Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,
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sermon. God Bless. Lord God, I pray that as was
our Lord's custom to go into your house on your
day, Lord, it is ours. And I gotta pray this
morning that as you met the prayers of the people
long ago in Zechariah and Elizabeth's prayers,
As you met with Zechariah long ago in your house,
Lord, I pray that you'd meet with us again today,
Lord. No doubt, Lord, some of us have had joy
-filled weeks, and others of us have been reminded
of the brokenness of life. Some of us have faith
that feels like it could move mountains this
morning, and others of us Now the doubt looms
large and some of us are convinced of who you
are and others are unconvinced, Lord. God, would
you open our ears? Would you hear our cries?
Would you meet us now? In your name we pray.
Amen. So last Sunday we looked at Joseph and
we learned a few different things about quiet
Joseph, his quiet faithfulness. And today we're
going to look at another father figure in the
early narratives of the Gospels right before
Jesus is born, Zechariah. And I mentioned last
week how Joseph, as Nate Bargat pointed out,
doesn't really get songs. He doesn't get songs
in the text. We don't really have songs of Joseph
so much in our church history. Zachariah doesn't
have a song in the text. Next week we're gonna
look at Simeon. We often sing the song of Simeon
at the end of our services in this season. We're
gonna look at him next week. But there is a great
song about Zachariah in an album that came out
about 10 years ago by a group called Rain for
Roots. Children, maybe you know this song. Adults,
maybe parents especially, you know this song.
We have played it lots of times in the car rides
in our family. The best part is the chorus, but
I'm gonna read to you the first verse in the
chorus. So the first verse recounts for us some
of this story that we just heard in Luke chapter
one about Zachariah. It says, Zachariah went
into the temple and an angel of the Lord was
waiting there. He said, You've waited your whole
life. Good news. You and your wife will have
a son named John. The Lord has heard your prayer.
Zachariah was afraid and started talking. He
said, How can this be? How will I know? Gabriel
said, God gave this special task to me. And since
you ask, here's a sign for you until he's born
to show. And Zachariah said. Then he couldn't
say. But his heart went, then he tried to say,
but he couldn't say. But his heart went boom,
boom, boom. I mean, Zachariah couldn't believe
what he heard. And therefore when he went out,
I actually love it too, because you really get
the sense that he was playing charades with the
people, right? He didn't know American sign language
back then. He goes out, right? He's supposed
to bless the people. and they couldn't hear the
good news that he had been given. And part of
the question is, do you hear, right? Do you hear
what I hear? Can you hear it? I want us to look
at this text this morning, really focusing on
Zechariah. There's a lot that we could talk about
in this passage, okay? I actually looked back.
I have preached this passage to you years ago,
but we focused there mostly on John. But I want
us to consider Zechariah, and I want us to consider
his improbable opportunity the unbelievable announcement,
and then the idea of open ears and open mouths,
okay? So first, just the idea of an improbable
opportunity. So if you have that text open before
you, Luke chapter one, verse five begins with,
in the days of King Herod, King of Judah, And
this is actually kind of common with Luke. He
sets this historical context, and he gives you
this big picture of what's happening. But it's
almost as though Herod is sort of this other
figure that's there, but he's not the main figure.
Luke actually does this quite a bit. He highlights
for us the people that we would sort of push
to the side, the overlooked. And so it moves
on quickly. There was a priest named Zechariah.
And then it highlights this little detail for
us of the division of Abijah. And part of what
Luke is doing right here, right at the beginning,
by mentioning the divisions, is he's highlighting
for you the improbability of what's taking place,
the improbability of this opportunity, right?
So here's what's going on. Every direct descendant
of Aaron, right? Aaron was the brother of Moses.
He was the original high priest. Every direct
descendant of Aaron was automatically a priest.
and therefore they were to serve in the temple.
And there were so many priests by the time of
David that David broke them into 24 different
divisions. Actually, it's kind of interesting
that when the exiles came back from the Babylonian
captivity, there were still so many priests that
even though only four of those divisions came
back at that time, they were again broken up
into their 24 divisions with the same names.
Well, the division of Abijah was the eighth division.
