So I thought it good just to quickly review what I said last time, just in a couple of sentences. Just as a reminder, Luke, of course, was not one of the disciples of Jesus. He was also not a Jew. He was a Gentile author, making him the only Gentile author of scripture, in scripture. And yeah, he was a medical doctor, as you will recall. A scientific man, precise in everything he said, his writings, his studying of the historical events that happened. This letter is addressed to Theophilus, a dear friend of his, quite seemed to be a person that was high up in the ranks in society. And he wanted to assure Theophilus of the events that happened during that time. according to the historical accuracy and the facts surrounding the events, which of course has been preserved for us today. to be encouraged, to be taught, to be assured of the truth of Jesus' life on earth, his birth, and his resurrection. That was Luke. And I'm sure as you join me in the study through the book of Luke, you will find this to be a most encouraging life applications coming from it. It's a beautiful gospel. But before we do that, let's open in prayer. Father, we thank you for this beautiful morning, this morning in which we can be gathered as believers, studying through your word again. We look forward to continue to be encouraged by Luke, as also we've come to the end of Ephesians, as Pastor Edward will also be starting with a new book There's so many riches in Your Word and I pray that this morning Your Word will speak firstly to our hearts and keep our minds clear from the distractions around us and the thoughts of the week to come and that we will be encouraged, admonished and be reminded of what it is to be a faithful believer, servant in your life, in your ministry. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So, if you're in the book of Luke, we are at chapter 1. Last time we only covered the first four verses, and the part we'll be dealing with this morning is from verse 5 through to 25, which is quite a large section in scripture. especially if you consider one verse at a time going through Ephesians, and there's of course a lot more that you can draw from this, but I wish to move on, and it forms such a nice unity, the section that we're going to be covering, so follow with me as we read Luke 1 verse 5. There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the cause of Abijah. And his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless. And they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years. And it came to pass that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course, according to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the time of incense. And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zechariah saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zechariah, for thy prayer is heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink, And he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And many of the children of Israel shall turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit of the 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 a people prepared for the Lord. And Zechariah said unto the angel, How shall I know this? For I am old, man, and my wife well stricken in years. And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and am sent to speak unto thee. and to show thee these glad tidings. And behold, thou shalt be dumb and not able to speak until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season." And the people waited for Zacharias and marveled that he tarried so long in the temple. And when he came out, he could not speak unto them. And they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple, for he made signs unto them and remained speechless. And it came to pass that as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house. And after those days, his wife Elizabeth conceived and hid herself five months, saying, Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days in which he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men." What a beautiful passage. Now, I battled to find an introduction, so there's no real big introduction to this message, apart from just saying what I'll be doing. First of all, we'll just be looking at the characters mentioned in our text this morning. and then we'll be drawing some life applications and making some contrasts, and then we'll close. So, in verse 5, we are introduced by Luke, three people. In the days of the Herod, the king of Judea, and then also a priest, Zacharias is mentioned, and his wife, Elizabeth. And before we can start drawing some life applications, I'd like to go who these people were. I'm sure you're all familiar with them, but maybe you don't know too much about them. Now Herod, just to go over him historically speaking, who he was. He was the great King Herod. He was the son of Antipater. And as was tradition, there were a number of Herods during that time. of which this was, the great King Herod. They all originated from Edom, so he was a Edomite. And they were of a royal background, about 125 before Christ. And guess what, they were all forced to adopt the Jewish religion. They ruled various lands, in this case it's mentioned that he was the king of the Judea, but this was all under the Roman Empire. Herod was made king by the Romans at about 40 BC. So 40 before Christ, he became the king. And if you think about a great ruler in today's term, now if Herod was the president of this country, he would be the perfect man for the job. We think about South Africa, we're currently going through a lot of turmoil, unrest, economic problems, no economic growth, people corrupting, leaders that are stealing from the country's own money, taxes being wasted. Herod was a man who turned around the economy of Judea and the countries that he ruled. He was a real big operator. He ruled with an iron fist, but he made sure that the countries that he ruled over prospered. He brought about prosperity in his kingdom. He stabilized the economy in Judea. The trade of the country increased. He rebuilt the temple of one very important fact, and also he rebuilt