Do You Hear What I Hear?

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sermon. God Bless. Lord God, I pray that as was

our Lord's custom to go into your house on your

day, Lord, it is ours. And I gotta pray this

morning that as you met the prayers of the people

long ago in Zechariah and Elizabeth's prayers,

As you met with Zechariah long ago in your house,

Lord, I pray that you'd meet with us again today,

Lord. No doubt, Lord, some of us have had joy

-filled weeks, and others of us have been reminded

of the brokenness of life. Some of us have faith

that feels like it could move mountains this

morning, and others of us Now the doubt looms

large and some of us are convinced of who you

are and others are unconvinced, Lord. God, would

you open our ears? Would you hear our cries?

Would you meet us now? In your name we pray.

Amen. So last Sunday we looked at Joseph and

we learned a few different things about quiet

Joseph, his quiet faithfulness. And today we're

going to look at another father figure in the

early narratives of the Gospels right before

Jesus is born, Zechariah. And I mentioned last

week how Joseph, as Nate Bargat pointed out,

doesn't really get songs. He doesn't get songs

in the text. We don't really have songs of Joseph

so much in our church history. Zachariah doesn't

have a song in the text. Next week we're gonna

look at Simeon. We often sing the song of Simeon

at the end of our services in this season. We're

gonna look at him next week. But there is a great

song about Zachariah in an album that came out

about 10 years ago by a group called Rain for

Roots. Children, maybe you know this song. Adults,

maybe parents especially, you know this song.

We have played it lots of times in the car rides

in our family. The best part is the chorus, but

I'm gonna read to you the first verse in the

chorus. So the first verse recounts for us some

of this story that we just heard in Luke chapter

one about Zachariah. It says, Zachariah went

into the temple and an angel of the Lord was

waiting there. He said, You've waited your whole

life. Good news. You and your wife will have

a son named John. The Lord has heard your prayer.

Zachariah was afraid and started talking. He

said, How can this be? How will I know? Gabriel

said, God gave this special task to me. And since

you ask, here's a sign for you until he's born

to show. And Zachariah said. Then he couldn't

say. But his heart went, then he tried to say,

but he couldn't say. But his heart went boom,

boom, boom. I mean, Zachariah couldn't believe

what he heard. And therefore when he went out,

I actually love it too, because you really get

the sense that he was playing charades with the

people, right? He didn't know American sign language

back then. He goes out, right? He's supposed

to bless the people. and they couldn't hear the

good news that he had been given. And part of

the question is, do you hear, right? Do you hear

what I hear? Can you hear it? I want us to look

at this text this morning, really focusing on

Zechariah. There's a lot that we could talk about

in this passage, okay? I actually looked back.

I have preached this passage to you years ago,

but we focused there mostly on John. But I want

us to consider Zechariah, and I want us to consider

his improbable opportunity the unbelievable announcement,

and then the idea of open ears and open mouths,

okay? So first, just the idea of an improbable

opportunity. So if you have that text open before

you, Luke chapter one, verse five begins with,

in the days of King Herod, King of Judah, And

this is actually kind of common with Luke. He

sets this historical context, and he gives you

this big picture of what's happening. But it's

almost as though Herod is sort of this other

figure that's there, but he's not the main figure.

Luke actually does this quite a bit. He highlights

for us the people that we would sort of push

to the side, the overlooked. And so it moves

on quickly. There was a priest named Zechariah.

And then it highlights this little detail for

us of the division of Abijah. And part of what

Luke is doing right here, right at the beginning,

by mentioning the divisions, is he's highlighting

for you the improbability of what's taking place,

the improbability of this opportunity, right?

So here's what's going on. Every direct descendant

of Aaron, right? Aaron was the brother of Moses.

He was the original high priest. Every direct

descendant of Aaron was automatically a priest.

and therefore they were to serve in the temple.

And there were so many priests by the time of

David that David broke them into 24 different

divisions. Actually, it's kind of interesting

that when the exiles came back from the Babylonian

captivity, there were still so many priests that

even though only four of those divisions came

back at that time, they were again broken up

into their 24 divisions with the same names.

Well, the division of Abijah was the eighth division.

