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Okay, Luke chapter 1. I want
to begin by telling you about in Carim. In Carim, a little
hill country in Judea. And what seems to be a gloomy
day starting out, but yet it always seems to be a gloomy day
in that area. Even when the sun's shining,
and the heat of the country, It always appears to be a little
bit gray, a little dark, and a little gloomy. An old priest
begins by saying his goodbyes to his faithful wife, and he
begins to journey to Jerusalem to do his biannually week of
service at the temple. He doesn't have to travel far
from Ankarim, In fact, it's about seven or eight miles, so it's
not a long time to get to Jerusalem and to get to the temple from
there. But it is far enough to probably be alone with your thoughts
for a little while. And being alone with your thoughts
for a little while, perhaps you may think of Psalm 73, where
the psalmist talks about how the wicked would prosper. Yet
how he needs to remain convicted and committed to the Lord because
the end of their life is destruction. When the psalmist went to the
house of God, he realized that their end is destruction. And
so maybe perhaps thinking about how the wicked prevail and how
it seems like the blessings of the world are cast upon those
that are not obedient and not faithful to their God. It may
be hard sometimes to trust that God is in control. It may be
hard to be convicted to be faithful, that God knows best. And so as he gets to the temple
area and they begin to settle in, he begins to prepare for
his weekly service. and it's customary to decide
what services the men would participate in as priests, they cast lots. And it just so happened that
his lot had been cast and he had been drawn in order to go
offer incense in the very holy place of the Lord. before the
veil in front of the Holy of Holies. And what appears to be
a random draw, as this old priest is chosen to do this work, what appears to be a random draw,
little did anyone know that the gloom would begin to dissipate. The rays of the Son of Righteousness
would begin to emerge into a new covenant. Because you see, after
400 years of silence, God would begin to operate once again in
the lives of Zachariah and Elizabeth. I want to call your attention
to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 1, And beginning with verse five,
there was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain
priest named Zacharias of the course 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 ordinance of
the Lord blameless. And they had no child because
Elizabeth was barren. And they were both now well-stricken
in years. We are looking at so great a
cloud of witnesses. And tonight, we'll be looking
at Zechariah and Elizabeth. We are looking at a couple tonight.
We get two for one here. I first want to call your attention
to the beginning of verse 5. And the beginning words of verse
5 are very easy to just read over. But they are very telling,
because if you notice, It says, there was in the days of Herod,
the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias. You see,
the first thing that we need to do before we begin looking
at these people's lives is we need to understand what they
were living through at this point. What was going on in their culture?
What was going on in their time? What was happening in the world
at that time? And I want to, if you will keep
your place here as we'll be in Luke chapter 1, the whole service,
but I would like for you to turn back to the end of the Old Testament. In fact, the book of Malachi,
the very last book of the Old Testament, chapter 1. And we
see that it was truly dark days in Judea, in Jerusalem, in Israel. I want you to notice in Malachi
chapter 1 what it says in verse 6. A son honoreth his father
and a servant his master. If I then be a father, where
is my honor? If I be a master, where is my
fear? Saith the Lord of hosts unto
you, O priest that despise my name. And ye say, wherein have
we despised your name? Ye polluted bread upon mine altar,
and ye say wherein we have polluted thee? In that ye say the table
of the Lord is condemnable. And if ye offer blind for sacrifice,
is it not evil? And if ye offer the lame and
the sick, is it not evil? Offer it now unto thy governor. Will he be pleased with thee
or accept thy persons, saith the Lord of hosts? Now notice
verse 10. Who is there even among you that
would shut the doors for not? Neither do you kindle fire on
my altar for not. I have no pleasure in you, saith
the Lord of hosts. Neither will I accept an offering
at your hand. Do you realize that to close
the Old Testament, God was fed up with the priests and the sacrificial
system in Israel? It had be gotten so dogmatic
and so trivial of things that didn't matter and so corrupt
that God literally says here in the book of Malachi through
the prophet, he says, I wish someone would just shut the doors
of the temple. Don't let them offer on my altar.
Don't let them offer in my temple anymore. Just shut the doors
because my priest who should honor me like a father, who should
serve me like a master, my priest despised me. Just shut the doors. Notice what it says in chapter
2 in verse 1. And now, O ye priests, this commandment
is for you. If ye will not hear, if ye will
not lay it to heart to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord
of hosts, I will send a curse upon you. and will curse your
blessings, yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not
lay it to heart. Behold, I will corrupt your seed
and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of the solemn feast,
and one shall take you away with it. Notice verse eight. But ye are departed out of the
way, ye have caused many to stumble at the law, ye have corrupted
the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of hosts. Folks, do you think God was pleased
with the temple worship that was going on at the end of the
Old Testament times? Absolutely not. He detested it,
and he was pleased with their mouth and with their words that
they honored God, that they exalted God. But their actions showed
no fear of God in their eyes, no fear of God in their hearts.
