God Breaks the Silence: Zechariah's Unforgettable Encounter

But the first two chapters of Luke, often referred to as the infancy narrative,

and particularly memorable for their angelic visitations, and their vivid accounts

of otherwise insignificant people who are swept up in God's great plan of redemption.

And this story begins in the days of Herod, right?

Who reigned in Israel under Roman authority from 37 BC to 4 BC.

And at this point in history, it had been hundreds of years since the Lord had

sent a prophet to his people.

But that was all about to change. And beginning with an elderly Jewish couple

that was living with a personal burden of childlessness.

As we heard about in chapter 1, verses 5 through 7, a socially and economically

devastating problem in that society.

So let's look to start with today at John's arrival.

John's arrival. In fact, the scene opens on a very unusual day in the life of

Zechariah, the husband.

He was a priest. He had been chosen by light to enter the temple of the Lord

and burn incense. We're told that in verses 8 through 10.

And presumably on the altar, if you remember, that stood in the holy place.

And in those days, there were more priests than were needed to maintain the

functions of the temple. And so I want y'all to get this scene today because

many priests went their whole lives without being selected for service.

And this was literally a once-in-a-lifetime experience for Zachariah here.

But it turned out to be the lead story for that day, for this was the day that

God was beginning to break his silence.

And as the priest stood in the temple, a frightening messenger from the Lord

appeared at the right side of the altar in verses 11 through 12 that we heard earlier.

We find out later in verse 19 that this angel's name is what? Gabriel.

And apparently Zachariah, get the picture today, he had been praying at the altar.

And for after calming him down, if you remember in verse 13,

I mean, Gabriel tells him that his prayer has been heard.

And at first blush, I guess you would think, it seems that Zechariah must have

been praying for a child, right? I mean, just think about it.

But because the angel indicates that the gift of a son named John is the specific

answer to his prayer there, right?

But it's hard to imagine, though, at the same time, that an elderly man with

a barren wife, as it talked about in verse 7, would not have long since given up hope for a child.

And Zechariah's inability to even entertain the thought of having a child in

verse 18, it makes it seem that the possibility had not entered his mind in quite some time.

So we have to ask ourselves, if not a child, then what was Zachariah praying for?

Well, it seems from Gabriel's description here that he might well have been

praying for the redemption of Israel, which, by the way, was going to come through,

you know, a child as well, as we'll see in a little bit.

But he was praying for the redemption of Israel.

And the angel tells Zechariah that John will bring joy and gladness to his childless parents.

We see that in verse 14. And for reasons we probably cannot easily imagine,

but he will also cause many to rejoice, he said, at his birth,

for he will be great before the Lord and will be filled with the Holy Spirit,

get this in verse 15, from the womb.

Wow. Gabriel describes John's future ministry as being one of what?

Of turning the hearts of Israel to who?

To the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, going before the Lord and preparing

the people for his arrival.

That's in verses 16 and 17. And by choosing that language that clearly echoes

the prophecies there of Malachi and Malachi 3 and 4,

Gabriel here in this passage church is signaling that the time has come for

God to fulfill the promise he had made to Israel sometime before.

So Zechariah's response is almost comical.

A celestial visitor, this angel, has just met him in the temple, right?

Told him that he will have a son who will fulfill an ancient ancestral prophecy, right?

This ancient prophecy about Elijah's coming to prepare the way of the Lord.

And yet his first thought is about whether or not his elderly wife will be able

to get pregnant, in verse 18.

And if Zechariah was frightened at Gabriel's first appearance in verse 12,

church, then the rebuke here and the reminder of the angel's role and dignity

that followed his skepticism here in verse 19 must have completely unnerved him.

And as a result, if you remember this passage, as a result of his failure to

believe this message from the Lord, what is he told?

He's told that he will be silent until all of these events have taken place in verses 19 through 23.

Wow. I mean, it's just like God said, you're not going to speak until it's done, right?

I mean, we're thinking about Zacharias' punishment here. Maybe it strikes us

maybe a little bit unfair, right?

After all, his questions, they do seem to have some merit, like how exactly

is Elizabeth going to get pregnant?

But Gabriel's response shows us that the priest's question here,

was not motivated by mere curiosity.

Instead, what it revealed was that he didn't believe the angel's word, period.