And it's estimated that around the time of this

taking place, there were about 20 ,000 descendants

of Aaron, 20 ,000 priests. And so what would

happen is that each division would get one week,

sort of every six months -ish, two weeks a year

to come and to serve in the temple. So you can

imagine, I mean, if there's 24 divisions, there's

about 20 ,000 priests, there's about 850 people.

per division, okay? And so, you know, there's

no need for 850 people to come and serve in these

different ways. And so what it meant was that

you would have your name drawn by lot. It actually

mentioned that there, that his name was drawn

by lot. It was sort of a by chance. And... And

you could do different acts of service sort of

in the temple, but there was one act of service

that was so unique and so highlighted and so

respected and so desired that you only got to

do that one act once in your life. And that one

act was to go actually to be the one to go into

the temple and to burn the incense that was a

symbol of the prayers of the people going up

to God. I don't know if you noticed this, it's

actually, it's highlighted, that is referenced,

the incense is referenced for us three times

in this text, verses 9, 10, and 11. It's as though

it's highlighting for us, this is a big deal.

This is the thing that any descendant of Aaron

would have spent their life desiring to do, and

not all would have been allowed to do it. You

would have had one opportunity to do this in

your life. And Zechariah, we are told in verse

7, actually, and again in verse 18 was, advanced

in years. So he'd waited his whole life. He'd

waited his whole life to come in and to do this,

to offer the prayers of the people, but also

to offer his own prayers there in the midst of

the temple. All this is to say that it was an

entirely improbable opportunity, and he's going

to make the most of it as we all would. So he

not only brings, of course, the prayers of the

people through the symbol of the incense, but

he brings his own a lifelong sorrow that he's

carrying, his own desire for God to hear him,

to be attentive to him, to understand what he

and his wife have been going through. So just

think of this for a moment with me. What prayer

would you bring? I mean, almost certainly the

one time he gets to go into the temple, You'd

bring the long prayers, right? The prayers that

you've prayed again and again and again. Likely,

you would maybe bring the prayers that you had

grown to doubt would ever be answered. The prayers

that you'd cried out to God to hear time and

again. Maybe the thorns in your flesh, as we

just heard in 2 Corinthians, Paul have, he cried

out to the Lord to take from him. That kind of

prayer. Maybe you've prayed some prayers so much

that you think that actually the opportunity

to offer them one more time might just be futile,

right? But here we read that Zachariah and his

wife were righteous before God and they were

walking blamelessly in his commandments and his

statutes. Which is to say they were trusting

in the Lord. They were righteous. They were trusting

in God's promises to them, his work on their

behalf. And their life reflected this. And so

they held out hope, the act of God on their behalf.

But think with me also about the prayers of Zechariah

and the people, okay? So I've mentioned this,

right? As the priest and as his name was drawn

by law, he would have gone into the temple there

and he would have offered the prayers of God's

people. And no doubt, the dominant prayer of

God's people at that time and actually kind of

throughout history would have been for deliverance.

Deliver them. It's mentioned again right there

in verse five in the days of when King Herod

was over Judea, right? Herod was a Roman. He

wasn't the king Israelites wanted. He wasn't

the king that God had promised to them, right?

A king... lineage of David that would sit on

the throne with justice and righteousness. All

of them had read the Old Testament promises of

God's purposes to bless them and to bless the

world through them. In a sense, no doubt they

believed that God's presence was with them. They

were showing up to the temple to offer their

prayers. It says that the people were praying

outside. But their faith was constantly put to

the test, maybe like yours is. And the situation

in which they found themselves and said, what

is God doing? We've cried out for deliverance

time and time again. Can he hear us? Their faith

was constantly battered by the fact that evil

seems more active in the world and frankly, more

effective in the world and the power of God at

times. There is no question that that fact shook

them just as it shakes you and I. For all the

glad tidings and great joy that we proclaim and

we hopefully live into in this season, we collectively

and we individually actually have these long

prayers that we pray again and again and again

and again. Think about this, one of the last

prophecies that we have recorded for us in Holy

Scripture is coming from the book of Malachi.

And one of those prophecies says the Lord whom

they seek would suddenly come to his temple,

right? And then connected with this is that there

would be a prophet like the prophet Elijah. They

would come and bring a season of great repentance.

But that, I mean, that was written over 400 years

earlier. To give you a reference, it's like talking

about something that was said to the pilgrims

long ago. I mean, how long had they prayed that?

