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.