And in fact, God says that they despise Him in their actions
and their deeds. It was dark days, because you
have to realize before Herod began to reign, this was 400
years before it. When Malachi is written, that's
400 years before Zechariah shows up. And for 400 years, you know
what they call that period of time between the Old Testament
and the New Testament? They literally call it the 400
years of silence, because God did not speak. He did not communicate. He did not have prophets. He
did not have special messengers. He did not talk to the people
for 400 years. Now do you see why the sky always
seemed dark? Now do you see why it always
seemed a little gray out? God was not manifesting himself. But not only that, we read in
Luke chapter 1 was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea. Do you know I had heard when
studying for this, do you know what they used to say about Herod?
They used to say it would be better to be Herod's pig than
his son. Do you want to know why? He never
had to worry about his pig taking the throne from him. And he had
his children killed. Let me repeat that. He had his
children killed. He committed atrocity after atrocity. And the one that was governing
and reigning over Judea at the time was a selfish, loved the
power that he had, and eliminated any threat to lose that power.
We know of one instance where he did that, don't we? We read,
in fact, in the Gospels where Herod worried about this coming
Messiah, worried about this one who was to be king, was to be
born in Bethlehem, so he had all the children that were two
and under killed in Bethlehem. Could you imagine the atrocity
that that was? And yet, that probably wasn't
the only time he did things like that, folks. There were many
times that he showed his power by killing others, by putting
others under his thumb. In fact, some people were even
scared to write about his atrocities. They never wrote down all the
things that Herod had done. Why? Because out of fear, if
someone would find out that they wrote that, it would happen to
them. There was fear. There was persecution. They were
scared during that reign of Herod. There was no mercy and grace
found in that time. Dark days, God was silent, and
you had a tyrant on the throne. That was the scene that Zechariah
and Elizabeth lived through. And about seven or eight miles
away from Jerusalem, in Nkarim, they lived And Zechariah and
Elizabeth, it says in verse 5, Now we see the occupation of
Zechariah. He was a priest. Now, it doesn't have the J in
there, so you probably think I've been missaying it, and I
probably am still missaying that. But Abijah was the division of
the priesthood that he was from. Now, what would happen, folks,
is David expanded the priesthood when he had plans to build a
temple to God, and these men had to offer and had to work
when their division was called upon to do so. They didn't have
the same priest working year in and year out at the temple. In fact, they had 24 divisions
of priests. And so that equaled out to a
baptism for that week, and you had to work in the temple and
in the service of God for that one week, and you had to do that
twice a year. So Zachariah was a priest, but
also notice that Elizabeth, notice her lineage, it says that she
was a daughter of Aaron. Do you know what that means?
She was the child of a priest. She came from the priestly line
as well. So here you have this priest
marries this daughter of a priest and they are together. And if
you would read the book of Malachi, you would probably know how that
priesthood was during those times. And you probably wouldn't think
that they would be very spiritual or very committed to God the
way that it read in Malachi. But you would be wrong. Because
I want you to notice what it says about their character in
verse six. And when they were both, and they were both what? Righteous before God. Walking
in the commandments and the ordinances of the Lord, blameless. And they
had no child. Because Elizabeth was barren,
and they were both now well stricken in years. You want to know what
their reward was for being faithful and obedient to God? You want
to know what their reward was for being righteous and holy
before their God? And being faithful, even though
much of the priesthood probably wasn't faithful? Do you want
to know what these faithful, this priest and this wife was
so faithful and obedient to God? Do you want to know what their
reward was? Elizabeth was barren. She couldn't have a child. And
you could imagine going through the prayers daily in their youth,
that God would give them a child. And Zachariah would pray for
a child, and Elizabeth would especially pray for a child. And God did not answer. He was silent, just like he was
for the 400 years before. And so, as I mentioned in the
example tonight, he probably often thought of Psalm 73, how
the wicked prosper. Here, he is being faithful and
obedient to God and yet it seems like he's being cursed because
that's how the people looked at it if they were not able to
have children back then. So much so that it says at the
end of verse 7, they were now well stricken in years. Do you
know what that means? They were old. Now, I heard somebody
say that she was probably 30. I don't think so. The idea here is what other people,
including Alistair Begg, seems to think is that they were probably
in their 60s, 60 years old, did not have children. And you could
imagine they were probably trying to come to grips With the gloominess,
how God was silent, how Herod was reigning, and how they were
obedient and faithful to God, yet they were not seen to be
blessed. And they were probably coming
to grips that they would never have a child. Until. Verse 8, it came to pass while
he executed the priest's office before the Lord in the order
of his course, that means his division was called, he went
and he was working. Verse 9, according to the custom
of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense. That means
his lot was cast. He was drawn. I read that there's
probably 20,000 Different priests that served now. I don't know
how many was in each division, but let's say there was three
four thousand in a division Your odds of your lot being cast are
not that good in that one in three thousand is not the best
odds But it just so happened by chance, right? No, nothing
happens by chance by the very providence of God it just so
happened that that Zachariah's lot was cast to offer incense
to God. Do you know what that altar of
incense represents, folks? When you would enter into that
holy place, you could not go into the holiest of holies, where
God manifests his presence between the cherubims in the Ark of the
Covenant. But blocking that off was a great veil. And before
the veil, there were three pieces of furniture. There was a table
of showbread on your right. There was a candle stand on your
left. And right in front of that veil,
folks, there was called the altar of incense. And twice a day,
they would go and offer incense, morning and evening. And as they
offered incense, the people would pray. The other priests that
were not called would pray as the incense was being offered.