How long had they hoped that? And that's just

the collective prayer. But think about how long

Zechariah and Elizabeth had brought their individual

prayers before the Lord. So not only was this

an improbable opportunity that Zechariah has,

near the end of his life, he's advanced in years.

He finally has his name drawn. And he's going

to make the best of it. But he goes before, he

goes in there and he offers the incense, symbolizing

the prayers of the people. And undoubtedly he

offers his own prayers. In fact, we have a good

sense that he did because of what the angel says,

right? He's saying, this is my improbable opportunity.

I'm going to make the best of it. But what he

hears, what I want to suggest to you, what he

hears is actually an unbelievable announcement.

And we know that because that's his response.

This is unbelievable. It's an unbelievable announcement.

So again, the communal life of God's people was

one of tragedy. It was going from, think about

this, okay, let's just go back the last like

thousand years. We could go back farther and

actually illustrate this, but if you just go

back the last thousand years of Israel's history,

you have a divided kingdom after King Solomon.

After that, you have just a wreck of different

kings between the Northern kings and the Southern

kings. You have a lot of rebellion against God.

And then the Assyrians come in and they take

away the 10 Northern tribes. And then a couple

of centuries later, well, about 150 years later,

the Babylonians come in, they take away the Southern

tribes. After that, there's the Persian domination.

After that, there's the ravages by Antiochus

Epiphanes. And now they're under Roman rule.

I mean, literally, it's just tragedy upon tragedy

upon tragedy that's taking place. And the people

are crying out, forgot to do something. He said

time and again that he would act, he would act

on their behalf and they're desiring that. And

it's almost like after that long, they're like,

I don't know about this faith thing. Sort of

unbelievable. But interestingly, The angel does

not first speak to the collective prayers that

are symbolized by the incense. Instead, he first

speaks to the prayers of Zachariah when he's

there. Now, the first thing that the angel spoke

to was the prayer of Zachariah and his wife,

which I want to also suggest to you is an unbelievable

announcement. Why is this? Elizabeth was not

a spring chicken. Actually, again, verse 7 and

18 both say that they were advanced in years.

She had been post -menopausal for a long time.

Their life together had been overshadowed by

tragedy, just as their communal life within Israel

was overshadowed by tragedy. For a Jewish couple,

for a Jewish woman to not have a child was not

only a source of sorrow for them, But actually,

collectively, it was sort of an issue of reproach.

It was sort of a communal reproach. It was oftentimes

considered a symbol of God's lack of care for

you, lack of attentiveness to you. So they had

cried out, cried out year after year, seemingly

heard little to nothing. Personal grief was one

thing, communal reproach was another that just

added to the sorrow. Here's what I'm saying.

Is it any wonder that Zachariah found this good

news an unbelievable announcement? I mean, literally

just not very believable, right? Too good to

be true. Was it any wonder that he found his

answered prayer hard to believe? Here to have

a child, he's told, and he will be in the spirit

and the power of Elijah God, hearing the communal

prayers of His people and the individual prayers

of He and Elizabeth, long, long prayers answered.

Think of this again, okay? You've been waiting

400 years for the prophecies to come true, and

you've spent your entire married life, no doubt

many nights, flooding your pillow with tears,

and you have this one opportunity to go into

the temple, and there you start hearing things.

That's exactly what you're going to be thinking.

I'm hearing stuff. This is a figment of my imagination.

I've started seeing things in my old age. My

body and my brain are not working properly. Things

like that, right? The day has come. He's waited

his whole life to enter into the temple, to offer

incense, and an angel appears to him and he's

like, man, this incense is some strong stuff.

I don't know what's happening here. Right? This

must be a figment of my imagination. And so Zacharias

says, how shall I know? And I mean, it's true.

The angel says how this is the question of unbelief.

But what I'm suggesting too, isn't this exactly

what we'd be doing? It's not that divorced from

our own experiences with God. Zachariah couldn't

believe what he heard. It was an unbelievable

announcement. But it's true, asking for signs

in the Bible is often a show, a demonstration

of a lack of faith. And why is this? Well, George

Carey, the great British New Testament scholar

said, certainty which leaves no room for doubt,

incidentally leaves no room for faith. That's

a great quote. Maybe read that again for you.

