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We are on the front end of our journey through the Gospel of Luke, going through it verse by verse. And I want to continue that this morning; we will be looking at Luke one verses five through 25. This is an absolutely astounding historical account of God, once again, fulfilling his prophetic promises literally, as he breaks into human history after 400 years of silence; and he breaks into human history with an angelic appearance in the announcement of the first prophet in 400 years.

This is a very fascinating narrative. It's a very instructive narrative, and it's one that has much application for our lives, and frankly, this is just another passage that should cause us to just bow low in adoring worship as we see our glorious God accomplishing his purposes and disclosing his character to us through his Word. Let me read the passage to you, Luke one, beginning in verse five.

“In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah; and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.

They were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord.

But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both advanced in years.

Now it happened that while he was performing his priestly service before God in the appointed order of his division,
according to the custom of the priestly office, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense.

And the whole multitude of the people were in prayer outside at the hour of the incense offering.

And an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense.

Zacharias was troubled when he saw the angel, and fear gripped him.

But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John.

You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth.

For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb.

And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God.

It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

Zacharias said to the angel, “How will I know this for certain? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years.”

The angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.

And behold, you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time.”

The people were waiting for Zacharias, and were wondering at his delay in the temple.

But when he came out, he was unable to speak to them; and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple; and he kept making signs to them, and remained mute.

When the days of his priestly service were ended, he went back home.

After these days Elizabeth his wife became pregnant, and she kept herself in seclusion for five months, saying,

“This is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when He looked with favor upon me, to take away my disgrace among men.”

Every good historian must establish the historical context of what is about to follow. And that's certainly what we see here with Luke and I might add that this will also demonstrate the continuity of the story line of divine revelation by connecting the Old Testament with the New Testament, placing them on par with one another. And you will see this as we flesh this out. What follows is not some new religious system with two different ways of salvation, but they are all connected. Nor does the New Testament somehow transform or transcend or reinterpret what the Old Testament has begun, but rather, what we are going to see is the New Testament continues, the story line of the Old Testament prophecies and so forth. And by establishing the historical context, especially as it relates to John the Baptist as the messenger of the coming Messiah, which was prophesied in Malachi 3:1, Luke, is also going to demonstrate the literal fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. And I might also add that the miraculous birth of John the Baptist to his mother, who was beyond childbearing age, foreshadowed the even greater miracle of the birth of Christ to the Virgin Mary.

Now I want you to notice how Luke establishes the historical context. Right off the bat here, in verse five, he says, "In the days of Herod king of Judea." Now, if you're like me, you wonder, who is Herod really, and how many Herod’s are there? I remember when I was a young man, it's like there's Herod all over the place, but they seem to have different names. You know, what's going on here? So let me clarify that a bit for you. There's a whole bunch of Herod's, and it can be confusing. Herod first of all is the family name of the dynasty of rulers that governed Judea during this time, especially during the time of Christ. And Herod, actually the name originated from Idumea, which is the Latin and the Greek transliteration of the name Edom, and so Herod - all the Herod’s - were not Jews, they were Edomites or Idumeans. They were descendants of Esau, who was the brother of Israel's patriarch Jacob. And of course, the Edomites, or the Idumeans, as they're sometimes called, were the dreaded enemies of Israel down through the years.

Now, Scripture refers to several of these guys, and in our text here, we have Herod the First, or sometimes he's called Herod the Great. And you will recall he was the one that received the magi, the Persian king makers, that came to him looking for Jesus. He was the one that killed the infants in Bethlehem in Matthew two and Luke three. And actually, his father, Antipater, was a friend of Caesar, who appointed him procurator, or the governor of Judea. And Antipater then turns around and appoints his son, Herod, as governor of Galilee; and in the year of 40 BC, the Roman Senate nominated him king of Judea at age 21. That should tell you a whole lot, right there. But Herod's long reign, I might say, is beginning to wind down as we come to Luke's account here. He reigned I think it was 33 years until he died.

