Latest / HBCWestminster / 11.17.19 Luke 1:5-25 Part 1 Pastor Danny Gardner

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11.17.19 Luke 1:5-25 Part 1 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  Well, let's get to God's Word. We're in Luke chapter 1. I'm going to read this morning verses 5 through 25, which will actually be our text for this week and next week, verses 5 through 25. And if you're able to stand in honor of God's Word as we read, I would ask you to do so and hear the Word of God. In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.
• 0:34
  And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren. And both were advanced in years. Now while he 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. And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense.
• 1:00
  And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense, 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.
• 1:25
  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. And Zechariah said to the angel, How shall I know this? For I am an old man. My wife is advanced in years. The angel answered him,
• 1:54
  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.
• 2:23
  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. Would you pray with me? Father God, you are on your throne even now.
• 2:56
  and yet you incline your ear to hear our prayer. Thank you, transcendent Lord, for drawing near to us, for helping us, for calling us, for strengthening us when we grow weary. Thank you, sovereign Lord, that you never fail, that you never lie, that you always hear our prayer. We ask that you give us this day our daily bread, both for our bodies and for our souls. We ask in Jesus' name.
• 3:30
  Amen. Amen. Thank you. You can be seated. You know, I love being a pastor. And more than that, I love being your pastor. And although my job entails many things, I do a lot of different things throughout the week, the primary focus of my work is the study and preparation of these Sunday morning sermons. It's a little bit like a chef preparing a meal.
• 4:02
  And so the thrust of my job is to prepare Sunday brunch. This morning I'm excited because I believe the Lord has given us a feast. I can't wait to set it in front of you. I can't wait for us to dig in. Honestly, church, I hope you came hungry today because this is going to be a big one. We said last week that there is a crisis in the American church, but it is not, as some believe, I think a wholesale rejection of religious things.
• 4:35
  People are still attending church. People are still celebrating Christmas. They're still claiming to be Christians. Rather, our spiritual crisis revolves around our rejection of Christ himself. The Gospel of Luke was written as a defense of the gospel. It is a treatise compelling its readers not only to profess the name of the Lord, but to believe, to be convinced of the truths that we have been taught.
• 5:04
  Luke recognized, and what will become our theme, Luke recognized that many have been taught, but few are certain, few are convinced. The crux of this morning's message comes in verse 13, when Gabriel the angel, speaking to Zechariah, utters these words, and it's become the title of our sermon this morning, do not be afraid, for your prayer has been heard. Do not be afraid, for your prayer has been heard. Do you struggle at all?
• 5:36
  with fear. You know, phobias are a funny thing. People have phobias and are phobic because phobias typically are things that are not always rational things. Like heights. People say that they're afraid of heights. And I wonder if that's really true. Is it the heights you're afraid of or is it the falling you're afraid of? Because I never hear people say that they're afraid of falling.
• 6:07
  You ever heard anybody say that? Like they always say, I'm afraid of heights. And honestly, church, it's not even maybe the falling that they're afraid of so much as the smacking the ground at the bottom of the fall. That's really what I'm afraid of. You want to know what I'm afraid of? It's that smacking the ground after falling from a tremendous height. That's my phobia. People say that they're afraid of spiders. Okay?
• 6:31
  Arachnophobia, right? And I guess that makes sense. They're creepy and crawly and fuzzy for some reason, right? But it's really not spiders, I think, so much. I know that the world has spiders. I'm not afraid of the spiders that are out there. I'm really afraid of spiders being on me. That's my fear. Spiders biting me, right? I've never, though, in my life heard somebody say, I'm afraid of spider bites. That's not how we word it. People are afraid of clowns.
• 7:02
  And honestly, that one just makes sense. They're creepy. I don't get it. I don't understand the clown thing, okay? Clowns are weird. Okay, that one makes sense. You know, there are people who are afraid of snakes. And I found out a couple of years ago that my good friend, Mr. Salia, does not necessarily care for snakes. Henry doesn't like snakes. Our family was wakeboarding with his family a couple of years ago. We were out on his boat, out on a lake up near Fort Collins.
