The Christmas Angels – Part 1 CCCH 12-5-99
INTRODUCTION
ILLUS – It’s about this time of year that I think about watching my favorite movie again, It’s a Wonderful Life. And I picture poor George Bailey standing in the snow without a coat on that bridge in Bedford Falls thinking about ending it all. Life hadn’t quite turned out the way George thought it would. Now that the building and loan was flat broke it seemed like he was up against an impossible situation with no way out.
And George Bailey reminds me that Christmas comes at a time of year when without question, someone somewhere will be up against a seemingly impossible situation with no way out. Maybe this year, it’s you.
A. As we read all the way back in history to the story of the angel’s visit to Zechariah it’s important to remember that even though times and cultures may change, God’s character remains the same.
That’s good. Because the angel says…
B. THESIS: We can count on God to breathe hope into the stale air of impossible situations.
TRANSITION: In the angel’s message to Zechariah we find two rays of hope. First of all…
I. WE CAN COUNT ON GOD WHEN WE FACE IMPOSSIBLE PERSONAL SITUATIONS
A. Zechariah and Elizabeth were facing the impossible situation of being childless late in life.
To be childless in those days often brought a lot of shame and sorrow to a couple.
1. Some Jews at that time did not believe in a bodily resurrection, so their hope of immortality was in their children. In addition, children cared for their parents in their old age and added to the family’s financial security and social status. Children were considered a blessing, and childlessness was seen as a curse. (Life Application Bible note on Luke 1:25)
2. Elizabeth even called her childlessness “a disgrace among the people” (Luke 1:25).
3. Some surely would have thought that their lack of an heir was the result of sin.
4. But Luke shows us this wasn’t the case: “Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly.” (Luke 1:6)
These 2 righteous people have lived with the deep disappointment of never having the child they longed for. And now they are well along in years – past the age of being able to have children. Humiliated and hopeless.
People talk about Z and E being nice people – but there must be some sin in their life. Who will take care of us when we are old?
B. God uses the climactic moment in Zechariah’s career as a priest to make His move.
1. As one of nearly 20,000 Jewish priests, Zechariah served at the temple in Jerusalem for two one-week periods each year.
2. A priest could offer the incense at the daily sacrifice only once in his lifetime. Today was Zechariah’s day! (Read v. 9-10)
Smoke of the incense symbolized prayers going to heaven. People were praying. Zechariah was undoubtedly praying. (In the temple alone. Before the God he had faithfully served, but now whom he wondered if he had offended.)
C. The angel Gabriel shows up with an important message.
1. Gabriel’s first words (Luke 1:13) are like a like a breath of fresh air:
a. “Do not be afraid, Zechariah.”
b. “Your prayer has been heard.”
2. There would be a child in the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth after all.
God stepped in late in the game. And brought hope where there was none. Hope, Zechariah. Hope, Elizabeth, after all these years.
ILLUSTRATION – In Jim Cymbala’s book, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, there is the story of a woman named Roberta Langella. A story she tells in her own words. At the age of 16 she left a broken home to move to New York City where she began living with a man twice her age. A man that got her into IV drug abuse through heroin and cocaine. One night after shooting up, her boyfriend thought she had died. He took off, leaving her on a rooftop where someone discovered her and called 911. The paramedics revived her.
Her feelings of worthlessness led her to one destructive, physcially abusive and drug-centered live-in relationship after another. She began going to underground clubs where she would shoot up and share needles with 20-30 people at a time. Eventually she and her latest boyfriend were out of money, out of food, the utilities had been turned off, and she they were selling their furniture to finance their drug habit.
Faced with this impossible situation, she called her mother back in Florida, who let her move down, and got her into Narcotics Anonymous where she kicked the drug habit and soared with newfound confidence.
But then – everything came crashing down. A visit to the doctor unveiled a horrible fact. She was HIV positive.
After 2 years of being clean she returned to crack cocaine with a vengeance. Wanting the drugs like never before. After a week long cocaine binge, she was truly at the end. Faced with an impossible situation. HIV positive. No money. No love relationship.
Years ago, she had happened to meet a woman in her apartment building who attended Brooklyn Tabernacle. And for some reason, that Tuesday night with nowhere else to turn, she showed up at that church and went to the altar shedding tears she couldn’t stop. “God, I need you in my life. Help me please!”
And that night her life was changed. Today, even though she is sick, she heads up a ministry at Brooklyn Tabernacle called, “New Beginnings.” It’s a weekly outreach to drug abusers.
God gave hope when there seemed to be no way out.
ILLUSTRATION - Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark – trapped by snakes on all sides – then he looks up – There’s only one way out!
Psalm 121:1 – “I lift my eyes to the hills – where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of Heaven and earth.”
Impossible situations often seem less impossible when we look up!
Look up!
Does anything seem hopeless to you today?
Faced with an impossible situation at work?
Up against an impossible situation in a relationship?
Burdened by an impossible situation with your family?
Troubled by an impossible situation financially?
You know what? God specializes in hopeless cases. He’s the expert at taking impossible situations and turning them into blessed possibilities.
Recent popular song on Christian radio by Caedmon’s Call – “There you go, working good from all my bad. There you go making robes from my rags.”