Certainty, which is what he was wanting. Give

me some certainty about this because I don't

think this is very believable. Certainty, which

leaves no room for doubt, incidentally leaves

no room for faith. Caird goes on, he says, the

quest for infallibility is always an illegitimate

one. Zachariah says, this is unbelievable. Answer

all my doubts. Zachariah wanted certainty. God

wants his faith. Zachariah found himself in an

improbable opportunity. He wanted to make the

most of it. And then he received an unbelievable

announcement. Finally, I want us to consider

the idea here in this text of open ears and open

mouths, okay? And here's what I want you to see.

is that in the midst of this improbable opportunity

and this unbelievable announcement, in this place

where the prayers have been long prayed and it's

seemingly unanswered, who listens? Well, we have

some people that don't listen. I mean, they just

literally can't. There's all the people outside,

right? He exits the temple and he starts motioning.

So people aren't the ones that are hearing. The

one who's hearing actually that's highlighted

for us in the passage is God. The open ears are

the Lord's, right? The Lord has heard your prayer.

Do not fear Zechariah for your prayer has been

heard. Open ears are God's. Now, Zechariah knew

the ways of the Lord. We were told that he walked

in the statutes and commandments of God, and

he probably knew the scriptures well. He probably

knew that God often does his most impressive

work in the context of the impossible, because

that just seems to be the way of God working

in the midst of the impossible, to show his power

and his glory. And yet he doesn't have ears really

to hear the angels so much. He says, how can

this be? But God has ears. But think with me

of this fact of God often doing his most impressive

work in the context of the impossible, just with

regards to barrenness, okay? There's almost this

thought that like Zacharias should have been

like, oh yeah, this is how you work. That wasn't

his response. But think with me, Sarah, Abraham's

wife, Anybody how old was Sarah when she conceived

and bore Isaac? Pretty old. It's pretty old.

Rebecca, she waited 20 years before she gave

birth to Jacob and Esau. Rachel was childless

until at last Joseph was born to her, right?

Waiting a long time. In Judges 13, we could read

about Samson's mother. Minoa was barren until

she gave birth to Samson. Think about this. Ruth

was married, wasn't she? Ruth was married, that's

a big part of her story. To her first husband,

didn't have any children. She had to wait a long

time. She was married finally to Boaz, and then

they had Obed, right? Then from Obed came...

King David. But here's the thing, what you find

in the Bible is again and again and again, God

seems to show his possibility in the midst of

what seems utterly impossible. And so verse 13

tells us, your prayers have been heard. God has

open ears in the midst of the impossible. That's

what Zechariah heard. And in some ways I want

to invite you into that. Do you have ears to

hear? Do you hear what I hear? Do you hear what

I hear? I mean, if anything, this is the announcement

of Christmas. God doing what is utterly impossible

for us, the unbelievable coming into reality.

God hearing the long cries of His people as He

did long ago in Egypt when they were crying out

to Him. and sending a deliverer himself in the

flesh, God in the flesh. He does his most impressive

work in the midst of the impossible, God giving

his own son the prayers of his people, long,

long prayers of his people going up, ascending

to him. And he hears, God has open ears. Think

about this, if Zachariah had two great hopes

in his life as a priest, First, they were to

go into the temple to burn the incense. That

was the great thing that you were only allowed

to do once because there were so many priests

and that would have been the highlight of his

career. And then the other thing was not just

to go into the temple, but to go out from the

temple and it was that that priest's job to declare

the Aaronic blessing over God's people. So he

would have had two functions when his name was

drawn by Lot. He would have gone and offered

the incense and he would have come out and he

would have blessed the people of God. But when

he exited that temple, like I said, he had to

play charades with the people. Not sure how you

do that. Guess he just went like this. Do you

know what I'm saying? Some of you know what I'm

saying. Lord bless you and keep you and make

his face shine upon you. Right? That's what he

would have said, but that's what he would have

done. He would have gone and said... Right? And

they didn't have ears to hear. But the wonder

of wonders is that God had the ears to hear their

cries that went up, and his blessing was for

them in the midst of that. And here's a wild

thing that if we jump down the chapter, we didn't

read this part, but... We jump down the chapter

to when John is born, the first words that come

out of Zacharias' mouth are words of blessing.

