, then he's going to get his voice back. No. Eight days after his birth, John is circumcised, he's brought to the temple for blessing, and they ask Zacharias and Elizabeth, what is going to be his name? Is it going to be Zacharias after his father? That's a common thing to do. Elizabeth says, no, his name will be John. They say, but you don't have a John in your family. That makes no sense. Zacharias, set your wife straight. Tell them, write down, that he's going to be named Zacharias, or a family member. And he writes down, his name will be John. And that is when his voice came back. Why? Because God fulfills his promises. God who promised, look, you're going to be disciplined because of your disobedience, your disbelief in God, you didn't trust God. You're going to be disciplined. There's going to be an end to it for God's people, though. Once he had learned his lesson, there's nothing that God can't do, right? Nothing is impossible with God. Once he learned that, he was then released from it. That's important for us to see, that there's always discipline with disobedience, and yet God always rectifies the situation for his people. Now, continuing on into the story, we see that the end of the prophecy comes in verse 20, and Gabriel finishes all that he spoke to Zacharias about being mute until John is born. We see then in verse 21, that Zacharias leaves the temple. He leaves the place of the Holy of Holies. Everyone sees him. They had been outside praying, and they notice something is very different with Zacharias. Normally, a priest would come out of the Holy of Holies and sing a prayer or recite a prayer, and everyone would respond back and know that everything right has been done. Zacharias obviously doesn't do that. He's mute. So they know that something has happened in the temple. Zacharias then goes home. He then is with his wife, Elizabeth. She becomes pregnant. And then we're told some final words from Elizabeth. In verse 24 and 25, she's pregnant, but for five months, stays in seclusion to make certain of her pregnancy. In verse 25, she says these really powerful words. This is the way that the Lord has dealt with me in the days when he looked with favor upon me, to take away my disgrace from among men. Now, these words are pivotal here. To close out our text, these words are pivotal because Elizabeth is affirming that all things are in the hands of God. She understood at that moment better than her husband did that God can do anything. and God does do anything that he pleases. And in saying these words, she's affirming that God is the one who's doing all of this, not themselves. You see, it's easy when life is given or when things happen in life, it's easy for us to take credit, right? We're the ones in control of this. We've done this. Wow, Zacharias and Elizabeth, you must have done something amazing to have a child. She's saying, no, no, this is God. This is what God has done. And in fact, what she says in verse 25 is reminiscent of what we're told in Genesis chapter 30, verse 23, which Jacob's wife, Rachel, when pregnant with Joseph, uttered these words, God has taken away my reproach. literally taken away my disgrace, meaning that God has chosen to give blessing, a tremendous blessing, and therefore the sign of the curse, that being barren or that not having children, no longer is upon them. The idea here is that God has not just taken away the disgrace from one couple, but through this child who will prepare the way for Jesus, the disgrace of all of humanity will be taken away. We're gonna talk about in a moment who this is all about. This is the way that Augustine talked about verse 25, the church father, Augustine. He says, a people are being prepared for the Lord. Something unknown to historical knowledge is about to be proclaimed, a universal way of salvation. Disgrace is being driven away from God's people as they're reconciled to the Lord. Which this then leads then to the final part of my sermon, and that is, what's the significance of this? Why does this matter? Why is this important for us today, that all of these things took place thousands of years ago, just before Jesus was going to be born? I mentioned that this is preparing the way for Jesus, but what does that mean for us today? So let me give you two promises. And these two promises are what I want to leave you with today. Two promises of why this is significant, that what God does and how God works and how God interacts should lead us to fear, trembling and worship. The first promise of God that we see here is that God promises blessings to those who respond in faith. If you're taking notes, please write that down. promises blessing to those who respond in faith. Let me be clear about what I'm proposing through this promise this morning. God promises blessings to those who live in faith. For Zacharias and Elizabeth, we see that that is what happened to them. They were given a son. This son did bring joy. He did bring fulfillment to everything that had been promised to them. And through that, they were well pleased. They obeyed the Lord in doing all that they had been told to do, and even with Zacharias' initial disbelief, they trusted the Lord, they act faithfully, and God's blessing was given to them. So therefore, the message that we see here, and it's all throughout scripture, is God blesses the faithful. God blesses his people who are faithful. Or we could put it this way. Gospel obedience always leads to blessings. And that's true in that day and it's true today. The reason this is significant is because many of you are here and you feel like you're not blessed. because you're struggling in life in some way. And you think, well, I must not be receiving God's blessing. Why? Why do I not have the blessings of God? What