Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / December 5, 2021 | Hark - Zechariah

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December 5, 2021 | Hark - Zechariah · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Hey TBC family.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'm here with Craig Congden, the director of the One Body Project with Haiti Lifeline Ministries, and we're here to talk with you about our 2021 Christmas project.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: Craig, can you tell us a little bit, first of all, about Haiti Lifeline Ministries and what you do with the One Body Project?
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, yeah.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Haiti Lifeline Ministries is a ministry that's been active for about 30 years in Haiti.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: There's uh a wide variety of things that Haiti Lifeline Ministry does and uh a wide variety of impact that we try to have in Haiti.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: But the project I get to direct is called the One Body Project, taken from the passage uh in scripture that talks about all of the body of Christ being truly one body.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so our goal with the One Body Project is just to build up and encourage and grow the body of Christ in Haiti.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: So we do that through uh sort of three different ways.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: We do that through uh work and building churches, we do that through water and trying to give them clean water throughout their communities, and then we also do that really in trying to build into the pastors in Haiti so that they can grow their congregation spiritually.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that's sort of the scope of One Body, and so we've been in this project for several years.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: We've built a dozen churches in Haiti, we've put 15 or so wells and cisterns in Haiti, and then we're continually working with the pastors just to help encourage and uh do whatever we can for them uh as they really minister to the people in their congregations.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: TBC has had the privilege of working with the One Body Project in the past.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: It was part of a Christmas project a little while ago, but uh this year there are some new needs, right?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: And there's uh suffice to say, there's been a lot happening in Haiti.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: There has, yeah.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh if you follow the news, uh there's um Haiti's been going through some tough times.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: To put it lightly in the last year or two, um, politically and economically, but then also just uh physically.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, once again in the past year, another devastating earthquake has hit then.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's the best possible time for believers around the world and believers here to be uh encouraging and building into our brothers and sisters in Haiti who are really hurting right now in a variety of ways.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: Well, let's let's talk about the first component of sort of our our Christmas project here.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's divided into three areas.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: Sort of each week we'll be talking about a different one.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: And for this first one, we're talking about really maybe what the One Body Project is most known for is building these churches.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: Can you talk just a little bit about um, you know, the impact that a church makes to the local community and then some of the locations that you've already selected, you've sort of have on the books right now to be getting these churches built in the future.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: How will that change those locations?
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um the church building really does transform the community.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um we are able to, uh, through uh supporting Haitians as they do uh the building and working together with them and building these buildings.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: The churches that we put in these communities are typically the single best built structure in the whole community.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um so uh in a real practical way, it means safety.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we know for a fact that some of our churches have been used as fallout shelters, even just in the last year.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: They've been used as fallout shelters when hurricanes come.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um I received a message from Pastor Daniel, who we work with uh just a couple months ago, that said one of the pastors and his wife and kids, back in August, when one of the hurricanes was gonna hit, they fled to a building that we had provided on their uh on their church campus there on their on in their land.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: And his family was there, and he wrote afterwards and said, This saved our lives.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: The home, the structure that we normally live in was completely washed away, so were our neighbors.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: We know people in our town who who actually passed away because of this hurricane, and yet those who took refuge in one of these structures were actually safe.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so we know for a fact that at times these buildings are used for for something as as basic and fundamental as safety in the midst of a storm.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and what a great image that is, that the church becomes the safety in the midst of the storm.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um so we know they become that, but then uh we also hear of people who come and they use our church buildings as places for weddings, even if they don't go to the church.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um I was talking to one of our pastors uh about a year ago who said, we have had people start attending our church because when they were not Christians and they wanted to get married, they knew our building was beautiful.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so they had their wedding here, and then a month or two later they started coming and attending, and now this person has come to know Jesus.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: These these church buildings get used for a variety of things.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's safety, it's uh community outreach.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes schools, schools will meet within our buildings, um, again, because it's the sort of strongest, biggest, safest building in many of these communities.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: But then, of course, they're used primarily for worship, and that's great.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, getting to go down and stand in one of these buildings that we here in America have helped support and helped build, and hearing a group of 150 Haitians raising their voices and praising God and then hearing the word given and seeing them um just exalt the Lord in those buildings is is something marvelous to behold, really.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I that's why I'm so excited that TBC can partner with the One Body Project this year.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: And in particular, because you've taken the time and done the due diligence to uh pick locations for these churches already.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: We know that if we're able to uh raise the support for these churches to be built, we know exactly where they're gonna go and the type of impact they're going to have.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: Can you talk just a little bit about that?