Because this was a representation, folks, that incense was a representation
of what? All of our prayers being offered
up. into the presence of God. Communion with God. Our prayers
being heard by God. And as Zechariah is chosen to
do this, probably so often he thought his prayers were never
heard by God. But yet this faithful day, he
goes in to the holy place. Verse 10. And the whole multitude
of the people were praying without at the time of incense. That
means they were around it praying. 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 neither drink strong wine
or 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 the power of Elijah to turn the hearts of
the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom
of the just, and to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
Isn't that amazing? Now what was Zechariah's response
to this? I'm going to have a child and he's going to be a forerunner
to the Lord and he's going to turn the people's hearts back
to the Lord? And his response Whereby shall
I know this for I'm an old man and my wife is well stricken
in years Basically, how's that gonna happen? Look how old I
am And the angel answered saying
to him I am Gabriel to stand in the presence of God and and
sent to speak with thee and to show thee the glad tidings. And
behold, thou shalt be dumb and not able to speak until the day
these things shall be performed, because thou hast believed not
my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season." And the people
waited for Zechariah, and they marveled that he tarried so long
in the temple. And when he came out, he could
not speak to them, but they perceived that he had seen a vision to
the temple, for he beckoned unto them and remained speechless. And it came to pass, as soon
as the days of his menstruations were accomplished, he departed
into his own house. And after those days, his wife
Elizabeth conceived and hid herself five months, saying, thus the
Lord hath dealt with me in the days when he looked upon me to
take away my reproach among me. Zacharias is in there. This angel
tells him that he's going to have a child. He says, I'm too
old to have a child. Can't you see me? And the angel,
because of his doubt, stricts him with not being able to speak.
Not until what the angel said would happen takes place. So
he's not able to talk. And the people outside that are
praying are amazed at how long it's taking. Something must be
happening. And when he comes out, he can't speak. And they
know that the Lord who has been silent for 400 years has done
something. And now he goes home. Elizabeth
and he conceive and she is bearing a child and the Lord had taken
her reproach away. That's Zachariah's visit. Zachariah
was visited by an angel. That's his visit. And just for
a few moments, Elizabeth had a visit as well. Did you know
that? You see, in between Zechariah's visit and Elizabeth's visit,
there was another visitation that took place that is mentioned.
In fact, an angel appears unto Mary and tells Mary that she
is to bring forth a child and He would be the Lord Himself,
the Messiah. He tells Mary this, But he also
gives Mary some other information when he tells her this. Notice
what he says in verse, let me see if I can find this here,
verse 24. No, I'm sorry, I went too far
back. Notice what it says in verse
36. The angel's speaking to Mary and the angel says, and behold,
thy cousin Elizabeth, she also has conceived a son in her old
age. and is six months with her, who
was called Bear. You know what? The angel tells
Mary, hey, you're not alone in this journey. Your cousin Elizabeth. Now, we need to be very careful
with that term cousin, okay? The more proper idea of that
is relative, okay? Probably was a second cousin
or something like that. It would be hard to have a cousin
that was probably 45 years older than you now, it's possible But
it would be harder to have that so I doubt it was a first cousin,
but it was a relative and they knew each other and So what did
Mary do? Zechariah is visited by an angel
Elizabeth is visited by Mary She's six months pregnant Mary
goes to Elizabeth and notice verse 39 and And Mary arose in those days
and went to the hill country to haste into a city of Judah
and entered into the house of Zacharias and saluted Elizabeth.
