Father’s Day 2015: Zechariah
Scott Bayles, pastor
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 6/21/2015
During the Superman Celebration last weekend, as we walked down Main Street in Metropolis, we could see all sort of costumed superheroes. In the midst of them, however, a little boy joyfully sat upon his father’s shoulders. His father’s blue t-shirt bore a red and yellow logo emblazoned with the words: “I’m a Dad! What’s your superpower?” I’ll tell you what, being a dad is pretty super.
At home I have a shoebox where I store special cards or letters or pictures that the kids have drawn for me. This week I reminisced as I rummaged through the box a little. In it, I found an old Father’s Day gift. In 2012, Ashley gave each of the kids a “Pop Quiz about our Pop.” She interviewed each of them and wrote down their answers for me. Let me share some of their answers.
• How old is dad? 7 (Abby age 2) 11 (Sarai, age 5)
• How much does your dad weight? 75lbs (Yeshua, age 6), 100lbs (Sarai)
• How tall is Dad? 11’5” (Sarai), 10’2” (Yeshua)
• My Dad is great at… running in circles (Abby)
• Dad likes to cook… donuts (Abby)
• His favorite thing to eat is… cheeseburgers and Oreos (Sarai)
• My dad’s favorite things to do are… teach about God and spend time with his family (Yeshua).
Now that they’re older, I’m sure they’d answer most of these questions differently. But I hope that Yeshua would still answer that last one the same way.
I heard one this week about three boys in the schoolyard bragging about who had the better father. The first boy says, “My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a poem, and people give him $100.” The second boy says, “That’s nothing. My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a song, and they give him $1000.” The third boy says, “My Dad is ever better than that. He scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, calls it a sermon, and it takes 4 men just to collect all the money!”
Being a father is the greatest joy and hardship of my life. I’m sure many of you can relate. Six weeks ago, on Mother’s Day, we explored the story of Elizabeth and Zachariah—the parents of John the Baptist. Focusing on Elizabeth, we saw that her role as a mom was struggle-filled, satisfaction-filled, and most importantly spirit-filled. For Father’s Day, I’d like to focus on the other half of that parenting duo and see what we can learn from Zachariah about fatherhood.
If you recall, Zachariah and Elizabeth were both “very old” and had been unable to conceive a child. But one fateful day, Zachariah experiences a heavenly encounter that changes everything. Before we get to that encounter, though, the Bible reveals that Zachariah was a pious would-be father.
• A PIOUS FATHER
Luke 1 begins by telling us that Zachariah was a priest actively involved in serving at the temple. Then we read, “Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous in God’s eyes, careful to obey all of the Lord’s commandments and regulations” (Luke 1:6 NLT). Zachariah and Elizabeth didn’t merely go through the motions in following God’s laws; they backed up their outward compliance with inward obedience. Unlike the religious leaders whom Jesus often called hypocrites, Zechariah and Elizabeth didn’t stop with the letter of the law. Their obedience to God was from the heart, and that’s why they’re called “righteous in God’s eyes.” That’s what piety is all about. And, today, the church needs more pious fathers.
Did you hear about the little boy who was playing on a Sunday morning while his Dad sat in a recliner reading the paper? The father said: “Son, get yourself ready for Sunday School.” The little boy asked: “Are you coming with me today Dad?” The man replied: “No, I’m not coming. But I want you to hurry up and get ready.” The little boy then said: “Did you used to go to Sunday School when you were a boy, Dad?” He said: “I most certainly did!” As he walked away the boy mumbled: “Yeah, and I bet it won’t do me any good either!”
Unfortunately, that little is probably right. Dads sometimes forget how much influence we have in the lives of our kids. Looking back on his missed opportunities, one father wrote this confession: "I took my children to school but not to church. I enrolled them in Little League but not Sunday School. I showed them how to fish but not to be fisher of men. I made the Lord’s Day a holiday, rather than a holy day. I taught them the church was full of hypocrites and made the greater hypocrite of them and me. I gave them television and video games but provided no Bible. I handed them the keys to the car but did not give to them the keys of the kingdom of God. I taught them how to make a living but failed to show them how to live."
The truth is dad, your kids are watching you and, like God, they can spot a fake when they see one. Zachariah and Elizabeth were called “righteous in God’s eyes” because they follow his commands and they did so out of a sincere love for God and for people. They lived good and godly lives. And their son, John, grew up to be a good and godly man. Let’s follow in their footsteps. Let’s be good and godly fathers.
In addition to his piety, Zachariah was also a prayerful father.
• A PRAYERFUL FATHER
As a priest, one of Zechariah’s duties included entering the “Holy Place” within the Temple and burning incense. This was done twice a day and the priests would each take turns doing it. When people saw the smoke of the burning incense rising from the Temple, they gathered around the Temple and prayed. The smoke drifting heavenward symbolized their prayers ascending to God. Within the Temple, Zechariah prayed too.
Then the Bible says, “While Zechariah was in the sanctuary, an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the incense altar. Zechariah was shaken and overwhelmed with fear when he saw him. But the angel said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Zechariah! God has heard your prayer. Your wife, Elizabeth, will give you a son, and you are to name him John.’” (Luke 1:11-13 NLT).
Zechariah was a man of prayer and, against all odds, God answered his prayers. My guess is that Zechariah had been praying for a son for as long as he and Elizabeth were together. Most people would have given up, but not Zechariah. He kept praying.