There was also Archelaus, who was a son and a brief successor of Herod the Great. You'll read about him in Matthew two. Then there was Herod Philip, who was son of Herod the Great, we'll read about him in Luke 3:1. That's the Philip that married Salome, or Salome, as some people pronounce it. Then there was Herod Antipas the Tetrarch in Acts 13. He was the son of Herod the Great, and he was the one who had Salome, his stepdaughter, entice him to execute John the Baptist in Matthew 14 and Luke three. And he was also the Herod who tried Jesus and became friends with Pontius Pilate on account of all that.

And then there was Herod Agrippa the First - this was Herod's great grandson actually - and he was the one that had James executed in Acts 12; also, he's the one that arrested Peter. He was the one who was eaten by worms. Remember, who was proud and arrogant, and an angel came along and wiped him out. That's a rough way to go, I'm sure. And then there was Herod Agrippa the Second, who was the son of Agrippa the first and he heard Paul in the company of Bernice and Festus in Acts 26 and so forth. Now you're not going to remember all that but just suffice it to say that you had a whole family of fools here, satanically empowered fools. This is what's going on in the context of what is about to happen.

Now, let me give you a little bit more background on Herod the Great. Many of the Jews and many of the Romans actually really loved Herod the Great because he, along with the Romans, drove the Parthians out of Palestine in 37 BC, and he also killed a notorious bandit, along with his fellow bandits, that was opposed to Herod's rule, and they were kind of like some of the bad people that we have in our country today that ICE is trying to get rid of, and so forth. They hid - by the way, those of you that have been with me to Israel - they hid in the caves there on the cliffs of Arbel, which is, if you look at the Sea of Galilee, you've got Tiberius, and right above that, you've got this massive mountain. And on the backside, you have all these cliffs. I've been all through that area, and this is where the bandits would go to hide. And what Herod did is he rigged up an ingenious elevator system on the very top where he could allow soldiers to go down in this elevator system and shoot flaming arrows into the caves, and all that type of thing, and finally get rid of these guys. And so a lot of people were rejoicing when that happened.

Herod also lowered their taxes. And if you want to win votes, that's how you do it; you promise people good things. And during a severe famine in 25 BC, he actually melted down some of the gold objects from his own palace to buy food for the poor. So he had some good qualities about him. He was so popular that some of the Jews formed a pro Herod party. They were called the Herodians. Maybe you remember reading about them. They were also buddies with the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and all of them hated Jesus. He also was responsible for many public works, improvements, rebuilding the temple. He rebuilt the magnificent Port of Caesarea by the sea - a number of you have been with me there - magnificent ruins that are still there. He also revived the city of Samaria, and he built the fortress of Masada, where so many of us have been.

But Herod the Great in our text, was also a very cruel, a very vicious and paranoid ruler, a jealous tyrant. He had secret police that infiltrated all of the communities around to spy on the people and tell him what the people were saying about him. He also had 2000 bodyguards that surrounded him pretty much at all times. And of course, he was the one that slaughtered the two-year-old boys in Bethlehem in all of that vicinity, remember in Matthew two. Which, by the way, I find rather humorous. We notice in the text here in Luke 1:5, "In the days of Herod king of Judea." And remember when the magi came? The magi were the Persian king makers; they had seen the shekinah in their land. They knew from the prophet Daniel what was going on, so they come to Jerusalem, a large number of them of the massive caravan to help supply them. And they come into town, and in Matthew two, beginning in verse two, what do they say?

"'Where is He who was been born king of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.'

"And when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him."

By the way, as you will see, the word "troubled," it comes from a Greek verb, "tarassō." It means "to shake." If you've ever been terrified and your adrenaline gets up and you start shaking, that's how he responded. Why? Because he was a jealous tyrant, and now here comes king makers looking for the real king, and so that's what motivated him to kill all of the boys two years age and under in Bethlehem and the vicinity. Interesting enough, Herod died in Jericho after suffering an excruciatingly painful, putrefying illness. He struggled with it for five years. It was a combination of chronic kidney disease and a severe, rare infection of his genitals known as Fournier's gangrene. It was a rare, very fast, progressing bacterial infection. I looked it up, the symptoms would be painful, itching, painful, intestinal problems and the rotting of the genitals. The Lord is very creative in his judgment against the wicked. And I might add that what he experienced there is mild compared to what he is now experiencing in the torments of an eternal hell.

