The Song of Zechariah

One of the things we probably all remember from childhood around the Advent season is the agonizing wait for Christmas to arrive. How many of you remember feeling like this as a child, right? As adults, if somebody tells you like they might have told you yesterday, "Hey, only two weeks till Christmas," what is your emotional response to that? Panic, right? As kids, longest two weeks ever, right? Of your life. And of course this is why Advent calendars were invented to help kids to wait.

Now when my sister Heidi and I were kids, we had Advent calendars from Switzerland. And this was before Advent calendars was a really big deal here, and these were a little bit different than modern Advent calendars. We did not have like Lego Star Wars Advent calendars with a toy for every day. We did not get anything. What we got when we opened our little doors were little paper pictures. This is an actual Swiss Advent calendar from the 1960s, so this may have been one of the very ones that we opened. It was not open the door and what toy did you get? It was what did you get when you opened your door? I got a picture of a woman doing laundry, literally. What'd you get? I got a picture of a woman lighting candles. Oh man, you're so lucky, right?

And apparently our entire generation was traumatized, but how many of you had Advent calendars that were just pictures when you opened? That's all you got. We were all traumatized, all of us, because we're the ones who do the Lego Star Wars Advent calendars for our own children, and even for ourselves as grown-ups, we invented things like the cheese Advent calendar. How many of you actually are going, "That sounds like a good idea. I want a cheese Advent calendar right now?"

But this whole sensation of waiting for Christmas that you feel when you're a child, that's really what lies behind and sets up the very first Christmas in the Bible. Because in ancient days there was a group among the Jewish people who were waiting for the Messiah. They would wait for this every single day, and this went on for generations. They waited and they waited and they waited, and in fact there was one group of people whose whole job was to wait. They got up every single morning and they went up to the temple in Jerusalem, and what their job for the whole nation was, they would prepare and wait and pray and look for the coming of the Messiah.

And the story we look at this morning in the Bible is the story of one of those people who waited for the first Christmas to arrive. And the story is so relevant to us today because there are so many times that we find ourselves waiting, right? Especially if you're a person of faith waiting on God. You've probably spent a lot of time in your life thinking, "I've been waiting and praying, waiting and praying. Why is it not working out? Where is God? Why is He taking so long, right?" So in many ways this story is your story, and it's my story. It's a story of waiting.

In this message series this month that we are calling Advent Playlist, we call it Playlist because we're looking at some of the very first songs of Christmas which are found in the Bible in the Gospel of Luke. And if you have your Bibles with you or a Bible app on your phone, you can turn to Luke chapter 1 with me because we're looking at all these songs in the Gospel of Luke to see what they have to say to us today. And of course every story has, every song rather, has a story. And so here is kind of the backstory behind today's song.

What I want to do is really explain the lyrics of this song to you by giving the history behind it so that when I finally reveal the song to you, you're just gonna feel this explosion I'm praying of insight and of joy. So here we go, the story behind today's song in three acts. Act 1. Luke chapter 1 starting in verse 5. In the time of Herod, King of Judea, this is Herod the Great who was a dictator, there was a priest named Zechariah who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah and his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Why does it name that? Because the descendants of Aaron were priests. In other words, she's also from a priestly family and so Zechariah and Elizabeth are very, very religious people, devout people.

And that's precisely where we start to pick up some of the tension in this story. Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commands and decrees blamelessly. Really all, if you've read the Hebrew Bible, our Old Testament, you know that's a lot. And this doesn't mean that they were perfect, it means they took very seriously the whole idea of obeying the Lord's commands. So how is that working out for them? Next verse, "But they were childless." Because Elizabeth was not able to conceive and now they were both very old. Now being childless in that culture was not about, "Oh I've chosen to live my life this way." It was literally considered like a curse from God.

I mean at a very practical level in those pre-401k days, if you didn't have children to grow up and take care of you, you didn't have a social safety net. So this is really, really a disaster if somebody didn't just voluntarily help you out. You're like, "What am I gonna do now?" Right? Plus kind of from a religion and national perspective, if your family lineage was now over, that meant that your family no longer had a role in whatever God was going to do with the nation of Israel. So this was really considered to be like God has turned his back on you.

So imagine how they felt these godly people who were doing their best to serve God, but they're childless and they don't know why and the friends start to have babies and then almost all their friends have babies and then all their friends have babies and they're still childless. Some of you know what this feels like. Maybe not being able to bear children perhaps in that area, but maybe some other area of life. I had a pastor friend who there was a guy in his church who was single for his whole life and liked it that way, but he said it started to kind of bother him when every time there was a church wedding, some of the very elderly people, the ladies, would come up to him and they would try to say something that they thought might have been comforting, but he said it really was just sort of annoying and he said, "Especially the line, 'Don't worry honey, you're next.'" And that just started to grate on him so much that he said, "I have to admit, there came a time when when there were funerals at the church I went up to those same elderly ladies and said, 'Don't worry honey, you're next.'"