And it's estimated that around the time of this
taking place, there were about 20 ,000 descendants
of Aaron, 20 ,000 priests. And so what would
happen is that each division would get one week,
sort of every six months -ish, two weeks a year
to come and to serve in the temple. So you can
imagine, I mean, if there's 24 divisions, there's
about 20 ,000 priests, there's about 850 people.
per division, okay? And so, you know, there's
no need for 850 people to come and serve in these
different ways. And so what it meant was that
you would have your name drawn by lot. It actually
mentioned that there, that his name was drawn
by lot. It was sort of a by chance. And... And
you could do different acts of service sort of
in the temple, but there was one act of service
that was so unique and so highlighted and so
respected and so desired that you only got to
do that one act once in your life. And that one
act was to go actually to be the one to go into
the temple and to burn the incense that was a
symbol of the prayers of the people going up
to God. I don't know if you noticed this, it's
actually, it's highlighted, that is referenced,
the incense is referenced for us three times
in this text, verses 9, 10, and 11. It's as though
it's highlighting for us, this is a big deal.
This is the thing that any descendant of Aaron
would have spent their life desiring to do, and
not all would have been allowed to do it. You
would have had one opportunity to do this in
your life. And Zechariah, we are told in verse
7, actually, and again in verse 18 was, advanced
in years. So he'd waited his whole life. He'd
waited his whole life to come in and to do this,
to offer the prayers of the people, but also
to offer his own prayers there in the midst of
the temple. All this is to say that it was an
entirely improbable opportunity, and he's going
to make the most of it as we all would. So he
not only brings, of course, the prayers of the
people through the symbol of the incense, but
he brings his own a lifelong sorrow that he's
carrying, his own desire for God to hear him,
to be attentive to him, to understand what he
and his wife have been going through. So just
think of this for a moment with me. What prayer
would you bring? I mean, almost certainly the
one time he gets to go into the temple, You'd
bring the long prayers, right? The prayers that
you've prayed again and again and again. Likely,
you would maybe bring the prayers that you had
grown to doubt would ever be answered. The prayers
that you'd cried out to God to hear time and
again. Maybe the thorns in your flesh, as we
just heard in 2 Corinthians, Paul have, he cried
out to the Lord to take from him. That kind of
prayer. Maybe you've prayed some prayers so much
that you think that actually the opportunity
to offer them one more time might just be futile,
right? But here we read that Zachariah and his
wife were righteous before God and they were
walking blamelessly in his commandments and his
statutes. Which is to say they were trusting
in the Lord. They were righteous. They were trusting
in God's promises to them, his work on their
behalf. And their life reflected this. And so
they held out hope, the act of God on their behalf.
But think with me also about the prayers of Zechariah
and the people, okay? So I've mentioned this,
right? As the priest and as his name was drawn
by law, he would have gone into the temple there
and he would have offered the prayers of God's
people. And no doubt, the dominant prayer of
God's people at that time and actually kind of
throughout history would have been for deliverance.
Deliver them. It's mentioned again right there
in verse five in the days of when King Herod
was over Judea, right? Herod was a Roman. He
wasn't the king Israelites wanted. He wasn't
the king that God had promised to them, right?
A king... lineage of David that would sit on
the throne with justice and righteousness. All
of them had read the Old Testament promises of
God's purposes to bless them and to bless the
world through them. In a sense, no doubt they
believed that God's presence was with them. They
were showing up to the temple to offer their
prayers. It says that the people were praying
outside. But their faith was constantly put to
the test, maybe like yours is. And the situation
in which they found themselves and said, what
is God doing? We've cried out for deliverance
time and time again. Can he hear us? Their faith
was constantly battered by the fact that evil
seems more active in the world and frankly, more
effective in the world and the power of God at
times. There is no question that that fact shook
them just as it shakes you and I. For all the
glad tidings and great joy that we proclaim and
we hopefully live into in this season, we collectively
and we individually actually have these long
prayers that we pray again and again and again
and again. Think about this, one of the last
prophecies that we have recorded for us in Holy
Scripture is coming from the book of Malachi.
And one of those prophecies says the Lord whom
they seek would suddenly come to his temple,
right? And then connected with this is that there
would be a prophet like the prophet Elijah. They
would come and bring a season of great repentance.
But that, I mean, that was written over 400 years
earlier. To give you a reference, it's like talking
about something that was said to the pilgrims
long ago. I mean, how long had they prayed that?
