Scripture: Luke 1:5-25
Theme: Be Ready
Title: Be Ready … For God’s Surprises!
INTRO:
Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
Welcome to the 1st Sunday of the Advent Season!
This month I felt impressed by the Holy Spirit for us to look at a series of God Encounters surrounding the events of Advent and Christmas. I would like for us to look at a series of times when people found themselves in the presence of God Himself, in the presence of one of His Holy Angels or something revolutionary was revealed to them through a dream, a vision or through nature itself.
As we look at each encounter, I would like for us to examine how each person grew from their encounter with the LORD. And then how we can in turn learn from their experience and perhaps open a door for us have a God encounter ourselves. How we can have an amazing experience with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit this Advent and Christmas season.
But in order for us to experience such encounters we have to do something. We have to BE READY …
– and that is the theme I would like for us to look at this Advent and Christmas Season
BE READY …
I. Be Ready … to Remember who God Is and what that Means
Our first encounter involves a priest who was named Zachariah – or “God remembers”. That is what the name Zachariah means – “THE LORD REMEMBERS”
Each time Zachariah heard his name or thought about his name he was to remember the that he was in the presence of the God who remembers:
+ The God who remembers the names of His Children – who remembers that He created them in His Own Image
+ The God who remembers where His People are living and what they are experiencing
+ The God who remembers His People’s dreams, hopes and wishes
+ The God who is not distant but present – who remembers the struggles, trials and testing that His People are enduring.
And each time that someone said his name – Zachariah; they were to remember themselves who God is – His Identity, His Characteristics and His Qualities. They were to remember that their God –the Good God of Creation – the God of the Exodus and the God of Rescue, Redemption and Restoration is:
+The God of All Creation – All things were and are made by Him
+The God of Love – not just loving but is LOVE
+The God of Covenant – the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
+The God of Mercy and Grace
+The God who is the Only God that Exists – all else are false gods – fallen angels or statues made of stone, wood or metal. Ultimately, they have no power, they cannot give either physical life or everlasting life.
+The God who desires to be a part of people’s lives
Each time the name Zachariah was spoken it was to be a testimony to the LORD
+ God who remembers His people
+The God who is Faithful
+The God who is Truthful
Luke tells us that both Zachariah and his wife Elizabeth were excellent examples of people who both remembered God and lived lives worthy of God. They were faithful in their marriage. They were faithful in their love for one another.
They were faithful in their walk with the LORD. The words that Luke chooses to describe this wonderful couple are words that speak of integrity, innocence, truthfulness and holiness.
Now, of course they were not perfect. They were not sinless but they were lives that were pleasing to the LORD. Over the years they had developed the habits of spiritual faithfulness. They had grown in their walk with the LORD to the point where serving the LORD was not out of duty but became a walk of love and joy. They had become the words righteous and blameless. They had become like some of the saints of old; Enoch, Job, Deborah and Hannah.
We don’t know their exact age. We don’t know whether they were middle aged or were senior citizens. Some have speculated that since Zachariah was still serving in the Temple that he had to be under the age of fifty going back to what Moses wrote in Numbers 8:24-26
“This applies to the Levites: from twenty-five years old and upward they1 shall come to do duty in the service of the tent of meeting. 25 And from the age of fifty years they shall withdraw from the duty of the service and serve no more. 26 They minister to their brothers in the tent of meeting by keeping guard, but they shall do no service. Thus shall you do to the Levites in assigning their duties.”
Others have pointed out that since burning the incense was not a physically demanding task, then Zachariah could have been much older; perhaps even in his 60’s or even 70’s.
We just don’t know. What we do know is that physically the time for them to have a child had gone. Whether that meant that Elizabeth had transition into another phase of her life or the fact that both of them were in their upper 50’s or beyond we don’t really know. All we know is that for decades this wonderful couple had been serving the LORD and had been faithfully praying for a child. They had been praying for a child that would take over for Zachariah one day and be a priest before the LORD.
When Gabriel shows up and starts sharing with Zachariah it was to be a message that reminded him that he serves a God who remembers. The God who loves him and Elizabeth and the God who remembers their hopes, their dreams and their prayers. This morning, we serve the same God – the God who remembers our dreams, our hopes and our desires.