But Elizabeth's devotion and Zechariah's devotion really it was all about promises that were all throughout the Hebrew Bible. Promises about something like Genesis 12:2. This is 2,000 years before their time. God makes a covenant, an oath about Abraham and he says, "I will make you into a great nation and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." This was known as the Abrahamic covenant and the Jewish people took a very seriously problem. It hadn't come true yet. They were a nation, yes, but not really a great nation, not in an area era that saw Assyria and Babylon and Egypt and Rome. They were kind of like in this little corner of the world so well. That promise hasn't come true and then a thousand years later, a thousand years before Elizabeth and Zechariah, God makes another oath to David the Davidic covenant and he promises this, "Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me. Your throne, David, will be established forever." In other words, there's gonna be a king from the Davidic line who will reign forever and clearly that hadn't come true either.

I mean if you know about the history of Israel even just a little bit, you know there was like a brief Camelot era, David and Solomon, but it lasted a little less than a hundred years and after that it just devolved into civil war. And from then on it was either civil war, a split nation, or foreign oppression just literally constantly. And so the people kept waiting for this promised king of the Davidic line who would start a glorious kingdom again and would bring deliverance from all their enemies. They get kings but the kings keep going corrupt. They get a kingdom but the people themselves keep messing it up and God gives them deliverance from their enemies but then new tyrants arise sometimes from their own midst and so the people keep waiting.

Even though they're on what feels like this endless loop of futility, these promises of a divine Messiah that's gonna make it all somehow work out right and give them peace, keep being whispered through all of the prophets dozens of times until finally the very last book of the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, has promises like this. "The son of righteousness will rise with healing in his wings." And you, speaking to this enslaved nation, you will go free leaping with joy like calves led out to pasture but how will we know that this is finally gonna come true? Well there's a little clue. These are the last two verses of the Old Testament. "Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord." And this is so beautiful. "He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the hearts of the children to their parents." And the Old Testament ends and nothing happens for 400 years.

Worse than nothing. About 60 years before Luke chapter 1, before the time of Zechariah and Elizabeth the Romans take over Judea. And the Roman general Pompey goes to Jerusalem as soldiers shove aside the priests and he marches straight into the Holy of Holies. This is the part of the temple that the priest said that nobody could enter except for one priest once a year, specially selected. And if you go in and you're not worthy you're gonna be struck dead by the glory of God. And Pompey goes in and he marches up the stairs into the Holy of Holies, stands there with hands on his hips, looks around, marches back out, completely unscathed and said unimpressive, "There's not even anything in there, it's empty." And the people are enraged at the Romans and frankly a little guilty before God because they're thinking, "How is God allowing this to happen? Why didn't he get killed going into the Holy of Holies? Maybe God allowed this to happen because of our sin."

And so widely the people thought that their problem was first of all political, obviously, and national. We got to get rid of these oppressors, but also moral or just not good enough. And so there arose people who had a political solution, the Herodians, who said, "Well let's try to compromise with the Romans and kind of calm them down a little bit here." And then there were the zealots who were nationalists and said, "No, let's let's overthrow those Romans with violence." And there were the Pharisees who said, "Well first let's make sure everybody is moral or God is never gonna show up with the Messiah." And they were kind of like the moral police that went around all over the place and still nothing worked.

And the people keep waiting for that great and awesome day of the Lord, which just doesn't seem like it's ever gonna happen. And I think the reason that Luke starts his story with this story is because this is so relevant to so many of us today, times in all of our lives when we wonder why is it taking so long? If God is real and God is good, then where is he? Especially because I've been faithful, I've been devout, when will my prayers get answered? And so, act one of our story fades to black with an elderly, childless couple getting ready to turn out their lamp for the night. One more lonely night in centuries of darkness.

Act two. Once when Zechariah's division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. This burning incense in the temple must have been like a once-in-a-lifetime privilege for a priest. And with the time for the burning of the incense came all the assembled worshipers were praying outside and then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zechariah saw him, he was startled and gripped with fear.

I love this sketch by Rembrandt of this moment. Don't you love this? Rembrandt must have loved this story because he painted and drew it a lot. And there's the angel and there's Zechariah and he's so old you can see he's kind of like my eyes aren't too good. He's coming closer to the angel like what's happening in front of me? And then he startled and paralyzed with fear and then in verse 13 the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah." And you know if you read the Bible that this is sort of the standard angel response to every appearance because every single time they appear people are just absolutely scared to death. So they have to get this out of the way first. Don't pass out, don't pass out because I got to tell you this message. It's gonna take a lot longer if you're unconscious, right?