we see here is that gospel obedience always leads to the blessings of God. Deuteronomy 28, verses one through two. Listen to what Moses says about obedience to God. Now it shall be, this word's significant, if, This is an if-then clause. If you do this, then you get this, or this will happen. If you diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all of his commandments, not the ones you like, not just the ones you choose, all of his commandments, which I command you today, the Lord your God, this is the then, then the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if, you obey the Lord your God. Do you hear the certainty of truth of if you obey God, there will be blessing. If you follow God, you will then be followed with blessing. Maybe there are children or teenagers here. Listen to what this means for teenagers and children in Ephesians 6, 1 through 3. Children, obey your parents, for this is right. He says, honor your father and your mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, so that. What is the purpose of that? What does it result in if you obey God, children? it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth. We could talk about that for a long time. If you're a child, if you're a teenager, the more you obey your parents, actually, the better it is for you. Why? Because you're obeying God. And when you obey God, then you are blessed. Notice what Jesus says, Luke chapter 11, verse 28. On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and do what with it? Observe it. Another translation says, keep it. Follow it. That's what we're being told here. Christian, if you're struggling today, you're wondering, why is there no blessing in my life? Why do I seem to struggle day after day? It seems like every day I'm in quicksand, can't get anywhere. Why is that? How are you living if you're in Christ? Are you following Christ obediently, or are you just doing it when it makes sense to you, when it's easy? Do you follow all the commandments of God, or do you just follow the ones that just fit into your life? And the ones that make you change your life, you're not interested in it. Friends, gospel obedience always leads to blessing. Let me add a caveat here. Let me add a side point here that's very important for us to note. I don't want any misunderstanding here. I don't want anyone to walk away saying, great, so I can manipulate God. If I obey this commandment, then he'll give me this desire of my heart. Let me give you an example for this. If I come to church, that's obeying God, Hebrews chapter 10. If I come to church, then my bills will go away. That's kind of ridiculous. None of us would think that. Let me do this. If I come to church, then my relationships will get better. If I just do this, then this will happen, right? God, you promised blessings to those who are obedient. This promise is not contingent on what you want. It's contingent upon what God has promised. Do you see the difference? Because we, in our humanness, desire, I want this changed. I want this fixed. I want this satisfied, and I want this happiness. That's our desires, and they might not even be bad desires, but those aren't often best desires, because God has what's best every single time. So what are we called to do? Figure out his best plan? Is that what we're called to do? Figure out what is best? No, what our text is teaching us today. Don't try to figure out what God is doing in your life. Try to figure out how to be more obedient and faithful today and tomorrow and for the rest of your life. Well, that doesn't sound very exciting. It will be when you go be with the Lord. because that's all you're gonna be doing. Praising the Lord and wishing, why did I not obey him more every single day that I had? Do you want the blessings of God? Then be obedient to God. Be faithful in the small things, in the middle things, and in the big things. In every facet of your life, take it to God's word in obedience. And this then leads to then the second promise. Not only does God give blessings to those who are faithful, those who are obedient. But we see secondly, the second and final promise is that this leading backstory helps us to see that God's eternal promise will soon be fulfilled. God's eternal promise will soon be fulfilled. You see, I was intentional for the first half of this sermon to really focus on the people of the story, partially to help us see what the story is, but also because I want to drive this point home now. This story is really not about Zacharias. It's really not. The story is really not about Elizabeth. It's really not. Did amazing things happen in their life? Absolutely. This story's not even really about the son of promise, that is, John, who would become John the Baptist and prepare the way for the Lord. This story is not about a Mary. It's not about a Joseph. It's not about King Herod. It's not even about the people of Israel who would be brought to repentance and given salvation. This story is unequivocally about Jesus Christ and the promise of what will be fulfilled through Jesus Christ. You see, friends, if Jesus never came, and if all we have are historical descriptions of God's promises, that's great, that's good, but what does that mean for me today? How could I have any hope if God took care of those people, but I have no hope of that today? Friends, you do have hope because it's not about the people in the story, it's about the one who saves the people in the story. Did you catch that? This, it's not about this people in the story, it's about the one who saves those in the story. Friends, everything in Luke 1 is pointing to Jesus with a big, green, yellow, neon sign. Look to Jesus. He's going to come and take away the sins of the world. Did you know that's what