Josephus tells us that, Herod was so afraid that no one would mourn his death, that he commanded a large group of distinguished men to come to Jericho and be killed at the time of his death, so that there would be this horrific public grieving that would occur, which he wanted for himself. So you can just see the guy's just satanically empowered, he's just crazy. By the way, his brother-in-law, Alexis, and his sister Salome, did not carry out that wish. So what you have now is a vicious, jealous, cruel tyrant. This was the political climate of Jesus' birth.

Now, also with respect to the Jewish people, they're living in spiritual darkness for the most part. They're living in apostate Judaism - trying to keep the law, feeling self-righteous because they do so many good things - but they are not right with God. But there are a few who truly feared God and loved God and walked with him, and Zacharias and Elizabeth and Joseph and Mary, and others, were among that number. They never lost faith in the promises that God made even 400 years earlier through the prophet, Malachi. Malachi 4:2, "But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall." They're described, as well, here in Isaiah 9:2, and this is really the context of what's happening,

 "The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them."

Later on, in Luke one verses 78 and 79 we're going to learn how Zacharias longed for all those who feared God to see the quote, "Sunrise from on high," the Messiah. That's what they were looking for the one who would dispel all of the spiritual darkness that encompassed that nation for hundreds of years. And no doubt, Zacharias and the others remembered Malachi 3:1,

"'Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming, “says the LORD of hosts."

Well, little did Zacharias know that he would be the father of this messenger. And I find it remarkable that from the very beginning here, Luke provides for us a stunning contrast. You have a wicked king and a godly priest. I've broken this down real simply into three different categories that I hope will help you as we go through this. We're going to see, first of all, Zacharias', his righteousness in the sight of God. Secondly, his encounter with the messenger of God, and finally, his unbelief in the promises of God. And I might say that we will all see ourselves in various ways as we go through this text.

So first, let's look at Zacharias' righteousness in the sight of God. The end of verse five, "There was a priest named Zacharias..." - by the way, that means "Yahweh has remembered" - he "...was of the division of Abijah." Now bear in mind that there were 1000s of priests scattered all over Israel. They worked in obscurity in little villages all over Israel. Israel was a theocracy, and the priests represented God to the people, and they were the mediators of God's rule. In the theocracy, they would offer sacrifices on behalf of the people. They would teach the people, they would counsel the people, they would judge the people. And twice every year, each priest would go to Jerusalem and serve for one week in the temple. And this is the context here for Zacharias. And we read here that Zach was of the division of Abijah.

Just a brief note here, in First Chronicles 24 we read how David and Zadok and Ahimelech organized the priesthood into 24 divisions, and Abijah was actually the eighth division. But when the Jews returned from exile from Babylon, only four divisions returned to Judah. You read about that in Ezra 2nd the division of Abijah did not return. So to maintain the tradition, what the post-exilic Jews did is they took the remaining group of priests, the remaining four divisions, and divided them into 24 divisions and restored all of the original family names to each of those divisions. And so that's why he was of the division of Abijah. And then in verse five, we also read that, "he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth." That was also the name of Aaron's wife, and the name means, "My God is an oath." So most all of the men in her family, and actually his family as well, were priests.

