Luke 1:5-22 (NIV)
5 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. 6 Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly. 7 But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well along in years. 8 Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside. 11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. 13 But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15 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 from birth. 16 Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. 17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” 18 Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” 19 The angel answered, “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. 20 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 proper time.” 21 Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. 22 When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak.
My dear friends in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior,
Are you ready? Sometimes when we hear those words, they continue: “Are you ready for some football?” Apparently there is some major sporting event coming up soon, involving teams from Wisconsin and Dallas. I imagine one or two of us is all ready for that game.
Are you ready? Maybe you were out shopping for Christmas over Thanksgiving or online in the last few days. If Christmas would be tomorrow, would you be ready? Nothing like throwing a little extra panic in during this holiday season. But could we be ready for Christmas even if all those things weren’t done?
Are you ready? Maybe a tree needs to be put up yet, the decorations hung, the lights strung, the parts learned, the music practiced, the cookies baked, the cards sent…
Are you ready? If we had asked that same question of Zechariah and Elizabeth, two of the people from our text for today, what would they say? “Zechariah and Elizabeth, are you ready for the birth of Christ?” Today, let’s make a comparison between how we get ready for Christmas, and how Zechariah and Elizabeth prepared for Christmas. Let’s see how the Family of Christ is Ready for His Return.
Two thousand years ago, when Zechariah and Elizabeth got ready for the first Christmas, we can see all the preparations that were made. Actually, the preparations for the first Christmas had been made thousands of years earlier. When our first parents, Adam and Eve, sinned against God, they needed a present from God. They needed forgiveness so they could live with God forever. That’s why God promised that one of their children would be their Savior. For thousands of years, people got ready for the birth of that child on the first Christmas.
No, they didn’t go shopping or send out cards. They didn’t bake cookies or set up a tree. They didn’t hang Christmas lights or even put up trees. That doesn’t mean that Zechariah and Elizabeth weren’t getting ready for the first Christmas. Zechariah was and Elizabeth got ready for Christmas by “being upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly.” Although we are no longer required to keep all the regulations that the Lord gave to those preparing for the first Christmas, wouldn’t that be an interesting way to get ready for Christmas. Today is November 28, 2007. There are about 26 days left before Christmas. What if we each took a Catechism, and spent time on ten of the next twenty-six days before Christmas thinking about one commandment a day?
Let’s start with the First Commandment today. “You shall have no other gods.” What does this mean? “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” That reminds us that there is no other God except the true God, and that this God is to have first place in our hearts at all times. One way that we respect the Lord is to hate evil. Another way is to hide God’s Word in our hearts so that we don’t sin against him. How much time do we spend hiding God’s word in our hearts, compared, for example with shopping or other preparations for Christmas? Not that there is anything wrong with shopping or other preparations, but is there anything wrong with taking some time this Christmas season to hide God’s word in our hearts so that we live more upright lives?
One way we keep the First Commandment is by trusting in the Lord with all hearts, learning not to lean on our own understanding. We can see that we haven’t always given God the first place in our hearts, in our lives, and in everything we do. When we look at what God asks of us in the First Commandment, how nothing should be more important to us than him, and we use that to get ready for Christmas, how does that help us get ready for Christmas? Well, we need a Savior, just like Zechariah and Elizabeth did. When we see and acknowledge our own sinfulness before God, we are saying that we really needed that baby Jesus to be born for us also.
Then, when we spend some time seeing why we need Jesus as our Savior also, we can see that the most important part of being ready for Christmas is doing everything in the name of that little baby Jesus, and giving thanks to God the Father through him. So if some part or other of our preparation is keeping us from being thankful for Jesus, maybe it just isn’t all that important. Maybe we can ask ourselves this: “How are my preparations for Christmas helping me follow this passage from God’s Word?” “Be sure to fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you.” How can serving God faithfully with all our heart help us get ready for Christmas? How can stopping to dwell on the great things he has done for us help us get ready for Christmas?
That’s just one commandment. Zechariah and Elizabeth focused their lives on living upright lives in God’s sight, on observing his commands and regulations. But there was sadness in their lives even though they were keeping themselves prepared for the first Christmas in this way. They didn’t even have one child, and now they were well along in years. They no longer expected to have a child, nor did they think that they were any longer able to do so. The time for them to have a child had passed, or so they thought.
