You’re It

by Dave Wilkinson

Luke 1:5-25, Malachi 4:1-6

December 9, 2001

Today is the second Sunday of Advent — the four week countdown to the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. For those of you more accustomed to thinking in other terms, that translates into fifteen more shopping days.

Christmas is a sometimes conflicting combination of sacred and secular. As Christians we strive to "keep Christ in Christmas." And even non-believers want this season to be something special — even if that only means renting "Miracle on 34^th Street" and curling up with a cup of egg nog in front of the fireplace.

But no matter how you do it, it’s hard to hold on to the Christmas Spirit in Southern California. You see, "Business is our Business." And this business only gets busier as Christmas draws near.

This is one reason why our text this morning should speak to us with power. It is not "once upon a time". It is real people living in a real world who had real problems.

To fully understand the Christmas story we need to look at both the birth of John the Baptist and the birth of Jesus. Luke gives us both. As far as Luke is concerned, to get the impact of Jesus in the manger, you also have to get the impact of John in Elizabeth’s womb. In order to have the impact of Mary being a virgin, you must also have the impact of Elizabeth being barren. In order to get the impact of Gabriel coming to Mary with the message "you will be with child", you must first see Gabriel being sent by God to Zacharias saying "You shall have a son and his name will be John." In order to get the impact of Jesus’ story, Luke the investigative doctor says you must also have the impact of the birth of John. So what he does is give us the story of the birth of John as the introduction to the event of the birth of Christ. Let’s see how they interrelate.

Verse 6: Zacharias and Elizabeth are husband and wife, righteous in the sight of God. They walk blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord.

Note first of all the kind of people God chooses to use. They are righteous in God’s sight. They walk like they talk. They live in obedience to God’s word.

But they also have a problem. Elizabeth is barren. She has not had any children and at her age she is not going to have any. Her biological clock has stopped ticking. She and Zacharias are old, old, old.

Every so often, as a Pastor, I receive letters from childless couples who are looking to adopt. They’ve had no success with the regular adoption agencies. Their only hope is to "get in touch with someone who knows someone who has this problem." These are Christian couples who obviously have much to offer of love and faith and material security. But, they are childless. They want so badly to have a child to love while tens of thousands of fetal human beings are being aborted.

It hardly seems fair. Well guess what. The Bible never claims that life is fair. Here are Zacharias and Elizabeth — this righteous couple who have wanted a child for years and are childless while all around then, the unrighteous have unwanted children — some of who are abused and some of whom are ignored.

But for Zacharias and Elizabeth, the pain is not only personal. It is also theological. According to Psalm 127, the bearing of children was seen as a sign of God’s blessing. Barrenness was seen as a sign of God’s displeasure. Now this is a righteous couple. But their childless state makes everyone wonder: "What’s the secret sin they are hiding? What’s in the closet?" It is no wonder that Elizabeth, in verse 25, calls her barren state a "reproach".

You know what Elizabeth could have said? "God, you don’t love me, ‘cause if you loved me you would have given me children. If you really cared about me, you wouldn’t let me be barren. I am a reproach ‘cause I can’t have kids."

But that’s not what she says. She walks with the Lord.

Do you see the human element here? I know some of you have big question marks about things in you lives -- things you don’t understand. I don’t understand them either, But if in the context of all those questions we walk with the Lord, His purposes are still accomplished. This is what we see in Zacharias and Elizabeth.

We are told that Zacharias was a priest of the division of Abijah. Let me explain what the division was. There were twenty thousand priests in all. From David’s time the priesthood was divided into twenty four divisions each of which was named after a main priest in the history of Israel. Zacharias was one of over eight hundred priests in the division named after Abijah.

Each division was assigned to oversee the ministry of the temple for two weeks out of the year — the remaining four weeks being taken up by Yom Kippur and Passover.

Luke tells us in verse 8 that Zacharias was performing his priestly service for God in the appointed order of his division, according to the custom of the priestly office. And then he tells us that Zacharias was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense.

For those who don’t understand what’s going on here, it just sounds like Zacharias went to church. But it’s much bigger than that. It means that all eight hundred priests of the division of Abijah are there and that one of them, Zacharias, is chosen to go inside the temple and enter what was called "the Holy of Holies" and burn incense. The Holy of Holies was the place where once a year the high priest would go to atone for the sins of the people.

Now it says "The lot fell on Zacharias". The priests used a system of casting stones to narrow the choice — narrower and narrower — until the lot fell on old Zacharias.

Do you know the chances of the lot falling on Zacharias? It would be like filling up this room with eight hundred people and throwing some dice to choose one person and having it falling on me or you. Mathematically, each priest could expect to burn incense in the Holy of Holies once every thirty five years. This is the big day of Zacharias’s whole priestly career.

Now we could say that Zacharias was lucky. Or we could say that God acted to override the chance taking of people. Because God has an appointment with Zacharias.

