Zechariah’s Perspective

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

Hi, everybody. It is such a great honor and privilege for me to be here today to be bringing God's Word to you. I want to extend a very special thank you to Pastor Drew for letting me be here. We're going to be in Luke chapter 1 today looking at a character named Zachariah. And he's one of my favorite characters in the Christmas story. He's also one of the ones that kind of gets overlooked. So I'm excited to do a quick deep dive into that today as we continue the series Christmas in first person. Before we get into that, will you please pray with me? God, thank you so much, Father, for this day, Lord, for your word, God, that is alive and active today. God, as we open it up and we receive from you from it, God, would you open our hearts? God, would you open up our ears? Or to hear from you? Or today, would we be transformed by the renewing of our mind as we encounter you?

And it's in Jesus name we pray, Amen. So if we're going to study Zechariah, we need a little bit more information about his historical context. What was it like to live during his time? What was going on in his culture, in his social or political climate? That's going to kind of help us to understand his motivations, what he's thinking whenever these events unfold. And the first thing we need to know about Zechariah that he was a very Jewish person. He would have had a deep love and appreciation for the Torah, for Moses, for God's law. He was a priest in the temple, and he would have had this deep sense of anticipation of a coming Savior. That would have been exemplified by the fact that his people were currently underneath Roman occupation. And so he would have been thinking about the coming Messiah the promised Savior as it's written in the Old Testament as somebody who's

going to come and liberate his people out from underneath the boot of an oppressive government system. And so that's kind of what his worldview was at the time. He would have had a pilgrimage to the temple as a kid. He would have had time spent underneath other priests and rabbis as he was learning God's Word. He would have participated in cultural festivals. And as he got older, he would start to see people that he grew up with walking away from the faith as they were being overtaken by Roman culture. And so he would have had a very probably ethnocentric, nationalistic viewpoint towards his people. He would have seen others walking away from the rich heritage that he grew up with. And that probably would have caused him deep pain. And so he would have had even more anticipation than most for becoming savior or the coming redeemer. A little bit about his family life.

He was married to a woman named Elizabeth and her name will probably be familiar to you as being the cousin of Mary who was Christ's mother, earth mother. And so he had a direct law relationship to the savior. And one day Zechariah is in the temple and he is doing his priestly duties. He is burning incense during the hour of prayer. And one thing to note during this time is that scripture says that he and his wife Elizabeth were righteous and blameless before God according to the law. And that doesn't mean that they were perfect people that never sinned. What that means is that their faith would be accredited to them as righteousness. It says in Hebrews that Moses, his faith was accredited to him as righteousness. It's the same with Abraham. They believed in who was to come, which was Jesus, even though they didn't know his name. And God gave it to their account as a credit of righteousness.

And so he would have that same faith. He believed that God was sending a Savior, a Redeemer. And so it was said that him and his wife were both faithful people who loved the Lord. But they were advanced in age and didn't have any children. And we're not given a clear reason why that was. We're not sure exactly why God decided to do that, but he used it to exemplify his glory. He used it to show people that the birth of Elizabeth's son John was miraculous, that it was from God. And so God will take things in our lives sometimes. We don't understand why certain things happen, but everything that God allows in our lives He also redeems in our lives and He uses it for His good. And so He's in the temple one day during the hour of prayer. He's burning the incense. And out of nowhere, an angel appears to Him and Scripture says that He is gripped with fear. And really interesting, whenever angels appear to people in Scripture almost every single

the first thing that they say to them is do not be afraid or Fear not and the angel says the same thing to Zachariah because he is gripped with the spirit from this angel appearing out of nowhere But the angel says to Zachariah do not be afraid Your prayer has been heard if you want to follow along We're gonna be in verse 13 in Luke chapter 1 from here and there's nine promises here that that the angel gives to Zachariah. The first is this, your prayer has been heard. And we don't know what exactly Zachariah was praying in this moment, but most likely he could have been praying for the people of Israel on their behalf. He would have been praying for Roman occupation to leave. He may have been praying for God to give them a son, most likely not at that time. We don't know how old Zachariah and Elizabeth were, but if they were here today they'd probably be

uh carb carrying AARP members. They have been in the instant year so the thought and the hope of a son coming probably wasn't on his radar at the time. But the angel says, do not be afraid your prayer has been heard. And the second promise is this, your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you are to call him John. His wife is going to bear him a son. Now the angel stops here, this is just the best news Zachariah has ever received. He would have been overjoyed with anticipation. The angel continues, third promise in verse 14 says, he will be a joy and a delight to you and many will rejoice because of his birth. The angel is saying like hey this child is going to be a joy to you, he's going to bring the light to you and also to many other people and that's for a very good reason. The fourth promise comes in verse 15. It says, for he will be great in the