The first thing we can do each day is to remember who we are and whose we are. The first thing we can do is to remember we serve the God who loves us, redeems us and wants the very best for us.
II. We need to Be Ready … to Receive Good News
We need to Be Ready to Receive Good News from the LORD!
We know that we need to be righteous and blameless. We have been taught that all of our lives. Over and over again we have been taught that we need to live right. That we need to live according to God’s commandments and rules. We need to be blameless.
But how many of us have been taught to be ready to receive the goodness of God? How many of us truly believe that God wants to do what is best for each one of us? How many of truly believe that God is in Heaven doing all He can so that we can have an abundant life here on this earth – right now?
Zachariah was not ready. In verse 18 we read that this man who was righteous and blameless was not ready to receive the blessings that God had in store for him and Elizabeth.
Why wasn’t he ready?
+Perhaps there he felt too many years had passed since that first prayer for a child that he and Elizabeth had said together.
+ Perhaps too many Passovers had come and gone with no little child of theirs to run and open the door for Elijah and the Messiah.
+Perhaps they had watched too many of their friends’ children grow up and themselves become parents.
+Perhaps they were now comfortable looking forward to their golden years and having a quiet home.
+Perhaps Zachariah was looking at this as his last opportunity. He would offer the incense. He would go home and rejoice with God over all the things that he and Elizabeth had done. Now, it was time for the next generation.
If you have ever prayed for something it is easy after a few years to pull your sights down a little. To become comfortable with things as they are and begin to wonder if you really wanted that pray answered in the first place.
Do you really want to leave the desert and go into the Promise Land?
Do you really want to leave the comforts of Babylon and go back and spend your years rebuilding the walls, the city and the Temple of Jerusalem?
Do you really want to embrace your once heartfelt desire or is it time to let the dream die? Is it time to just accept the new normal and no longer bother God or put yourself through the bother?
While all of this was going on suddenly right there in the Temple; while Zachariah was offering the incense an angel appeared. An angel named Gabriel. An angel that seems did not have a great deal of patience or at least it appears that way.
Gabriel’s job was to come down and speak to Zachariah. His job was to deliver God’s message. His job was to make sure that Zachariah knew what God wanted him and Elizabeth to be ready for in their lives. His job was to make sure that they accepted God’s plan for their lives. He wasn’t up to a counseling session. He wasn’t ready for a man to question him.
You got like Gabriel’s sass –
“I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings.”
In other words – Zachariah – God had heard you. And God has sent me to tell you to Be Ready for some Good News.
Gabriel didn’t want Zachariah to trifle with him. We see this same attitude in the book of Daniel where Gabriel appears to the Prophet Daniel. Daniel too is taken aback as well.
In fact, Daniel 8 tells us that not only did Gabriel give Daniel quite a fright but it was so much so that Daniel became ill for a brief period of time. Seeing the majesty and power of Gabriel must be overcoming.
The Bible and other ancient Jewish resources tell us that Gabriel is a warrior angel. In other words he is not to be taken light. He has been sent to bring Good News and he doesn’t appreciate it when it is not readily received. These were not his words but God’s words and as far as Gabriel is concerned they are to be heard and received without question.
From what we read in verses 20ff he was not very tolerate either. He was not happy with being questioned by Zachariah. And he was not happy with what he took as Zachariah’s lack of faith and unwillingness to receive God’s Good News.
And like a captain who tells a soldier to get in line and keep his mouth shut and his opinions to himself, Gabriel has the power to shut Zachariah up for the next nine months or so. “Don’t mess with me – human. I came from the presence of the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY. I got something to say. Just listen, receive it and obey it.”
Even though Zachariah was holy, blameless and righteous he had laid down restrictions before the LORD. He was too old. His wife was too old. They couldn’t bear a child. They couldn’t take care of a child.
Maybe they could have years ago but no longer. Sorry, but Gabriel, you will need to go and tell God thanks but no thanks. And after all could God really do this? Could God really give an older couple a baby? You go back, Gabriel and tell God that I have problems with all of this, okay?