cities. The great port of the city of Caesarea was built, and that increased the trade of the country enormously. Then also he brought in some other customs, that of Hellenism, which is basically a Greek culture. He supported that kind of thinking. But at the same time, he was also, he followed many of the Jewish customs, like not eating pork. He wouldn't kill a pig. So he had exceptional leadership skills, and he was a cunning man. He knew what he had to do to grow the kingdom, and he ruled over it. Yet, it was always under the Roman Empire. He kept Judea safe. And this sounds like a man that you would like to have as your president of the country. I mean, economically speaking, he is a perfect ruler. Now, with all these rebuildings of the cities in his kingdom, he had to increase the taxes as well. It comes at a price. You have to pay taxes. He was ruthless in the collecting of these taxes. But he still tried to stay in favor of all the people, the Jews and the Gentiles. He always did so, however, to secure his own seat of power and influence. He not only started the rebuilding of the temple for the Jews, but also many other pagan temples where people could worship. And in all his rulings as a king, he did what any normal self-seeking crazy leader would do, protect his seat of rule. He married Mariamne, so that was his first wife, Mariamne, funny way to spell Marianne, and he had many other wives as well. He made sure they were as connected with the right people. Now on various occasions, his kingdom was threatened, or his seat of power and authority was threatened, including by his own sons, as often was the case. Guess what he did with his sons? As soon as they threatened him, he killed three of his sons, because they challenged his seat of authority. He even killed his own wife, out of jealousy. quite a nasty ruler. He killed his father-in-law. I know some of us often feel like that, but he actually did that. And that was all because of jealousy and insecurity in his seat of power. It then makes sense that such a ruthless, insecure, but successful leader would eventually end up, because this is the same King Herod, that killed all the babies two years after Jesus' birth. two years and unders, all the boys. He had them killed because the king of the Jews were born. The wise men came to him seeking for this king that was born. When he heard about it, he was not going to be challenged in his seat of power. He had all the boys killed. So it makes sense that such a person could go about acting like that. That is the great King Herod. A lot more can be said about him. Then we also are introduced by two people, the priest Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth. Now Zacharias we see was a priest from the order of Abijah. As a priest, this family would have been in the upper class according to the Jewish tradition. They would have been highly esteemed. Priests were in the upper class. You were an important man. That's how it was and still is in the Jewish culture. Now he was a descendant, he was also married to Elizabeth and scripture we read there Luke stating that Elizabeth was also descended from Aaron. All priests were directly proven to be directly descendants of Aaron. That's the only way you could become a priest, no other way. You had to be a descendant from Aaron. Now even his wife was from that family line, from that bloodline. So that was double honor for Zacharias. They were really high up in society. Both Zacharias and Elizabeth's name had significant meaning. Zacharias meant the Lord remembers, and Elizabeth means the promise of Elohim. And as one of the commentators said that if you combine these two together, you get the Lord remembers the promise of Elohim. So the Lord remembers his promises, his promises of Elohim. Now, Zacharias and Elizabeth were advanced in years. That's how Luke states it here, but it's a nice way of saying they were really old. They weren't relatively old, like me and some others. They were really old. They were beyond the years of being able to have children, biologically speaking. This faithful, humble, serving couple of distinct heritage and upper class in society could not have any children. Now, I'm sure you're all familiar with it, but this in Jewish culture was really, really sad. It was a shame, and it was even considered to be a curse. We're all familiar also with other couple that mirrored basically Zacharias and Elizabeth's unfortune that they have here, and that's of course of Abram and Sarai. In Genesis 16 we read, Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bared him no children. And she had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold, now the Lord hath restrained me from bearing. I pray thee, go unto my maid. It may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. and gave her to her husband, Abram, to be his wife. And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, what happened? Her mistress was despised in her eyes. That's what happens. If you could not bear children, you were despised in many of the eyes of the, because it was considered to be a curse. What did you do wrong in your life? What did your family do wrong in their life that you could not or cannot bear children? People, despite of their status that they had in society, I'm sure there was a lot of gossip that hanged around. From this we derive another character trait of our faithful servant Zachariah. According to the Jew's custom, he could have excused or exonerated himself from his marriage to his wife Elizabeth. He could not bear in children. It's important that the bloodline continue, that the priesthood can continue. So he could have excused himself from being husband to Elizabeth and seek out another wife that can bear in children. As we can even see here in Genesis what happened the case, you know, people always try and scheme and make plans. Yet, that's not what Zacharias did. He stayed faithful to his wife. He knew that in God's eyes it was one husband, one wife. There's no other way to go about it. Well, you could also argue that he only did so because he was a priest and he had to lead by an example. If he was