He just didn't believe the word God sent him. And despite the fact that the

angel is standing there, Gabriel stands there in the presence of God and was

sent to speak to him, as we're told in verses 19 and 20,

God was actually, he was answering Zachariah's prayers and blessing him,

church, beyond all reason, but he lacked the faith to see what was obvious to his wife.

Compare his reaction just a moment to Elizabeth's interpretation of events in verse 25.

You see, Zachariah was a righteous man, however. We got to realize that.

And so the story does have a happy ending. I just want to let you know.

But after the child was conceived in verse 24 and born, as we'll see over in

verse 57, Zachariah actually resisted pressure from his family members,

and he actually named the baby boy John.

In verses 59 through 64, they were told about that in obedience to the angel's

command. So he did do what was right.

He did listen to what the voice of the Lord had told him. So what is clear from

the story is that the salvation, Eastwood, that John will herald is coming at

the initiative and kindness of who?

God. God Almighty. You see, Elizabeth's response in verse 25, doesn't it?

It just gets right to the theological heart of the matter.

It is the Lord, she says, who has done this, showing favor and taking away her disgrace.

You see, the family and neighbors who witnessed John's birth all recognize it's

a gift of God's mercy, and they share in Elizabeth's joy at what the Lord has done in verse 58.

And as a result, Eastwood, the whole region is just set ablaze, right?

I mean, they're sent just, you know, what is that word, a Twitter, right?

You know, they're just sent kind of just sharing that all around, and it's spreading.

They're all wondering with awe what exactly God is doing. in verses 65 and 66,

as John appears publicly to Israel in the wilderness.

Wow. Well, we have another birth. Jesus' birth here is foretold.

Now, we didn't read this passage this morning, but I'm going to go through it,

and you can read it this week.

But there are obvious parallels between the events leading up to the birth of

John and those leading up to the birth of Jesus.

I'm going to name a few for you here today, okay? Think about this for a moment.

You have, first of all, the arrival of the angel Gabriel in verse 19, verses 26 and 28.

You also have the news of a seemingly impossible pregnancy in verse 13 and verse 31.

You have an initial response in both of fear, verses 12 and verse 29 and 30.

And then you have a promise about the child's future and identity in verse 17, 32, 33, 35, right?

But even with those similarities, church, it was clear that Mary's child is

going to be the greater of the two. Look at verse 35.

It tells us this, that Jesus is no mere forerunner for the Lord,

but he is the son of God himself. That's who Jesus is.

And so he's the one who will receive the throne of the great King David,

it says in verse 32, bringing God's never ending rule to the people of Israel.

We see that in verse 33. For that reason, y'all, it's fitting that when Elizabeth

and Mary meet, when they met in verse 39 through 45 and verse 56,

that the prophet actually leapt in his mother's womb.

He did a flip, right?

In his mother's womb. I mean, come on. I mean, that's pretty cool for joy.

And the elderly woman blessed her younger relative.

And perhaps the most striking part of Gabriel's announcement,

church comes in response to Mary's question. Look at verse 34.

How can a virgin have a child?

You see, verse 35, the angel explains to her that she will conceive by who?

The Holy Spirit and the power of the Most High.

Now, I'm not really sure what that really clarifies matters all that much to us as humans.

But in fact, it seems to raise more questions than it does answer sometimes.

But something in the angel's bearing here must have told Mary,

hey, you don't need to ask any more questions because she let the issue drop

there. She just took God at his word.

Well, that leads us to some songs of praise. Y'all like singing,

right? Y'all like rejoicing in the Lord? We're about to see some songs of praise here.

The best known sections of Luke's first chapter are probably the two powerful

expressions of praise that accompanies the action we see.

In fact, in verses 46 through 55, Mary reflects on her visit to Elizabeth in

a poem that is often referred to as the Magnificat.

After the first word of the poem in the Latin translation, in verses 67 through 79 here.

Zachariah also chimes in with

a prophecy, and it's referred to as the Benedictus for the same reason.

The two songs, they share some common features.

In fact, both singers here understand that the birth of their son,

they understand it to be an expression of God's faithfulness to keep his ancient

promises to Abraham and his descendants, by the way.

The Lord had declared that he would send a messenger who would precede his arrival in Malachi 3.1.

And Zechariah understands that John is that messenger.

In verses 76-79, he understands it.

This section, y'all, is full of the echoes of Old Testament events all through it.

Well, also, each sees that the coming of the Messiah as both a victory for the lowly and the needy.