And verse six says, "They were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord." Now, dear friends, this is extremely rare in that day. It's extremely rare in this day. Now, how did they become righteous in the sight of God? Were they keeping the law better than other people? People will often ask this question in a different way, and that is, "How were Old Testament people saved?" Well, it's the same for everyone. They're saved by grace alone, through faith alone. That's justification, where we're declared righteous. And remember regarding Abraham's salvation, Moses wrote in Genesis 15:6, "Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness." So what did Moses and Abraham believe? What did Zacharias and Elizabeth believe? Well, they believed that God was infinitely holy, and that they had violated the law of God, that they were living in rebellion to him much of the time, and that it was impossible for them to somehow keep the law. So all they could do is turn to him in repentance and cry out for undeserved mercy and trust in him to grant them forgiveness, and to not impute their sins to them. And they understood that there was going to be a Messiah that would come and the ultimate and final sacrifice for all who trust in in him. And of course, Isaiah 53 explains all of this. They would have been aware of that. They knew that his death would ultimately ratify the new covenant promises, and that only his righteousness could cover their sin. So we read, for example, in Isaiah 61:10, "'I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, my soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness."

Now, while they didn't know who the Messiah would be, the Lord Jesus Christ - they knew he was coming. And you might say, at some level, they were saved on credit, but they trusted in God. They depended upon his grace; put their faith in him. And I might also add that when it says here, they were "walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord," this doesn't mean they were sinless, but what it does mean is that this was the trajectory, or shall we say, the pattern, of their life. And if you think about it, if you understand your theology, the imputation of the righteousness of Christ in our justification also includes the impartation of righteousness in our sanctification. In other words, when we're born again, not only are we declared righteous, but also by the indwelling Spirit of God, we increasingly become more righteous in that process of sanctification, because we become a new creature in Christ, "the old things pass away, the new things come" and so forth. That's what was going on with them as well.

So again, bear in mind what I'm trying to say at a most fundamental level, is justification never (no audio available) .....it always animates the process of sanctification. So if you see a person who says they are a Christian, and you do not see a life that is becoming increasingly conformed to the likeness of Christ, they have no basis to really claim genuine saving faith. They would have been like Job - I'm referring to Zacharias and Elizabeth - who was, according to Job 1:1, ".... blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil."

Now notice verse seven, "But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both advanced in years." Now in that day, barrenness was a horrible disgrace for a woman, because people thought that that was the result of some kind of sin in their life, and God was punishing that person, or perhaps the husband, or perhaps both. And of course, all of that's absurd. But this barrenness for Elizabeth, as we are going to see, was sovereignly ordained by God. He had a plan to bring glory to himself and ultimately to honor Elizabeth. And so she's about to conceive now and give birth to the long-awaited forerunner of the Messiah, who's going to be John the Baptist.

So we've seen Zacharias' righteousness in the sight of God. Secondly, notice his encounter with the messenger of God. Now, you can tell here the plot begins to thicken more and more. "Now it happened," verse eight, "that while he was performing his priestly service before God in the appointed or order of his division, according to the custom of the priestly office, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense." Now, folks, this would have been a supreme honor. This is every priest's dream. I mean, think about it, there are 1000s and 1000s of priests all over Israel. Every priest dreams of this, but it's extremely rare for one of them to be chosen by lot to come and to burn incense in the temple. And I'll explain that in a moment. So this is a once in a lifetime ordeal. In fact, if you were chosen, you could only do it once. So this is an exciting thing for him. This would be, I guess, like, like winning the lottery, so to speak, for a priest.

Now, priests were responsible to keep the incense in the temple burning perpetually; and it was in front of the veil that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. And this was done twice per day - the incense poured on on the altar there - it was done in the morning, and it was done in the evening. And the incense itself symbolized the confession of the people, the repentance of the people, their gratitude for saving grace. It also expressed their longing for the Messiah to come - the promised Messiah - to establish his kingdom on earth, to rescue them, and all of those wonderful things. And the priest would have to be extremely careful to make sure he did everything exactly the way God had commanded to perform his duties perfectly, because, after all, it's right next to the Holy of Holies. And if he didn't do that, he would be killed.

Remember the story of Nadab and Abihu, the eldest sons of Aaron, who approached God in a careless self-willed, irreverent manner. I'll remind you of that in Leviticus 10, beginning in verse one,

"Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective fire pans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them.

"The fire came out of the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD.