really concerned about his character as a priest in front of people, I think we're misunderstanding how priests were in the day, in the period when Jesus was on earth and before that. In Matthew 23, 27-29, we read Jesus' own words where he says, Woe unto you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites. For you are like unto whitened sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and are of all uncleanness. Even so, ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." And that's pretty much the status of most of the priests and the spiritual leaders of the Jewish nation in the time that we find ourselves here in Luke. We're all familiar with it. Jesus, on many occasions, used the spiritual leaders, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, which were the priests, as examples of how not to be. He used it in parables. The parable of the Samaritan, where the priest, when he saw the Samaritan lying next to the road, crossed over to the other side of the road, made sure he had no contact with him. It was an example of And that was a description where Jesus says, you have to answer a question, who is your neighbor? Well, the Samaritan is your neighbor. The priest certainly did not think so. Most of the spiritual leaders at the time was absolutely corrupt. They no longer presented the law to the people as faithful witnesses. They weren't obedient to the same laws. Instead, they created extra little laws, which helped them to elevate themselves above the people that they were supposed to serve. Instead, as the Pharisees quoted in Luke 18, the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. That was the thinking of the average priest at the time. However, this is not Zacharias. He did not have any concern about what public opinion was about his status, because he had a lot of status in the society. He was a humble, faithful priest who remained so until the end. Even the high priest, now you had the priest and then you had the high priest who was the ultimate authority. Even the high priest at the time, His name was Matathias, if I pronounce that correctly. This guy was appointed by none other than King Herod the Great. He was basically his crony. He was under his authority. Herod, he knew he couldn't be a priest, but he made sure that whoever is the priest will be under his power and rule. Herod may have had economic power, social power, influence, But in order to try and secure some religious authority amongst the Jewish nation, he made sure that the priests, say in society, were the high priest, and then he would of course also buy over a lot of other priests, and they would be under his influence. They were all corrupt, and they were only serving their own purpose, as was Herod. Now we also read here in Luke that he was from the course of Abijah. Now what does that mean? What does it mean to say a priest is of the course of Abijah? During the reign of David, he divided the priesthood into 24 courses. I can't list all of them, but there's 24 of them. of relevance, Zachariah was the course of Abijah. How it happened is that in every year there's 24 courses and each course will have two occasions during the year. during which they will go to the temple and perform the worship and the sacrifices and all the duties that had to be performed there. Twice a year, that course. Now, in these courses at the time, they estimate that there were about 20,000 priests in Judea in the times here. So, if there's 20,000 priests, by estimate, they guessed that in each course there would be roughly, let's round it off this, about 1,000 priests in each of these courses. These priests then will go to Jerusalem and they will perform the duties in the temple and the sacrifices and everything that had to be done. So this now, we find ourselves in the time where Zacharias with his family had to perform their priestly duties. They were on the eighth course. So they were eighth in line through the year that they worked through. In verse 9, according to the customs of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. Again, his lot. What does it mean, his lot? Well, we have to understand that this is not just any event that happened in Zachariah's life. Of the thousand priests in his line, maybe you would have one opportunity in your entire life to go into the temple and burn the incense. It was a huge, huge privilege, an opportunity that occurred here. Many priests won't have that chance. But on this day, they would cast lots, and it fell on Zachariah. So you can imagine, here comes the perfect opportunity. It's beyond old. He is now getting the opportunity to serve in the temple, a highly privileged position. And he gets the chance to go into the temple and burn the incense. So the day would pan out as follows. After the morning services, they would be sacrificing animals. And the blood was dipped on the horns of the altar outside the temple. And this is the same temple, bear in mind, that our great King Herod built. Zacharias would then choose two other priests to assist him with the task of burning the incense. So two priests would be going with him into the temple. whilst thousands of people, or then as Luke states it, a multitude, a great multitude of people would be standing outside waiting for the priests as they perform their duties inside the temple. So as they then go up the steps into the temple, one priest will go in, and inside the temple you will have the altar where the ashes from the previous burning of incense will still be. So the one priest will go and he will clean out the ashes on this altar. Then the second priest that went with Zacharias, he would have hot coals with him and he would then put it on the altar which will serve as the second burning of the incense that Zacharias now had to do. And once this was done the two priests will leave the temple and only Zacharias will be left inside the temple, in the Holy Temple, not in the Holy of Holies because that's behind the curtain. So now we've got Zacharias standing inside the temple. Thousands of people standing outside. Now as Zacharias stands in the temple, on his left is the golden lamp stand. This is