How long had they hoped that? And that's just
the collective prayer. But think about how long
Zechariah and Elizabeth had brought their individual
prayers before the Lord. So not only was this
an improbable opportunity that Zechariah has,
near the end of his life, he's advanced in years.
He finally has his name drawn. And he's going
to make the best of it. But he goes before, he
goes in there and he offers the incense, symbolizing
the prayers of the people. And undoubtedly he
offers his own prayers. In fact, we have a good
sense that he did because of what the angel says,
right? He's saying, this is my improbable opportunity.
I'm going to make the best of it. But what he
hears, what I want to suggest to you, what he
hears is actually an unbelievable announcement.
And we know that because that's his response.
This is unbelievable. It's an unbelievable announcement.
So again, the communal life of God's people was
one of tragedy. It was going from, think about
this, okay, let's just go back the last like
thousand years. We could go back farther and
actually illustrate this, but if you just go
back the last thousand years of Israel's history,
you have a divided kingdom after King Solomon.
After that, you have just a wreck of different
kings between the Northern kings and the Southern
kings. You have a lot of rebellion against God.
And then the Assyrians come in and they take
away the 10 Northern tribes. And then a couple
of centuries later, well, about 150 years later,
the Babylonians come in, they take away the Southern
tribes. After that, there's the Persian domination.
After that, there's the ravages by Antiochus
Epiphanes. And now they're under Roman rule.
I mean, literally, it's just tragedy upon tragedy
upon tragedy that's taking place. And the people
are crying out, forgot to do something. He said
time and again that he would act, he would act
on their behalf and they're desiring that. And
it's almost like after that long, they're like,
I don't know about this faith thing. Sort of
unbelievable. But interestingly, The angel does
not first speak to the collective prayers that
are symbolized by the incense. Instead, he first
speaks to the prayers of Zachariah when he's
there. Now, the first thing that the angel spoke
to was the prayer of Zachariah and his wife,
which I want to also suggest to you is an unbelievable
announcement. Why is this? Elizabeth was not
a spring chicken. Actually, again, verse 7 and
18 both say that they were advanced in years.
She had been post -menopausal for a long time.
Their life together had been overshadowed by
tragedy, just as their communal life within Israel
was overshadowed by tragedy. For a Jewish couple,
for a Jewish woman to not have a child was not
only a source of sorrow for them, But actually,
collectively, it was sort of an issue of reproach.
It was sort of a communal reproach. It was oftentimes
considered a symbol of God's lack of care for
you, lack of attentiveness to you. So they had
cried out, cried out year after year, seemingly
heard little to nothing. Personal grief was one
thing, communal reproach was another that just
added to the sorrow. Here's what I'm saying.
Is it any wonder that Zachariah found this good
news an unbelievable announcement? I mean, literally
just not very believable, right? Too good to
be true. Was it any wonder that he found his
answered prayer hard to believe? Here to have
a child, he's told, and he will be in the spirit
and the power of Elijah God, hearing the communal
prayers of His people and the individual prayers
of He and Elizabeth, long, long prayers answered.
Think of this again, okay? You've been waiting
400 years for the prophecies to come true, and
you've spent your entire married life, no doubt
many nights, flooding your pillow with tears,
and you have this one opportunity to go into
the temple, and there you start hearing things.
That's exactly what you're going to be thinking.
I'm hearing stuff. This is a figment of my imagination.
I've started seeing things in my old age. My
body and my brain are not working properly. Things
like that, right? The day has come. He's waited
his whole life to enter into the temple, to offer
incense, and an angel appears to him and he's
like, man, this incense is some strong stuff.
I don't know what's happening here. Right? This
must be a figment of my imagination. And so Zacharias
says, how shall I know? And I mean, it's true.
The angel says how this is the question of unbelief.
But what I'm suggesting too, isn't this exactly
what we'd be doing? It's not that divorced from
our own experiences with God. Zachariah couldn't
believe what he heard. It was an unbelievable
announcement. But it's true, asking for signs
in the Bible is often a show, a demonstration
of a lack of faith. And why is this? Well, George
Carey, the great British New Testament scholar
said, certainty which leaves no room for doubt,
incidentally leaves no room for faith. That's
a great quote. Maybe read that again for you.