Aren't y'all thankful that God just seems to delight in the lowly,

in the brokenhearted, amen?

And it's a defeat also for the enemies of God's people.

And then Zachariah and Mary, they both express this exuberant praise to God for what he's doing.

What does it say here? Mary's soul glorifies or magnifies.

In the ESV, it says the Lord in verse 46. And her spirit rejoices in him, verse 47.

And usually when we speak of magnifying something, let's look at this next slide for a moment.

We're making something larger than it really is, right? But when Mary magnifies

the Lord, she isn't making him bigger.

She's increasing the love and joy and worship of her heart until it's more in

line with how great God is.

She is magnifying the Lord. Zechariah, likewise, y'all, praises the Lord in verse 68.

He exalts his tender mercies in verse 78.

And y'all, that's all well and good, but we might as well ask,

why does Luke actually interrupt the flow here of the story and give us these two poems? Why is that?

Because they're interesting, but they don't serve to advance the plot of the story.

Maybe we can best understand their presence here in the text,

I think as Luke's way of giving us a clue as to how we should read this book.

Think about it for just a moment. Here at the outset, we've been introduced

at length to two characters.

Who are they? Zachariah and who?

Mary, right? And each comes to understand that God is moving to save his people.

How do both react? With love and praise to the Lord, right? Songs of praise.

That might be a pattern for us to follow as we read Luke's gospel too, right?

We're going to read about things, church, that are even more wonderful than

what Mary and Zechariah actually knew at this point.

And if they were led to joyfully magnify the Lord, he's would,

how much more should our hearts convert the fuel of Luke's narrative here into

flames of praise, y'all?

I mean, we've got so much to be grateful for, so much to be excited about what

God has done for us, experiencing the salvation of Almighty God that he was talking about here.

Well, so what do we have? Two impossible births.

Two impossible births. And look, that as a whole, Luke chapter 1 tells the story of that.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

We're accustomed to stories of women giving birth, right? You know,

there's a, according to the best estimates anyway, almost 400,000 babies are born every day.

And some of you may personally have known a family this past week or the past

few months that had a baby, right?

So births are not particularly extraordinary, right?

But there are two kinds of women who never, ever give birth.

Very old ladies and virgins.

And so it makes sense here that both Zachariah and Mary wrestle with the question, how can this be?

How can this be? And like I said, the answer comes there in verse 37,

where Gabriel tells Mary, y'all got to look at this, that no word from God will ever fail.

Come on. No word from God will ever fail, church. No word.

Boy, isn't that something for us to treasure today? Mary does not need to know

the mechanics, Eastwood, of how it'll happen.

She only needs to be confident in that the Lord has declared that it will happen.

And no word from God will ever fail. How many of you believe that today?

Do you believe God's word? No word from God will ever fail.

His word never fails. And as some older translations render in verse 37,

nothing is impossible with God.

Some of y'all need to hear that today. Probably all of us.

Because i think sometimes we try to limit what god can do you got to realize

we're not talking god is not a man that he should lie come on nothing is impossible

with him he never fails his word never fails now roughly a century ago influential

theologians begin to doubt,

whether or not that was actually true they pointed to the virgin birth of jesus

as a superstition that intelligent, modern people they just simply shouldn't accept.

And after all, we all know that there's no such thing as a baby being born to a virgin.

That's impossible. It's impossible.

And if Christianity was going to flourish in the scientific era,

or so the thinking was, it would need to jettison these kinds of myths that

were an insult to our reason or intellect.

And on the surface, y'all, maybe that sounds reasonable to some people.

But if you look closely, you'll see that it doesn't really do justice to Luke's

narrative here in his gospel.

You see, Mary and Zachariah and Elizabeth were not gullible bumpkins,

right? And by the way, let me just throw this in again.

Luke, after all, was a doctor. Don't you think he knew?

Everybody knows where babies come from, right? I mean, they know how babies

are made, and they don't believe some fantastical stories that are false.

They see what's happening here. They know.

And they found the whole idea here just as unlikely as you and I might.

But that's exactly the point, church. The great theological truth that Luke

is really here bringing to the forefront for us today by including these events

for us in his orderly account,

by the way, is that God's salvation will come, church,

in a seemingly impossible way as Jesus will say later in Luke's gospel,

what is impossible with man is possible with God. Wow.

Church, we need to be reminded of this. This is not the first time that the

Lord has done something like this, by the way.