"Then Moses said to Aaron, 'It is what the Lord spoke, saying,

"'"By those who come near me, I will be treated as holy, and before all the people, I will be honored."'"

Beloved, make no mistake, God is serious about his holiness, so we don't approach him in an irreverent manner.

Now, on the day of Zacharias' offering of the incense in this particular scenario, it was probably in the afternoon, not the morning, e can't say for sure, but we read in verse 10 that, "a whole multitude of the people were in prayer outside at the hour of the incense offering." There was typically a much larger group that would come in the afternoon than in the evening, just like if we had an early morning service here versus an afternoon service. Which one do you think would be most attended? It's probably an afternoon. Now, Zacharias would have approached the altar, and there's some dispute, we can't be dogmatic, but many times we read in the Talmud that he would have two assistants with him - the priest would - one would be carrying a golden bowl that was filled with burning coals that it had been taken from the altar of the burnt offering, and so he would come now with his assistant, and the assistant would spread these out on the altar of incense. And then that assistance would withdraw, and the second assistant would be carrying the golden censer that would be filled with the incense that was made precisely according to the ingredients that God had commanded, and then he would withdraw.

So imagine the scene now, Zacharias is standing there, there's probably a pregnant silence, and then at a given moment, a signal would probably be given, and Zacharias would pour the incense upon the coals of the altar of incense, and suddenly, an aromatic cloud would ascend heavenward, and the people in the outer courts that were gathered outside the sanctuary, in the Israel court and the court of women, would be watching this rise. They would be able to smell the fragrance and with great joy, the congregation and the other priests and Levites who had been praying with outstretched arms would then wait for that priest to come out from the altar of incense, and they would move eastward to the steps of the of the of the Holy of Holies. And there they would typically gather with other priests and pronounce the Aaronic blessing on the people. There would be a benediction, if you will, followed by congregational singing and public offerings. And so that's what would typically happen.

But on this occasion, something different happened. They see and they smell the incense, but there's no priest. And so they wait and they wait and they wait some more, and people are beginning to wonder, "Uh oh, something's wrong." I mean, imagine yourself being there with the people. They know something's wrong here. You don't know if he'd been killed, that he did something wrong before the Lord; they don't know. They had no idea what was going on behind the scene. But we're told here in verse 11, "And an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense." Now beloved, bear in mind this is the first time in 500 years that an angel had come. And he comes now to Zacharias. And in verse 12, we read, "Zacharias was troubled." "Etarachthē" in Greek; it comes from the Greek verb, "tarassō." And again, as I mentioned earlier, it means "to agitate," it means "to shake, to and fro." Figuratively, it means to be terrified. The same word used, as I said, with Herod, when the king makers come and wonder where the king of the Jews is at, where was he born? So Zacharias was troubled. It's like he's shaking when he saw the angel, and fear gripped him. Have you ever been gripped by fear? I have. It's like you don't know what to say. You don't know what to do there for a minute. And by the way, this is always the common response all through Scripture, when someone sees an angel.

Now I know you're going to ask what I would ask; I wonder what he looked like. Well, we don't know. We're not told. It is interesting that sometimes angels will appear and they'll just look like a man. Remember when the three angels in Genesis 18 came to meet with Abraham. They look like men. You read Judges six, with Gideon, Manoah in Judges 13, Daniel 8:15, "When I, Daniel, had seen the vision, I sought to understand it; and behold, standing before me was one who looked like a man." And this would have been the same Gabriel. I might add too, that in Hebrews 13:2 it says, "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this, some have entertained angels without knowing it." I don't believe that this is saying that we need to expect angelic visitations, I suppose, I'm sure that could happen, but the real force of that text is to say you should expect great blessings for hospitality.