inside, it's quiet, nothing happening. you alone, standing in the temple. I'm trying for you to get a picture of, because I've been trying to think how special this must have been for him. On his left, he's got the golden lamp stand. On his right, he's got the table of shoe bread, and then in front of him, the altar, now with the hot coals. Also in front of him is the great big curtain, the veil, that separated this holy from the backside, which is the most holy. So he's now going to put the incense on the hot coals. And suddenly, out of nowhere, boom, you hear this voice speaking to him. Can you imagine what he must have thought when he suddenly, you think you're alone standing in this dark place, standing before God, I mean, In the writings he was familiar with, people were struck down if you didn't honor the position. If you just touch where you're not supposed to touch, you were struck down, killed. This is the temple that he's standing in, and suddenly somebody's talking to him. First of all, I would have stripped myself out of my skin. I would have thought, hey. And the second thing is, you're not supposed to be here. I'm the only one that's supposed to be in the temple. Get out, you know? You're not supposed to be here. But I would have been so scared. Poor old Zacharias, what a thought for what must have gone through his head. Well, he was afraid. Luke says, he was really afraid. He most probably also thought, I messed up something. God is talking to me now. I messed up something and he's going to strike me down now. But the words that followed must have been the most beautiful words that he has ever heard in his life. Read with me in Luke 1.13, what does this angel now say to him? But the angel said to him, fear not, Zacharias. One of the commentators said, I think angels come with a training manual. When you approach a human being, the first word you say is fear not. Because all angels almost say that. Fear not, don't be afraid. Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard, and thy wife, Elizabeth, shall bear thee a son. And thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. And he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and to the disobedient to the wisdom of the just. to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. From what we know historically speaking, from what we know about the people that we've confronted here, from what we've read of the events that happened here, I would like to draw one or two applications. First of all, and I suppose much of what I conclude from this it's scriptural, but it is also drawn from our daily lives as we find ourselves. God does not need a ruling party or leader or country with Christian values to fulfill His plan and His will. There's a tendency among Christians today to believe that we are in a battle for territorial grounds. You've seen it. You drive around. Centurion for God or declare this place to be Christian. Christians get upset because government starts intervening in schools. With regards to faith being taught in schools, it's a hot topic amongst many Christians today. How dare the government tell me or tell our schools what we may teach in schools as far as faith is concerned? all over the world, especially in Africa, we see corrupt rulers exploiting its people, the country itself, and with all its natural resources. In Zachariah's day, it was no different from this. I think it was ten times worse, especially when you think about the taxes that was raided and what they did with those taxes. If you think you are paying too much tax today, Be glad you're not under Herod. Spiritual leaders were bought over by Herod and was happy to be enriched for as long as they did. Does this sound familiar? Do we see how spiritual leaders today are following behind government? They're speaking against government, but they're always fighting for the Christian values, but always for their own purposes. Yet, amongst all this corruption, we see here the ruler of the murdered people, Herod, even his own wife and children, and we find faithfulness in people who does so in quiet submission in front of God. They are not involved in big marches protesting against the ungodliness of the times. Instead, they are faithfully keeping to their responsibility to worship and serve at the temple, and above all, they are found faithful in their prayers. They are worshiping in a temple built by an evil ruler, They didn't say, oh no, the evil King Herod who murders people, his own wife, who's unfaithful to his own wife, who kills his own wife and sons, I'm not gonna worship in this temple. No, they had a temple, they worshiped there. So but how does God do this thing? From our scripture here, from our text here, we see he does this through the individual. The individual who is found praying in his room to God for 60 plus years. The same thing over and over again. His prayers weren't answered, but he kept on praying. God brings his plan to fulfillment through the individual who keeps performing his duties without fail. It is found in the mundane. Twice a year, he goes to the temple. He goes and worship there, and he serves. When the lot was cast and it fell upon him, was he there? Yes, he was there. Was he there in the 60 years, 60, 70 plus years before that? He was there. He didn't decide, oh, you know what, I'll skip this time, I'll go next time. He was there every single time, so that when God did need him, wanted him to be there, when the lot was cast on him, he was standing. He was standing in faith, he was standing in prayer, and all the promises and his faithfulness of serving God all the time. God brings his plan to fulfillment through the individual who rules his family in the fear of God, raising his children according to the statutes of his law. Inside the four walls of their home, the battle armor is prepared. The school is not going to do that for you. Whatever they teach your children in school, the school's never going to do that. Society will never do that for you. It happens in your own home. And that's what we also see with Zachariah and Elizabeth. They did not have any children, but we'll get to that. People