Luke's narrative here calls to mind a series of extraordinary births in the

Old Testament where a promised deliverer is born to an otherwise barren woman.

You probably remember a few of these.

Isaac in Genesis 17 and 21, Samson in Judges 13, Samuel in 1 Samuel 1.

And the praise here of Zechariah and Mary in our passage today,

it calls to mind the joyous song of Hannah in 1 Samuel chapter 2.

1 Samuel 2 · chapter mention

You see, in those Old Testament events, the Lord was establishing a pattern

that is brought to fruition in the births of John and Jesus.

The point's clear, Eastwood.

Salvation must come in a way that only God can accomplish so that we will know

that God has done it and so that he might get all the glory. Amen?

Salvation belongs to the Lord, church.

He's the author of it. It's not something that man would have ever made up,

nor could we have ever done it. It would have been impossible, right?

The question that Luke's narrative poses to us as his readers is just simply

whether or not, church, we will believe that God can do what he says he will do.

Do you believe it? We must believe that God has accomplished his salvation through

the work of who? Through the work of Christ alone.

We must live each day confident that God is going to keep all the promises that

he's made to his people, no matter how far removed they might seem from our daily circumstances.

Do we really believe that God will keep us and strengthen us in the darkest of valleys?

Do you believe that today? Some of you may be going through a very dark valley in your life.

Do you believe what he said? Do you believe that he's able to keep you and comfort you?

Or do our feelings and our fears seem more truthful than the words of Almighty God?

You see, Zachariah's failure to embrace the Lord's promises here,

this passage, I think it just stands as a warning to us.

And Mary's humble response that we see in Luke 1, 38, church,

it serves as our example, doesn't it?

And then verse 45, it says, Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would

fulfill his promise to her.

Come on, church. How many of you believe God is good with his promises?

He is going to keep his word.

His word never fails. He will never leave you or forsake you. He is there.

The same God who said that you could be saved, healed, and delivered,

and that his blood would cover all your sin. that same God, every word he says will never fail.

Y'all, it's time we take him at his word.

Just think about it. Do you have those songs of praise today,

like Zachariah and Mary, to help you understand the work of God in your life,

and you just burst forth into praise, said, thank you, Lord?

Think about it. Why did God use Elizabeth and Mary to achieve his plans to fulfill his promise.

I mean, look, very unlikely, very unlikely. Want an old woman, want a virgin.

Yet God did the impossible, did he not? Our God never fails.

Our God specializes in the impossible.

In fact, just like today's message says, nothing is impossible, right?

Nothing is impossible. Not with God, right?

When do you find it hardest, church, to believe that God can do what he says he will do.

Take him at his word. Some of you today, church, I was going to ask you just

to bow your heads for a moment as we reflect on this. Some of you might be thinking today, you know what?

There's things that I know God has said in his word. I know that he's told me.

But you know, Brother Judd, I've been having some struggles believing and just taking God at his word.

I realized maybe today in a fresh and new way that no word from God will ever fail.

I've been fearful and taking things into my own hands, maybe,

or trying to, but yet today I realize that God's Word never fails.

God's promises are true. I can trust Him. Even the impossible circumstances

in my life, I have a God who specializes in that because nothing is impossible with Him.

Some of you are a prime candidate for a miracle today. Some of you maybe need

to experience the greatest miracle of all.

And that's a soul that has been forgiven. A soul that has been set free by the

power and the blood of Jesus.

Somebody who comes before God today and just simply says Lord,

I realize I'm a sinner in need of a Savior Lord and I realize what you did for

me on the cross Lord and taking my punishment upon yourself that I deserve you

lived the life I couldn't live Lord and God your blood covers my sins I put

my faith and trust in you Lord I turn from my,

evil ways Lord and I look to your way,

Lord I believe you rose on the third day for me Lord Lord, defeat and death

hell in the grave, Lord. I'm forgiven.

I could be a child of God today because you said so.

It's not dependent upon me. It's all you, Lord. Your word stands true.

Today, I don't know where you're at or maybe what God has spoken to your heart

about through his spirit, but I encourage you, whether it's to come to this

altar and pray or to pray where you stand or sit today,

whatever it is, just let God's spirit move in your heart. Just obey him. That's all.

Confess, agree with God about any sin in your life, and repent of that.

And also, just as believers today, believe God's Word. Take Him at His Word.

I'll invite you to stand as we pray.