Interrupted by Grace | Carlos Velez | Calvary Church

People have different reactions to snow,

right? Um, some people love snow.

They're just just so excited. They want

to build snowmen and they want to drink

the hot cocoa with the marshmallows. And

then you have me who I hate snow. I

don't like it at all. All I think of is

I got to shovel that. Um, and the

reality is is that I don't know two of

the of greater fans of snow than my two

dogs. My two dogs love snow. And so

Ruby, I walked my one dog Ruby today.

walked her outside on her leash and

she's so excited about the snow and it's

cute, right? They they're jumping

around. She's three years old. They're

jumping around the snow. It's very cute.

It's wonderful. It's it's it's great.

So, I take her inside. I dry her off. I

put on my coat. Um, and I'm getting

ready to leave so I can come here. And

so I open the door and as the door is

closing,

Ruby jets out of the house and she just

runs leaping and jumping around in the

snow and not listening to me at all.

And so she runs down the street. Runs

down the street. She runs down the

street and she runs towards a park and

she's hiding behind bushes and she's not

listening to me at all. and she doesn't

like this coat that I'm wearing

normally. So, I'm like, "Okay." She gets

kind of scared of this green puffy coat.

So, I take the coat off and I throw it.

That didn't do anything. And she's

running and running and running. It's

like 15 minutes. 15 minutes. I'm chasing

this dog through the snow. And finally,

she just gets into the middle of the

basketball court and just sits there

waiting for me to get her cuz she was

done. She was ready. I have to carry her

back to the house and my and and I bring

her back to the house and I'm soaked

from the wet dog and my wife greets her

and she's just like, "Wasn't that so

much fun?" And she's just like, "You're

having a wonderful time." And that is

not what I was thinking at all. I was

thinking two things. The first thing I

was thinking was,

"Someone better have an asthma inhaler

right now. That's what I want because I

can't breathe at all and I am out of

shape." And then the second thing I was

thinking was

all y'all in this house are crazy.

That's what I was starting to think. And

speaking of crazy,

we're 11 days away from Christmas.

That's crazy. We're 11 days away from

Christmas.

And what happens often in Christmas time

is that we get caught up in the

craziness, right? We get caught up in in

the busyiness and the hecticness and we

lose sight of the point and purpose of

Christmas.

You know, we just finished a story. We

just finished a series called the story

where we looked at the whole story of

the Bible.

And what we said was the point and

purpose of the story is this. The point

of the story is Jesus. And the purpose

is to draw us to him, to bring us to

him. The reality is is that the point

and purpose of Christmas is Jesus and

the purpose is to bring us to him. And

so what we want to do this few weeks

leading up to Christmas is pause for a

little bit. Slow down in the midst of

the craziness. Slow down in the midst of

the hecticness

and just focus on the purpose of

Christmas. And so what we're going to do

is look at the story of Christmas

through the eyes of different

characters. And so today we're going to

look at the story of Christmas through

the eyes of Zechariah and Elizabeth. So

we're going to look at Luke chapter 1.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 1 says this. Okay, starting

Luke 1 · chapter mention

at verse 5.

In the time of Herod, king of Judea,

there was a priest named Zachariah who

belonged to the priestly division of

Abijah. His wife Elizabeth was also a

descendant of Aaron. Both of them were

righteous in the sight of God. observing

all the Lord's commands and decrees

blamelessly, but they were childless

because Elizabeth was not able to

conceive and they were both very old.

So, here's what's going on.

It starts off by talking about a king

named Herod.

And when we mention Herod, what we need

to understand is what that means. Herod

was a bad guy. He was he was a king. He

was horrible. He was crazy. He He killed

several of his family members, including

uh some of his kids. He It was a time

that was scary. It was a time that was

uh chaotic. This was not a good time. It

was actually one of those dark moments

for people.

And not only that, what's happened is we

have the Bible and we just went through

the story and what you have is the first

part is the Old Testament. And then what

we just read is the New Testament, the

second part of the Bible. And when the

Old Testament ends and we get through

this, there's about 400 years

where there's no prophecies from God.

It's like God is just silent. He's

there. It's not like God is gone. He's

present through all the time, but

there's no prophecies. And so, the

people are saying that he's silent. It's

a dark time. God seems to be silent. And

this is where the people of Israel are.

Not only that, what do we see with

Zechariah and Elizabeth? They're going

through their own difficult time. They

don't have children

and they want children. It's it's a

desire deep inside of them and they

don't have children.

And during that time, what the culture

would think is if you are not able to

have children, then something is either

wrong with you or you've done something

wrong, you must have done something to

cause this. But that's not what Luke

says, right? Luke says they were

righteous. They were good. And he

corrects that and saying this is not

about something that they did. This is

just God's decision.