He takes what looks like a dead end, and creates new possibilities.
D. It’s good to know that God’s character doesn’t change.
1. The same God who brought a child to a hopeless elderly couple is still God today.
And he still specializes in hopeless cases – Your prayer has been heard!
2. He wants to breathe hope into the stale air of the seemingly impossible situations in your life. So look up, and let him know you could use a little hope.
TRANSITION: The message of hope from Gabriel doesn’t end with the news of a child for Zechariah and Elizabeth. The message of hope is for everyone.
II. WE CAN COUNT ON GOD TO FIX AN IMPOSSIBLE SITUATION FOR HUMANITY
A. When Zechariah is in the temple God begins in a fresh way to redeem humanity. He reveals that He’s sending a forerunner of the One who will take away the sin of the world.
1. “How appropriate to pick a moment of worship and a time when people recognized their need for cleansing from sin!” (Darrell Bock, NIV Application Commentary: Luke, p. 49)
2. All the assembled worshippers who were praying outside (v. 10) couldn’t keep the Law perfectly.
3. They were in a hopeless situation of attempting to be 100% righteous, but thoroughly unable to accomplish this goal.
Humanity was in a hopeless situation
B. The angel’s message to Zechariah was that his son, John, was to play a special role in the unfolding of God’s eternal plan (Luke 1:17).
1. “He will go on before the Lord” - Before the Lord!? The Lord himself is coming!
2. “In the spirit and power of Elijah” – God’s last recorded words in Malachi 4:6 promised the return of the prophet Elijah. (See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers.)
3. “To turn the hearts” - “Turn” is reference to John’s message of repentance. (Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near!)
4. “A people prepared for the Lord” – If God is to lead his people, they must be ready to respond.
C. Zechariah understood that after all these years, God’s time to send the Redeemer was now at hand.
One who would forgive people of their sins and relieve them from this impossible burden of having to be perfect to be acceptable.
Zechariah was praying probably not only for an end to his shame, but also for the restoration of Israel. As were the people outside. And the angel says, People, Your prayer has been heard!
ILLUSTRATION – (The opening scene of Prince of Egypt) Israelite slaves are being whipped and beaten by the Egyptians while forced to do hard labor, and they cry – DELIVER US!
God heard the cries of his people and brought them out of an impossible situation with no hope in Egypt.
Years later God would step into history and bring humanity out of the impossible situation of being captive to sin and lead us to freedom through Jesus Christ. And his plan’s not done. Even the Israelites wandered for 40 years in the wilderness before entering the Promised Land. And though free, we too journey here awaiting the time when He’s taking us to the Promised Land of Heaven.
D. It may seem today like it’s been a long time since God broke through in history to reveal the progress he’s making on his plan. (Even Zechariah asked, “How can I be sure?” Answer: Just you be quiet and see!)
1. The same God who waited almost 1500 years between the Exodus and the birth of Jesus Christ still has His plan in place. God, how long until you take us home?
Your prayer has been heard!
2. Paul says the fulfillment of God’s plan will take place “in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet” (1 Corinthians 15:52). We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed…. The dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. (1 Th. 4:17)
3. You can count on the fact that God has forever fixed an impossible situation for humanity.
TRANSITION: He has breathed hope into the stale air of our existence.
CONCLUSION
ILLUS - Paul Harvey tells of when Jack Benny was a young man, he saw a woman at work that he was attracted to, but he was kind of afraid to approach her, and so he started anonymously sending her one red rose every day. Finally the woman became overcome with curiosity and she called the florist to find out the name of the person. So she called Jack Benny and said, "Why are you sending me these roses?"
He said, "Well, would you like to go out with me?" So they went out together. All the while he kept sending her a red rose every day as they continued to date. He proposed to her and the flowers kept coming during the engagement. Finally they got married. The flowers continued on a daily basis throughout the honeymoon, and every day the first year, every day the second year, the tenth year and so on.
Finally after many years of marriage, Jack Benny died. But his widow continued to receive a flower each day. After several days of this, she decided to call the florist, “You may not have realized this, and I hate to tell you that my husband Jack Benny died a couple of weeks ago. So you no longer need to send a red rose every day.”
The florist said, Oh, no you don’t understand. Prior to his death your husband made provision for you to receive a red rose, every day for the rest of your life."
He wanted her to know she was never forgotten.
A. God’s not dead. He’s very much alive and very much concerned about you. You are never forgotten.
Constantly sending red roses of hope – breathing the fragrant flowery aroma of hope into the stale air of impossible situations. Impossible situations like George Bailey’s and impossible situations like yours and mine. And we can receive this hope if we’re willing to look up, and say, “Dear God. Dear Father in Heaven, please help.”
The hopes of the world are wrapped in the swaddling clothes of the One who was placed in the manger in Bethlehem. The God who lived awhile among us and said before he was taken into heaven, “I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Mt. 28:20)
The God who said to all who feel hopeless, “Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you.” (Heb. 13:5)
B. The message Zechariah heard from God is for us as well: “Don’t be afraid. I haven’t forgotten you! Your prayer has been heard.”
Invitation Song – “Change My Heart, O God”