But in other times, like in Matthew 28, remember the angel that rolled away the stone and appeared to the women - spoke to them - it says that "his appearance was like lightning and his clothing as white as snow." So we don't know; we don't know what he looked like. I will add that, because sometimes this comes up, there's no such thing as a personal guardian angel. You don't read that anywhere in Scripture. And it's also interesting that when angels appear, they always appear as men. So what did he look like? Well, we don't know. He was probably invisible to everybody else, but we just don't know. So we're not going to start a new denomination based upon something that we want to come up with here, right? We don't want to add to Scripture something that's not there. But we do know that he talks here, verse 13,

"But the angel said to him, 'Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John.'"

This is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew "Yochanan", which means "God is gracious." Now I try to put myself in this position. You just did your thing, and all of a sudden, this angel comes and tells you this, and obviously you're terrified. We would all be terrified. Your adrenaline is surging through your veins, and obviously here you learn that there's an answer to a prayer that you've been praying for years. And he goes on to say,

"'You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth,

"'For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor...'"

This is a reference to a Nazarite vow; you can read about that in Leviticus six. Nazarite means: “dedication by separation." John will, in other words, manifest a lifelong dedication to special service for the Lord and be separate from the world, because he is going to be the forerunner of the Messiah. And so, it goes on to say that,

"'...he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb.

"'And he will turn away many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God.'"

My, this is such a testimony of God's grace, of his faithfulness, of his love. And here's why I would say that. Even though God knows that Israel at that point, and even today, Israel was an apostate group of people that were not walking faithfully with him; they were in an unconverted state of apostasy. And yet what we see here, is still, God is intimately involved with them. He's concerned for them. I love what Isaiah says in this regard. In Isaiah one and verse three,

"An ox knows its owner, and a donkey its master's manger, but Israel does not know, My people do not understand.

"Alas, sinful nation, people weighed down with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, sons who act corruptly! They have abandoned the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away from Him."

And yet we see here that the Lord is still involved, and he is bringing someone to announce the Messiah, "who will turn away many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God," and so forth. He goes on in verse 17, and says, "It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah." But don't you love those great stories of Elijah? I can still see my Sunday school teachers, little Swedish women with their flannel graphs; most you kids don't know what flannel graphs are, some of you do. I can still see Elijah and all the things that happened there. Sometimes we even got to go up and put something on there, on the little flannel graph board, I guess you call it. But he's going to be a forerunner before him, before the Messiah -

"...in the spirit and the power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."

"Now, something technical here, for just a moment. He's quoting here out of a portion of Malach 4, verses, five and six, which, which promises another Elijah, like figure before the day of the Lord, before the final judgment. It says, "'Behold, I'm going to send you, Elijah, the prophet.'" and again, John the Baptist was a type of Elijah heralding Christ's first coming, but apparently, there's going to be another Elijah-like figure. He's going to send that one,

 "'...before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.'"

Obviously, all this did not happen at Christ's first coming, there was no worldwide societal turning to the Lord in repentant faith, as is in view here; very few actually believed in Christ. But prior to the Lord's Second Coming, apparently, there's going to be another Elijah-like person who will preach the gospel to avert utter annihilation, "so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse." Hebrew, "ḥērem," the term "curse" that is used here is a very rare term that is used. It's not the typical word for "curse" in Hebrew, and this really speaks of devoting a person or a thing irrevocably to God's purpose for destruction; people or things that are set apart unto Yahweh for destruction. Sometimes you will hear that a nation is under "the ban," for example, that's the idea. So ultimately, this anticipates the establishment of the Messianic Kingdom, when Christ will save a remnant of Jews and Gentiles and make them fit to enter the kingdom. That will be the time when the curse will be reversed, the earth renovated - returned to Edenic splendor - the nations and the societies will worship the Lord, and he will rule from his temple in Jerusalem and so forth. And all of that to say God is going to now use John the Baptist to set all of this into motion. And apparently, he will use another one, another messenger, quote, "...before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord."

