Character Study: Zacariah And Elisabeth

Reading: Luke chapter 1 verses 5-24 & 57-80.

Quote:

“The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills, wills”.

Ill:

You know when you are growing old when…

• Everything hurts and what doesn’t hurt, doesn’t work,

• Your knees buckle and your belt won’t.

• Your back goes out more often than you do.

• You know all the answers but no one asks the questions.

• Your mind makes agreements your body can’t keep.

• You finally get it all together and then you can’t remember where you put it.

• You can’t seem to get around to procrastinating.

• You don’t need an alarm clock to get up at 6 a.m.

• The only whistles you get are from the kettle on the stove.

• You feel like the morning after and you haven’t even been any place.

• Anything under 50p isn’t worth bending over to pick up.

• Your pacemaker opens the garage door whenever you see a pretty lady go by.

• The gleam in your eye is just the sun reflecting on your bifocals.

• You stop to think and sometimes you can’t get started again.

• You sink your teeth into a nice juicy steak and they stay there.

• You finally make it to the top of the ladder but it’s leaning against the wrong wall.

Well this evening we are going to look at two older people:

• A priest called Zechariah and his wife Elisabeth.

• Please turn to Luke chapter 1.

(a). Unbelief (verses 5-25).

Ill:

• Turn to the beginning of your New Testaments.

• Normally between the Old & New Testaments there is a blank page (look at it!)

• No I haven’t flipped. That blank page is an important reminder;

• The people had not heard no prophetic Word from God for 400 years.

• That blank page covers a 400 year old chasm.

• 400 years of heavenly dumbness, heavenly silence.

• No prophet, declaring: “Thus says the Lord”.

• No prophet, writing on a scroll; “The word of the Lord came to me saying…..”

• Just 400 years of stillness,

• A voiceless heaven.

Now that does not mean God has not been working, controlling the world he has made:

• During that 400 year silence six flags throw over the nation.

• Six occupying governments.

• God was behind the scenes orchestrating these governments;

• Preparing his world for the coming of his son.

• e.g. Alexander the Great united the world with a trade language

• ‘Koine’ Greek.

• So that when the message of Christ was to be preached and written down;

• It was in a language everyone could understand.

• e.g. God used the Romans to build roads all over Europe;

• Allowing the gospel to be able to spread across the civilised world.

Quote David O’Brien:

“The events, literature and social forces of these years

would shape the world of the New Testament”.

• History is ‘His Story’;

• And God is always (silently or visibly) working his purposes out!

During those 400 years of silence:

• A variety of influences appeared;

• That splintered Jewish society in religious fractions.

• The three primary groups were the Essenes, the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

• The Essenes are not mentioned in the New Testament (fame was preserving Dead Sea scrolls).

• The Pharisees and the Sadducees of course get lots of mentions;

• But instead of helping the people find God they merely put hindrances in their way.

Ill:

• Jesus would describe their leadership skills as ‘the blind leading the blind’.

• And even worse he says of them; ‘Like white washed tombs’.

So the religious condition of the nation was not good:

• Yet no matter how dark the day,

• God always has His devoted and obedient people – enter Zechariah & his wife.

• Incredible as it may seem, God would choose to end the 400 years of silence;

• By selecting an ordinary priest and his wife as speaking to them!

(1). A faithful priest (verse 5-7).

(1). Their names (verse 5a):

”In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron

• His name ‘Zechariah’ means; "Jehovah has remembered".

• He was married to Elisabeth '("God is my oath").

The meaning of Zechariah’s name is a great expression ‘God remembered’:

• This means much more than God recalls something to his mind.

• It means much more than refreshing ones memory (not that God forgets!).

Quote: Ronald Youngblood:

“To remember someone meant

means to express concern for someone, to visit someone with gracious love”

• God was always conscience of Zechariah & Elizabeth.