You see, this is where Zachariah’s name should have helped him – God remembers. We need to remember all the good things that God has done for His People – things that people thought were impossible:
+Abraham and Sarah – the Promise Child Isaac
+The crossing of the Red Sea.
+The crossing of the Jordan River.
+The boy David taking the head of Goliath.
+The Prophet Elisha causing an axe head to float.
Zachariah should have just said his own name and remembered that he serves a God who can do the impossible and who loves to do the impossible. God loves a challenge. God loves to do something that causes people heads to shake.
Remember the words of Isaiah 43:18 – 19
“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
Remember the words of Isaiah 40:31 –
“but they who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
Dreamers have to die because they are human but dreams do not have to die. Visions, dreams, goals and plans given to us by God will come true I believe if we stay in faith. If we stay ready to receive God’s dreams and visions for us.
+That person you have been praying for – don’t give up – God is hearing your prayers and is at hard at work in the background
+That marriage that is not good – don’t give up – continue to be a person of character, loving, praying, staying faithful – God is hearing your prayers and is at work
+That dream; those plans – don’t give up – continue to press on – continue to believe and to sow seeds – continue to be faithful and allow God to work in His own time table.
Listen, Zachariah had no clue that day that he went in to the Temple to offer incense. As far as he knew this was the last day of his noble service to the LORD. For at the time it was rare if a person got to offer incense in the Temple just one time. This was his one time. He could do other things but this was the highest most noble position of all – to stand as a mediator for the people of God and offer up the incense bringing the prayers of the people before the LORD.
He had no clue that day would be the beginning of the biggest dream of his life. He had no clue that God would answer his and Elizabeth’s long held prayers.
They would have a successor.
There would be another priest in the family line.
What they didn’t fully realize was that their dream, their blessing was going to be greater and bigger than they could ever have imagined.
This morning as long as we are drawing breath – we can still pray, dream and hope. This morning as long as we are still drawing breath then we need to understand that God still wants to work through us, in us and with us.
In the natural time had passed for Zachariah and Elizabeth.
In the natural the best that this couple could do for the Lord was to once offer up the incense for prayers in the Temple.
In the natural their names in a few years would no longer be mentioned.
But we need to Be Ready …
III. Be ready …. For God to Out Do Himself
I think part of the reason Zachariah struggled was in the words of Gabriel.
Go back to verses 14 – 17 and you will see what I mean.
Verse 14 is great – after all who doesn’t rejoice over the birth of a baby.
But starting with verse 15 things take a sudden shift
Gabriel begins to talk about Nazarite vows – the boy not drinking wine or strong drink – that sounds a great deal like the vows that were given by the Lord God Almighty for such men as Samson and Samuel. Both were men of great power. They were judges and Samuel held the office of prophet as well.
Gabriel goes on to say that the Holy Spirit would do something unique in this boy’s life. The Holy Spirit had fallen on many people in the Old Testament. Joseph was seen as having the Holy Spirit. Moses had been filled with the Spirit to carry out the Exodus from the land of Egypt. King Saul had been filled with the Holy Spirit after Samuel had anointed him as the first King of Israel.
But this boy would receive the Holy Spirit in his mother’s womb. This boy would be different. He would be the forerunner not only for the Messiah but the forerunner of all those who would repent, be baptized and be filled with God’s Holy Spirit. This boy, John would be the forerunner of that Pentecost experience.
He would be a mighty evangelist. That was not the usual job description of a priest. A priest would work in the Temple or sometimes near a synagogue. A priest would help teach, write and work around holy things.
Gabriel is telling Zachariah that his boy would be a rather unusual priest – he would be a priest that preached. A priest that would go out and help people come back to faith. He would be a priest that would go out and help people mature in their faith. He would be both priest and prophet.
John would go out in the spirit and power of Elijah.
Now, that had to cause Zachariah’s heart to skip a beat or two. Nazarite, images of Samson and Samuel. Evangelist. Spirit of Elijah? Power of Elijah?