Certainty, which is what he was wanting. Give
me some certainty about this because I don't
think this is very believable. Certainty, which
leaves no room for doubt, incidentally leaves
no room for faith. Caird goes on, he says, the
quest for infallibility is always an illegitimate
one. Zachariah says, this is unbelievable. Answer
all my doubts. Zachariah wanted certainty. God
wants his faith. Zachariah found himself in an
improbable opportunity. He wanted to make the
most of it. And then he received an unbelievable
announcement. Finally, I want us to consider
the idea here in this text of open ears and open
mouths, okay? And here's what I want you to see.
is that in the midst of this improbable opportunity
and this unbelievable announcement, in this place
where the prayers have been long prayed and it's
seemingly unanswered, who listens? Well, we have
some people that don't listen. I mean, they just
literally can't. There's all the people outside,
right? He exits the temple and he starts motioning.
So people aren't the ones that are hearing. The
one who's hearing actually that's highlighted
for us in the passage is God. The open ears are
the Lord's, right? The Lord has heard your prayer.
Do not fear Zechariah for your prayer has been
heard. Open ears are God's. Now, Zechariah knew
the ways of the Lord. We were told that he walked
in the statutes and commandments of God, and
he probably knew the scriptures well. He probably
knew that God often does his most impressive
work in the context of the impossible, because
that just seems to be the way of God working
in the midst of the impossible, to show his power
and his glory. And yet he doesn't have ears really
to hear the angels so much. He says, how can
this be? But God has ears. But think with me
of this fact of God often doing his most impressive
work in the context of the impossible, just with
regards to barrenness, okay? There's almost this
thought that like Zacharias should have been
like, oh yeah, this is how you work. That wasn't
his response. But think with me, Sarah, Abraham's
wife, Anybody how old was Sarah when she conceived
and bore Isaac? Pretty old. It's pretty old.
Rebecca, she waited 20 years before she gave
birth to Jacob and Esau. Rachel was childless
until at last Joseph was born to her, right?
Waiting a long time. In Judges 13, we could read
about Samson's mother. Minoa was barren until
she gave birth to Samson. Think about this. Ruth
was married, wasn't she? Ruth was married, that's
a big part of her story. To her first husband,
didn't have any children. She had to wait a long
time. She was married finally to Boaz, and then
they had Obed, right? Then from Obed came...
King David. But here's the thing, what you find
in the Bible is again and again and again, God
seems to show his possibility in the midst of
what seems utterly impossible. And so verse 13
tells us, your prayers have been heard. God has
open ears in the midst of the impossible. That's
what Zechariah heard. And in some ways I want
to invite you into that. Do you have ears to
hear? Do you hear what I hear? Do you hear what
I hear? I mean, if anything, this is the announcement
of Christmas. God doing what is utterly impossible
for us, the unbelievable coming into reality.
God hearing the long cries of His people as He
did long ago in Egypt when they were crying out
to Him. and sending a deliverer himself in the
flesh, God in the flesh. He does his most impressive
work in the midst of the impossible, God giving
his own son the prayers of his people, long,
long prayers of his people going up, ascending
to him. And he hears, God has open ears. Think
about this, if Zachariah had two great hopes
in his life as a priest, First, they were to
go into the temple to burn the incense. That
was the great thing that you were only allowed
to do once because there were so many priests
and that would have been the highlight of his
career. And then the other thing was not just
to go into the temple, but to go out from the
temple and it was that that priest's job to declare
the Aaronic blessing over God's people. So he
would have had two functions when his name was
drawn by Lot. He would have gone and offered
the incense and he would have come out and he
would have blessed the people of God. But when
he exited that temple, like I said, he had to
play charades with the people. Not sure how you
do that. Guess he just went like this. Do you
know what I'm saying? Some of you know what I'm
saying. Lord bless you and keep you and make
his face shine upon you. Right? That's what he
would have said, but that's what he would have
done. He would have gone and said... Right? And
they didn't have ears to hear. But the wonder
of wonders is that God had the ears to hear their
cries that went up, and his blessing was for
them in the midst of that. And here's a wild
thing that if we jump down the chapter, we didn't
read this part, but... We jump down the chapter
to when John is born, the first words that come
out of Zacharias' mouth are words of blessing.
