The Gospel of Luke 1:18-25 'Abraham & Sarah' of the New Testament
Luke 1:18-25 · Vern Peterman · Oct 19, 2014
Gospel of Luke, No. 03
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492644416626

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. We're going to be moving into this passage a little at a time. Remember, perhaps, that last week we finished off with some questions. So we'll kind of be revisiting that. One question we had was, who was this angel of the Lord? And will he show up in Luke again? And we'll take a look at that.

Will Zacharias take the angel's message to heart and put his faith in the angel's revelation? So we'll definitely take a look at that. What will the people outside who are praying and waiting think of Zacharias when he comes out of the temple? What will Elizabeth think about what the angel said to Zacharias?

And will John preach one or two gospels or any gospel at all? Well, we'll revisit this. It starts off as we went last week in the days of the Herod the Not-So-Great, a really nasty guy actually. Zacharias and Elizabeth. Remember, Zacharias is a priest.

He did his priestly duty. The pattern was to do it every six months for a week. Most priests during New Testament times actually had another occupation that kept the money going. But during that week, it was often very intense. So here's Zacharias, and he is doing his priestly duty, spending his week there at the temple.

His wife Elizabeth, we saw last week, was of the line of Aaron, which was not a requirement. It wasn't required that she be of that line, but it did make their relationship special in that she was descended from the line of Aaron, and then given some differences of language, she had the same name as Aaron's wife, too.

And so that also made everything just right. Now, they were a righteous couple. You know, they were very observant and diligent. And so everything seemed good, except that they had no child. Elizabeth appeared to be barren, and they were getting on in years.

Now, during this time, we pointed out that you had this larger area of the temple, about six football fields in the area altogether, and that Zacharias would carry out his duties in great part right here, and especially this time where he's been chosen by Lot for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to present the incense inside this inner part of the temple. So the priest would mostly work right within this area, and Zacharias had just this once-in-a-lifetime honor of going in here in the middle of this inner temple building to present the incense.

We point out last week, this building was rather impressive. It was about 15 stories high. and about half a football field length in depth there. So a substantial building. So when someone walked up the front steps, they were actually dwarfed in great degree by the building itself. Very impressive building. You could see it from a long distance away.

And one other thing marked it, aside from a very tall building, is they constantly had to keep the fire burning in the altar. You're not allowed to have it off. So you'd constantly see a column of smoke coming up, even if they weren't doing sacrifices.

So Zacharias comes in for this once-in-a-lifetime honor. He's selected by lot. And while this picture actually shows his wife Elizabeth in the picture, we don't know whether that was actually the case. It's even likely that she was not present for that time. Zacharias would go in and would present himself before this altar.

He'd come in with a censer where he'd have the incense there and then lay it on the altar. The altar would hold the incense and would be kept burning. It was required that it be kept burning all the time. Every morning when the sun came up, they would have a priest go in there and put more incense in there to burn. And then every afternoon, as the sun was beginning to set, they'd have another priest go in there.

Because of the crowd being gathered, probably the indication from the Gospel of Luke is that it's the evening offering of the incense that Zacharias is presenting for. Everyone would be outside praying because as we made the connection last week, the Jews would always think of a connection between the incense and the prayers of the saints.

So here is Zacharias. He goes in into this very inner part of the temple to do this honor of putting the incense on the altar that was a once-in-a-lifetime honor. He's thinking in his own mind, oh, this is my moment. This is my moment. I've never done this before and I will never do it again. But this is my once in a lifetime honor of a priest to go in and do this.

And so at this moment, that's when the Lord decides to reveal something to Zacharias. So this angel appears to him and tells him the good news. And then, What we saw last week, an angel of the Lord appeared to him standing to the right of the altar of incense. So here's the angel of the Lord apparently materializing right there to the right of the altar. So Zacharias was troubled when he saw the angel and fear gripped him. Not just afraid, not just troubled, both. But the angel said to him, do not be afraid, Zacharias. And by the way, Zacharias is thinking, wait a minute, how come you know my name? I've never met you before, right?

For your petition has been heard, and God already heard it, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John, and you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and he will drink no wine or liquor. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb. and he will turn away many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God it is he who will go as a forerunner before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord that's what your John is going to be like that's what he's going to do this is his character and accomplishments so now the beginning verse Of today's passage, Zacharias said to the angel, How will I know this for certain?