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we do.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: We have picked several locations, and um, and so two of the churches that we're looking to build uh were actually destroyed by Hurricane Grace, which just happened in August, um, just not too long ago.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: So uh we're gonna build churches there.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: We got some pictures of these buildings, these structures that have been just wrecked by the hurricanes.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: So we know we're gonna be able to go to them and say, hey, we can we can help you build a building here that's gonna last and we'll withstand the storms in the future.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then we have a couple other locations picked that are in really remote parts of Haiti where, to be honest, there's just no if we don't come alongside them, there's probably no chance, because of how remote they are, that they wouldn't get a building like this to praise the Lord in.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that's where we're gonna be putting these churches.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: I'm excited for that.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: And and I know that uh we're going to be talking about some other aspects of this project in the future, but man, just talking about the churches, it gets me so excited that we might be able to make such an impact in the nation of Haiti, uh, building upon what the One Body Project has already been doing.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, Craig.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank you all.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: Well, good morning, everyone.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I won't uh belabor the point too much because you just got to watch that video.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, we're excited about partnering with the One Body Project this year.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason why, and and you'll see over the next two weeks is we've kind of got this comprehensive plan to make an eternal impact in the nation of Haiti.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we've partnered with the One Body Project before.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: They're an organization we trust.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: We know they do great work.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um there are a number of members in our of our church who have been over on these trips to help build these churches.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's not going to be just building churches, it's going to be transforming the communities and equipping those churches that we build and the communities that we transform with the Word of God.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: And so you'll continue to hear about that over the next few weeks.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: But I I pray that you would consider to give to such a project because I I desire for our church to be very generous and making an impact where it's desperately needed right now.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: So um, but we do have a sermon this morning that I need to get to, and uh excited to get to it because we are starting a new series called Hark.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's going to be our Christmas series, and over the next four weeks, or rather on the fourth week, it will be the Christmas Eve services, we're going to be talking about sort of this these angelic messengers that gave the good news of the incarnation during the Christmas season.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, if that word is kind of unfamiliar, incarnation uh is it's not a type of flower.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: It is the uh the word that we just use to describe God being made flesh in uh Jesus Christ.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so when we talk about that, that's what we're discussing here.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: But there was a whole lot of angelic activity around the announcement of Christ's birth.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um and Hark, if you're familiar with your Christmas hymns, is the beginning of the song, Hark the Herald Angels Sing.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: And the second line is Glory to the Newborn King, and that is, those two lines really encompass what we're discussing over the next four weeks here.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: Looking at different examples, stories from the Bible of where angels gave a message to different people or groups of people, letting them know uh that a king was coming, a king that was going to change the world, that was going to save the world, and uh he was going to come in the form of a baby.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: Now, uh, when we're talking about angels here in a moment, I feel like it's important that we just like do a quick little primer course here, because see, angels, they're not like us.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um to maybe uh sort of reject a common misconception, uh, we don't turn into angels when we die.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we have a purpose in God's kingdom, angels have a purpose in God's kingdom, and they aren't the same thing.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, these angelic beings are created by God.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: They don't die in the same way that we will die.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: They've been around for a long time, and they share in the presence of God's glory up in the heavenly realms.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so the angels that we're talking about here are giving a message from God to his people.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not like the angels get, you know, the like delegated to the unpopular tasks, right?