• 7:32
  and Pearson was wakeboarding, and Pearson wiped out. We're circling back around to pick him up. You know, we've got the flag in the air and all of that thing, and I think it was Hallie that spotted it. Hallie saw something in the water. She says, Danny, what is that? We're looking back at Pearson. We see this thing in the water, and, you know, it's kind of moving. It looks like a stick, but it's moving. It's got something poking up, and it looks like it's cruising through the water. It's moving, and I said, I think that's a snake.
• 7:55
  A snake in the water, you know, and Pearson's just oblivious. He's up to here in water, so he can't see anyway. You know, but this thing is coming directly at him. I'm like, Henry, Henry's driving the boat. Henry, I think that's a snake in the water coming at Pearson. Henry says, don't worry about it. We'll run that thing over. I'm going to chop it into a million pieces. You know, we go screaming by. Pearson thinks we're going to pick him up. We just go buzzing by. What's going on? Don't worry about it. We'll come back. You know, we go over the snake.
• 8:23
  I look back, the snake tumbles and whatever, but pops right back up and keeps on going. It didn't work. Okay. I said, Henry, pull alongside of that thing. I'll see what kind of snake it is. If it's a non-poisonous snake, I will reach down and grab it and pull it out of the water and chuck it back up on the dirt. Right? Are you sure? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Henry, what could possibly go wrong?
• 8:48
  And so we did. We came cruising up like slow, slow, slow. And I see it. You guys, it's big. It was a big snake. I'm so, Mark, I'm so glad that came out of Karen and not from you. Because if that had come out of you. Oh, that's funny. So we come alongside of the snake and I'm on the side of the boat. I'm bending over and I see this thing. It's big, you guys. But it was a bull snake, right? Non-venomous.
• 9:19
  And so I thought, okay, it's just a bull snake. I was like, Henry, just pull up slowly alongside it. I'm looking at this thing for sure. It's a bull snake. I've seen pictures of them, no problem, for sure. I'm getting ready, getting ready, getting ready. I'm going to snatch it just behind the head, right? I'm going to grab this thing behind the head, pull it out. I'm going to helicopter this thing, right? I'm going to pitch it up into the cornfield out on the dirt. And so we pull up alongside of it. I'm thinking it's a bull snake. It's a bull snake. It's a bull snake. It's a bull snake. Here it comes. Snatch this thing. It's a bull snake. No, rattlesnake.
• 9:51
  And your mind plays that funny little trick, like all of a sudden, dah! It's a rattlesnake. And I've got it in my hand, and I was about a foot back of the neck. I had kind of missed, and I'm holding this thing that I am convinced is a rattlesnake. I just pitch that thing up in the air, and it lands in the boat. To which Henry's response was to gun the throttle.
• 10:23
  You can't get away. It's in the boat. It's in the boat. You know, I'm looking down. We're kicking at this thing, trying to get away, and I'm looking at it. Oh, no, it's fine. It's a bull snake. I did. I picked it up. He pulled up next to the bank. I really did. I helicoptered this thing and chucked it out onto the dirt. Fears are a funny thing. Phobias are a funny thing. They're not always based in reality, and they will cause us at times to do irrational things.
• 10:56
  You know, one of my favorite songs is called Sovereign Lord. And it goes like this, Sovereign Lord, you reign over the earth and sky. You are God. Sovereign Lord, magnificent, enthroned on high. Savior, who am I that you love me, Sovereign Lord? And as believers in a Sovereign Lord, we know that we have nothing to fear. We know that that's true. We have nothing to fear, but still.
• 11:24
  Even though we know the reality of that, aren't there times when you're afraid? You say, well, if we have a sovereign God who has control over all things, magnificent, enthroned on high, then what is it that we have to fear? You know, really, probably, if I were to think about it, the single thing that scares me more than any other is the thought that God does not hear my prayer.
• 11:52
  I know that there are some silly things on this earth that we can be afraid of, but all of them, I think, would pale in comparison to this idea, and that is that God doesn't hear us. You remember in Psalm 13, Psalm 13, a psalm of David. When David begins his psalm, how long, O Lord? Do you remember this? Will you forget me forever?