Images of battles with false prophets, pulling fire down from heaven and raising people from the dead had to be flooding into Zachariah’s heart, mind and soul. Images of having the same spirit as one of the greatest prophets to ever tread the hills, roads and streets of the Promise Land had to take him back a step or two.
And finally, John would be a person who would bring reconciliation to families. He would help families come back together again. He would be able to smooth the waters that existed between parents and children and children and parents.
Wow!
All Zachariah and Elizabeth were looking for was a boy that would be one of the next priests in the division of Abijah. They were looking for a boy who would be one of the 7,000+ priests that would be called upon at some time to work in the Temple and serve the people of God.
But God had much more in store for Zachariah and Elizabeth. Their promised son would be more than a priest. He would be the first prophet of Israel in nearly 400 years. He would preach a message of repentance. He would move around in the power of the Holy Spirit. He would be the forerunner of the Messiah.
Talk about God reaching down and out doing Himself. Talk about God just deciding to not just give Zachariah and Elizabeth a boy – but what a boy.
John would be more than a priest. He would be a one of a kind of evangelist, Nazarite, family reconciler and prophet. He would be Samson, Samuel and Elijah all mixed up in one.
Little wonder Zachariah had problems believing it. But it all was true. John was all those things and more.
You see that is the God we serve. The God who loves to do more than we can think or imagine in our lives. The God who:
+Takes a spoiled son who has big dreams and doesn’t quite know how to deal with them and in the end leads him to become the Prime Minister of Egypt and saves not only Egypt but his own family as well – Joseph.
+Takes a slave and allows him to learn under Moses and then propels him into the 1st leader of God’s people in the Promise Land – Joshua.
+Takes an older man and has him fall in love with a widow from a cursed land and their child becomes the grandfather to King David – Boaz and Ruth.
+Takes a rich young man and leads him away from his father’s farm and has him become the helper and successor of Elijah – Elisha.
+Takes a young man who many thought was a coward and a failure and molds him into a disciple of St. Peter and who writes the first Gospel – the Gospel of Mark.
Zachariah had been waiting for God to show out and boy did he show out. The next 30+ years of this boy’s life were going to be amazing. This boy was going to be amazing.
Did Zachariah and Elizabeth deserve it? Not really. There were other people that lived at that time that were righteous and blameless.
They were two dead old stick that couldn’t birth a baby. That is until the God who remembers – remembered them. The God who wants to surprise – surprised them. The God who still fulfills dreams came knocking on their door.
This morning, where does all of this take us?
We need to Be Ready … for the God who remembers – and we need to remember the God who loves us, wants the best for us and is always working for our good.
We need to Be Ready … to receive from the Lord – Good News. We need to be ready to receive from God anointing and answers to our prayers. We need to know that God has not forsaken us and that God has us in the palm of His hand. God is doing what is necessary for us to live an abundant life.
We need to Be Ready … for God to do something more than we can even think or imagine.
We need to Be Ready … for God to use us in ways we can’t even conceive.
We need to B Ready … to accept the impossible, to be open to the impossible and to be a part of the impossible.
So, as we close this morning – Are you ready?
+Are you ready to remember the true God – the God who loves you, forgives you, accepts you, anoints you and approves you? Are you ready to remember the God who hears your prayers, who knows your heart’s desires and is doing everything possible to help you fulfill those that will bring you the most abundant life possible?
+Are you ready to open up and receive from God Good News? Are you ready for God to share a new revelation to you? Are you ready for God to reveal Himself, His plan in a new way?
+Are you ready for God to do something in you and through you that will cause everyone around you to whisper?
Or are have you settled?
Have you decided that time has passed you by. That there are no more dreams, revelations and visions? There are no more high moments. There are no more God encounters?
Let us not grieve the Holy Spirit. Let us believe in the God of the Impossible. Let us be determined to believe, to receive and to join with God as He does the impossible in us, with us and through us today.
Let us Pray that we
+Remember who we are and who Our God Is
+Open our hearts, our minds and our spirits to Receive Good Things from Our God
+Allow God to Out Do Himself in our lives and through our lives
Open Altar/Closing Prayer