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: Angels are the ones who are telling, in our story today, Zechariah, later on, Mary and the shepherds and Joseph, all about Jesus Christ, God in flesh.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: These angels have a really important message.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, the the word angel comes from the Greek umgalos, and that just means messenger in the simplest sense.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so these angels have come with a message.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so, over the next uh couple times that we get together, we're going to be looking at sort of how each one of these different messages have shared a different uh view of the incarnation event.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: But our story this morning comes in the Gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 1, verses 5 through 23.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: So if you want to turn there with me, I'm going to be reading it, and then we'll walk through it together to point out some really amazing things about this angelic visitor.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: As you're turning there, uh just maybe some helpful context.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: When we read the Bible, we understand that it is accurate in everything that it says.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: We believe that the Bible is inerrant, it's without error.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um that doesn't mean, though, that writers didn't certain like for instance Luke, didn't write their gospels to a particular audience to communicate a particular point.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: We read at the very beginning of Luke, he says, Many have undertaken to compile a narrative about the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as the original eyewitnesses and servants of the Word handed them down to us.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: It also seemed good to me, since I have carefully investigated everything from the very first to write to you in an orderly sequence.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so what we get in Luke is sort of the earliest part of the New Testament.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: It starts before Jesus' birth, and it starts here in the story of Zechariah and the angel.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm starting in verse five.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest of Abijah's division named Zechariah.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: His wife was from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: Both were righteous in God's sight, living without blame according to all the commands and requirements of the Lord.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: But they had no children, because Elizabeth could not conceive, and both of them were well along in years.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: When his division was on duty and he was serving as priests before God, it happened that he was chosen by Lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: At the hour of incense, the whole assembly of the people was praying outside.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: An angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified and overcome with fear.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: But the angel said to him, Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: There will be joy and delight for you, and many will rejoice at his birth.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and will never drink wine or beer.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: He will be filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother's womb.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: 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 fathers to their children, and the dis disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to make ready for the Lord a prepared people.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: How can I know this?
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: Zechariah asked the angel, for I am an old man, and my wife was well along in years.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: Good thing she didn't hear him say that, right?
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: So the angel answered him, I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and tell you about this good news.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: Now listen, you will become silent and unable to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah, amazed that he stayed so long in the sanctuary.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: When he did come out, he could not speak to them.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: Then they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: He was making signs to them and remained speechless.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: When the days of his ministry were completed, he went back home.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: So let's just walk through this together, because there are some really awesome things that we can point out and discover about this angelic message that Gabriel gave.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: Verses 5 through 7, in the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: Our main character for this morning is Zechariah.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: Zechariah was a priest of the Order of Abijah, which was sort of a distinction that King David had made a couple hundred years previously.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: He had sorted all of the priests by their families so that they would be organized when they served in the temple.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: And so Zechariah was of one of these divisions called Abijah.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: But then also we see his wife Elizabeth has a priestly lineage as well, the daughter of Aaron.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron being the brother of Moses, Aaron was the first high priest.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so both of them sort of come from very, if you will, like holy stock.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: They were uh Luke wanted to point this out.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: And then the other character that we get, though not mentioned again, is Herod.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: Herod the Great.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: This is not uh the Herod that appears at the end of the New Testament and the later accounts of Jesus.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um this Herod died in about 4 BC.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: He ruled from 36 or 37 BC to about 4 BC.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: And uh Herod was sort of a political title, and so the other Herods that we read about in the New Testament were his descendants.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but he was the king of Judea.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: He is the one that when Jesus is born and um he hears word that a king of the Jews has been born, he's like, hey, go find out about that guy.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: And then the wise men don't return back that way, and so then he orders the death of newborns in the area up to two years old.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that's Herod.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: But anyhow, so Zechariah and Elizabeth, they are sort of highlighted as these righteous individuals.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: It even says here they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statues of the Lord.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's a phrase, it doesn't mean that they were perfect, but it does mean that they were individuals who were faithful to God and dedicated to his purposes, and when they did make mistakes, they were turned back to him.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: But something is interesting here, and at the very end, they had no child because Elizabeth was barren and both were advanced in years.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: And we should sort of get these parallels in our mind of another couple who were barren and well advanced in years and were righteous, that being Abraham and Sarah.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: And their stories are going to parallel each other in a number of ways, but it's also interesting that Luke pits these two things together because it was a Jewish cultural statement at the time that if you were childless, it was because God had judged you.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: You weren't able to fulfill his commands to be fruitful and multiply.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so Luke here is putting this together that he is buttressing kind of these two statements so that we can understand that the reason they were childless had nothing to do with their righteousness or God's favor for them.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, as we're going to see, the fact that God saw them as righteous is the reason why he answered their prayers.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: Now, as we keep going here, we see that while Zechariah was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by Lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so basically what happened, not to get into the details of it, but being of that order of Abijah, there were sort of like about two weeks during the year, not including the big festivals, where Zechariah would go up to Jerusalem and would perform his duties.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: And at the time of Zechariah, there were about 5,000 people in his order.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: And so the fact he was chosen by Lot, which was sort of their way of determining, like kind of a lottery, a holy lottery, to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so Zechariah is getting an opportunity that, in all actuality, is probably a once-in-a-lifetime chance.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: That he gets to be the one that goes up singular.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: He is the only one going inside the temple to offer the incense to the Lord.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: And so he's winning the holy powerball here.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: And as he goes in, the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: Seems to be a common occurrence when we see angels in the Bible, is that people are afraid of them, and almost immediately the angels are like, no, no, no, no, it's okay.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like, don't worry, I'm from God.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: But there's something about their presence that inspires awe and a certain reverential fear of them.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: So what was Zechariah doing?