are afraid of what their children are being taught at school, simply because it's the only thing that they are being taught. Why would you be concerned about what... The only reason why you're concerned is because it's not happening in our own home. If we are not teaching our own children, principle from God's Word and what it means to be faithful, then we better be scared about what the schools teach our children. But we say we don't have time. I don't have time to sit down and have quiet time with our kids. I sometimes have to be concerned, and it's tragic that people would even say that. when I see the things that we often spend our times doing. We have time for other things, such as go off on pleasure cruises, do this. Weekends are filled with everything except what we have to do, but we don't have time for 10 minutes to sit down with our kids as a family around a table and have our quiet times. We have time to watch TV. We have time to play games. We have time for the social activity. Go to this There's so many I don't really want to talk about. The thing is, I don't want to mention them because I only have to use my examples. I don't know what happens in your lives, but you know, I can think of many things that I do that robs my time of spending a quiet time with my family around the table. It's the individuals in that country that makes a difference. All the priests around you may be corrupt. Your friends and other people might be, but they do it. If they're doing it, it's okay if I do it. That wasn't Zachariah's mind frame. We see so-called faithful people fleeing their countries because there's no future for our children in this country. If that's your thinking, if that's the people's thinking, they don't have a very long thought of what future is. Faithfulness to God always gets rewarded. Second point I would like to make. Scripture abounds with examples of this. We read them as we have a thousand times. We fry over it. I just want to cite a couple examples of how people who were faithful were rewarded. He did not give Abraham a son until he was way too old to have one. But Abraham believed and he remained faithful, and he did receive a son. Joseph received a vision from God, a dream, but first he had to be a slave. First he had to endure injustice and be counted with the vilest of offenders in a prison. He had to know that God does deliver. When human eyes see hopelessness, eyes of faith will see God and deliverance. And for as long as your eyes of faithlessness are blind, God's going to keep you in the dark. Gideon did not have victor over his battle before God did not reduce his army to a mere 300 warriors. Why not? Because man is man. When you have success in your life, when things start going well, what happens? The vision of God disappears and man comes to the fore. God will always make sure that when His servants' prayers are answered, those answers will be to His glory, not to our glory. And when that glory comes to him, our joy will be made perfect. We will have joy in him. In verse 14, we see Gabriel saying to him, and thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth. Zacharias could now rest in the deliverance, the answered prayers from God in him, and the glory went to God. I also especially loved Elizabeth's response to the events that happened. We find that in the very last verse. Verse 25. Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days in which he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men, and even before that. And after those days his wife Elizabeth conceived and hid herself five months. So why did she hide herself five months? Was there anything for her to be shamed about? In fact, I think amongst all the scoldings and the gossip and the lip service that was given through all her life, I would go out and say, I've got a baby. I mean, that's the news, I'm sure, Chloe, you would have gone out and told everybody. I heard from the pulpit, but yeah, it's a joyous moment. And here you've got Elizabeth going in a room, quiet room, for five months, hiding herself. Why does she do that? I believe there's a good reason for it. She went and prepared herself, serving God in worship, in prayer, in, I don't think she did too much, what's the word? What you don't eat? Fasting. I don't think she did too much fasting because, I mean, she's got a baby. Must feed the baby. But in fasting, in prayer, she went and dedicated her for five months Later on, we'll see how even Mary did the same thing. She held the words that were said to her by the angels and thought about it. She didn't go out and brag about it. This also wasn't Elizabeth. She didn't go out and boast and brag about it, but she took comfort in the thought that now God has rewarded her for her faithfulness. spare a thought for poor old Zachariah. Imagine not being able to speak for nine months to your wife. Some of you might say, but my husband doesn't talk to me in any case, you know. But I know I get a lot of lip service. I'm not speaking enough to my wife, you know. I must tell her about everything in my day. Poor old Zachariah is here, wasn't even able to say one word to his wife after the special event. He couldn't even write the name of the baby, of his future child that was to happen. But Elizabeth must have known exactly what happened because shortly after this, Luke tells us, they go back to their hometown. It's not like their house was right next to the temple. Their town was way outside of Jerusalem. They had to go back to their home, and shortly after this, shook, my ears just popped, and suddenly I can hear. It feels funny. And Elizabeth must have connected the dots. Here you have Her husband, coming out of the temple, spending a lot of time inside. We don't know how long it was, but I think the people Luke mentions, they were getting uncomfortable. What's happening? He's not coming out. Maybe we should put a rope in there and pull him out and something's wrong. But she connected the dots. Shortly after this, she fell pregnant. Oh, but my husband, we know he saw a vision inside the temple. I think she knew exactly what happened. When Elizabeth conceived, she concluded