And it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation
of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled
with the Holy Ghost. She spake out a loud voice and
said, blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit
of thy womb. Now, We don't have to read this. You know the story. For time's
sake, I want to be a little quicker. But if you read verses 57 through
64, not only was Zachariah visited by an angel, and of course Mary
was, or Elizabeth was visited by Mary, and John the Baptist
in her womb knew that the mother of the Lord was there and jumped
with joy and the Spirit of God filled them. But then in verses
57 through 64, John the Baptist is born. And when he comes forth
and is born, all the people and the neighbors and their relatives
are there. And Elizabeth wants to name him John. And the people
say, no, we need to name him after the father, Zacharias.
But he can't talk. And then he gets a tablet and
he writes his name is what? John. And then after that, he
praises God. And we see the hope. Verses 67 through 80, Zachariah
praises God and lifts up his voice to God in praise. But I
want to call your attention in closing to just a few things
he says. Notice what he says in verse
72 and verse 73. To perform the mercy promised
to our fathers. And to do what? Remember his
holy covenant. the oath which he swore by our
father Abraham. Do you want to know one of the
things that just marveled Zechariah? The thing that he was just astonished
by? They had been infertile. They
had not been able to have a baby for so long. God had been in
silence for 400 years and now had broken forth and began to
move in their lives specifically. And Zechariah praises God and
says this is a fulfillment of the promises that God made. He remembered his oath. That's what it says right there. He remembered his oath. Look
at verses 54 and 55. Mary in her
song says the same thing. He hath helped his servants Israel
in remembrance of his mercy as he spake to our fathers Abraham
to his seed forever. Do you know what she's saying
there? God remembered his promise to Abraham, his oath. And Zachariah
comes away with saying, in this dark time, God still remembered
his oath. Do you know, obviously, the Old
Testament is written in Hebrew, and the New Testament is written
in Greek. But names have meanings. And the Hebrews names have meanings.
And, and do you know that if you were to, obviously these,
these verses are written in Greek, but if you were to translate
that into Hebrew, when you says that God remembers, you know
what that word would be? It would be Zach, Kara, Zachara. It means God remembers. And what
did God remember, specifically? What does it say He remembers
in verse 73? The oath that was given to Abraham. And do you know, if you were
to translate that word into Hebrew, do you know what you would come
up with? Oath would be eizavah. And if you say it's God's oath,
that would be El. El is God. El E-Zah-Vah. And so it is not by chance that if you were to make a name
out of Zachariah, it would be Zachariah. God remembers. And what does he remember? He
remembers E-Zah-Vah, his oath. God remembers his oath through
Zechariah and Elizabeth, and they conceived. And in 400 years
of darkness, in a time where prophets were not speaking in
a time where God was not manifesting Himself, in a time where it was
not known to hear the voice of God, and also in a time of the
darkest days where Herod was reigning and persecuting, and
also a time in the darkest days of their life where they were
stricken in years, yet felt cursed because they could not have a
child. Zechariah, God remembers. Elizabeth, His oath. And through
them they have jaunt. whose Hebrew name is Yochanan,
which means grace. And in all this time of silence,
God remembers his oath and brings grace into the world. What is the application of this
that we can see? I want you to know, folks, that
in the darkest of days, God has not forgot all his promises he
has given us. And though we may seem alone,
and though we may seem distant from God, and though we may seem
that he is not speaking to us through his word and he is not
conveying to us through his spirit, I promise you this, God has not
forgotten his people. And he remembers all his promises
that he gives us. I also want to take just a small
moment to say this. There are many who struggle with
not being able to have children. And I believe it is a good ministry
if you had ever been in that situation, or if you've not been
able to have children, or you have, it is a good ministry to
support and to help those that have trouble with that. Because
that is a hard thing, folks. And those men and women, especially
the women, they need uplifted to know that it is not a curse
of God. It is not anything someone has
done wrong, as what was thought with Elizabeth and Zachariah. But in the providence of God,
he does do what's right, even though it may not mean having
children. But it also gives hope. And it
also tells us that if Zachariah and Elizabeth can have a child
in their old age, if Abraham and Sarah could have a child
in their old age, then God can bless anyone to bring a child
into this world if it be his will. Be faithful, be committed
to God. Which is the next application,
and that is this. Be faithful and obedient to God. That's what it said about Zachariah
and Elizabeth, that they were faithful and obedient to God
in the darkest of times and in the darkest of circumstances.
They still were faithful and obedient to God, even though
it didn't appear as if God was doing anything. And do you know
what? Nothing happens by chance. God
is faithful. Be faithful and obedient to him.
and his promises in due time will be manifested to you. Whether in this lifetime or the
next, God is good, God is faithful, God is Zakkara, remembers his
promises, and God remembers his oaths to his people.
Zechariah and Elizabeth
Series So Great a Cloud of Witnesses
| Sermon ID | 724252210445695 |
| Duration | 32:45 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Luke 1:5-24 |
| Language | English |
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