sight of the Lord. And I don't know about you, but as a father myself, if I had an angel come to me and say this, I don't know if there's anything else that would bring my heart joy than to hear that my son would be great in the sight of the Lord. Angel goes on to say that he is to never take wine or other fermented drink. Now this may seem like a strange thing for the angel to promise, but Zachariah being a priest of the tribe of Uchivi would have seen this very clearly as the bow of a Nazarite. Now the word Nazir means to be set apart. These were a group of people that were set apart for specific purposes unto the Lord, and that was a priestly command that they had to not drink wine before entering the temple or performing any kind of duty. And that was the fifth promise that he would be a prophet in the stream of the Nazarene. The sixth promise is he

will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. And again, Zechariah, he would have understood this as we do today in Latin Pentecost where God gave his Holy Spirit to all who believe. He would have understood this in the terms of like an Old Testament prophet or king, where the Holy Spirit would influence or fill certain people as they were set apart for a designation, whether that is for a specific time period or a specific purpose, but the Holy Spirit wasn't something that ended well permanently with people at this time. And so he would have kind of seen it in that light. That's what the light, that's what it would have been too for John because he died before Jesus would have died and then rose again or had the chance to receive the Holy Spirit as we understand it today. And so he was in truth an Old Testament prophet in the New Testament.

Verse 16 in the seventh promise it says, he will bring back many people, many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. Now this would have brought delight to Zachariah because he would have heard that and said, said, yes, finally, our people are going to come back to their faith. Our people are going to be brought back into our culture and into our heritage. They're going to serve the Lord again. In verse 17, the eighth promise it says, and he will go on before the Lord and the spirit and the power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous. If you don't know much about Elijah. His prophetic mission was to bring Israel back to the worship of God. He repeatedly exhorted the people to repent of their sins and to return to God, and warned them of the judgment that awaited for them if they did not. And so, Zechariah would have heard that, that his son was going to

be in the spirit of Elijah, and he would have known in that instant that the message that John would have said is repent for the kingdom is at hand in this moment. It is so cool to see that. The ninth promise, the final one verse 17 says he's gonna do this to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. So Gabriel promised that John his son was going to be an usher for the coming Savior. The thing that Zachariah would been anticipating and waiting for his entire life. He just got the news. Not only was he going to have a son, which was probably his heart's greatest desire, as a father, I think I could say that pretty confidently, but not only was he going to have that, but his people that he cared for as a priest would have their Savior was coming. He was coming soon too. And so he was so excited about this, but like many in scripture and many of us today, he had doubt about what

the angel was promising. He had doubt that he could actually hope in this word. And so he says to them, how can I be sure of this? I'm an old man. My wife is well along in years. And the angel tells him, hey, my name is Gabriel. I am Gabriel and I stand in presence of God and I have been sent to speak to you and tell you this good news." And for Zechariah's lack of faith, the angel Gabriel shuts his mouth so he cannot speak, which is really difficult because part of his priestly duty during this time after he burns an incense would have been to go out and to proclaim a message to the people. So he still tries to do that. In Scripture it says he goes out before the people, he can't get a word out, he tries to make signs. It doesn't work. It also says, and I really love this, that he returns to the temple to finish his duties. He doesn't take the rest of the day off because his mouth got shut, but he goes in and he

performs the rest of his duties before going home. So a short while later, Zechariah returns home. Eventually sometime later, Elizabeth does become pregnant. And we're going to pick up the story in Luke 1:57. It says, when it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy and they shared her joy." Already we see the angels promise of John being a delight to many coming true even before he's born. 59 it says, on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child which was accustomed at the time and they were going to name him after his father Zachariah but his mother spoke up and and said, no, he is to be called John. And they said to her, there is no one among your relatives who has that name. Then they made signs to his father to find out what they would like to name the child.