And they're not just words of blessing to the

people, what it says is he blessed God. Because

God had the ears to hear the long prayers of

his people. Verse 64 says, then immediately his

mouth was opened and his tongue loosed and he

spoke blessing God. He was to speak the blessing

of God to the people, but he must speak blessing

to God first because his ears were open and attentive

to the cries of his people. What we learned from

Zachariah is that often God does his greatest

work of blessing in our long waiting. His most

impressive work is through the impossible. His

most positive work often comes in the negative.

Let me tell you a little story I read this week.

In 1930s, there was a 15 -year -old. I thought

of this illustration with little Will Donowski

in mind. I'll have to tell it to him later because

they're not here. But there's a 15 -year -old

who went to try out for the St. Louis Cardinals.

That's a 15 -year -old. His name was Pete Reisner.

I wonder if his middle name was James because

then he would have my initials. And he went to

the tryout camp where there's all these scouts

and there's all these other people trying out.

And the ones that did well, they were asked to

come back. And the ones that didn't do so well,

they were cut. And Pete Reisner wasn't asked

to come back. And so, of course, he went home

dejected and discouraged. And my guess is that

he's 15 years old. He's like, this is an improbable

opportunity anyway. I wasn't expecting this unbelievable

announcement that I wanted. He gave it his best

shot, right? Well, a couple of days later, this

big Buick pulls up in front of his parents' home

and it's the head scout for the Cardinals. And

they come in and they ask him, hey, we want you

to play for us. And the father's like, what are

you doing? Why'd you cut my son? He's at the

worst days of his life. He said, we actually...

We actually cut him because we didn't want the

other scouts to see how good he was. We wanted

to send him home right away. So he didn't show

up and show off the next few days and get chosen

by some other team. Often the positive does come

out of the negative. Friends, if Christmas, if

the season that we're in, when we're lighting

all these candles and basking in the goodness

and grace of God for us, if it means anything,

it means that God has answered our prayers. that

the improbable has happened, that the unbelievable

announcement is actually true, that there's a

king that's different than King Herod who sits

on the throne, the Prince of Peace, the everlasting

God, the wonderful counselor, right? King of

David seated on the throne. He knows our long

sorrows. He hears your prayers. They do not go

unheeded by our Lord. He comes among us and he

comes for us. He comes to heal the wounds of

our world. He comes to take away our sin. Do

you hear what I hear? Do you hear what Zechariah

heard? God is still listening, still attentive

to his people, to their cries. He answers our

prayers, sometimes in improbable and for us untimely

ways, maybe. But he hears our long prayers, and

he has heard our long prayers. So the verse right

after Zachariah has his mouth restored, when

he finally actually has his mouth back, and he

blesses God, the verse right after that says

this, and all these things were talked about

through all the hill country of Judea. So Zachariah,

Zachariah's prayers are answered and he blesses

God, but it's a communal idea too. It's for all

the people of God together to hear the good news.

God has not forgotten you. He's come among you.

And our response is to bless his name. Amen.

Lord God, we're thankful for this story of Zechariah.

I'm thankful for songs that we can laugh about

where he's mute. but Lord I'm thankful that his

experiences that your scriptures don't describe

something that is so foreign to us that we so

often wait for a long time like Zachariah and

Elizabeth did we often hear your words to us

and we think how unbelievable give me a sign

but God your promises are always true Your yeses

are yes in Christ. The unbelievable happens in

the God man, God taking on flesh and dwelling

among us and for us. God, I pray that we would

receive that news of Christmas this morning,

Christ for us, Christ in the flesh, Christ on

the cross, Christ through the empty tomb for

us. The unbelievable happens. The greatest possible

positive happens and the greatest possible negative.

That Christ the God man comes for us. God I pray

that just as your ears are open to us, therefore

our mouths would be loosened for you. And we

would praise you and we would speak of you. And

the songs that we sing in this season joyfully

and willingly, songs of the wonder Glory in excelsis

Deo, the glory of the heavens coming down. The

person and work of Christ, Lord, would be on

our lips gladly and willingly and joyfully. Lord,

do this work in us. Remind us of your faithfulness

to us. How do we wonder at your ways and gladly

sing your praise. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank

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