I'm an old man, and my wife is advanced in years. Oops. Oops. Now, Jews ask for signs. He didn't specifically ask for a sign, but he did ask for certainty. And that's the way the Jews ask for certainty. Give me a sign. Basically, it's begging for a miracle.

In 1 Corinthians 1.22, the Apostle Paul wrote, for indeed, Jews ask for signs. Not these kind of signs. They don't want these. They want miracles of different kinds. Right? Yeah. Nancy said yes. Okay.

The Jews were inclined to ask for signs by which they meant they wanted to see a miracle. That's what he was implying. He didn't say, show me a sign. He didn't say, show me a miracle. But how can I be certain? And the way you get certainty in the Jewish system of thinking is, give me a miracle. Excuse me? You had an angel materialize right in front of you, right? OK. The Jewish propensity for asking for signs was not a good thing.

As we'll see in Luke 11.29, Jesus said an evil generation asked for a sign. This is not a good thing. Asking for a sign is a Jewish propensity. It doesn't mean it's good. Zacharias will have a sign and he won't like it. He'll have one. Oh yeah.

Now, what we find is Zacharias is just not sure. Zacharias should have known better, but An angel from God materializes right in front of Zacharias in a place where nobody else is supposed to be, but he's not sure. Zacharias is carrying out the priestly duties that the Law of Moses calls for, and that the Law came to him by multiple amazing miracles. But still, Zacharias is just not sure. Moses parted the waters and the Israelites went miraculously through the waters and Then those waters collapsed on the Egyptians when they followed The Lord for 40 years brought manna to the Jews out in the wilderness miraculously every day except the Sabbath right every day except the Sabbath and After all those miracles, Zacharias is just not sure. God brought water out of the rock in order to provide for the Israelites. The law would not have even gotten to Zacharias had it not been for multiple miracles. The angel who appeared to Zacharias, whom Zacharias had not met before, calls out Zacharias by name in his initial greeting, but still Zacharias is not sure. Then there's the account of Elkanah and his wife Hannah, who gave birth to Samuel long after it looked like the Lord had just closed her womb. But even then, Zacharias is not sure.

See, a believer can come to doubt God either because the thing desired does not come about in the way and time expected. And of course, this is the case with the birth of a child, long hoped for. or also because of the duration or intensity of a trial or a discipline.

God can handle it when we doubt Him. He can handle it. He'll be alright. But it's God's intent that the lessons learned in and from the trial grow us in faith and dependence and intimacy with Christ. It's God's intent that the lessons learned in and from the trial grow us in faith Independence and intimacy with Christ. That's God's purpose in the trials. Now, the angel's got two pieces of news to tell Zacharias. First, the good news.

The angel answered and said to him, I am Gabriel. And by the way, that's an emphatic I am. I am Gabriel. who stands in the presence of God. That's what I do usually. I'm just on a special assignment sent here to talk to you. And I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. I brought you good news. That's what I did.

Now the bad news. And behold, you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time. So the angel didn't say, well, because you didn't believe me, none of this is going to happen. Right? Not that. But he'll be unable to speak.

So he says, I am Gabriel. And the angel Gabriel identifies himself by name, saying that he was sent by God. This name, by the way, Gabriel, in the New Testament, only shows up in Luke chapter 1. Nowhere else in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, it shows up in the book of Daniel. A couple of chapters there where the name Gabriel shows up. The only other named angel in the Bible is Michael. He also shows up in Daniel and several places in the New Testament. So here is Gabriel, one whose place is to be there in the presence of God and then on occasion to be sent by God to carry a message.

And Gabriel tells Zacharias that he was sent to tell Zacharias the good news. I'm here to tell you good news. I'm still telling you good news. Elizabeth, his wife, would not be barren to the end of her days. His prayer will be answered and God heard you. Isn't that good? And John would be the name of their son and his character and accomplishments. In summary form, Gabriel told them in advance, decades in advance, of when they would be fulfilled. Zacharias, I've told you all kinds of good things, right? But in spite of the evidence that the angel was bringing a message from God himself, Zacharias was still not sure. So he didn't believe the message that Gabriel had brought to him.

Wow. As a consequence, however, Zacharias was told he would not be able to speak until the birth of his son John. Hmm. Zacharias' last words were words of doubt. His next words will be words of faith. His next words will be words of faith. Imagine that. He says, well, how can I be sure? I'm old. My wife is old. It's the last thing he said. Words of doubt.