So we've seen Zacharias' righteousness in the sight of God and his encounter with the messenger of God, and now his unbelief in the promises of God. "Zacharias said to the angel, 'How will I know this for certain? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years.'" In other words, "I question the validity, the veracity, the reliability of your statement. It just doesn't fit my worldview here. This can't be true. This is too good to be true." You know, aren't we prone to do the same thing? Six-day creation? I don't believe that. All of the plagues that happened to Egypt? Not sure about that. The parting of the Red Sea? No, there's other explanations for that. That somehow God is going to establish a kingdom on earth? No, that doesn't fit my theology. That he's going to come and he's going to snatch away his bridal church in the in the rapture"? I can't buy that; and I'm not going to buy that he has chosen us before the foundation of the world. No that would, that would deny free will. That can't be true, doesn't fit my theology. That no man can be saved apart from divine initiative? Well, no, no, no. I mean, folks, I could go on and on with this, and I could give you my list that I've struggled with. But beloved, think of all the things that God has said in his word that you simply refuse to believe because it doesn't fit your world view. It doesn't fit what you think things ought to be like - "No, I can't buy all of that."

You know, I'm reminded, as I was thinking about this, I was reminded and encouraged by Joshua's farewell address, Joshua was one of my heroes; I've got so many heroes in the Bible, Joshua is one of them. He's 110 years old, he's about to die, and he's encouraging the people of Israel to go in and finish up what God has commanded them to do and drive out the remaining Canaanites from the land as God had promised that he would help them do. And here's what he said, Joshua 23:14, "'Now behold, today I am going the way of all the earth'"...in other words, I'm getting old, I’m about to die,

"'...and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one word of all the good words which the LORD your God spoke concerning you has failed; all have been fulfilled for you, not one of them has failed.'"

So therefore, he goes on to encourage them. You know, trust God. If he said it, you need to believe it. I think of Titus one in verse two, that essentially says that God cannot lie, but he fulfills all of the promises that He has made long ago. In Hebrews 10 and verse 23 "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful." Beloved, we are told in Jude three to "contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints." All of this to say in so many other passages, when God says something, don't doubt him. Don't deny him. Don't spiritualize it away to make it mean something that you want it to mean. And certainly, don't reinterpret things. Bear in mind that as we study scripture, we see that God never reinterprets previously inspired revelation. He means what he says. Take him at his word. A little personal story. I remember my dad, when I was a little boy, saying, on a number of occasions, "Son, when God says it, you need to believe it, and that settles it.

So what happens here? Zacharias doubts God's message. He wants a little guarantee. "How am I going to know this for certain? Your word isn't enough. This doesn't fit my worldview." Well, that went over like a pork chop at a bar mitzvah with the angel, right? And of course, the angel is speaking on behalf of God. So verse 19, "The angel answered and said to him, 'I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.'" By the way, the phrase in the original language, "stands in the presence of God" is one that is used to describe a trusted chosen representative that stands in the position, or in the presence, of a superior to do that person's bidding. He's standing in the presence of God. That's who I am here. And I didn't make this up. This is coming from God. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.

Gabriel, by the way, means "mighty man of God; mighty one of God." And that's what he says here, and you're going to doubt this? Beloved what follows next, of course, is a very gracious and mild form of divine chastening. It could have been much more severe. But bear in mind that whenever there's disbelief - whenever we refuse to believe what God has said - there's going to be chastening. You're going to forfeit blessing in your life, and that's what's going to happen here.

Verse 20, "'And behold, you shall be silent and unable and unable to speak.'" I love the word "until." There's mercy there, right? There's mercy there, "...until the day when these things take place." In other words, I'm going to chasten you for a while, and I'm going to bless you. "You shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place," that is the birth and the naming of the child; and here's why, "...because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time." In other words, you can take it to the bank. It's going to happen. Obviously, what was promised did take place.