that one plus one truly becomes three. Yes, faithfulness always gets rewarded, but always to His glory, and the fruit thereof will be to the benefit, the spiritual growth of His children, not the earthly blessings that more often corrupts us. When we start praying for blessings, make sure that we pray in God's will. Strength in our Lord is found in a quiet, humble devotion, humble obedience, and in obscurity. Yes, obscurity. Another example from scripture. David did not have a kingdom before he was not scattered, persecuted. He was chased as a criminal in his own country. Even the very kingdom of which he was anointed as king, Saul chased him around the country. Where's the logic in that? Does it make sense to you? Have you ever been excluded from something in life to which you had every right to benefit from? I think all of us have our stories. How we've been treated unjustly. How people have treated us unfairly. Maybe at work, where you've worked hard and you haven't been rewarded for it. You don't get the fruit of your labor. That's not how God operates. That's how man thinks, that we should be rewarded all the time for our labor. Did it make sense to Zacharias and his wife that they should suffer the gossip of the town over the fact that they could not have children? What Zacharias saw all around him, bear in mind, what did he see all around him all the time? He saw how the high priest was a made man. He saw how all the other priests were affluential, affluent, is that the right word? Lots of money, lot of influence. They had kids running around, taunting probably Elizabeth. Why did this happen? I mean, maybe he started thinking, maybe I've got it wrong. Maybe there's old scriptures from the Old Testament We should start operating under the new way of thinking, as often is the case in businesses today. Whatever stands in scripture no longer applies. We should start operating according to business laws, according to the law of economics. My son can tell you about it. supply and demand. I always have to ponder when people say, They profess to be Christians, but when you hear them talk about their work and their relationship with colleagues, the unfair treatment, the shady dealings that they experience there, we have to remind ourselves ultimately, and we can remind each other about the fact that we are not operating under an earthly ruler, we are operating under God, and God is the one ultimately we are working for. But the problem is we're moving so much into a me-ism, a self, selfie-ism, taking selfies of ourselves everywhere we go. I don't want to watch Facebook because, but then I go to Facebook because all my friends are in Hong Kong, and these runners from this running club is in Hong Kong, and they in America, my cousin is in America, everybody's having the good life, they're lying on the beach. I often have to ask myself, do these people never work? What did I do to deserve the fact that I have to spend time in Union Avenue 70 all my life? It's unfair, life is unfair. Anyway, I would like to also draw some contrasts from poor old Zachariah and Elizabeth's life and that of Herod. In Herod, we have a king who ruled with an iron rod, ruthlessly, mercilessly. He was a man with many faces. He seeked favor with the Jews as well as the Gentiles, always, however, for his personal goal. When it suited him, he destroyed lives. He would kill his own wife, his own children. He would kill other people. He would kill thousands. I don't even want to think how many boys were killed when Jesus was born. He would kill people. He would do what he want. But then he would be building cities for the people to live in. He'd be building ports. He would be making sure the economy grow. That was King Herod. In Zacharias, we find two servants. servants who, though living on earth under a rule of a king such as Herod, submitted to their king in heaven. Their hope was not focused on what could be received and achieved by economic cunning and clever ruling, but by the promises in scripture as they were awaiting their king as prophesied. Remember, 400 years. This Angel Gabriel appearing to Zechariah is the first word from God more than 400 years. There's been absolute silence. After 400 years, priests were probably starting to think God has forgotten us. Not Zechariah. He was waiting. 400 years and suddenly the silence is broken. In Herod, we have a husband. Herod was a father. He was a husband and a father, who in jealousy could not love his wife but only murder her. As a father, his jealousy and hunger for power and fear for being dethroned drove him to murder his own children. His fourth child only escaped death because he died of sickness before he could kill him. Though in the eyes of the people who respected him, People did respect Herod at the time. He did a lot of good, economic good that is. But when he died, the people mourned. Even if you go further on in Luke, where we read that King Herod, when they heard of the baby Jesus that was born, all his cronies and people that was ruling over Judea, they were troubled, they were worried. Our king is in trouble now, we've got another king being born. There were people that were serving him that believed he was the man for the job. So, though in the eyes of the people, when Herod died, there was crying among the people. In historical writings, it's all there. You can go read about it. Guess what? His own family rejoiced at his death. That was the father and the husband he was. They rejoiced at his death. However, contrasted in this, Zacharias and Elizabeth, we see Zacharias, a husband, who remained faithful to his wife. Even when he saw how he would not be blessed with children with her, they were ashamed of their community, despised by a kin for not being able to bear any children. They searched God in their prayers. They asked for his deliverance. Both Zachariah and Elizabeth, in their prayers, remained faithful, serving, performing their task, and was found righteous before God and blameless. That's what scripture tells us here. That's what Luke says. Righteous, blameless. We know they had sin, of course they had, but God is the one that declares