As Zacharias enters the Holy of Holies, he is suddenly the focal point of the entire nation. Verse 10: "And the whole multitude of people were in prayer outside at the hour of the incense offering." In other words, they are there to focus their prayers as the incense is being offered. Zacharias goes to offer the incense and then fall on his knees in the Holy of Holies to offer praise and prayer himself before the Lord.

Zacharias prays and then it happens. The angel Gabriel appears to Zacharias -- standing at the right of the altar of incense in the place reserved for God Himself. After 400 years of silence, there had been no supernatural manifestations from God, no prophetic word since Malachi some 400 years before, to a people praying and hoping, God sends an emissary to speak on his behalf.

Now you might think that this old man, born of a priestly tribe and righteous before God would have been delighted about seeing an angel. But he isn’t. He’s afraid.

Perhaps this isn’t surprising. If I were to tell you that next Sunday the Lord was going to speak to each person in worship by name, directly, do you think there would be an overflow crowd? I don’t. We might react like Zacharias. We might be afraid to stand in the presence of the eternal God and we might not want to hear His message. Like Isaiah as he stood before God, our first response might well be: "Woe is me. I am a man of unclean lips and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips."

The angel speaks. "Don’t be afraid, Zacharias. Your petition has been heard, and your wife will bear you a son, and you will give him the name of John."

This is too much for one day. Zacharias is already excited. They chose me to go before the presence of God and represent all of Israel. That’s exciting. He would only get that chance once in his lifetime. He finally gets there. And then, an angel shows up — not a sweet cherub angel or an Irish accented, Monica angel from Touched by an Angel but a hard-core, frightening warrior angel. The Gabriel literally means "the strong one of God." All this is becoming too much for an old man’s heart to take. And not only does this angel show up but now he finds that the Lord has answered his prayer. Now what prayer?

From the immediate context -- from the way Luke presents their problem -- it might seem that Zacharias is in the Holy of Holies praying for a child to be born to him and Elizabeth. But that’s not likely.

First, if Zacharias is praying for a son, why is he so disbelieving about the promise that a son will be born? But the second reason is more important. Zacharias isn’t there for himself. Zacharias won’t use this once in a lifetime shot in the Holy of Holies to make a personal request. He is there to represent the nation and to pray for the nation. His prayer is a prayer for the redemption of Israel.

That is what makes Gabriel’s announcement such a shocker — beyond the mere biological impossibility of the thing. Look at the connection between the two statements. "God has granted your prayer for the redemption of Israel. And you are going to bear a son." In other words, God’s going to answer your prayer and give you a role in the answer through the son that you will father. You will call his name John. You will have joy and gladness at his birth. Many people are going to rejoice. This son of yours is going to be great with faith. In fact, he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while he is still in mother’s womb.

You see God made Elizabeth and Zacharias wait a long time, but he gives then a mega answer.

But now we find that Zacharias has a problem with God’s answer. Verse 18: "How will I know this for certain? I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years. Do you know anything about human biology, angel? If you do, you know we have a practical problem here. God can’t do that."

The angel responds. He pulls rank. "Do you know who you’re talking to? I’m Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God." In other words: "God didn’t waste His time by sending me here and I didn’t waste my time by coming so don’t you waste my time with that question. But to make a long story short Zacharias, here is the way we’re going to do it. Read my lips. We are going to do it the same way we are going to stop you from speaking. It isn’t going to be any different. The fact that I can stop you from speaking — I can close your mouth — means that God opened Elizabeth’s womb. So be silent, and learn a lesson about God’s power."

If Zacharias could have talked he might have said: "Well shut my mouth. It’s true." But he couldn’t say it because his mouth was already shut. His mouth stays shut until after John is born.

That’s the story. Four observations.

First, sometimes we get tired of waiting for God’s answer and we take things into our own hands. Remember how God told Abraham he would be the father of a great nation along with his wife Sarah. He and Sarah were old and Sarah was as barren as Elizabeth. Abraham waited what seemed a reasonable length of time. He finally decided to help matters along and had a son by Hagar, Sarah’s maid. From that union came Ishmael. In his impatience, Abraham decided to help God out and ended up blowing it. In the same way, Zacharias could not believe that God had an answer for him.

We’ve all been guilty of that at some time. It may be that we take the wrong job because we can’t trust that the right job will turn up. We may enter into a premarital relationship because we can’t trust God to deal with our loneliness. We can’t believe God can untangle the mess we are in and we pay a price for our unbelief — just as Zacharias did.

Second, God is faithful to His word. The Lord doesn’t say, "Well, Zacharias, since you don't believe, your wife, Elizabeth, shall not have a son. There will be a John born, but he shall not come to your house." Instead we have the demonstration of ** "If we are faithless, God is still faithful for He can’t deny Himself. The promise still stands. God does not take advantage of our unbelief to back off. No. Having said it, he does it and his Word does not return to him empty.

