September 22, 2024
Luke 1:18-25
“To Live in Hope”
Okay, all you Bible Quiz wizards. What is the last book of the Old Testament? Right…Malachi. I know because I looked it up. For bragging rights, when was it written? Between 440-400 B.C. The last time God spoke to His people was roughly 400 years before the birth of Jesus. That’s a long time.
Here's the connection to Luke. Malachi 4:5-6 says:
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
Those are the last two verses of the last book of the Old Testament. The last words from the last book of the Old Testament is a message of the last chance to repent before the coming, all-consuming judgment. What a note
to end on!
In light of Malachi 4:5-6, hear again the words from Luke 1:12-17:
And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and 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 for the Lord a people prepared.”
Malachi is the link to the story of the birth of John the Baptist. It keeps us mindful of God’s sovereign will and consistent message of His salvation history. It moves forward to completion in Jesus Christ.
But lest we get ahead of ourselves, we turn now to Luke 1:18-25:
And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple. And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home.
After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”
Zechariah and Elizabeth were old. They were old. They had no children.
I think we all can grasp what it meant that long ago to have no children. Things are different now. But back then, children were status and safety net and contributors to work and survival and care in your later years and so on. Zechariah and Elizabeth had no children.
They wanted children. They prayed. Verse thirteen says so. Action was afoot.
We can’t speculate on how Zechariah emotionally navigated being childless. We know he prayed for a child. Was he still praying? After all those years and into his graying season? Did he really think they could still have a child?
Did Elizabeth and Zechariah ever feel let down by God? Did they believe they were being punished for some sin, known or unknown? Sometimes people think that way. It’s common, in many different challenges or difficulties, to develop a victim mentality. I love this guy’s take:
“A victim mentality is the ingenious cloak of self-betrayal. The
character never develops. The story never ends – an infinite loop
of personal hell.”
J. Mike Fields
We all know people who are stuck in a victim mentality. It is never a good place to be. Who wants to be there?
We don’t know whether Elizabeth and/or Zechariah ever went there. But we are about to find out something specific about Zechariah.
What we do know about them is they were an unremarkable couple. Zechariah was part of the priesthood, a vast network of men who had specific temple duties. He dutifully fulfilled these duties in a dutiful manner. Although childless, Elizabeth lent her aid to these important duties. They were known and respected in their small community.
We don’t know the small town they lived in. We’re never told its name. All we know is their lives were filled with mostly common things. They shared life struggles common to most of us. And they always had glimpses of God’s redemptive history working through them.
So here we are, over 400 years after Malachi. Childless Elizabeth and Zechariah are about to pick up where the promise from Malachi left off. They are the next step in the process of God’s redemptive history.
How will they respond?
Zechariah definitely did not get off on the right foot. When told about having a baby, Zechariah was, to say the least, skeptical. But notice something stated ever so delicately. Zechariah is not told Elizabeth is pregnant. He is simply told that Elizabeth will bear him a son. In spite of his initial incredulity, what does he do? After he’s chastised by God’s messenger, what does Zechariah do? He returns home and does what? After returning home, Elizabeth conceives.
Clearly, Zechariah received his punishment for not joyfully and believingly receiving Gabriel’s news in the spirit in which it was given. But he changed course and believed.
Here, Zechariah was unsure. He was reluctant. It’s funny how he prayed
for a child, but then, when one was promised, he hesitated. He did not fully trust in God.
I love what Charles Spurgeon said about trusting in God:
“TO TRUST GOD IN THE LIGHT IS NOTHING; BUT TRUST HIM IN THE DARK – THAT IS FAITH.”
It took Zechariah a wee bit of time to get there. How about you? Are you there? Are you at a stage in your faith where you know that, no matter what happens, no matter what you experience or go through in your life, all is well, because Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior? Even in the dark, do you trust in him?