God answers prayer in his own way and in his own time. Sometimes God provides an answer instantly, other times we have to be patient and persistent in prayer. But he’s always listening and always answers.
Zachariah prayed that God would give him a child. As fathers, it’s important that we pray on behalf of our children. The apostle Paul wrote, “I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them…so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives” (1 Timothy 2:1-2 NLT). Certainly that applies to dads and their kids. Pray for your kids so you can live a little peace and quiet! But not only that, pray for God’s blessing in their lives. Pray that they will grow in wisdom and grace. Pray that they will develop a relationship with God that lasts a lifetime. It’s so important for us to pray for our kids, and even more important that we pray with our kids.
I’ll never forget the time that my son was three years old and I was tucking him into bed, when he asked if he could have some Superman fruit snacks, which he had at a bedtime snack the night before. I apologized and told him that they we all gone. He was a little heartbroken, but he didn’t cry. Instead, as we said our prayers together, he proceeded to plead with God to give him just a couple of Superman fruit snacks. As he continued praying, I quickly ran through my mental notes on prayer. How was I going to explain to a three-year-old that prayer isn’t about magically getting things from God, but about getting God himself? Well, as soon as he said “Amen,” I place one hand on the bed next to him and immediately felt something underneath it. I turned my hand over to discover two Superman fruit snacks which he apparently dropped the night before and had been laying on his bed unnoticed for the past twenty-four hours. Now, I know they were dry and stale, but I didn’t care. I just said, “Yeshua, look!” His eyes lit up, he thanked God, hugged me and popped those day-old fruit snack right in his mouth. I think that was the happiest I’ve ever seen him. And I believe to this day that God had that whole experience planned out as a way of instilling in my son at an early age that God does hear and answer our prayers!
Those moments stick with a child. By praying with your kids, you lead by example, showing them how to develop their own prayer life and relationship with God. Finally, in addition to being a pious and prayerful father, Zachariah was also a praise-filled father!
• A PRAISE-FILLED FATHER
Even though Zachariah had been praying for a miracle, he didn’t really expect it to happen. When Gabriel told him that he and Elizabeth would have a son, Zachariah asked for a sign of some kind. Gabriel, it seems, was a little offended, so he gave Zachariah a sign, but sign was that Zachariah would be silent and unable to speak until the child was born! Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it.
Flash forward nine months. Zachariah and Elizabeth hold a special ceremony for the baby’s circumcision and all their friends and family attend. A disagreement breaks out over the baby’s name, then the Bible says, “He motioned for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s surprise he wrote, “His name is John.” Instantly Zechariah could speak again, and he began praising God” (Luke 1:63 NLT).
I’m sure that Zachariah was praising God that he could finally talk again, but also because God had kept his promise and blessed their family. Soon thereafter, Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and gave a prophecy, saying:
“Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has visited and redeemed his people. He has sent us a mighty Savior from the royal line of his servant David, just as he promised through his holy prophets long ago… And you, my little son, will be called the prophet of the Most High, because you will prepare the way for the Lord. You will tell his people how to find salvation through forgiveness of their sins. Because of God’s tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us” (Luke 1:68-79 NLT).
Zachariah saw all that God was doing in the world and in their lives and praised God for it. He praised God for the coming Messiah, for redemption, salvation, and forgiveness. Zachariah lived in desperate times. Israel was under Roman occupation. Taxes were high, income was low. Slavery was commonplace. Death was all around them. But through the darkness, Zachariah saw God’s tender mercy breaking over the horizon. Dads, we need to be like Zachariah. We need to praise God in the good times and in the bad. We need to praise him for his love, mercy, and grace.
I read the story of a farmer who had toiled over a bumper crop of grain - a badly needed crop of grain - a badly needed crop that was going to pay off many creditors and secure the family for another year. But just a few days before it was due to be harvested a freak hail storm ravaged the property, and the harvest was lost. The man stood with his little boy looking over the fields of destroyed grain. The boy expected to hear his father cursing in despair. But instead his dad began to softly sing: “Rock of Ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee.” Years later that boy, grown into manhood, said: “That was the greatest sermon I ever heard!” What kind of sermon are your kids hearing from you?
Conclusion
Dads, we cannot thank you enough for all that you have done and continue to do in our lives. My prayer is that each one of us would become a little more like Zachariah—that each of us would be fathers of piety, prayer, and praise.
Maybe you’re not a dad, or maybe you didn’t have a super dad growing up. But even if that’s the case, you still have a father in God.
There’s a neat story about the evangelist D.L Moody. One night, he was preaching in a big circus tent in Chicago. His text was Luke 19:10: "The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." After he had finished, a little boy was brought to the platform by an attendant who had found the boy wandering in the crowd lost. Surprisingly, the boy was rather calm about it, so Rev. Moody took the child in his arms, walked up to the podium, and got the crowds attention. Then he said, "Somewhere here, the father of this child is more anxious to find the child than the child is to be found. So it is with our heavenly Father. He has been looking for you for many years." At that moment, a man with a worried look on his face elbowed his way to the platform. The boy saw him and ran into his outstretched arms. And the crowd broke out into a mighty cheer. Then Moody said, "God will receive you in the same way if you run into His arms today."
Invitation:
He was right. If you’re a father who needs to be more pious, prayerful or praise-filled, I’d love to help. But even more importantly, if you’re a child of God who has been wondering away from home for far too long, I’d love to help you reunite with our heavenly Father. In either case, I want to invite you to talk to me while we stand and sing.