• 12:17
  How long will you hide your face from me? Are there not times in your prayer life where you feel like God doesn't hear this? He's hiding from me. I suffer from, if you want to call it a phobia, God doesn't hear me a phobia. He doesn't hear me. He's hiding his face. And our title, like I said, has come directly from the text in verse 13, where the angel tells Zechariah not to be afraid.
• 12:46
  Not to be afraid, but then he says something very specific. Why does Zechariah not need to be afraid? Do not be afraid, verse 13 says, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. And what I love is that this promise could extend far beyond Zechariah. What we're going to see this morning is that the Lord had actually heard not only Zechariah's prayer, but everyone's prayer.
• 13:17
  Psalm 116, verse 1. I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he has inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on his name as long as I live. And I think the takeaway this morning will be that God hears your prayer and that you need not therefore be afraid. Lord, I would ask that you would strike fear from the hearts of the people of this church.
• 13:47
  Lord, allow us to walk in confidence, in the confidence that only people who believe in your sovereign will could have. I pray that you would give us the grace to trust in you, sovereign Lord. Amen, church? Amen. Well, we could easily begin the gospel story with the birth of Christ, and I think probably most people do. But let us not forget what preceded this wonderful prophetic fulfillment. Before there was the birth of Christ, there was the birth of another.
• 14:18
  John the Baptist. And if we were to summarize the plot of the Bible, and especially the Old Testament, if you were to boil the entire Old Testament down into one line, it could be that the Bible is God's answer to the following question. How is the chasm between God and man going to be bridged? Right? I mean, that's really the summary of the entire Old and New Testaments. How is this chasm
• 14:47
  going to be bridged between God and man. And as we read, our ears should be primed, anticipating the answer to that question. Along the way, the reader of the Old Testament discovers small glimpses of the answer. People like Moses, right? There's a little glimpse like, okay, maybe he's the answer. But then he turns out not to be the answer. And Joshua, and Saul, and David, and Solomon, and Elijah.
• 15:19
  In Kings, like Josiah, you have these little glimpses. Maybe he's the guy, and then he turns out not to be the guy. All of these ultimately turn out to be disappointments. Now, I'm going to ask you for the next five minutes, five minutes to put on your thinking caps, okay? We're going to go through the Old Testament, but this is going to be a technical study for the next five, seven minutes, because what I want to do is to prepare us for verse five.
• 15:47
  Verse 5, when this just says there's some guy named Zechariah, Zechariah did not exist within a vacuum. He's not a random guy from the tribe of Levi and division of Abijah. There's actually a lot of history that goes into verse 5, and so I want to set that context for us. You guys ready? So put on your thinking caps. Here we go. The Hebrew Old Testament. We're all, I'm assuming, holding English Old Testaments.
• 16:15
  But the Hebrew Old Testament contains the same 39 books as does ours. Okay, it's the same 39 books. However, their arrangement is different than ours. Our English Old Testament ends with what book? Malachi, right? Theirs, however, is arranged, although the same 39 books are in there, theirs is arranged differently so that the last book in their Old Testaments is 2 Chronicles.
• 16:45
  2 Chronicles is what ends their Old Testament. So I'm going to ask you to do something. Turn to the left, if you would, to 2 Chronicles. And the very last chapter, chapter 36, and the very last verse, verse 23. And the reason is because this, in the Hebrew Old Testament, would be the last verse of the Old Testament. Does everybody follow? This was the last inspired text before...
• 17:14
  the coming of the Messiah. Okay. Now, you'll notice that the final verse in the Hebrew Old Testament is part of the decree of Cyrus, encouraging all those who would reestablish the nation after the time of Daniel, all those who would reestablish the nation of Israel worship in the temple to return. Now, some believe, and I think I might be counted among them, some believe that not only was Chronicles ordered last, but that it was also written.
• 17:47
  Meaning that the author of Chronicles could very well have read the books of 1 and 2 Kings, Ezra, and Nehemiah. He knew that the story does not end with the decree of Cyrus, right? There's much more. Ezra and Nehemiah would go back and found the temple and build walls. There would be more prophets coming. He knew that, and yet he decides to write anyway.