us righteous, and that's how God saw them. Because of their faith, as was the faith of their fathers, Abraham and David and many others, God declared them righteous. Zacharias, Elizabeth, they also died. It happens to all of us. But when they died, their friends mourned. The society and the world at large did not mourn because they did not even know about them. They lived in complete obscurity in a small little town. Nobody knew about them. Their friends, family, they mourned for him. But there was rejoicing in heaven when Zacharias and Elizabeth died, because they were united with the Father, their Savior, in heaven. There was much rejoicing. Rejoicing over the race that was run and completed. In Herod, we have a king that left a heritage of children who followed in close footsteps of their father. As corrupt, as evil, but they had none of the abilities that their father had. They could never rule as good as King Herod did. Financially speaking, economically speaking, growth, rebuilding of temples and cities, they couldn't do that, but they were just as corrupt and even more corrupt. King Herod's legend lives on in history books. and archaeological findings. In 2007, they actually discovered the place where Herod the Great were buried. It was about 13 kilometers south of Jerusalem. So they came upon the site. I don't know how the archaeologists, Israeli archaeologists that dug this up, and they found his place, but they couldn't find the, I'm not gonna say this word, Sarcophagus. How do you say that in English? What's the English? Okay, you guys said it. Sarcophagus. Sarcophagus. That was robbed. It was gone. It was already looted by treasure hunters throughout history. They couldn't find his... They found the burial site, but they couldn't find the treasures and the things that was buried with him. Not even his body. Obviously, maybe bones that turned to ashes. Zacharias and Elizabeth, in contrast with this, their lives is recorded in the Gospels, not in historical writings much. Sacred scriptures protected by God. Nobody knows where they were buried. It is of no importance they were servants of God, because when they return, they'll not be buried 13 kilometers south of Jerusalem. They'll be ruling with God in Jerusalem, and we'll all be ruling with God in Jerusalem. Where Herod's burial site was looted, there's nothing to loot at Zacharias and Elizabeth's graves. Instead, there's much to be gained from. In closing, I would like to bring this a little bit closer to us, not only Herod and Zacharias and Elizabeth, I want to ask you the question, will the words, welcome home my child, echo heaven when you die? Will those words be echoed in heaven? Or will your grave be raided for what loot thieves and robbers can find? I know you're not buried with money and things like they did in the old times. But when we die, we leave an inheritance for our children, for people. Sadly, I have many friends who, and especially one, who when his wife died, people are mourning at the funeral, crying, supporting each other. But not even a year later, they are fighting over this property, that money, that car. They're fighting about who gets a couch in the living room a year later. That's the fight that's taking place. Now is that the kind of inheritance that will stay behind when we leave this earth? I want to bring it even closer. Parents. Where will your child be found when he's alone, out of your care? Where will your children be found? Will they be operating in the world, hunting riches and treasures? Finding the good jobs, mixing with the right people, people that can take them places? Or will they be wearing animal skins? Will they be eating grasshoppers? Who did that? the great John the Baptist, the child of Zacharias and Elizabeth. I mean, why would John, he's in the upper class, man, he's up there, he's got every right to be entitled to it. Will the words they speak be molded by the company in which they find themselves, or will they, without any fear, warn mankind of the wraths to come? Will they be faithful witnesses of the gospel, unafraid to stand up to the foolishness of the world, but to be counted as fools to the world. I think we often today are too scared to speak out in the world because the world sees Christianity as just being foolish, as being fairy tales. I listened just yesterday to a video Well, David the other day was saying to me, you should never go into debate with a fool because he'll draw you down with him and he'll beat you with experience. But that's how the world is. They are so foolish when it comes to scripture. They have no understanding of what's in there because they are spiritually depraved. But where will your child be? In which company will your child be found? Will they without fear, as did the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth, call out the atrocity of rulers? Will your child be upright in a business where his boss might be requiring from him to do something which is shady in a business deal? I'm mentioning that because it's coming for our children. If you haven't experienced it yourself, then you've been living in a vacuum. I've had it many a times. Or, will your child act like John the Baptist did? You'll recall that John the Baptist's head was taken off, chopped off. Why was it chopped off? Because he called out Herod for who he was. He wasn't silent about it. He called him out as he wanted to marry his sister, he wanted to do horrible things. We know of all the horrible things he did, but he called it out. and he was hated. And ultimately, yes, his head was beheaded. Let's just keep it at that. What heritage will we as parents leave for our children? Figuratively speaking, John the Baptist was a fruit. The heritage that Zacharias and his wife left behind. And what will yours look like? What will mine look like? Don't be ignorant, parents. Our children are watching us very closely. Will they mimic our actions of faith or our actions of faithlessness, of obedience or compromise in His Word? Everybody's doing it. Why should I be faithful? I don't mean to play this down, but I'm going to use me as an example in our family. My children are