His next words would be words of faith. What we're going to see is the Lord's going to use this time in Zacharias' life when he couldn't say anything for about nine months. God's going to use this time in Zacharias' life to bring him from a position of doubt and unbelief to a position of faith. So here's Luke 1, 21 through 23. So the people were waiting for Zacharias and were wondering at his delay in the temple. But when he came out, he was unable to speak to them. And they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. When the days of the priestly service were ended, he went back home.

Now, we saw earlier in last week's contest this phrase, the whole multitude of the people. So there's a lot of people outside waiting. And of course, the traditional thing to do, because it had to be done every day, traditional thing to do would be as the priest goes in, the people are outside gathered to pray. But they also knew, because this was done daily, that there was kind of a typical amount of time that it took to get this done. And then the priest would come out. We can imagine they're all out there and of course we're praying like we're supposed to, you know.

And they're starting to get a little nervous because this is taking longer than it typically did. So here would be the people gathered and what you see is kind of the front portion. They're all the way up to the steps and looking into the entry into the temple. So, but Zacharias was taking longer than usual, and the people on the outside were starting to wonder.

Getting a little nervous, imagine kind of glancing around, looking at their sundial wristwatches, right? And saying, boy, he's been in there a long time, right? For a priest not to come out in a timely manner, I mean, there's sort of a range, but then this was getting a little bit beyond the range. That created a problem. Boy, should somebody go in? That's a problem. Okay?

Who can go in? Well, it's got to be another priest, except that only one guy is supposed to be in there doing this, right? And what if, what if he's dead in there? Because if he's dead and you send in the priest, the priest that goes to retrieve him will have touched a dead body and be disqualified.

Uh-oh. We got a real problem here. This is getting bad, right? You can imagine getting nervous and trying to discuss it and some priests are outside and they're kind of, oh, what do we do now, right? And by the way, have you heard the story about, you know, the rope gets tied around the waist or the ankle of the priest? That's not true. They didn't have a rope, you know. So, at any rate, yeah, they're wondering what to do and they're starting to get nervous and lots of questions going through their head and maybe even some discussion disrupting the prayer time.

So then finally, Zacharias comes out. So he's speechless, but he can't tell them. So Zacharias comes out, he not only has everyone's attention because he's delayed, like what happened in there? But he can't tell them anything about what happened. He might have come out with all sorts of gestures, but he can't tell them anything about what happened.

Someone, excuse me, somehow he had the appearance that told them that he had seen a vision in the temple. I don't know, maybe it was the saucers about the size of dinner plates. You know, I mean, eyes the size of dinner plates, you know. Maybe it was, you know, that shaking that he was doing. I don't know.

But somehow they had the sense that he had seen a vision. But since he can't say anything, he has to use hand signals of some kind. All of a sudden this thing goes from temple ceremony to charades. So he's signing, I saw a scary angel, he had awesome wings, it went like this. So you can imagine, now it's charades, he's making hand signals.

Then, when his week was over, because he actually had to spend the rest of the time, by the way, when the priest committed to a particular time, boy, they had better be there. It doesn't matter if you can't speak, you've got to do your priestly thing. So the priest served twice, excuse me, a week twice a year. But the priest had a very full schedule.

They're often very busy, very busy all day long. At times they work really hard and the work was not always pleasant. Hey, help me get this bull up on this altar here, right? So this is a lot of heavy lifting. And boy, you better like barbecue because that's exactly what you're going to be spending a lot of time doing.

On days like the Passover, they would slaughter about 200,000 lambs. And so the priests were very busy. They didn't start till noon. They didn't start till noon on the Passover day, or actually the day before Passover. So they didn't start till noon, but the 200,000 lambs had to be slaughtered that afternoon. So they often worked very hard, and it wasn't always pleasant to work.

Now, we've shown pictures of Elizabeth the Temple, but likely she was home. See, there weren't really accommodations for all the priests to bring their wives. Because you've got a lot of priests on duty, right? So likely she was home. And if that's the case, Zechariah is heading home. You can imagine him heading home.

Okay, am I going to tell Elizabeth this? No, I'm not going to tell Elizabeth this. I can't talk. What words do I use? I'll have to write them. And imagine him trying to figure this thing out. And then, why is it that you can't talk? Oh, it's because you didn't believe the angel. Yeah. Okay. I get it. So he's trying to work out, how do I tell her? I can't tell her. How do I write this? Why can't I talk? He's probably got a lot on his mind. But he goes home and finally, in one way or another, tells her. Home was in the hill country of Judah, and it was in the area right around Jerusalem. It could have been fairly close. It could have been as far as, say, 50 to 70 miles away. But that would be the area. So then Luke 1, 24 through 25, says this.