• 18:15
  He knows that the story doesn't end with this decree, but he purposefully leaves off the return from exile and the rebuilding of the city walls and the temple. And it's possible that his reason is because he understood that even these events were not the fulfillment of the answer to Scripture's biggest question. How about, what about the chasm between God and man? And so in case the nation of Israel thought erroneously,
• 18:44
  that the founding of the city with Nehemiah and the reconstruction of the temple would bring in, would usher in this age. Is everybody following so far? He says, no, it is not. Even that is a disappointment. It is possible that the author of Chronicles was even there for Ezra chapter 3. Ezra chapter 3 is the founding of the second temple. You guys may recall.
• 19:13
  that the people all gathered together and there was weeping. Do you remember this? At the founding of the temple, some, the young ones, for joy, because they couldn't believe that they got to see the founding of the temple again, but the older ones, do you remember what it says? The older ones wept with sorrow because they knew that the glory of God would not return, that it would not return the way that it had been in Solomon's temple.
• 19:43
  this temple would not be the same. He knew, this author, that there must be more coming. And so, he rewrites the history of the kings and of Israel. But not only that, where the book of Kings, 1 and 2 Kings begins with David, Chronicles begins with Adam.
• 20:10
  Okay, so not only is he rewriting the story of the kings, the author of Chronicles is actually rewriting the history of mankind. His goal was to trace the promise-fulfilling purpose of God throughout history in order to convince his audience that another would come, what the Old Testament describes as the Messiah, the Anointed One, in Greek, Christ, Jesus.
• 20:34
  Okay, so he's rewriting this story so that it points to a Messiah. Don't worry about a rebuilt temple. Don't worry about a restored nation. Don't worry about the resurrection of the kingly line. That's not going to do it. Instead, look for the one who would become the Messiah. He would fulfill to the fullest everything that so far had been a letdown. And so, if that was his goal,
• 21:02
  which was to trace the promises of God throughout human history in order to focus our attention on the answer to Scripture's biggest question, then where the author chooses to end is of huge importance because these would be the final inspired words of God before the birth of Christ. Everybody follow so far? You guys good? I told you you got to put your thinking caps on. Okay, so if these are the last inspired words of the Hebrew Old Testament, this is what the author is now going to leave us with, then where he chooses to end...
• 21:32
  is important, okay? So let's look at verse 23 and see what he says. Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all of his people, may the Lord his God be with him. What does it say? Let him go up.
• 22:03
  Let him go up. Let him go up to Jerusalem. Let him establish the house of the Lord there. And so what the author of Chronicles does is points to one, and I believe he's pointing to the Messiah in this verse. He is pointing to the one who will go up. He ends with a loaded statement, anticipating the arrival of one who would accomplish what no one else and nothing else could. Now this fits.
• 22:33
  with some of the Messianic Psalms of the Old Testament. In Psalm 24, the author says, who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? Literally, who shall go up? It's the same phraseology. The answer, he who has clean hands and a pure heart. It goes on to describe the perfect one that would come. Psalm 15, O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? Who's going to sit on the top? Who will go up? And the answer, he who walks blamelessly and does what is right. It's pointing.
• 23:03
  to Christ. Psalm chapter 2, maybe the most messianic of all of the Psalms, the entire thing talking about Jesus. And in verse 6, the Lord speaking, he says, as for me, I have set my king, Jesus, on Zion, on my holy hill, on the top. He has gone up. The fact that the author of Chronicles begins with Adam and then ends with this loaded statement describing the one who will go up causes the reader to anticipate another new
• 23:37
  unknown Adam. A new Adam will come. Does that make sense? Sounds a lot like Romans 5, right? That a new Adam will come. We should be anticipating one who will make all things right. Now imagine for a moment that you're a Hebrew. You've got your Old Testament open to the final page, 2 Chronicles 36. You understand that another Adam must come and that the glimpses you've had have all been disappointments. Someone hands you Matthew's gospel.
• 24:08
  And it begins with a genealogy of this new Adam, the one who will go up, the one that you've waited for. That's the Hebrew Old Testament. Anticipating this one who will go up, anticipating the one who will come. Well, that's Hebrew. What about ours? Our Old Testaments end with what book? Malachi. Let's go to Malachi. Malachi in chapter 4. This is the final.