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: Well, this is this is a recreation of the Temple Mount during the time of Jesus, which would have also been the time of Zechariah.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: And uh Herod the Great had, well, okay, let me take one step back.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: This is what's referred to as the second temple.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: Would have been the temple, we think.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: This is the temple and what it looked like when Jesus was around.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: We're not able to sort of uh dig near that area because of uh world events.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um but the temple mount was built up around it.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: It was actually a work project by Herod the Great.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, when the temple was destroyed, uh when the Babylonians came in in 587 BC, uh, this was knocked down.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: About 60 years later, Cyrus let them come back.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: And in uh like the story of Ezra and Nehemiah, they rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, they rebuild the temple of Jerusalem.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: But it was Herod the Great, about 30 years prior, who sort of filled in this is like a mountain, right?
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: And the top of the mountain is where the temple's at.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: And Herod filled in the surrounding area, built these huge limestone retaining walls, some of which can still be seen today.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: But anyhow, this is the scene.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: And Zechariah is going in specifically into this first chamber.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: There's two chambers here.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: There's the holy place and then the holy of holies.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: At the very back, the Ark of the Covenant was gone.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't there any longer.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: It had been taken away.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: But nevertheless, they still had all the elements of worship here in the front.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so Zechariah would go in, and he has this incense that he's going to offer, but he's alone.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: And as soon as he walks in, there's an angel standing next to where he's supposed to go and offer this incense, and he falls down in fear.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: 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'll 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.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: A couple things here.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: The angel says, The Lord has heard your prayer.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: Whether that was a prayer that Zechariah had just offered in the temple, going into the Lord's temple, you can probably imagine is quite the spiritual experience, whether that was a prayer that he had offered at that time, or a prayer that had been on his heart and Elizabeth's heart for years, they were still praying for a child, even though they knew they could not physically conceive one.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: They had faith in the miraculous power of God and trusted in him.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: And since angels are not omniscient, it means that God heard Zechariah's prayer and sent the angel to go and let him know that his prayer was going to be answered.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: But as is often the case in the Bible, it was answered in a way that maybe they weren't expecting and would ultimately show God's glory.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: It would be far greater than they could have ever understood.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: He says, His name is going to be John, and when God tells you to name your kid, you name your kid that name.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: Just a couple months later, Later, this same angel is going to visit Mary and say, You need to name him Jesus, because that means God saves.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: What does John mean?
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: It means that God is gracious.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: God is gracious.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: And there's kind of a double entendre here.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: Zechariah would understand that.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: He would see that the name meant that God was gracious and probably saw that God was gracious for bringing him a child.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: But as he keeps going, though, Gabriel tells Zechariah that there's a whole lot more about John that Zechariah needs to understand.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: He says, You will have joy and gladness, for you receive the child, and many will rejoice at his birth, but why?