That’s why…and I know sometimes I sound like a broken record, but this is a dead horse that always needs beating…that’s why, if you can hold on to humor even in the darkest of times, you know you’re at that place Spurgeon talks about. As Viktor Frankl – survivor of a Nazi concentration camp – once said:
“Humor was another of the soul’s weapons in the fight for self-
preservation.”
Make no mistake. Zechariah was a man of faith. He was a believer. He simply faltered for a moment. And that’s good news for us. God is never finished with us. We’re going to falter. We’re going to stumble. But there’s a beautiful affirmation in verse twenty:
“And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that those things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.”
Those are lovely words. Because they remind us that God is sovereign. His plans do not rise and fall on the faith of men and women. God is sovereign. We can’t change His plan. The only thing that can change is our part in the unfolding.
Here’s the huge verse twenty point…imperfect people don’t change the plan, they simply lose the blessedness of doing in it what God wanted them to do. It will happen. Remember, Luke is giving us a history of salvation. God’s plan will happen.
Understanding that, here’s something you might want to write down:
WE DON’T SERVE GOD.
We worship God. We love God. We reflect our joy for what God has done for us in Jesus Christ by loving each other and loving our community and serving each other and serving the needs of people in our community. But we don’t serve God. God needs nothing from us. His will will be done, on earth as it is in heaven, with or without us. God’s salvation history unfolds unfettered by human influence or constraint. Amen?
Here’s another way to put it:
GOD LOOKS TO PEOPLE TO ACCEPT HIS PLAN, BUT DOES NOT DEPEND ON PEOPLE FOR ITS IMPLEMENTATION.
Which is why, beautiful truth of it all, as we see with Zechariah and Elizabeth, God works through poor, ordinary people like you and me to move His salvation history forward. How great is that? Stupid, nobody, know-nothing shlubs like us get to be part of the dance.
Listen to how Zephaniah 3:12-13 captures it:
“But I will leave in your midst
a people humble and lowly.
They shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord,
those who are left in Israel;
they shall do no injustice
and speak no lies,
nor shall there be found in their mouth
a deceitful tongue.
For they shall graze and lie down,
and none shall make them afraid.”
That’s applies to us, as well. No fame. No glory. Just regular people making a difference in their little corner of God’s world. This is a great place to be.
We are Elizabeth and Zechariah. They were true believers. Until this moment in their lives, they were obscure, humble, prayerful, doubting, fearful, and, in the case of Zechariah, even rebuked. Sounds like us, am I right? And God blessed them. Why? Because He is the God of humble beginnings. And humble people. And humble places. That’s why I loved the Christian Olympic athletes who radiated Christ-centered humility. That’s also why I had to start rooting for Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud. He’s living out of Christ-centered humility. And now I read about his alma mater, OSU, and how members of their football team led a huge revival on
campus. Here are a few comments:
“The world didn’t give me this joy, the world can’t take it away. I had this new feeling in my heart that the Holy Spirit implanted into me. And so since then, it was really a radical change for me. I started walking more obediently with God. I started seeking Him day after day. He’s worked on me, and I’ve had this grace of people in my life to get to this point.”
Receiver Emeka Egbuka
“I’m living proof of what the mercy of God can do, for all the things I’ve done and the choices made that I regret I would still be lost. But Jesus took the old me and he made it new, that’s what the mercy of God can do…Jesus changed my life, set me free from my sin, made me holy, made me righteous. I’m only righteous because of what the Lord has done for me. It wasn’t anything I did, it was Jesus. It was Jesus. And He wants to do the same for you. [Jesus] died for each and every single one of us. God showed His love for us on the cross. The blood that He shed. He says, ‘By His stripes we are healed.'”
Running Back TreVeyon Henderson
What’s a Michigan fan to do? Pray for them. Pray that, when they’re out of college, retreat from the spotlight, and move on to the next chapter of their lives, they’ll remain unsullied by the world and continuing their walk with Jesus Christ. Just like Elizabeth and Zechariah. Just like you and me. Common people used by God for His sovereign will.
Until next week:
SOLI DEO GLORIA…
To the Glory of God Alone
Comments