They didn't do anything wrong. There's

nothing wrong with them. This is just

what God has for them.

And in the midst of all of this stuff

going on with the people in Israel of

just this dark time under Hera, in the

midst of Zachchariah and Elizabeth and

their own pain and and and all of this

stuff happening

and God is silent, it could feel like

God forgot us.

And what we see in these verses is that

God remembers his people.

Not only were Zachariah and Elizabeth

good people, but they were connected to

a good position. Zachchariah is a priest

and and by linking him to Abijah, what

he's saying is that he's part of a

priestly lineage. Abijah's in first

Chronicles and and so it just says this

is Zachariah and his family's been doing

it. He's part of this whole lineage and

he's part of this priesthood. And then

Elizabeth is from the descendency of

Aaron. also is part of this lineage.

They're good people from good families

from good history

and yet they seem to be forgotten.

But God remembers his people.

And one of the ways that Luke explains

this is by just telling us their names.

Zachchariah and Elizabeth.

Do you know what Zechariah means?

Zachchariah means God remembers.

God remembers. Do you know what

Elizabeth means? It means God is my oath

or God keeps his promises. And so into

the midst of this crazy situation with

crazy things going on, a dark dark

moment, we are introduced to two people,

a married couple. Let me introduce you

to God remembers and God keeps his

promises.

What's going on is that before God acts

through Jesus, he reminds his people, I

have not forgotten you.

I am faithful and I will keep my word.

In the midst of all of the craziness,

God takes a moment to say, I have not

forgotten you.

I'm going to keep my promise.

And then what God does

is that he reveals his plan. And we see

that in Luke chapter 1 starting at verse

Luke 1 · chapter mention

8.

In verse 8, it says, "Once when

Zachariah's division was on duty and he

was serving as priest before God, he was

chosen by a lot according to the custom

of the priesthood to go into the temple

of the Lord and burn incense." And when

the time of burning of incense came, all

the assembled worshippers were praying

outside.

Then an angel of the Lord appeared to

him standing at the right side of the

altar of incense. When Zachariah saw

him, he was startled and was gripped

with fear.

But the angel said to him, "Do not be

afraid, Zachariah. Your prayer has been

heard.

Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son,

and you are to call him John. He will be

a joy and delight to you, and many will

rejoice because of his birth, for he

will be great in the sight of the Lord.

He is never to take wine or other

fermented drink. And he will be filled

with the Holy Spirit even before he is

born. He will bring back many of the

people of Israel to the Lord their God.

And he will go on before the Lord in the

spirit and power of Elijah to turn the

hearts of the parents to their children

and the disobedient to the wisdom of the

righteous to make ready a people

prepared for the Lord.

Zachariah asked the angel,

"How can I be sure of this?

I'm an old man and my wife is well along

in years. The angel said to him, I am

Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God

and I have been sent to speak to you and

to tell you this good news. And now you

will be silent and not able to speak

until the day this happens because you

did not believe my words which will come

true at their appointed time.

Meanwhile, the people were waiting for

Zachariah and wondering why he stayed so

long in the temple. When he came out, he

could not speak to them. They realized

he had seen a vision in in the temple,

for he kept making signs to them, but

remained unable to speak. When his time

of service was completed, he returned

home. After this, his wife Elizabeth

became pregnant and for 5 months

remained in seclusion. The Lord has done

this for me, she said. In these days, he

has shown his favor and taken away my

disgrace among the people.

So what's happening here is that

Zachchariah is chosen to go and burn the

incest. And what you need to understand

is that this didn't happen to everyone.

It didn't happen often. There's about 18

to 20,000 priests at this time.

And the the chance the chance of someone

being chosen to go burn incense, it's a

once-in-a-lifetime chance because what

happened was is that it was chosen

randomly. It was chosen by lots and

often times people live their whole life

and they never were given this chance to

do that.

God selects his people

and Zachchariah is selected. It's it's

it's like it's like a winning the

lottery. It's this once in a-lifetime

thing and Zachariah is selected

and this blessing that Zachariah has he

I just can't imagine like it's just like

he's he's he's getting ready. He's

selected and he's going over there and

he's got to be filled with just all

sorts of emotions like this is this is

something that he's worked so hard for.

He's been a part of he's been waiting

for this and and finally he's been

selected

and all these thoughts are going on

and he's thinking that God has blessed

him.

But this blessing is going to turn out

to be so much more than what he thought,

so much more than Zachariah ever

imagined.

Because an angel appears

and and and reveals a promise, reveals

God's plan. God reveals his plan

through this angel.

He says, "You're going to have a son.

You're going to have a son,

and you're going to name him John,

and he will come in the spirit and power

of Elijah."

What's going on there?

Well, what's going on with those words?