After these days, Elizabeth, his wife, became pregnant. And she kept herself in seclusion for five months. That's very interesting. Saying, this is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when he looked with favor on me to take away my disgrace among men. Now we might ask the question, why did Elizabeth keep herself in seclusion?

By the way, that wasn't some sort of a Jewish custom. So she somehow decided to keep herself in seclusion, not based on Jewish custom, but because of some special conditions relative to this pregnancy. And so while we don't know for certain, based on what we do know, here are some possibilities. And it may be two or three of those things.

One, to honor Zacharias' imposed silence. So she didn't end up speaking for him or having to answer a bunch of questions. People saying, is Zacharias still not able to speak? And by the way, tell me again, how come he can't speak? Right? And so she has to say things that are dishonoring to him. And so she says, no, I'm not doing that. I'm just going to kind of hide out. Or here's another possibility.

She may also have wanted to avoid appearing in public until it was quite evident that she was pregnant. See, before that, somebody might have said, hey, you're not pregnant, you've just eaten a few too many matzo balls. But otherwise, it might look like a crazy old lady claiming to be pregnant, and they're thinking, this gal has lost it. But after five months, it would be quite evident, wouldn't it?

At that point in time, she really is pregnant. That old lady is. That's really amazing. She may have been devoted to giving thanks. And the truth is, all three of these are possible. She might have said, look, I got this reason, and this reason, and this reason.

I'm not going out among people for the next five months here. I'm just going to kind of hide out and not go in public. So one of the things he says, he looked with favor upon me to take away my disgrace among men. Now, we're going to need to take a look at that.

Rachel said something similar, and this reveals a cultural pattern. Rachel had this to say, and then in Genesis 30, 22-23, and then God remembered Rachel and God gave heed to her and opened her womb. So she conceived and bore a son and said, God has taken away my reproach.

In the culture of biblical times, for a woman not to have children, it was considered a disgrace or a reproach. Even up until today in Orthodox Judaism, if a couple is married and after a while she doesn't have any kids, the man is fully justified in divorcing her and marrying another.

That's the way the Jews would look upon it. To have someone like Zacharias or Elkanah, in the case of Hannah, stay with the one who is not able to have children is actually the exception to the culture. Because the culture would say you need to Reproduce and of course one of the reasons for doing that we've said before that the Jews had 613 laws 365 like the number of days in a year are things not to do but one of the things that you must do is To be fruitful and multiply It starts off in Genesis 128 God blessed them male and female Adam and Eve and said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth repeated several times more in Genesis, including to Noah. So the Jews looked upon this as one of their 613 laws. You must be fruitful and multiply. And so that's why not having children was looked upon as disgraceful.

So let's look at our questions here. Who was this angel of the Lord? This was Gabriel, sent from the presence of God. Will we show up again in Luke? Yes, once more. And we'll see that next week. Will Zacharias take the angel's message to heart and put his faith in the angel's revelation? Eventually. Eventually. But as we see here in this account, not immediately. Not immediately.

What will the people who are outside and praying and waiting think of Zacharias when he comes out of the temple? Well, of course, they're at first nervous and puzzled and not knowing quite what to do. Then they say, oh, he's had a vision. He's had a vision. What will Elizabeth think about what the angel said to Zacharias? Well, Elizabeth was very happy. Very happy and likely very thankful. Then we've got another question. I pray we're not going to get to it today. Will John preach one or two gospels or any gospel at all? I'll have to wait for that one. But we've got some more questions. Okay. When we see Gabriel next, he will give in advance a name to another baby to be born. Why does he do that? Every time he shows up, he says, you're going to name the baby this, right? You're going to name the baby this. So why does he do that? We'll see.

Which of the two Gospels will Mary be told about regarding Jesus? Which of the two Gospels will Mary be told about regarding Jesus? Will Joseph be told about a different gospel? Hmm. How will Jesus' conception be different than that of John? They're both rather miraculous, but not the same. How will it be different? Well, take a look at that. Will Mary be told about Messiah ben Joseph or Messiah ben David? Well, that's for next time. So let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for this passage as we read this rather dramatic account of Zechariah and Gabriel. and Elizabeth, and telling about the birth and life of John. As we see here, Lord, you do act in history. And you act even in ways we don't expect. You will be involved in our lives in ways we haven't anticipated or predicted. But you are trustworthy through it all. And we thank you for that. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.