• 24:38
  prophetic utterance in our Old Testament, the last page before the New Testament. And look at how it ends. Malachi chapter 4 and verse 1. Behold, the day is coming. Describing the day of the Lord, the coming of God, the judgment of God on mankind. Behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts.
• 25:07
  So that it will leave them neither root nor branch. Now look at verse two. And here is the glory of the gospel. But as for you, but as for you, you who fear my name, he says, the son of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. That's obviously Jesus. That's the new Adam, right? Malachi chapter four makes reference to him as well. But before he comes, another would come. Malachi four says, look down just a few more verses.
• 25:37
  In verse 5, before this son of righteousness will rise, behold, verse 5 says, 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. Another will come, Elijah the prophet, before this son of righteousness appears. Okay, let's go back to the gospel of Luke.
• 26:09
  Zechariah and Elizabeth, John the Baptist's parents, would have been wildly familiar with these promises, everything we just described. They knew all of that stuff. They were very familiar with the Old Testament. The entire nation of Israel knew that a second Adam would one day be born who would accomplish what no one else could. And so they waited, and they waited, and they waited.
• 26:42
  They waited for additional news from the Lord. They waited for the Messiah's birth. They waited for 400 years, silent years, receiving nothing new from God, no prophetic utterance, no angelic announcements, no royal births until Luke chapter 1 and verse 5. In verse 5, the story begins with a man named Zechariah. And in a time when Israel felt...
• 27:14
  forgotten. For hundreds of years, they've been waiting for this. When they felt forgotten, the Lord sends a message to a man whose name literally means God. Yahweh has remembered. Zechariah literally means Yahweh has remembered. Zecharia is how you say that in Hebrew. Yah is short for Yahweh. The Lord has remembered.
• 27:41
  And in a time where the nation of Israel felt forsaken, they felt forgotten, they felt like God didn't hear their prayers. Does this make sense? It is brilliant. I can't believe we get to study this stuff. In a time when the nation of Israel felt forgotten, Gabriel is sent to a man whose name means he's remembered. He is remembered. And you who has felt forgotten for so long will be forgotten no more. He's remembered. And church,
• 28:15
  God has remembered you as well. In those times where you feel like the Lord doesn't hear my prayer, my prayers are bouncing off the ceiling, how long, O Lord, will you hide your face from me? Just wait. God will send you a Luke 1, verse 5 moment. God will send you a Zechariah moment. And so let's begin. In verse 5, it says, Now this is King Herod the Great.
• 28:45
  At some point during our study in the book of Luke, I will go through the Herods, the Herodian line. I love studying this family. They are one of the most dysfunctional groups you will ever come across. It is unbelievable. Herod was a half-Jewish, really probably more accurately non-Jewish, puppet king of Rome. He was absolutely brilliant. He was also absolutely bonkers, okay?
• 29:14
  Now that is that Herod. This is the same Herod that would try to exterminate all of Bethlehem's baby boys. That's all we'll say about him for now. We'll turn our attention this morning to Zechariah and Elizabeth. Continue in verse 5. It says, There was a priest named Zechariah of the division of Abijah, and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. So for Zechariah and Elizabeth, who were they? Why does the gospel story begin with them? First notice they were Levites.
• 29:43
  They were Levites. Now, who were the Levites? We know that the nation of Israel was divided into 12 tribes, right? Everybody knows that. Corresponding to the 12 sons of Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel. And once the promised land was conquered, those 12 tribes were given land allotments. At the back of your Bibles, your Bibles probably have some kind of map that says the 12 tribes of Israel, okay? So you've got the tribal allotments. You can turn there if you want. I've got one for us to look at.
• 30:13
  Okay, the 12 tribes of Israel. And so there they all are, right? And if you count from the bottom, just the colored ones, the white ones are not Israeli, okay? But just the colored ones, Simeon, Judah, Reuben, Gad, Benjamin, Ephraim, Dan, Manasseh on both sides, right? Issachar, Zebulun, Naphtali, and Asher. Everybody got 12? I counted them for us, right? We got 12.
