Dec. 3, 2000

Luke 1:1-25, 57-80

Zechariah and Elizabeth:

How God Uses Unlikely People

1. Introduction

1. Illustration – Chad Walsh, in Early Christian of the Twenty-first Century, writes – Millions of Christians live in a sentimental haze of vague piety, with soft organ music trembling in the lovely light from stained glass windows. Their religion is a pleasant thing of emotional quivers, divorced from the intellect and demanding little except lip service to a few harmless platitudes. I suspect that Satan has called off his attempt to convert people to agnosticism. After all, if a man travels far enough from Christianity, he is liable to see it in perspective and decide that it is true. It is much safer, from Satan’s point of view, to vaccinate a man with a mild case of Christianity so as to protect him from the real disease.
2. Context – What Walsh was referring to was not a style of music, but an attitude of the heart. But his assessment is not too far from what was going on in Israel at the beginning of the first century. However, instead of complacency, legalism had taken hold. Many Israelites had accepted a form of religion that involved doing the right stuff, rather than having the right character. We’re going to look at a couple in the first chapter of Luke whose faith was true, and whose faith contributed to the transformation of the world.

1. First Scripture Passage

1. Let’s read Luke 1:1-25 together: Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, ² just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. ³ Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, ⁴ so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. Let’s stop just long enough to note that Luke had very carefully checked everything out with eyewitnesses before writing anything down. This section gives great credibility to the book, because anyone familiar with Jesus’ life could have easily refuted any errors in Luke’s reporting. Let’s go on.
2. Verse 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. ²³ When his time of service was completed, he returned home. ²⁴ After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. ²⁵ "The Lord has done this for me," she said. "In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people."
3. I guess one of the major questions we have to ask is "Why Zechariah and Elizabeth? What’s so special about them?"

• When we look at verse 7, we see that this was an older couple, obviously beyond childbearing years. What’s more, they had never been able to have children. So her pregnancy was obviously a miracle to everyone who knew her.
• Second, there is her name. Elizabeth means, "my God is the one by whom to swear." In other words, He always keeps His promise. God does everything for a reason. One reason He chose Elizabeth was that her name itself testified to His character.
• The third, and most important, reason is found in verse six. The NIV translates the word "upright," but a better translation is "righteous." They were both righteous before God. Verse six goes on to tell us that they were blameless in living out all the commandments and righteous demands of the Lord. What a testimony to their character!

1. Three testimonies in a few verses: the miracle working character of God, the integrity of the character of God, and the integrity of the characters of Zechariah and Elizabeth.
2. Illustration – Sidney Greenberg wrote – Character is distilled out of our daily confrontation with temptation, out of our response to the call of duty. It is formed as we learn to cherish principles and to submit to self-discipline. Character is the sum total of all the little decisions, the small deeds, the daily reactions to the choices that confront us. Character is not obtained instantly. We have to mold and hammer and forge ourselves into character. It is a distant goal to which there is no shortcut. The fact that Zechariah and Elizabeth didn’t take any shortcuts is evident in the way they lived their lives and in God’s opinion of them.

1. Second Scripture Passage

1. There is more to character than just having it. Let’s look a little farther in the chapter to see the results of their godly character.
2. Verse 57 - When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. ⁵⁸ Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy. ⁵⁹ On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, ⁶⁰ but his mother spoke up and said, "No! He is to be called John." ⁶¹ They said to her, "There is no one among your relatives who has that name." ⁶² Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. ⁶³ He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s astonishment he wrote, "His name is John." ⁶⁴ Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God. ⁶⁵ The neighbors were all filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. ⁶⁶ Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, "What then is this child going to be?" For the Lord’s hand was with him. ⁶⁷ His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied…The Greek literally means, "Spoke the words of God." Following this is a beautiful passage of praise to God for the marvelous things He was about to do.
3. Then in verse 80 - ⁸⁰ And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel.

1. So what?

1. The miraculous story of the events surrounding John’s birth will only be a nice story if we don’t do something with it. So what can we learn from it?
2. The first truth we learn about Zechariah and Elizabeth isn’t that they are going to do an imitation of Abraham and Sarah. It’s that they were righteous in the sight of God, and that their faith was a living and vital faith and not just a blind ritualism. They were people of godly character, and that character profoundly influenced the way they lived their lives. How often do we make our faith mere ritual? How often do we just go through the motions? This godly couple teaches us that we must do everything we can to keep our faith vital and living so that we can be used by God for His glory.
3. The second truth we learn from this account is we must go back to our faith and get right with God even when our unbelief causes us to stumble. Zechariah took to heart the command the angel gave him to not be afraid. Maybe he took it a little too much to heart, because he allowed his reason to get in the way of his acceptance of Gabriel’s prophecy. But even in the midst of his silence, Zechariah went back to his faith and literally exploded in praise of the God who cared enough to give him a son. God even demonstrated His love in naming the boy John, which means "The Lord is gracious." And the fact that Zechariah came back to God is shown in the fact that he spoke the words of God after his son was born. So even when we stumble, we must follow Zechariah’s example and get back into right relationship with God.
4. The third truth we can learn from this account is that we must give credit to God for what He does in our lives. Both Zechariah and Elizabeth rejoiced in what God did for them, even though they had a part in it. They didn’t focus on their own part, they focused on God and His part. We need a spirit of rejoicing in God for the great favor He has shown us. That is one reason this season is so special – it reminds us of and gives us the opportunity to celebrate the wonderful love and mercy God has shown us in giving us His Son. Like Zechariah and Elizabeth, we must thank and praise our God for all He does in our lives, in both the good times and the tough times.
5. The last truth from this passage we are going to focus on today is that it is not enough to start well; we must finish well. Verse eighty shows us that John grew and was made strong in Spirit, and didn’t make his move until his commissioning by God. That’s what the Greek means. John could not have grown to be the kind of man he became without parents who continued to live their faith. Even after God does something wonderful in our lives, we have to keep on persisting in our faith and finish strong. That is what Zechariah and Elizabeth did.
6. Illustration – Crawford Loritts, Jr., who speaks at Promise Keepers events, said, "We are managing our sin rather than repenting of our sin." Zechariah not only repented of his sin of unbelief, but he and Elizabeth lived in such a way to avoid sin. They treasured their relationships with God. Their devotion to God showed in their daily lives, and that is why we can learn so much from them. They were people of faith and godly character.

1. Conclusion

1. Luke’s account of Zechariah and Elizabeth teaches us four important truths: first, we must have godly character and a vital and living faith that shine through in our daily lives; second, when we stumble we must get immediately back into right relationship with God; third, recognize God’s hand in our daily lives and give Him both the credit and the praise; and fourth, we must finish well no matter what the cost. If we integrate these truths into our daily lives, we will be transformed.
2. How are you doing on these truths? Are they a part of your daily life? Do you need God’s transforming intervention in one or more of these areas? We’re going to take a few minutes to listen to what God is saying to each one of us. Let’s just listen quietly to what the Holy Spirit is saying to us.
3. With every head bowed and every eye closed, if you need transformation in one of these four areas, or in any other area of your life for that matter, and you want to answer God’s call to let Him work in that area, now is the time to respond. If this is you, please come forward and pray.