Zechariah was a priest. His division was on duty at the temple serving as priests before God. He, along with the other priests, were following all the commandments and regulations that God had given through Moses so that they would always be ready for the Savior of the world to be born. Then Zechariah received a special privilege, a privilege that often only came once in the lifetime of a priest. He was chosen by lot to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. There was a set time each day for the incense to be burned, and there were worshippers gathered outside the temple praying. Unlike our ability to come right in here to church, God had the people worship outside the temple to indicate that they needed holiness in order to enter into his presence, and only a Savior could give them that holiness. Now that Jesus has died, we are able to see the altar, which reminds us that Jesus has opened the way to eternal life for us in the presence of God.
As Zechariah was in the temple, burning incense as he was asked to do, something happened that just didn’t happen in the temple. An angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. Zechariah didn’t expect this at all, and just as you and I can be startled when someone is where they aren’t supposed to be, so Zechariah was startled. In fact, it was even worse than that. Not only was he startled, he was also gripped with fear. Even though he worked hard to keep the commandments and regulations of the Lord, he also knew that he wasn’t holy, that he needed the promised Savior. That was really obvious now, because, as he stood in the presence of this holy angel, he realized how sinful he was.
But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name 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 drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. Many of the people of Israel will he bring back 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 fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
What can we learn from this announcement? God listens to prayers and answers them on his basis. Zechariah’s wife Elizabeth was going to bear him a son, and this son was to be called “John.” It was the idea of even having a child that caused Zechariah to say, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” Even though Zechariah had prayed for a child, even though he was a believer who followed what God wanted him to do, even though he was a priest serving in God’s holy temple, even he doubted that God could cause to happen what this angel said would happen.
It was because of this doubt that God could do this that caused the angel to answer, “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 proper time.” Even though he was a believer and a priest and serving right there in God’s temple, he didn’t believe what the angel Gabriel was telling him.
Are there times when we don’t believe what God tells us? Sometimes, we don’t even know what God’s Word says about what is going on in our lives. How can that change? How can we draw closer to God every day of our lives? How can we trust more in his promises? How can we do better at following God’s Word in our lives? How can we have a stronger faith in our Savior? How can the family of Christ get ready for his return?
It’s very simple. Meditate on God’s Word. It means stopping every day on a regular basis and doing nothing else but thinking about what he says to us. Consider all the preparations that we are making for Christmas. If we get everything else ready except our hearts, what kind of Christmas do you think we’ll have? If we only get our hearts ready for Christmas, and we don’t get everything else done, what kind of Christmas do you think we’ll have? The most important preparations that can be done for Christmas are not those done online or at the store shopping. The most important preparations that a family can make is to find a devotion book, stop, and read about God’s way of getting ready for Christmas. That means that in every home, one person needs to be responsible for saying, “It’s time to get ready for Christmas by reading the lessons about Jesus and thinking about how God wants us to live our lives.” Will that be you?
What happened to Zechariah and Elizabeth? God gave them the child he had promised. Zechariah demonstrated his faith in what the angel Gabriel had told him by insisting that his son’s name be John. John helped the people get ready for the first Christmas by turning the hearts of the fathers to their children. The first responsibility in any home is for one person to be responsible for the spiritual well being of the family. John got people ready for the first Christmas by turning the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous. As people see their sinfulness, they see that they need a savior. Jesus is the Righteous One, the One who came to pay for the sins of all people. John got the people prepared for the Lord.
Are you ready for Christmas? On all our lists, where does reading God’s Word fall? When do we spend time seeing what God asks of us? When will we take a look at the Ten Commandments over the next 26 days, and see why we need Jesus to save us? What would happen if we put meditating on God’s Word on the top of our list and something else fell off? What would happen if we let all the other preparations that we make for Christmas push God and his Word off the list? Would we, as a family of Christ, be ready for his return? What would happen if all the Meditations sitting by the little white church were purchased and used? What would happen if we went online and ordered an Advent devotion book? What would happen if mine were a family of Christ, always ready for his return?
May Jesus grant us a blessed Advent season, as we prepare our hearts to celebrate why he came to this earth the first time, and as we prepare our hearts for his return on the Last Day. Amen.