And Zechariah's paralyzed with fear and remember it said that he was a very righteous man. Imagine if it were you. Anyway so he startled and the angel says, "Your prayer has been heard." And wouldn't you love to hear that once in a while by the way? Just the audible voice of God whispering to you, "Hey your prayer's been heard." Just want you to know. Hang on. "Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you are to call him John." Now watch this the angel says, "And he will go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah." Where have we heard that before? "To turn the hearts of the parents of their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." What is he quoting? The last two verses of the Old Testament. So what he's saying is, "You know how how your Bible ended? Yeah next verse is what's happening right here in your life. This is the first verse of the New Testament. Here we go."

And you would think Zechariah would be like, "At last the waiting is over." Yeah instead it says next verse Zechariah asked the angel, "How can I be sure of this?" Kind of sounds like a guy traumatized by a lot of disappointment doesn't it? You know I've hoped for a long time. "I'm an old man and my wife is well along in years." That's diplomacy in action right? That's a veteran husband right? He's kind of like, "I've heard that these angel visitations get written up and so let's for the record I said I'm an old man and my wife is is well along in years." Right? He's he's been so traumatized by disappointment that he really doesn't even see the answer to his prayers for a child and his prayers for the nation because it's all so unexpected to him.

And the angel says to him, "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. Now you will be silent." I don't know if Gabriel let God on the bad side of the angel bed that morning or something but he says, "You'll be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens because you didn't believe my words which will come true at their appointed time." So the angel kind of gives Zechariah a timeout. "I want you to go to your room, no TV. I want you to think about what you just said." And it's all gonna work out great for him as you'll see but don't miss that last line at their appointed time. God always has an appointed time. He had an appointed time for them and he has an appointed time for you.

For everything that he knows is going to happen in your life and should happen and you've been praying that would happen. He has an appointed time in an appointed way. God has not given up hope even if you have. God still has a time for you. God still has a plan for you. God still has love for you. And so Zechariah goes home and about a month later he and Elizabeth discover they're expecting a baby. And about six months later as you heard Sarah talk about last weekend, Elizabeth is visited by her very young cousin Mary. And Mary says, "Guess what? I'm pregnant too." And this is a very unexpected pregnancy, even more unexpected than yours. And the angel Gabriel appeared to me too and told me that the baby that I'm bearing is going to be the Messiah that your child a few months ahead is going to announce, "What? No. Yes!" Fade to black.

Act 3. On the eighth day after Elizabeth gives birth to the baby, the time comes to circumcise the child which is still the Jewish custom today. And they were going to name him after his father Zechariah. But his mother spoke up and said, "No, he is to be called John." And they said to her, "But there is no one among your relatives who has that name." And then they made signs to his father to find out what he would like to name the child. And he asked for a writing tablet and to everybody's astonishment he wrote, "His name is John." And by the way, do you know what the name John means? God is gracious. Don't you love that?

I love how John's name announced the Messiah because the meaning of John's name ends up being the theme of Jesus' preaching and the whole New Testament. God is gracious. Say that with me out loud. God is gracious. If you forget everything else that I said today, I want you to remember the meaning of John's name. Say it again. God is gracious. So he writes that down and the Bible says immediately his mouth was opened. And I love this line, "And his tongue set free." And here's your third Rembrandt of the morning. Like I said, he must have loved this story because look at this painting. It's Zechariah literally on the cusp of this moment. He hasn't spoken yet, but he's looking up to heaven and his baby's there at the dedication.

And I don't know if you can see, if you look very, very closely here, but you could see his eyes are starting to brim with tears and in fact the tears are starting to run down his face and his mouth isn't closed. It's just open just to crack. He's just about to speak for the first time in nine months. And what's gonna come out of his mouth? It's the next song of Christmas. Apparently for all those nine months on his time out, he has been marinating in those prophecies about the Messiah and he's seen something that a lot of people missed, a thread that runs through all those prophecies. And he begins to think, you know, I think I get it now. I think I know what we miss. I think I know how this is all going to come true. And he's just like filled with joy.

You ever been like that where you're so full of joy? You just, you just feel you're gonna burst. These lyrics are the first thing to come out of his mouth. So with that backstory, here it is. Here's the song. He says, "Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has visited and redeemed his people. He has sent us a mighty Savior from the royal line of his servant David, just as he promised through his holy prophets long ago." It's all coming true, guys. It's happening. Now we will be saved from our enemies, from all who hate us. He's been merciful to our ancestors by remembering his sacred covenant, the covenant he swore with an oath to our ancestor Abraham.