So in verse 21 we're back to the scenario here with Zacharias. "The people were waiting," and as I say, and waiting and waiting, "for Zacharias, and were wondering at his delay in the temple." By the way, you may recall that the high priests had bells sewn into their garments and a rope tied on their ankle, so that if they messed up in the Holy of Holies, God would strike them dead, and they would pull him out of there because they couldn't hear the bells ringing anymore. So again, God is serious about his holiness, and so they're wondering, oh, dear, something's happened here. But then it says, "But when he came out, he was unable to speak to them; and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple; and he kept making signs to them, and remained mute." You know, I'm not sure what he looked like, but I can only imagine that he was probably as white as a sheet; and he's still shaking. And I don't know how you describe an angel, you know, what type of signs he made; he can't speak. Maybe later on, he wrote it down. Probably did, but at first, they're looking at him, and he's looking at them, and he's trying to communicate what has happened. I've been in near death situations on a number of occasions, and I know that feeling. By the way, there's no sign language here. They didn't have sign language back then. But he's just trying to somehow communicate what happened, you know?

And then we read in verse 23, "When the days of his priestly service were ended, he went back home. After these days, Elizabeth, his wife, became pregnant." Folks, those two verses are very, very important. It's an important statement to protect Elizabeth from any accusation of infidelity, because she did not get pregnant until after her husband returned home with her, not before. And then it says,

"and she kept herself in seclusion for five months, saying,

'This is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when He looked with favor upon me, to take away my disgrace among men."

My what heartfelt praise. Don't you know, she was thrilled? And it's interesting too, that she stayed in seclusion for five months. I wonder why that's important. Because if immediately she went out and said, "Hey, folks, I'm pregnant." They'd look at her and laugh. But when you're five months pregnant, it's like, "Oh, you are." There's visible proof.

Well, again, how easy it is for all of us to doubt something that God has said, to doubt his love for us, even we faithfully love and serve him. I mean, these were godly people. I mean, none of us are above this, and that's why we all have to guard our heart. If we don't, we can be chastened. We can forfeit blessing. We can grieve the Spirit; quench the Spirit. And there are so many things that people, even Christian people, will deny when God has clearly said differently. One that I've had to deal with here of late is people who are struggling. I say, "Boy, don't you know what God has said? That he's promised to be with you, even until the end of the age; that he's promised to never leave you nor forsake you," etc, etc, etc. "Oh, yes, but sometimes it's so hard for me to believe that."

I was reminded of William Gurnall, 17th century English clergyman and author. He said, quote, "Oh, it is sad for a poor Christian to stand at the door of the promise in the dark night of affliction, afraid to draw the latch." Folks, believe what God has said, trust in his Word, and may I challenge you, may it be said of each of us, in verse six that we are "righteous in the sight of God." Obviously, because we've been justified. We couldn't do that to ourselves. We have to be declared righteous. There is a forensic procedure that has occurred here between you and God, and God has initiated that. He has declared you righteous, imputed the righteousness of Christ to you, may that be said of us. And then also, therefore, that we walk "blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord." Folks, if that is not true in your life, if there's disobedience, and you're consciously aware of these areas in your life - your thoughts, your habits, your behaviors - are dishonoring to Christ; if you're being ruled by your flesh rather than by your Spirit, dear friends, please repent of that. How many people I've known who name the name of Christ, and yet they're not walking faithfully with him, and as a result, many times, their marriage is a train wreck. Their family is a dumpster fire. Their spiritual life is just in shambles. They're not enjoying the joy of the Lord. And on and on it goes. May we all be able to celebrate his promises, especially during this Thanksgiving season, right? To trust in His word and to rejoice in our Savior and King. And isn't it exciting to know what Zacharias and Elizabeth were looking forward to we can now look back upon and anticipate the rest of all that God has promised when he comes again in power and great glory. Let's pray,

Father, thank you for the great truths of your word. Press them upon our heart in such a way as to change our lives. We thank you for the hope that is ours in Christ. We thank you for your word that is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. May we trust in what you say, may we obey what you say, and thus give you honor as you return to us great joy and blessing. And Lord, if there be one here that knows nothing of what it means to be united to you through faith in Christ, I pray that you will break their heart until they do reveal the great truths of the gospel to them that they might repent, that they might believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. We entrust that to you, for only you can accomplish that, and may we be instruments of righteousness to that end. We thank you. We give you praise in Jesus' name, Amen.