He asked for a writing tablet and to everyone's astonishment he wrote, his name is John. And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loose and began to speak praising God. and the neighbors were all filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea, people were talking all about these things. Everyone who heard this wondered about asking, what then is this child going to be? For the Lord's hand was with him. I just want you, if you're able to Ms. Mowen, put yourself in Zachariah's shoes whenever he's unable to speak. knowing that God is in the midst of doing something incredible. A miracle is happening right in front of him through his own wife. What an angel said was going to happen is now taking place right in front of him. Imagine just as a father never something happens with my son. That's great. I want to boast about it. I want to tell all my friends about it. I want to proclaim

and put it on Facebook and Instagram. Look at my son in this picture of Macaroni that he made. I'm so proud of him. And Zachariah in this moment is not able to speak or to say anything about how he feels in this moment. And the first thing that he does when he gets a tablet and is able to say something about his son, he confirms what Elizabeth is saying. He says, his name is John. And all of a sudden his mouth is open in the months of anticipation of waiting for this moment finally hit him and he's able to finally say something about all that God has been doing and he sings what I like to call one of the first Christmas carols. He goes into this song, this prophetic song about what God is in the midst of doing and it just whenever I read through this something is striking to me that I don't think we take the time to think through very often. Jesus isn't here yet. The miracle of Christmas hasn't

occurred. Jesus hasn't even gone to the cross. He hasn't been resurrected yet. But Zachariah in this moment is so excited about what God is about to do. He doesn't even have an idea of the scope or the scale of it, but he can't help but to say something about it. Even before he has the promise of salvation, it is bursting out of him. And I think if we understood just a tiny bit about who Jesus really is and what he did for us, we would be like Zach Ryan in this story and we couldn't help but to say something about it. That's one of my hopes for us today is that through reading this story that we're gonna get just a little bit more of Jesus and we won't be able to stop talking about it. But we're going to continue the story in verse 68 says that he was filled with the Holy Spirit and he began to sing and this is what he's saying. He said, praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people

and redeemed them. He has raised up a horn, which would be a mighty King in his understanding, a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. As He said through His holy prophets long ago, salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to show mercy to our ancestors and to remember His holy covenant, the oath He swore to our Father Abraham to rescue us from the hand of our enemies and to enable us to serve Him without fear, in holiness, and righteousness before Him in all our days. And you, my child talking about John, will be called a prophet of the Most High, where you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven, to shine on those living in darkness,

and the shadow of death to guide our feet into the path of peace. The promise of redemption is at hand. Zacharias proclaiming it. He knows that his son John is going to be born soon. And it's incredible for him to be able to see this, this thing that he would have been anticipating for his entire life. And in the months leading up before this song happened while his mouth was still shut, were visited, him and Elizabeth both by Mary, and she was pregnant as well. And this was

Zachariah's first encounter with Jesus as he's still in the womb, and it's also John's first encounter with Jesus. And it's a really cool story. If you have time, go back and read all of Luke chapter 1, you get the chance to before Christmas happens. But it says that Jesus, or that John, Elizabeth's womb does a flip or starts moving around violently because he gets into the presence of Jesus and is even before he's born this must have been the Holy Spirit on him before he was born like angel promised coming into contact with Jesus and there's something incredible that takes place there and they actually seen what I would call the first two Christmas carols in this moment if you get a chance go back through through through Luke and you get to read each of the first three Christmas carols. It's a great time. So Zachariah's place in the story of Jesus's birth, which is what Christmas is all

about, stops here in Scripture. We don't get much more information outside of this. It's unknown when he or Elizabeth passes away. We don't actually know if they even made it to Jesus's birth or not. We don't know if Zachariah got to see Jesus and John played together at some point. We don't know if they lived to see their son John executed or they live to see Jesus nailed to the cross. But we do know that he was overcome with anticipation and excitement about what was about to happen. But we don't know exactly what happens after this. But I I personally believe we can analyze the scripture and analyze who Zechariah was, to know that whenever he was prophesying and proclaiming that redemption was at hand, that his son was going to help usher in the Savior. His understanding of that was limited. I don't believe that Zechariah had any idea of the scale or the scope of the redemption

that was going to come through Jesus. Because your hope can be in the right person, but it can be for the wrong outcome. Sometimes you can see Jesus as your own personal genie in a bottle, who's there to make your life better, who's there to help you make sure you get that promotion at work, or to get the raise that you probably do deserve. But if that's what your hope is in, that's what the outcome you're hoping for, and if your hope is in Jesus, you're going to be disappointed. For many people, their only hope is for their circumstances to somehow change. And whenever we hope in our circumstances to provide for us or to regress us, our hope is in vain. If you're hoping in your job or in your promotion or your education, if you're hoping that the government's going to figure out COVID or the person that you want to be elected will be elected or that your paycheck's even going to come this week or your lottery ticket's

finally gonna hit or you're finally gonna get that good report from the doctor, your hope, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. The only assurance of hope that we have is in Jesus. Whenever you hope in Jesus, you have an eternal hope. Hope in Jesus equals eternal hope. We will never be disappointed whenever our hope is in Him. We just have to make sure it's pointed in the right direction and that our hope is in the understanding of this. That our hope is not that things go our way. Our hope is that things go his way. And whenever I talk about this, I want good things for my life. I want to live in a nice house and I want to live in a safe neighborhood and drive a decent car. Those are things that I want, that I desire to have. But that might not, That might not be what Jesus desires for me because whatever I'm desiring for myself, he wants something better.