watching me very closely. Even now, Ingrid was sharing with me the other day, one of our boys, I won't mention, one of our boys would even now tell us what they will be doing right when they raise their children. Because we've been doing it wrong all the time. They're watching us. They've got better advice than we ourselves have. I'm glad that they are noticing it and I'm glad that they are taking note of it. But yeah, our kids are watching us. And I want to cite another example. The choices that you make as a parent in your family. Choices of the smallest things. Choices of what you do on a Saturday versus what you do on a Sunday. What you do on a Saturday night, what you do on a Friday night. The movies you watch. Small little things that you do. I have to cite a personal example here to me, which just paints the point I want to get across. Many years back, six, seven years, we've been at Galilee Baptist Mount five years, and we have always been involved in Kempton Park Bible Church, and then it changed to Birchwood, and we are always involved, members of the church, And then we started in Centurion, we started a branch. So we had the church at our home. A lot of things happened, short story, there was no longer any gathering in Centurion. Sorry, let me just. So we made the decision, yeah, I think we'll start attending a church that is closer to home. Surely there must be a good church in Centurion or Pretoria in the area. And we did start joining a church. What's the name of the church again, Rian? Living Hope. And the teaching was very good there. It is really good. There's some minor differences, but it was some really sincere people. Hamilton goes to the church. Many of you are familiar with Hamilton. We enjoyed it very much. But now here's the thing. We weren't members of that church. Yes, we were involved and active, but we had no responsibility. we did not have any place to be at at any certain time except for on a Sunday we went to church. And because we weren't connected and tied down to that church, we would wake up the morning and think, you know what? No, we're gonna stay at home. We'll listen to a sermon on the radio. This is what we'll do. And we'll go, as a family, we'll go for a walk on Klapperkop, and we'll just enjoy, it's important to, as a family, spend time together. And as time went on, we weren't members of the church, but we'd go to the church, the pastor, Pastor Josh Mack, sincere person, but we never had any responsibility or accountability point in that church. And what happens? The frequency of attendance of that church just went backwards, went backwards. Until we visit a good friend of mine, and we said, this is the problem we're experiencing. We've got a good church, and we've got this decision to join Calvary Baptist. Chris is here, Pastor Edward is here, but it's so far, it's too far to travel. So, here's the problem. My friend said to me, You know what? You've got a bigger problem. You've got children who is seeing that you are attending and not attending a church. You don't have any responsibilities. You're not committing yourself to anything. And that does not show the faithfulness of a Zachariah. It does not show the faithfulness of Elizabeth. It does not show commitment. It shows, well, whatever I feel like, whatever I desire, that I will do today. That's the problem. And suddenly I got a shock of my life when I realized my children is seeing this and there is no commitment from them. They will follow in my footsteps. Is your concerns over what's happening around you or is it fueled by the everlasting promises of God? The very promises for which we can pray. We pray too much for this and that and for people even pray for a different president and for different people to come into rule. No, pray for your president like we do. We pray too little, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. These are words rarely found in our prayers. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. Or are we praying for better things here on earth? History has shown us, scripture has taught us, and God has this morning revealed to us that the faithless always gets challenged. They fight, they struggle, They are tied down. They're acting like people in straitjackets. They scheme and they make plans. They commit murder. They kill their own children. That is what faithfulness do. But faithfulness gets rewarded. God rewards His faithful believers, His faithful children, who are always found in prayer, in strength. And in Hebrews 11.6, I just want to close with this verse. We're all familiar with the text. Without faith, it is impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Luke. We thank You for Zacharias, Elizabeth. We thank You for Your Word that reveals to us our own faithlessness, our own planning and scheming. I pray that you will pierce our hearts, that you will pierce our minds and our thinking, that we will change where it needs to change in our lives, our behavior, our actions, how we commit ourselves in the world, in our work, in our family lives, in our service at church, as Zacharias did, as a priest, please speak to us and confront us with the huge vacancies there is in each one of our lives, because it is there, Father. It is something that we have to work on continuously, and I pray that We will be faithful witnesses, faithful servants, and that truly, when we leave this earth, it'll be found that our graves are a place of rejoicement. We will return to rule with you as king in Jerusalem. And I pray that as we go out in the business world, that we will not be scared to be counted as fools. because often your word does work in people's hearts, it works even in the vilest of people's hearts, because it's a testimony, our lives should be a testimony to them. Because we never know when you work in people's lives, when you bring people to Christ, when you bring people to you and reconcile them, and that all we need to do is to remain faithful. Help us in this simple task that often bears down on us and we are overcompassed by it, but that we will be humble in our servancy to you. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.