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: 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.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: Now, as Christians, we in the New Testament age, the idea of being filled with the Holy Spirit is something that's fairly common to us.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: We maybe understand that when we accept Christ, we receive the indwelled presence of God within us.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: But that's not what was happening here.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: That what we experience is because we are post-Pentecost.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: And this was before that.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: This was before Jesus is even on the scene.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so for Zechariah to hear that his son, even before he's born, while he's still in Elizabeth's womb, is going to be filled with the presence of God, is a really dramatic statement that would help him to understand the significance that John would play in God's plan.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: So he is going to be a holy man, he's going to be filled with the Spirit, and he is going to somehow show the world that God is gracious.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: But then the angel doubles down and starts getting into the Old Testament.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: 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.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: We read that and we're like, maybe I recognize the name Elijah, but it just sounds like some more kind of interesting expectations.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: But Zechariah, priest, he would understand that what the angel was doing was quoting prophecy from the book of Malachi.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: Two passages in particular.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: This one about going forth in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: And the second one to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: Now let's look at this for a second.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: You've got the book of Malachi, which is the last book in the Old Testament.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: Malachi was a prophet looking forward to a time when these things were going to happen.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: After Malachi is about 400 years, something we would call the intertestamental period, where God was, it's not that he wasn't around, but that in terms of prophets and things like that, the activity that he had been doing, God was silent.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so Malachi is looking forward to a time when these things will happen.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: And Zechariah, understanding that, is hearing the angels say that his son John is going to be the fulfillment of Malachi's prophecies.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: What were they in Malachi 4, 5 through 6?
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: 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.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Elijah, you might know, and if you don't, that's okay, that Elijah was a great prophet in the Old Testament.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: He is sort of one of the best examples we have, though Israel was always idolatrous.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: That was the worst time in their history when Elijah was the prophet.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: He was going up against Ahab and Jezebel, and they had made the official religion of Israel worshiping Baal, a false god.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so Elijah was facing the fact that all of his friends and all of the priests of God were being murdered and killed.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_01: He was on the run.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so this figure of Elijah is very popular.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: And even hundreds and hundreds of years later in the New Testament, the Jews were recognizing that there was going to be a new Elijah that was going to come, facing the forces of evil and fulfilling God's plan and turning the nation of Israel back to God.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: So they're waiting for this.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: And Zechariah understands that it's about to be his son.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: The other one in Malachi 3:1 is, Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: So God says there's going to be a messenger, and that messenger is going to let them know that Jesus is coming.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_01: And unfortunately, when John the Baptist arrives on the scene, people don't exactly take him seriously, though he heralds the way of Jesus Christ.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: They reject him as well.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: But nevertheless, these were the things that Zechariah would be understanding.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: But you've got to, man, put yourself in his shoes.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_01: You've walked into a temple, found out that in your old age and your wife's old age, you're about to have a baby, and that baby is going to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and that baby is 400 years of prophetic fulfillment in about 30 seconds.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: And he asks the question, How shall I know this?
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: Zechariah said to the angel, for I'm an old man and my wife is advanced in years.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: And the angel answered him, I am Gabriel.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: Stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: 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.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: I had said that Zechariah and Elizabeth, their account sort of parallels Abraham and Sarah.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_01: And Sarah and Abraham were known for questioning God's plan.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: They heard that they were going to have a child, and ultimately they said, Yeah, but how can we be sure?
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: That sounds pretty crazy.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: You can probably, I don't know, I'm not Gabriel, but I would imagine that if I were an angel delivering a message and, you know, clothed in glory and resplendent in all of my presence and casting fear into the hearts of many, and somebody was like, Yeah, but how do I know?
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: You probably should be like, this, because I'm from God.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: And Gabriel doubles down.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: He says, first of all, I am Gabriel, which is very significant.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: We there are lots of accounts of angels in the Bible, but only two get mentioned by name.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: We have Gabriel and we have Michael.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_01: Gabriel appears here.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: He appears next week when he talks to Mary.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: And he also is in the Old Testament talking to Daniel and helping him to understand the visions that God had for him.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so Gabriel is like Alpha Dog messenger.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: He gets like the big, big assignments, and he is presenting this message, and he is building his resume before Zechariah's eyes.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: He says, I stand in the presence of God and was sent by God to speak to you and bring you this good news.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: God sent me to talk to you.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: Zechariah, though, like we said, struggled to understand that this could be true.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: And it wasn't so much in his faith in God per se, because I mean he's praying for a miracle.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: He's praying that he would be able to have a child.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's not that he doesn't believe that God can do it, it's that he's struggling to believe that God will do it.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: Do you see the distinction there?
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: That there's a difference between saying that I know that God is all-powerful and can do all things and is and is glorious in all his might, and then there's a difference between that and saying, but I have faith and that I trust that he is going to carry out his will in my life.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: There's a difference here.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: And the angel is, I mean, kind.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_01: There were other things that he could have done, but he was like, You want a sign?