He would come in the spirit and power of

Elijah. Well, I said earlier that

there's two parts of the Bible. There's

the Old Testament and the New Testament.

And I there was silence that happened

for hundreds of years

before God speaks into the New

Testament.

And the last book of the Old Testament

is the book of Malachi.

Listen to the words, the last verses of

the last book of the Old Testament.

Malachi 4:5, it says, "See, I will send

Malachi 4:5

the prophet Elijah to you before the

great and dreadful day of the Lord

comes. He will turn the hearts of the

parents to their children and the hearts

of the children to their parents, or

else I will come and strike the land

with total destruction."

Let's go back to Luke

Luke 1:1

1:1 16.

He will bring back many of the people of

Israel to the Lord their God. And he

will go on before the Lord in the spirit

and power of Elijah to turn the hearts

of the parents to their children and the

disobedience to the wisdom of the

righteous to make ready a people

prepared for the Lord. Did you catch

that connection?

You ever watch uh like a series on

Netflix or or on a series on uh Disney

Plus or any of those kind of streaming

services? You ever watch that? And you

get to like a se like it's a minieries.

You get through season one. It ends on a

cliffhanger, right? And you get to the

point you're just like, "Oh,

how is this going to be resolved?" And

you have to wait and you have to wait

and wait until season two happens. And

when you get to season two,

before it happens, what do they have? A

recap.

It brought you, it walks you through

what happened in season one and bridges

it and connects you to what's about to

happen. What we just had was a recap.

We get a recap of the whole Old

Testament and the promise that we kind

of leave off at with this this tension

of what's about to happen.

and it comes back in and God reveals

how he's going to continue the story and

fulfill his promise and execute and put

into place his plan.

This moment fulfills the ancient

prophecy. God is stepping into the

darkness once again, not just to bless

the one family of Zachariah and

Elizabeth. It's actually a bigger

blessing.

He's stepping in to move his redemption

history forward.

And how does Zechariah I have no clue

how I'd respond if I was there and I I

met an uh angel.

Yeah, I'd probably be afraid. But what

Zachariah does, he goes he hears this

miraculous thing and he's like,

"Yeah,

how can I be certain that this is

actually real? that this is how am I

going to be certain that this is

actually true? He responds with

disbelief. It's interesting.

The angel speaks to Zachchariah. Now,

we're not talking about Mary today, but

that same angel speaks to Mary. And

Mary's response is different. Mary's

response is, "How can this be?"

Zachariah's a response of unbelief. He

says, "How can I be certain this is

true?" And Mary's, "How can this be?"

And what we see here is that unbelief

seeks control

but faith seeks understanding.

The response of Mary was one of belief

and faith and the response of Zechariah

was one of doubt and unbelief.

So God is revealing his plan. And what

the angel says is your prayer has been

heard.

your prayer has been heard.

But there's more to that statement

because if we were to hear that, we need

to ask ourselves

which prayer

which prayer was heard?

It'd be simple to kind of just say,

well, the prayer to have a child. So,

they're now old and they're going to

have a child. And

it'd be simple to say that the prayer to

have a child, and that is true. That was

one of the prayers that was heard. But

God is answering not just that prayer.

He's answering

Israel's centuries long prayer for a

Messiah, a deliverer.

You see, this prophet that was supposed

to come in the spirit

of Elijah was supposed to pave the way,

was supposed to make the way.

What God is saying is that your son John

is going to be the one who makes a way

for my Messiah that I'm sending for my

deliverer.

And this is the familiar plot of all the

Bible where God's people are unfaithful

and then God shows that he is faithful

where everything seems to stall and

everything is quiet and then God steps

in in unexpected ways.

And so God reveals his plan

that he's going to bring a Messiah.

And so then what happens is

Zachariah's baby boy is born. John is

born.

Did you catch what happened earlier when

we read Zachariah when he spoke this uh

how can I be certain? The angel's

response is okay you need to just be

quiet. And he tells him, 'You cannot

speak until the baby is born.

And so Zachariah doesn't speak until

John is born and until he actually

writes on the tablet saying his name's

going to be John. And as soon as they

say his name is John, Zachariah's mouth

opens up and he's allowed to talk.

Listen to the words that he says.

His son, his baby boy is just born.

this baby boy that he longed for. This

baby that he was hoping for,

but his response, the first words out of

his mouth are not about his baby boy.

Actually, his first words out of his

mouth are about God. Zachchariah sings a

song. We see in Luke

Luke 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1

starting in verse 67

it says his father Zachchariah was

filled with the Holy Spirit and

prophesied praise be to the Lord the God

of Israel because he has come to his

people and redeemed them. He has raised

up a horn of salvation for us in the

house of his servant David as he has

said through his holy prophets of long

ago. salvation from our enemies and from

the hand of all who hate us to show

mercy to our ancestors and to remember

his holy covenant, the oath he swore to

our father Abraham, to rescue us from

the hand of our enemies and to enable us

to serve him without fear in holiness

and righteousness before him in all our

days.