• 30:43
  I went through five twice, and then I did two more, okay? So we got 12, and that makes sense to everybody, right? Because there were 12 tribes in Israel. The problem is one of them is missing. Levi's not on there. Is everybody looking at that? You say, so wait, there were 13 tribes? No, right? There were 12 tribes. How many tribes in Israel were there?
• 31:05
  There were 12, right? But you just counted them all up. Simeon, Judah, Reuben, Gad, Ephraim, Benjamin, Dan, Manasseh, Issachar, Zebulun, Naphtali, Asher. That's 12. And we're missing Levi. So why are there 13? The reason is because in Hebrew tradition, we do something similar still today in Hebrew tradition. The firstborn son was given a double portion, a double inheritance.
• 31:29
  Okay? Because the thought was he's the one who's going to carry on the family line. He's the one who's going to carry on the family business. If you want to think of it that way, that's how we'd word it today. He's taking over the family business. And so we're going to give him a double portion of the inheritance to ensure his success. Okay? Joseph was selected among his brothers to be the firstborn. Was he born first? No. What number was he? He was 11. He was 11.
• 31:58
  Joseph and Benjamin were born last, right? And Jacob loved them more than any others because they were born in his old age. And so Benjamin chose Joseph as the firstborn son. He gave him a special coat honoring him, right? That way you will be my firstborn. It didn't work out so well for Joseph, okay? I don't know that Jacob should teach any parenting classes. Everybody following? Okay.
• 32:27
  But Joseph was selected. Because Joseph was selected, he got a double portion. He had two sons whose names were Ephraim and Manasseh. Okay, so there they are. Ephraim got a tribal allotment, even though he's a half blessing, a half portion, right? Manasseh got a tribal allotment because they both represent Joseph. Okay, so that still leaves out the Levites. So let's go to the next slide. Here's what God did instead. The Levites' job...
• 32:56
  was to represent God to the people. That was the Levites' job. And so if their job was the go-between, they were the priests, they were the go-between between God and man. If their job was to be kind of the intermediary, the intercessor for God and man, then it wouldn't make sense to pile them all up in one region, right? Because we need them all over the place. And so what God did instead, Levi received no tribal allotment and instead received cities in all of the other tribes.
• 33:27
  Okay, where the Levites could live and work among the people. Their job was to interpret and teach God's word. Their job was to make sure that the people were doing what they were supposed to do according to the Old Testament. All of the offerings, the sacrifices, all of the feasts, all of the celebrations, all of that stuff, that was their job. And so God spread them all over all of those tribes. You see all of there, those black dots, those are all Levitical cities. Does that make sense? Okay.
• 33:56
  The Levites were divided again among 24 divisions. And each of these divisions was responsible two times a year to go to the temple for one week. And for one week, twice a year, that division would be responsible for everything that happened in the temple. All of the sacrifices, all of the offerings, all of the incense, all of that stuff.
• 34:26
  was done by each of these divisions. They'd travel down to Judah, and during their one week on, they would do all of the temple stuff. Does that all make sense? Now, we find out that Zechariah was from the division of Abijah. That makes sense. So for his one week, we pick up the story where his one week is on. He's on duty, okay? Look at verse five again. In the days of Herod, king of Judah, there was a priest named Zechariah of the division of Abijah. There it is. And he had a wife.
• 34:55
  from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. Look down at verse 8. What is he doing? Now, while he was serving as priest before God, when his division was on duty. That'll make sense now, right? According to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. This would have been a high honor. He would have approached the altar of incense just outside the Holy of Holies, just on the other side of the veil.
• 35:26
  separating the presence of God from humanity, and he begins to offer incense. And that's where we will pick up next week. Allow me to pray, and we'll conclude. Lord, I pray that you would remind us, as you did Zechariah and the nation of Israel, that you would remind us that you also hear our prayer, God. That we have nothing to fear, because you've got things under control.
• 35:59
  And although it may seem like you take hundreds of years, and it may seem like you hide your face from us, God, you hear our prayer. The promises you've made you will fulfill. God, when the time is right, we ourselves will have a Luke 1, verse 5. Even if we feel forgotten, Lord, may we recall that Yahweh remembers. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.