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: Your sign is that you can't speak for the next uh ten months here.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so Zechariah is uh mute.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's funny, there's an account later on, we're not going to get into it this morning, where um they conceive John, and then he's born, and they're trying to decide what his name should be.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: And Zechariah the entire time has not been able to speak about this.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_01: Elizabeth just knows that she got pregnant, and Zechariah is doing like you know, holy charades to try and describe things.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: And he like asks for a tablet because they're like, maybe we should name him Zechariah, like Zechariah Jr.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_01: And he's like, his name is John.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I have dis I have gone against the Lord's will once.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_01: I do not want to go against it twice, his name is John.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um and the the story concludes here by the people were waiting for Zechariah outside the temple.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: They were wondering at his delay.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: He had taken a long time.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_01: 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.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: And when his time of service was ended, you know, the couple weeks or whatever that the uh clan of Abijah was there, he went to his home.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: So that's where our story ends.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_01: But, you know, it put yourself for a moment in the shoes of Zechariah.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: And for any of you who are parents, um, you know the desire that you have for your child to do great things and to honor the Lord with their life.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: To be somebody who is who follows in the footsteps of God and who is able to do things far better than you could have ever imagined.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: And we rejoice when our children or nieces and nephews or just those we love are able to accomplish great things and do great things for God's kingdom.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: When we have infant dedications, that is the that is the theme that we're always trying to get at, is that you know, we ask the parents, what would you like to see your child do?
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_01: And it is, we want them to serve the Lord and honor the Lord.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so Zechariah just is probably filled with joy and gladness, understanding that all of these things are going to come about, that his not only are they getting a child, but this child is dovetailing very neatly into the plan that God has for Israel, and now they are intimately a part of that.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: But what they don't, he doesn't fully yet understand, is that in this purpose that John is going to serve in God's kingdom, it will ultimately cost him his life.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: John the Baptist grows up, is uh is kind of like a wild man.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_01: He eats like locusts and stuff, lives out in the desert, you're like you do, you, John.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_01: But he is fulfilling all the message that God has given Zechariah.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: He's preparing the way for the Lord.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: He's the one who baptizes Jesus, thus the John the Baptist.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: But ultimately, once he starts pointing the way back to Jesus, he's arrested.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: And then at a party for one of Herod's kids, where he is in jail, one of them asks as a party favor that he would get beheaded, and his head is delivered out on a platter.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_01: God was faithful to Zechariah and Elizabeth.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_01: But the ultimate purpose of him answering their prayer was not just because they were righteous and they deserved something good.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_01: God desired to bring them into his fold, to honor them with this presence.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_01: Really, I mean, when we're talking about honor, being able to say that you brought forth the New Testament Elijah, the herald of the gospel, is a pretty big deal.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_01: But the prayers weren't answered in the way that they might have fully expected.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_01: And that's okay, because it ultimately fulfilled God's plan, which was far greater than what Zechariah and Elizabeth could have imagined.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: There are two lessons I want us to draw from the passage, this passage in Luke this morning.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: Two lessons I feel like we can see when we try and examine the particular lens through which Gabriel and Zechariah are communicating the incarnation event.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_01: Because though they're referencing Jesus sort of in a tangential way through Malachi, Jesus is not mentioned here.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_01: Just says that he is going to prepare the way.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_01: So what can we learn from this passage?