What does he begin his when his mouth

finally opens? What does he begin to

talk about? He begins TO TALK ABOUT

GOD'S faithfulness and keeping his

promises. He talks about God's

forgiveness of sins. He begins to talk

about mercy and redemption. And what he

does is he begins to sing a song that

echoes all of the themes of the promises

and pathways of the Old Testament.

He begins to sing about all of these

things. God's faithfulness, his

forgiveness, his mercy.

And this is all the themes of the Old

Testament. And throughout the Old

Testament, what's interesting is that

God would use three kind of roles

to proclaim these themes, to proclaim

these promises.

He would use a prophet. And a prophet

would be used to speak God's word. He

would use a priest who would be a a

mediator uh uh who would be the one who

mediated God uh um before God's presence

in his people. And he would speak

through a king who will rule God's

people. There's a prophet, a priest, and

a king.

What's interesting is that Luke 1,

there's shadows of all three of those

roles.

I said that we had Herod who was a king,

a dark and corrupted king.

We have Zachchariah who's a limited

priest, expresses doubt.

And then we have the baby John

who is a prep a preparing prophet.

And then God

provides a twist.

God provides a twist.

The twist of Christmas is this. God

himself comes to fulfill every role his

people could not.

We see in all of those how we see those

imperfect shadows of a prophet, a priest

and a king. And Jesus comes and Jesus is

born and God rescues through his Messiah

through Jesus. And Jesus is the true

prophet not only speaking God's word but

becoming the word made flesh. Jesus is

the true priest both our mediator and

the sacrifice offered to us. Jesus is

the true king holding all authority yet

conquering not by shedding the blood of

others but by shedding his own blood.

In Jesus the old testament is fulfilled.

The recap of all the Old Testament is

found in one expression.

God

coming forward in flesh as Jesus.

The heart of Christmas is that God

remembers and God reveals and God

rescues through Jesus.

And so I guess we're kind of left with

then what do we do about that? How

should we respond to all that?

It's interesting. I I I talked about

Ruby earlier and I had my day planned. I

was going to get out a certain time,

shovel a certain amount of the driveway,

get in the car so I could get here at a

certain time. I had a schedule. I had a

plan.

And everything got disrupted by

something unexpected.

Christmas usually brings about

unexpected disruptions.

We usually have plans and expectations

of how everything should go.

We know how we're going to have shopping

going, how much time we're going to go

have to take for that. And we know how

if we're going to invite someone over,

we know how the meal is going to go. We

have all of these plans and

expectations. But what usually happens

is some sort of disruptance comes into

Christmas.

And all those things are are not the

disruptions that Luke is talking about.

What Luke is talking about is a much

greater disruptance.

You see, when Jesus steps into the

story,

everything changes.

Everything changes.

And when Jesus steps into your story,

things change.

The disrupt of Christmas is the disrupt

of Jesus. It's a good disrupt. Takes us

away from our own plans and our own

ideas and replaces them with God's plan

and God's presence through Jesus.

And we offered this thought last week

with Charles.

If we are truly experiencing the story

of Christmas,

that has to include the disruptance of

Jesus. And what that means is

at some point your life had to change

because of Jesus.

And what we've said is if your life has

never changed and maybe you're truly not

experiencing

Christmas.

So the question that we need to ponder

this week is this.

What would it look like

if God disrupted our lives with his

grace? What would it look like to have

our lives disrupted

by the grace that Jesus provides?

And I'm not just talking about

that first disruption when you're kind

of aware of Jesus and you've become a

Christian and become someone who follows

him. I'm talking about what would it

look like if your daily life if you

allow your eyes to be open to see the

disruption of God's grace in your daily

life.

How would you respond

to that disruption of grace?

You see, the story of Christmas invites

us not merely to adjust our behavior,

but to trust the one who has already

finished his work, Jesus Christ, our

savior and king.

What would it look like this Christmas

if we lived our lives ready and willing

to respond to the disruption of Jesus

and the grace that he brings each and

every day?

I imagine that if we did that,

we just might be able to bring that

disruption

to the lives of those around us in

wonderful and amazing ways as well.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for this day. We

thank you for

the disruption of Christmas.

Zachariah and Elizabeth

taught us

that we are not forgotten,

but that you remember us and are

faithful to your promises

and that you have a plan, a plan to

redeem us through your son, Jesus.

Lord, I ask you that this Christmas that

that would be

something that is revealed in our hearts

in new and profound ways

as we go about

proclaiming the good news of not just

the Christmas story but the good news of

the gospel

to each and everyone we come in contact

with. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.