That doesn't mean nicer car. That doesn't mean bigger house. That doesn't mean safer neighborhood. His greatest desire for you and for I is to be in relationship with him and to be transformed into his image, becoming more and more like him every day. desire for us is to be in His word, to lift up our prayers to Him, to cast our cares and our anxieties on Him. And just because we are praying about the situations we want to see change doesn't mean that our circumstances are magically going to get better. But what does happen is that as you begin to bring the things you are concerned about to God, whether that be the health report, whether that be the circumstance at work or the relationship that just won't get better. The thing doesn't magically change but what God will change is your perspective on that thing. He will give you his wisdom to understand in that

circumstance and maybe it will get better too. God is our healer, don't get me wrong, we need to be praying for healing. We need to be praying for our political leaders. We need to be in prayer for these things. God desires for us to be in prayer for these things and we need to do that. But the hope isn't in the circumstance changing. The hope is that Jesus has got it. He is in control and things are going to go his way. So even whenever the situation doesn't turn out how you want it to turn out, we have the hope and the assurance that things are going the way Jesus wants them to go. Things are going the way they're supposed to be for his glory. Zechariah didn't have children for decades of marriage. It probably broke his heart. I can't imagine the shame that Elizabeth must have felt knowing the culture she was in that valued childbirth so greatly. There were probably circles of women that she couldn't

go around because they would have shamed her. They would have called her names. They would have done, they would have said nasty things to her. And things didn't change for her until years later. I understand what God is doing in these moments where we feel like there may be no hope, we may feel abandoned. God is still at work. That's kind of the story of Christmas. Whenever the last chapter, the Old Testament is written until the birth of Jesus about 400 years pass. And the people of God must have been feeling like, where is he during this time? Where is God in all of this? And then he shows up. God always shows up for us. Kelsey and I, my wife, there's a a television show you like watching. It's called Shark Tank. The premise of the show is there are really rich people who will invest in your idea or your company if it's a good idea. And we were watching and there was a man who was pitching his

idea and we both kind of looked at each other like, man this guy just kind of seems hopeless. Like he doesn't seem like he's really into this. And he explained on the show that this is kind of his last ditch effort to get his company off the ground. I don't remember the product. I just remember, this was a re-ride, so we googled this guy. What happened to him, what happened to his product, his business. And we found out that two months after he was on Shark Tank, he committed suicide. They dragged him out of the river. His hope was that a shark was going to come and save him and fund him and give him the resources he needed to be able to live. His hope was in his circumstances changing. And whenever we hope in our circumstances rather than hoping in Jesus our hope will put us to shame. But hope in Jesus will never put us to shame. Without Jesus there is no

hope. But when Jesus is our hope, our hope never runs out. Martin Luther King Junior said this, we must accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope. And finite disappointment can be accepted whenever we know that we have an infinite hope in Jesus. That is the gift of Christmas, one of the many, is heaven. The hope of Jesus, though, only comes in one way and that is through relationship with them. You must decide to make him Lord of your life and to receive forgiveness of your sins. That's all I want to challenge you today. Where is your hope? I want you to ask yourself that question. What is it that you are hoping in? Some hoping to paycheck, some hoping their good works, some hoping to their church attendance or into a political party, or some other finite thing, but your hope will disappoint you unless it is in Christ. We're going to end today by reading Colossians 1, 20-22 which says,

And through him, Jesus, to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight without blemish and free from accusation. Jesus purchased our peace and our salvation on the cross and through his resurrection and because of that we have infinite hope. Paul said in Romans 5 that hope in Jesus will never put us to shame because what Jesus did on the cross for us was final. That's the gift of Christmas our Savior was given to us so we need to ask the question where is your hope today let's pray God thank you for your word or thank you that we can hope and you know whenever we hope and you father that hope does not put us to

shame we can't be disappointed God because what she did was final God you have all authority, you have all power, you are all knowing God. So when we trust in you, if we put our faith in you, we have infinite hope. Now that things go our way, Lord, that things are going to go your way because they are. So I lift up each person here watching online, what our in-person Father, now would you help them. Father, identify places where their hope is being misplaced. I want you to help them to reconcile that. For those that need to take their first step in putting their hope and their trust and their life in you. God pray that your Holy Spirit in this moment would convict them to take their next step. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.