John the Baptist would say in John chapter one? Look, I can't even take off his sandals. I can't baptize him. He is great. He's mighty to save. John chapter one, verse 34, John says, I myself have seen and have testified that this, he's speaking to Jesus, is the Son of God who will take away the sins of the world. Do you see? That's not really about John. It's not about Zacharias. It's not about Elizabeth. It's about Jesus. So let me then end with this last, final point. This last, final statement. If it's true that Luke 1 is not really about the people in the story, but the one who brought salvation to those people, then God's promises, Christian, God's promises in your life are really not about you. God's promises in your life are not really about you in the same way that Luke 1 is really not about the people in the story. I wish that we could be a church that completely believes this. If each one of us believed this to be true, that God's promises that he's made to me, that he's made to one another in the body and in the church of Christ, are not really about us, but it's about the glory of God, what God will accomplish, and how what we are called to do for his glory, everything would change. How you and I do evangelism or lack evangelism would completely change. Yours and my personal holiness or lack thereof, if we believe this, would completely change. The way that we wake up in the morning, do all of everything in our day and go to bed at night would completely change if we believed that it's really not about us, but it's about the glory of God. That God's promises to me are not to make me happier, It's not about making me more joyful, and it's not even about giving me hope for tomorrow, though all of these things come through the gospel. It's about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who has done all things to bring the ultimate glory to God, to make us the people of God. And through that, we live lives of obedience. We are saved, we are justified through faith to good works for the glory of God. That's what you're saved for. Not so you have a good life now and not even so you have a hope later. It's so you can serve the Lord today, right now, when you go home. Don't forget the goodness of God through his commandments and keep that. That's what we're called to do. And friends, lest you think that maybe this is just Jeremiah saying these crazy things. Pastor's gone off his rocker, that the ultimate thing is not really about me, it's about God. That's just Jeremiah thinking, right? Listen to two of my favorite passages of scripture, and they're both in Revelation. This is at the end of all things, the end of this world. Christ is returning. The end of times is coming. And listen to what John tells us in Revelation chapter 4, verses 8 through 11. Notice the emphasis and the focus. And day and night, they did not cease to say, these are God's people, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come. And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne and will worship Him. who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Worthy are you, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and because of your will they existed and were created. In the next chapter, chapter 5, verses 11 through 13, John continues to say, Then I looked, And I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and living creatures and the elders, and the number of them was myriads upon myriads and thousands upon thousands, saying unanimously with a loud voice these words, worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. and every created thing which is in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all things in them, I heard saying to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever and ever. Why do I read those verses? Because for all of eternity, it's not about you. It's not about me. It's not about us. It's about Him. It's about our Savior, who humbled Himself to be born in a manger, who endured the shame of the cross, so that for His glory, for your good, we might be saved, so that for all of eternity, we're giving Him praise. We're giving Him glory. We're giving Him honor. We're giving Him all of our worship. That's all of what we have because that's all of who we are in Him. So what about you this morning? Are you living right now how true believers will live for all of eternity by giving praise to the Lord? Or does that seem trite, insignificant to the things that you want to accomplish in this life? You have things you want to do, relationships you want to have, places you want to see, events you want to hold, and none of it has anything to do with glorifying God. It has everything to do with glorifying self. Friends, God's people, God's true people, are focused on the promises of God. praising God because His promises have been kept in His glory being given in and through us for all of eternity, seen ultimately in the manger, Jesus Christ and what He came to do to save us. Let's pray. Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You that Your Word is convicting to us But Lord, my request at this moment is that your Holy Spirit will work in a mightier way than my words ever could. That my words that I misspeak, the ideas that are not clearly communicated, the thoughts that weren't projected, that your Holy Spirit will use your word to work in our hearts this morning. We won't be bored with who you are. We won't view you as insignificant, but instead we'll be changed, changed men and changed women for your glory. Oh, Father, may you be glorified today and may you work in our hearts to change us to you for your glory. Thank you that your promises in Christ have been fulfilled and we have hope for today and hope for tomorrow. Thank you, Lord. Amen.