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_01: The first is that God is faithful to his people and faithful to his promises.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_01: Always.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_01: God is faithful in the sense that not in how we might always expect him to be faithful, meaning that when we like to attach timelines to things and say, well, God, according to the plan of my life, I would really like it if this could happen here and this could happen here.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_01: And Lord, I know you say that you have promises that you have made to me, but if we could sort of like get the show on the road, that would be awesome.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_01: You can imagine Zechariah and Elizabeth praying for their entire lives for a child, getting past the point when it could naturally happen and still continuing their prayer, believing that God was faithful and trusting that he would work things out according to his will.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_01: Though we are not always faithful to people, and we are not always faithful to our promises, we trust in a God who is.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_01: And we trust in a God who has a fantastic and spotless track record of being faithful to his promises and his people.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_01: When you think about the time between Malachi and John the Baptist, you would say that that's a really long time to wait for God's promises.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_01: But looking back on it now, looking and seeing what God had fulfilled through them, we can easily say that God did what was required in order for the gospel to be proclaimed to the nations.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_01: The second thing I would like us to see is that God wants us to trust Him even when things seem dark.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like this is something that we might have heard before, but Zechariah and Gabriel give us such a great example of what it means.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_01: Again, the difference between believing that God is faithful and trusting that he will culminate his promises.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_01: Even now, we have promises that we believe God is going to be faithful to fulfill, namely that Jesus Christ is going to return, that all things will be made new, that there will be no more crying and no more tears, and that the world that we live in, which is fallen, will ultimately pass away because this is not what God intended.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_01: And that in the meantime we can trust in Jesus Christ for our hope in eternity and for the forgiveness of sins.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_01: All of those things require believing that God is faithful to his promises and trusting that he is going to do them.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_01: Even just believing and trusting in Jesus Christ for your salvation means holding both of those things in concert, that God is doing what he said he is going to do.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_01: The hard part is when it feels like themes seem dark.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_01: It seems like God hasn't been answering prayers.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_01: It seems like he hasn't been present in your life or hasn't been really bringing things about the way you thought you would.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_01: And it's important for us to remember, as another like blow to the prosperity gospel, that Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous people.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_01: God loved them dearly.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_01: God loves everybody, but they were fulfilling the commands of God.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_01: And just because they were doing that didn't mean, for you know, however old they were when John was born, that they had seen God answer their most fervent prayer.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_01: And there are going to be those of us who pray these fervent prayers, and God might not answer them.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: He might not answer them in our timing, and he might not answer them at all.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_01: But we can trust that what he is ultimately working towards is something greater than what we can imagine.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_01: And as we look at our series called Hark, the Herald Angels Sing, Glory to the Newborn King, Zechariah and Elizabeth were brought into the fold on this magnificent plan to bring forth the king of the universe who's going to save the world.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_01: Something far greater than even having a child named John.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_01: So as we continue in the series, I hope that you'll walk with me through these different examples of how God was showing his faithfulness to his people, fulfilling his promises, and ultimately saving the world by the incarnation event.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_01: Let's go ahead and pray.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_01: Heavenly Father, we thank you for today.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_01: And Lord, we thank you for your goodness.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_01: We thank you for your faithfulness.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_01: We're thankful that we can trust in you.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_01: God, we ask that you would help us for those of us who feel like we are in the midst of a Zechariah and Elizabeth sort of situation where we feel like we're getting radio silence, Lord, for us to remember that you are good and faithful and trustworthy.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_01: And Father, that ultimately if you do or do not answer our prayers, it doesn't change the fact that you are good.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't change the fact that we can still trust in your plan for the world.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_01: Father, we love you and we thank you.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name we pray.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_01: Now, as we transition here into a time of communion, I would ask that you, as you take out the elements, you would just contemplate what this means.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_01: As I'll walk off the stage here for a little bit, what it means to rededicate yourself to both believing that God is good and can accomplish all of the things that He said He will accomplish, and then actually believing that that is going to happen, that we trust more deeply in the God of the universe, and that if we have those moments where we feel like God isn't answering us or walking with us, that we turn that over to Him and trust in His presence and ultimately in what we celebrate during communion, which is the body and blood of Jesus Christ, the greatest fulfillment of that promise.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I'll come back up on the stage in a moment, and then we'll read the passage together.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_01: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, This is my body, which is for you.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_01: Do this in remembrance of me.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_01: In the same way also he took the cup after supper and said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_01: Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_01: For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_01: Father, we proclaim your death until you come.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_01: We trust that you will.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_01: We trust that you are coming back, and that you will deliver us from this world which is so often painful.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, God, we ask that you would help us as we are waiting, sometimes it feels like, um, between moments of connection with you.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_01: Lord, we feel um cast aside.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_01: Father, help us to remember that that's never actually the case, that we are always cared for by you, that you always remember us, that you always hear our prayers.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Father, please help us to draw more deeply into a relationship with you, trusting in the promises that you have made, believing that they will come true.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_01: God, ultimately, until you call us home and we get to be with you forever.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's in Jesus' name that we pray.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_01: All right, have a great week.