And they're not just words of blessing to the
people, what it says is he blessed God. Because
God had the ears to hear the long prayers of
his people. Verse 64 says, then immediately his
mouth was opened and his tongue loosed and he
spoke blessing God. He was to speak the blessing
of God to the people, but he must speak blessing
to God first because his ears were open and attentive
to the cries of his people. What we learned from
Zachariah is that often God does his greatest
work of blessing in our long waiting. His most
impressive work is through the impossible. His
most positive work often comes in the negative.
Let me tell you a little story I read this week.
In 1930s, there was a 15 -year -old. I thought
of this illustration with little Will Donowski
in mind. I'll have to tell it to him later because
they're not here. But there's a 15 -year -old
who went to try out for the St. Louis Cardinals.
That's a 15 -year -old. His name was Pete Reisner.
I wonder if his middle name was James because
then he would have my initials. And he went to
the tryout camp where there's all these scouts
and there's all these other people trying out.
And the ones that did well, they were asked to
come back. And the ones that didn't do so well,
they were cut. And Pete Reisner wasn't asked
to come back. And so, of course, he went home
dejected and discouraged. And my guess is that
he's 15 years old. He's like, this is an improbable
opportunity anyway. I wasn't expecting this unbelievable
announcement that I wanted. He gave it his best
shot, right? Well, a couple of days later, this
big Buick pulls up in front of his parents' home
and it's the head scout for the Cardinals. And
they come in and they ask him, hey, we want you
to play for us. And the father's like, what are
you doing? Why'd you cut my son? He's at the
worst days of his life. He said, we actually...
We actually cut him because we didn't want the
other scouts to see how good he was. We wanted
to send him home right away. So he didn't show
up and show off the next few days and get chosen
by some other team. Often the positive does come
out of the negative. Friends, if Christmas, if
the season that we're in, when we're lighting
all these candles and basking in the goodness
and grace of God for us, if it means anything,
it means that God has answered our prayers. that
the improbable has happened, that the unbelievable
announcement is actually true, that there's a
king that's different than King Herod who sits
on the throne, the Prince of Peace, the everlasting
God, the wonderful counselor, right? King of
David seated on the throne. He knows our long
sorrows. He hears your prayers. They do not go
unheeded by our Lord. He comes among us and he
comes for us. He comes to heal the wounds of
our world. He comes to take away our sin. Do
you hear what I hear? Do you hear what Zechariah
heard? God is still listening, still attentive
to his people, to their cries. He answers our
prayers, sometimes in improbable and for us untimely
ways, maybe. But he hears our long prayers, and
he has heard our long prayers. So the verse right
after Zachariah has his mouth restored, when
he finally actually has his mouth back, and he
blesses God, the verse right after that says
this, and all these things were talked about
through all the hill country of Judea. So Zachariah,
Zachariah's prayers are answered and he blesses
God, but it's a communal idea too. It's for all
the people of God together to hear the good news.
God has not forgotten you. He's come among you.
And our response is to bless his name. Amen.
Lord God, we're thankful for this story of Zechariah.
I'm thankful for songs that we can laugh about
where he's mute. but Lord I'm thankful that his
experiences that your scriptures don't describe
something that is so foreign to us that we so
often wait for a long time like Zachariah and
Elizabeth did we often hear your words to us
and we think how unbelievable give me a sign
but God your promises are always true Your yeses
are yes in Christ. The unbelievable happens in
the God man, God taking on flesh and dwelling
among us and for us. God, I pray that we would
receive that news of Christmas this morning,
Christ for us, Christ in the flesh, Christ on
the cross, Christ through the empty tomb for
us. The unbelievable happens. The greatest possible
positive happens and the greatest possible negative.
That Christ the God man comes for us. God I pray
that just as your ears are open to us, therefore
our mouths would be loosened for you. And we
would praise you and we would speak of you. And
the songs that we sing in this season joyfully
and willingly, songs of the wonder Glory in excelsis
Deo, the glory of the heavens coming down. The
person and work of Christ, Lord, would be on
our lips gladly and willingly and joyfully. Lord,
do this work in us. Remind us of your faithfulness
to us. How do we wonder at your ways and gladly
sing your praise. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank
you for listening to Second City Sermons Podcast.
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