Here it is. We've been rescued from our enemies. So we can serve God without fear. Now pause it for just a second. Serve God without fear. I love that line. There's only one way to serve God without fear. If you serve God like a lot of people do, where he's like the cosmic CEO and you're trying to like earn a bonus, you're not serving him without fear. You're serving him out of a sense of guilt or obligation, like I got to earn his favor. But if you know the meaning of John's name, God is gracious. Then you're able to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness for as long as you live, because now you know your holiness and righteousness isn't dependent on your own behavior. It's dependent on God's tender mercy.

So all is just erupting from Zechariah. Watch this. He looks down then at his little baby and he says, "Tenderly and you, my little son, you'll be called the prophet of the Most High, because you will prepare the way for the Lord." Now watch this. This is Zechariah's big insight. You will tell his people how to find salvation through what? Forgiveness of their what? Sins. Forgiveness of their sins. Yeah, because of the tender mercy of our God. Don't you love that description incidentally? When you think of God, do you think of God as tender? Because that's how Zechariah sees him now. The tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven.

Hey, that's from the last chapter of the Old Testament. To shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet at last. We need to be guided into the path of peace. It's not going to happen externally when we get rid of some bad people. We need to be guided into the path of peace and this is Zechariah's aha moment. What we need most is a Savior from sin. It's not about them, it's about us. You see, remember I said they thought their problem was political and national and moral, but the real problem was spiritual.

Because you can have all the political movements you want and all the nationalism and independence you want and all the moralistic, you know, works righteousness you want and it's never going to solve the underlying problem underneath all of that stuff. You'll just keep messing things up on this endless cycle of futility unless this problem is dealt with. It's kind of like the the London newspaper The Times. This is a great idea. They asked for a bunch of famous authors to send their responses to the question, "What is wrong with the world?" because they wanted to do in their Sunday supplement a big fun op-ed of these clever and and wise ideas from all these different authors and thinkers and politicians. What is wrong with the world? Well the famous author G.K. Chesterton sent them this, "Dear sir, I am yours G.K. Chesterton." And that's exactly the idea behind Zechariah's insight.

As the author Max Lucado puts it, "The sinful nature is our struggle." It's the stubborn self-centered attitude that says, "My way or the highway?" It's all about self-pleasing self-promoting self-preserving self. Sin is selfish. She says, "I have a sin nature, so do you. Merry Christmas." Let me just illustrate this briefly as we start to bring this into a close. Christmas time several years ago, I'm shopping at a mall and to understand the story you have to know that I love convertibles. I've had three convertibles. I always buy them, use these old beaters, but I love to drive them around until they break. Then I buy another one. I just I just love them, you know, especially living in California. It's a ton of fun.

Well at the time I was driving around a tiny old used Fiat X-19. Raise your hand if you remember these Fiat X-19s. Oh you do? They were just these tiny little cars. I mean they were really like almost like go-karts. They were so low, I kid you not, you could drive them right under the parking barriers at like state parks and parking garages so you could go in and out without ever paying for parking. Not that I ever did that much. Anyway, I had driven and I was parking at the parking garage at a mall and I went in to buy Lori a Christmas present and I left the top down, you know, because I was just gonna go on really quickly.

So I go in and I find what I'm looking for for her. I know she'll love it. It's a cheese advent calendar and I was... and I was just digging the atmosphere in the mall because it was it was really surprisingly spiritual for a Macy's. The PA system on their their advent playlist they were playing Silent Night and I was thinking wow even here the good news is being proclaimed. Lord may I share it with all of those I meet today and I get back just in time to see a couple of college guys throwing banana peels and the rest of their garbage into my open convertible.

And all my Christmas reverie just instantly evaporates and all I can think of is so the gauntlet has been thrown. Let's see who will become the alpha male in this clear test of masculinity and I spy on them I'm just so livid at what they've done to my car and I was like I'm in Mission Impossible because I kept lurking behind pillars watching to see which car they'd get into. They get into this huge pickup truck with oversized tires and I get into my tiny little Fiat and I roar after them. Well it didn't roar I buzzed like an angry mosquito after them. And they... does anybody ever do stupid stuff when you're super mad? Oh nobody's raising their hand. Okay so I so they stop at them all stop sign and I pull into the right next to the driver's side because I want to just you know chill them what for.

I know I'm gonna pull up next to him and I'm gonna give him a just a burn like Clint Eastwood feeling lucky punk level. Make them feel guilty about what they've done to me. I don't have the line yet but I know what's gonna come and I pull up right next to them so yes I'm now facing oncoming traffic but they're stopped too and it's just a mess I'm putting everybody in danger but oh I'm just so mad at them. And so I pull up next to them and I honk my horn. Actually it's more like beep beep and and I see the driver looking around in confusion and so I have to say down here. And I pick up their banana peels and I shake them at them in fury. It's very hard to shake banana peels in fury because they just kind of go. It's comedy.

And I open my mouth waiting for that comeback line like brain don't let me down. Waiting for it and they're looking at me like yes. So I open my mouth and this I wish I was making this up. This is the this was my line. I go I'm like you're fruit sir. And I threw the banana peels at their car and I mosquito'd off. And I could just hear their laughter behind me. Nothing worse than being laughed at when you're super ticked off. Not exactly the stunned reaction to my moral indignation that I'd been hoping for right. And of course what happens is instantly I feel guilty. I want to put it in reverse and go and I'd like to invite you to our candlelight services. But I didn't.

So here's why I tell the story. What was wrong with me? I am a pastor. Why did I let some disrespectful jerk bring out the disrespectful jerk in me? What took over? Well the Bible has a name for my attitude. Sin. I love the way Max Lucado goes on to put it. He says the heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart. And that's Zechariah's insight. He's like wow we've been look we've been blaming everybody else for our problems here and and then and trying really hard to change when what we really need is to be changed by God divinely.

And this is why the Messiah comes to bring salvation for sin and then he can guide us into paths of peace and changes into loving people. Incrementally I'm a different person than I was all those years ago. I don't I hope I wouldn't do that again these days. But how does that work? How are we changed? This is my last point here really. I don't want you to miss this beautiful word picture. He says well it's kind of like the Sun. The Sun you don't have to earn the Sun right? You don't have to be good enough to get the Sun. The Sun doesn't cost anything. The Sun never wears out. All you have to do to get the benefits of the Sun is bask in it.

And this is exactly how Jesus changes our lives. You just let him shine on you. You start a relationship with him through prayer and then you keep soaking him in through Scripture. You get to know more of who Jesus is through service to others and you are changed. You really are the fruit of the Spirit. Begin to blossom in you. You become more loving and more generous and more self-controlled. And I know you do because I pastor this church and I see it. I'm convinced this is why the church incredibly is the largest contributor to the food drive of any organization to the county. And it's not because we guilt you. No we don't guilt you into it or manipulate you into it. I think it's because you're soaking in the fact that God's been so generous to you.

Here's the truth. Loved people love people. You bask in the Sun and then you reflect the Sun's radiance. And this is why I said Zechariah's story is really our story. First we all have to wait on God and Zechariah and Elizabeth give us some clues about how to wait well. First you wait faithfully. You don't lose faith that just because God hasn't answered your prayer the way you thought he should be asking means God doesn't exist or God doesn't have a plan or God doesn't love you. You wait as they did with continued faith and service to God and you wait with other faithful people who can encourage you.

And second wait flexibly because God is very likely to answer your prayer in a different time and in a different way than you ever anticipated. Don't be so rigid in how you think God ought to be that you're blind to how he is. But really Zechariah and Elizabeth's story is about getting a revelation of what it is that Jesus came to do and responding with joy. I'll end with this. I got a note from somebody recently here at TLC. I love this. Through years of wandering God was setting me up for the right time to come to Jesus. I once was lost but now I'm found I'm so grateful he gave us Jesus. Do you feel the joy there?

Here's my prayer for you this Advent season. I pray that you would have a Zechariah moment. I pray that there would come a moment when sort of the tears begin to well up tears of joy and you look heavenward and overcome by a reality of what what the rising Sun from heaven came to do for you. You just burst out with joy and praise and gratitude stunned by the Sun. That is a gift worth waiting for. Let's pray. God thank you so much for your gift of love to us through Jesus Christ and in these days of physical darkness, dark days literally, I pray that you would spiritually shine on us through the light of Jesus Christ and give us that that sunburst of revelation like Zechariah had at some point during the Advent season where we just have to almost like pull over the car if we're there or just put down the book when we're reading and just say God thank you so much for forgiveness of sin. Guide me into your paths of peace.

In fact I just pray that right now Lord there are people all over this room who are praying maybe for the first time maybe as a recommitment. Lord Jesus I believe that you came to set us free from sin in every way. Shine on me. I don't understand it all but as much as I understand it shine on me and transform me. Help me to learn more and to keep growing. Prince of peace guide me into paths of peace. In Jesus name we pray amen.