The third observation is about the fulfillment of prophecy. Many prophecies of the Messiah were fulfilled in the birth of John the Baptist — prophecies like Malachi 4:5-6 which speaks of Elijah the prophet coming to prepare the way for the Christ. What Gabriel is describing to Zacharias is the coming of a new Elijah. Now Zacharias knows and believes the prophecies. He just never thought they would happen in his own time.

In the same way, biblical prophecies are finding fulfillment in our own age — prophecies like the restoration of Israel as a nation. What do we make of this? Do we see it as impossible that God should be working out two thousand year old promises in our day and age? Could it be, that a workaday man like President Harry Truman was used as God’s tool to bring about His purpose in helping resurrect a long dead nation? Is that too incredible? Is it just coincidence?

I am excited about the rapidly approaching release of the first film in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. But before the Lord of the Rings came the Hobbit. At the end of the Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien has the wizard Gandalf talking with Bilbo the Hobbit: "Then the prophecies of the old songs have turned out to be true, after a fashion," said Bilbo.

"Of course!" said Gandalf. "And why should they not prove true? Surely you don’t disbelieve the prophecies just because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? You don’t really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for you sole benefit?"

Tolkien, a Christian, knows and teaches the truth painted for us in this story of Zacharias. That what we might call luck or chance may well be God calling us to keep an appointment.

As a delicately phrased side note, I must say that I’ve always wondered how Zacharias explained all this to Elizabeth once he got home from the Temple. Remember, he can’t speak. But if he was going to do his part of making the prophecy come true, he needs to somehow propose, a level of marital intimacy that he and Elizabeth may not have shared for years. I haven’t seen this aspect addressed in any sermons or commentaries but the question is real — because Zacharias and Elizabeth are real people in a real relationship. At least "an angel told me" isn’t the usual line.

We learn later that he communicated by writing. Imagine him as he tries to communicate to Elizabeth all that happened to him, all that he saw and heard and how he felt, all of his struggles. He must have had writer's cramp by the time he finished. In any case, the angel Gabriel's strong word of discipline must have gotten through to Zacharias because is obedient to what God has said. He went home and made love to his wife. That was an act of faith, an act of obedience. Faith finally exercised itself in obedient activity.

Elizabeth, a senior citizen, became pregnant. Her response, in the last verse, is very different from Zechariah's first response of disbelief. Hers is a beautiful prayer of gratitude, a softly reflective prayer. She believes God: "The Lord has done this to me." Here is a beautiful picture of believing faith. She uses three personal pronouns, "done to me...when he looked on me...take away my reproach among men." She understood that God cares deeply about the "reproach" of his children. God sees us each one individually.

The fourth observation is about involvement.

There was a pious old gentleman who used to stand up regularly at prayer meeting and pray: "Use me, O Lord, use me, in some advisory capacity." That’s Zacharias. He wants Israel redeemed. But he never expects to play a personal role in the redemption.

But God had plans that included Zacharias.

You need to be very careful what you pray for -- world peace, Christian unity, the redemption of the nation, the carrying of the gospel. I prayed for new churches to be planted, and here I am. Be careful. Because like Zacharias, God just might tap you on the shoulder and say: "You’re it!"

While preparing for this message, I spent some time thinking about the relative lack of spontaneity we experience compared with the over-supply of contrived preparation on all sides during the Christmas period. I was struck by a droll remark made by Garrison Keillor in a recent magazine interview. For the past 11 years, Keillor has been the writer and host of the Minnesota Public Radio program, A Prairie Home Companion, broadcast live from St. Paul, Minnesota, every Saturday night. Each week Keillor spins off a monologue about "Lake Woebegone," a mythical Midwest town.

In the interview, Keillor was asked if there were any Christmas customs celebrated in Lake Woebegone that should be adopted elsewhere. He replied, "The custom of postponement, I think, is one that everyone can benefit from." The interviewer asked, "What's that?" Keillor said, "Well, retailers want Christmas to begin somewhere in October, but that would be the death of it. I think that what people can do to preserve Christmas is not to do anything about it until the last minute. I think it should be a small, last-minute feast day. It should be celebrated with some spontaneity, not like the invasion of a small foreign country." He understands our culture, doesn't he? Too often God's people get sucked into massive preparation to celebrate what should be a spontaneous event.

Our narrative today concerns the personal relationship between two women, between the elderly pregnant woman, Elizabeth, and her young teenage cousin, Mary. It suggests Luke's special concern and sensitivity toward women. Elizabeth is now in her sixth miraculous month of pregnancy, carrying the baby John, the forerunner of Messiah. She meets her cousin Mary, who is carrying her own miraculously conceived baby Jesus, "Jehovah is salvation." Luke 1:39-41: