The Gospel of Luke: In Due Time

Transcript

JRNT 59
06/02/2024
The Gospel of Luke: In Due Time
Luke 1:18-25
Jesse Randolph

One of the first books I read as a brand-new believer, was A.W. Tozer’s “The Pursuit of God.” It was originally written in 1948 and it’s a wonderful book, full of all sorts of devotional truths related to the nature of God, the character of God. And how we, as His children, are called to follow and pursue Him. And one of the helpful things Tozer says in that book is this, he says, “God never hurries. There are no deadlines against which He must work.” Think about that, “God never hurries.” That’s not a sentiment that many of us could relate to anymore, since with each succeeding generation, we seem to be living increasingly hurried lives. But it’s true. God, as an eternal Being, has created not only us and this temporal world that we live in, and the very concept of time itself. But God is not bound to time, not subject to time. Rather, as our eternal and timeless God, He is never out of time, He never runs short on time, He never needs more time, He never wishes He had more time. No. As Tozer said in that book, “God never hurries.”

But that memorable line from Tozer only tells half the story. See, it’s not only that God isn’t hurried, or is never time tested, or time challenged the way that you and I are. No, there’s also this truth, that God not only meticulously orders all events and circumstances which take place in this universe -- from the birth of your children, to the leaky faucet in the downstairs bathroom, to the look the waiter will give you at lunch today, to the snail leaving its track on the sidewalk -- but He meticulously arranges to have each and every event and circumstance take place at just the right time, at the perfect time, according to His, God’s, perfect timeline.

Just think of some of these scriptures, and what they tell us about events and circumstances happening according to God’s perfect timeline. In the Old Testament there’s Solomon, of course, in that infamous chapter, Ecclesiastes 3, which begins, “There is an appointed time,” Ecclesiastes 3:1,” for everything. And there is a time for every matter under heaven.” And in the New Testament, we have Jesus saying in Mark 1:15, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Paul then in Romans 5:6 says, “while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” Or Peter says in 1 Peter 5:6, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time.” Are you detecting a pattern here? It’s clear, God not only does what He has decreed, whether it’s in creation or in provision or salvation or future exaltation, He does all things according to His perfect timing.

And that brings us to our text for this morning, this next section of Luke’s Gospel, specifically Luke 1:18-25, where we’ll encounter Luke recording a series of events leading up to the birth of John the Baptist, which through the language we’re going to see in this text, we’ll see took place according to God’s perfect timing. Let’s look at our passage together, Luke 1:18-25, we’ll start there. God’s word reads, “And Zechariah said to the angel, ‘How will I know this? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years.’ And the angel answered and said to him, ‘I am Gabriel, who stands before God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good 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.’ And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and were wondering at his delay in the sanctuary. But when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. And he kept making signs to them, and remained mute. And it happened that when the days of his priestly service were fulfilled, he went back home. After these days Elizabeth his wife conceived, and she kept herself in seclusion for five months, saying, ‘This is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when He looked upon me to take away my disgrace among men.’”

Now, did you happen to catch the various references (some were imbedded) to time and timing there. There’s the reference in verse 18, to how old Zechariah and Elizabeth were. He said, “I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years.” Time, you could say, had passed them by. There are the words of the angel Gabriel, in verse 20, where he told Zechariah that he would be “unable to speak” for a time. And also, Gabriel’s words, the angel’s words in verse 20. It says, it would “be fulfilled in their proper time.” Then there’s the reference to the people waiting outside the temple, in verse 21, because Zechariah had been inside the sanctuary, the holy place, for some time. There’s the reference in verse 23, to the days, that’s a clear time reference of Zechariah’s priestly service being fulfilled. And then there’s the reference in verse 24, to Elizabeth conceiving after some days, another time reference, and then keeping herself in seclusion for five month’s time.

All that to say, interlaced throughout our text for today are these clear references to time. With these references referring to, not only time marching progressively as it always does, but events and circumstances happening at just the right time, according to God’s divine timeline.

With that, this is how the sermon this morning is going to be laid out as we work through our text, line upon line, verse upon verse, and with these references to time and God’s timeline in view. First, in verse 18, we’re going to see “A Priest’s Mistrust.” Second, in verses 19-20, we’re going to see “A Punitive Muting.” Third, in verse 21, we’re going to see “A Perplexed Mass.” Fourth, in verse 22, we’re going to see “A Preparatory March.” And fifth, in verses 23-24, we’ll see “A Praising Mother.”

Let’s get right into it, starting with “A Priest’s Mistrust.” Look at verse 18, it says, “And Zechariah said to the angel, ‘How will I know this? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years.’ ” Now, by way of reminder, in last Sunday’s message, as we made our way through verses 13-17, we saw that what Luke had recorded there was this encounter that Zechariah, the priest, had inside the holy place of the temple in Jerusalem with this angel of the Lord. And what we saw was that this angel told Zechariah, that his wife Elizabeth, who was elderly and childless, verse 13, that she would bear him a son, and that he would call his (the son’s) name John.”
And then the angel proceeded to lay out these various different characteristics that would mark this future son of Zechariah and Elizabeth. We call them these features of the forerunner. And you see them there in verses 13-17. The forerunner to the arrival of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, would be an answer to prayer. His name would be John. He would bring great “joy and gladness.” Many would “rejoice at his birth.” He would “be great in the sight of the Lord,” verse 15. He wouldn’t “drink any wine or strong drink.” He’d be “filled with the Spirit”. He would “turn many of the sons of Israel,” verse 16, “back to the Lord their God.” And then, he would go before the Messiah, hence the forerunner title, “in the spirit and power of Elijah.”

Well, we ended our time, last time, with a closed quote, you could say, in verse 17, meaning the angel was done talking for now and now the ball was in Zechariah’s court, so to speak. It was his turn to speak up, it was his turn to reply, and he did. His reply is recorded again in verse 18. “And Zechariah said to the angel, ‘How will I know this? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years.’ ” Now, let’s spend some time zeroing in here on Zechariah’s question. He says, “How will I know this?” Literally, in the Greek, it’s “According to what?” That’s his question, “According to what?” Or we could say it in our vernacular, “Based on what evidence, on what basis?” That’s the tone of Zechariah’s question here.

Now, keep in mind, that Zechariah was no atheist, he wasn’t an Israelite-in-name-only. No. As we saw back in verse 6 of chapter 1, he was “righteous in the sight of God,” he was “walking blamelessly in all the commandments and righteous requirements of the Lord.” And not only that, he was a priest, he held this high public office. He was from this line of priests; he was married to a woman, Elizabeth, who herself was from a line of priests. He had just witnessed the Lord providentially open the door through the casting of lots to perform this once-in-a-lifetime service of offering incense inside the holy place of the temple. He had just experienced being inside that holy place for the first and surely last time of his life. He had long been praying, as we saw last week, for a child. And there in the temple, he was likely praying for, was for the Messiah of Israel to arrive. And now, here he was in the presence of this holy angel, this direct messenger of God. This was the closest-to-the-throne experience that Zechariah would ever have, to be this close to the holy of holies inside the temple, to be in the presence of one of God’s own holy angels. And not only that, God had cleared the way and opened the door, in verse 13, to say that “your prayer has been heard.” So, the runway is leading right there for him to just respond in revelry and praise and rejoicing. But that’s not how he responds. Verse 18 says this was his response, “How will I know this?”

Now, if you’re a careful student of the bible, you know that when encountering the miraculous in the Old Testament especially, there were those who sought for signs. So, when there was a mention of a miracle or a quest for a miracle, there were often signs associated with a miracle in the Old Testament. For instance there was Abraham, Genesis 15. God speaks to Abraham and says, “look toward the heavens, and number the stars, if you are able to number them,” and then He says, “So shall your seed be.” And Abraham responds in Genesis 15:8 by saying, “O Lord Yahweh, how may I know that I will possess it?” So, he asks a question, he seeks a sign.

Then there is Gideon who lived in the days of the judges, during this time where the Israelites had been defeated over and over by the Midianites. And Gideon cries out in despair and anguish over what had become of his people, the people of Israel. In fact, go with me over to Judges, where we can see with our own eyes what happened there with Gideon. You’ve got the first five books ending in Deuteronomy, then you have Joshua, then you have Judges. Let’s look at Judges 6:13, it says, “Then Gideon said to him, ‘O my lord, if Yahweh is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His wondrous deeds which our fathers recounted to us, saying, “Did not Yahweh bring us up from Egypt?” But now Yahweh has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian,’ ” there’s his grief, “Then Yahweh turned to him,” verse 14, “and said, ‘Go in this strength of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?’ But he said to Him, ‘O Lord, with what shall I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.’ But Yahweh said to him, ‘Surely I will be with you, and you shall strike down Midian as one man.’ So Gideon said to Him, ‘If now I have found favor in Your eyes, then do a sign for me that it is You who speak with me.’ ”
That was one request for a sign from Gideon in the face of doubt and disbelief.

Now, you go down the page, in verse 36 of Judges 6, and you see Gideon ask something else. This is a more familiar story to many of us. It says, “Then Gideon said to God, ‘If You will save Israel by my hand, as You have spoken, behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as You have spoken.’ And it was so. Indeed he arose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece. And he drained the dew from the fleece, a bowl full of water. Then Gideon said to God, ‘Do not let Your anger burn against me that I may speak once more; please let me make a test once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, and let there be dew on all the ground.’ And God did so that night. So it was dry only on the fleece, but dew was on all the ground.” So, with Gideon as he’s interacting here with the angel of the Lord, you note here, it’s questions, it’s tests, it’s requests for signs, kind of similar to Abraham in Genesis 15:8.

Then we come to the story of King Hezekiah. In fact, flip with me, if you would, over to 2 Kings, keep heading right, to 2 Kings 20 and the story of Hezekiah. He’s this godly king, he falls into poor health, and then he sees his health restored is the outcome of the story. But we see some of what’s built into this account in 2 Kings 20, starting in verse 1, 2 Kings 20:1. We’re in this vein of looking at previous examples of people asking for signs. 2 Kings 20:1 says, “In those days Hezekiah became ill to the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, ‘Thus says Yahweh, “Set you house in order, for you shall die and not live.” ’ Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh, saying, ‘Remember now, O Yahweh, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight.’ And Hezekiah wept greatly. Now it happened that Isaiah had not gone out of the middle court, and the word of Yahweh came to him, saying, ‘Return and say to Hezekiah the ruler of My people, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of your father David, ‘I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of Yahweh. And I will add fifteen years to your life, and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’ ” ’ Then Isaiah said, ‘Take a cake of figs.’ And they took and laid it on the boil, and he was restored to life. Now Hezekiah said to Isaiah, ‘What will be the sign that Yahweh will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of Yahweh the third day?’ And Isaiah said, ‘This shall be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do the thing that He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten steps or turn back ten steps?’ So Hezekiah answered, ‘It is easy for the shadow to stretch forward ten steps; no, but let the shadow turn backward ten steps.’ Isaiah the prophet cried to Yahweh, and He turned the shadow on the stairway back ten steps by which it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.”

Why belabor these points? In each of these episodes, involving Abraham, Gideon, and King Hezekiah, I want you to note there’s no indication here that God meted out judgment on those who were seeking signs. And why? Well, it’s because undergirding each of these accounts, as you read these texts carefully, there was a clear sense of faith and reverence and awe by each of the men mentioned. For instance, right after he asked his question in Genesis 15:8, Abraham. “O Lord Yahweh, how may I know that I will possess it?” Abraham was described two verses prior in Genesis 15:6 like this, “Then he believed in Yahweh; and He counted it to him as righteousness.” His request for a sign in Genesis 15:8 then, can best be interpreted as a request for a sign to strengthen his faith, not a sign that would undermine his faith. Or in the case of Gideon, even though he requested a sign, his request is interlaced with words (I read them already) like the words in Judges 6:39, where he says: “Do not let Your anger burn against me that I may speak once more; please let me make a test once more.” These were words that signaled a faith-filled reverence and deferral to the ultimate plans and purposes of God.
Or in the case of King Hezekiah, even though he’s requesting a sign, his request very clearly is couched in prayer, in weeping, in beseeching, and ultimately in trusting God. Zechariah’s response though, going back to Luke 1, his reply to the angel had an entirely different tone. His reply was more like, “I don’t believe you, don’t you know that old people like me don’t have children in their old age.”

An even closer comparison though would be that of Mary. One that we have to work through, to look at the two and compare them side by side. Let’s pick it up just down the page in Luke’s Gospel, chapter 1:26. (We’ll actually be in this text next week.) It says, “Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, ‘Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.’ But she was very perplexed at this statement, and was pondering what kind of greeting this was. And the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and there will be no end of His kingdom.’ ’’

And then look at verse 34 for Mary’s response, Luke records it this way, “But Mary said to the angel, ‘How will this be, since I am a virgin?’ ” Now note, Mary begins her question the very same way Zechariah did, with the same word, “How?” So what’s the difference? Why did Zechariah, as we’re about to see in a moment, face a consequence for his question whereas Mary did not? Well, the answer simply is this, Mary was asking in what way would her future pregnancy take place. She was assuming it would happen. She trusted before she sought the sign. Whereas Zechariah, unlike Mary, would not trust until he received the sign. Mary’s question revealed that she didn’t understand how the whole process was supposed to work. How does a virgin conceive? Zechariah, on the other hand, didn’t believe that he and his aged wife could have a baby. For Mary, it was more a question of biology. For Zechariah, it was more a question of belief, he wanted more proof, he wanted a sign from God.

That was the issue with Zechariah. He understood the words of this angel. This was not a matter of him not being able to process the words that the angel was communicating his way. He was in a state of doubt. And he was in a state of disbelief. He had the very words of the living God being communicated to him through this angel, this messenger of God. But he wanted something more. Zechariah’s response put in our vernacular was, “nah, I don’t believe it.” He was struck by the sheer impossibility of what this angel was saying. And his question here in verse 18 expressed all this pent-up doubt he had in his heart. And now he wanted to see something tangible, this sign. And we see his request for this sign come out further as we go through verse 18. After asking the question, “How will I know this?” he says, “For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years.” And that was the real issue, that was the real problem and the struggle Zechariah was having. He understood the basics of biology and aging. He understood that he and Elizabeth were ‘past their prime.’ He knew that, in light of their advanced ages and given their years of unanswered prayers, if he and Elizabeth were going to have a child it would necessitate some sort of miracle of divine intervention. And Zechariah thought that such a miracle was so extremely unlikely to happen that even if an angel of God were to announce it, as was the case here, he wasn’t prepared to believe. Unlike Abraham in Romans 4:18. Paul says this of Abraham, “In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations.”

Zechariah here wouldn’t believe; he refused to believe. He was a righteous man, but he was not a perfect man, clearly. And there are a few things for us to note here as we consider this righteous man’s unbelief. First, would be this, his unbelief was rooted in his failure to remember the faithfulness of God. Specifically, Zechariah failed to remember the faithfulness of God not only to he and Elizabeth in their very personal lives, and in their marriage throughout their lives, but the faithfulness of God, the childless couples just like he and Elizabeth, in generations passed. Just think of the number of accounts in the Old Testament, of both barren couples and aged couples who were blessed by God ultimately with children. Surely, a faithful and righteous man and priest that he was, Zechariah knew of these accounts. He would have known of the stories of Isaac’s birth and Samson’s birth and Samuel’s birth. But now that this promise of a birth in his own home was being offered, a birth that would happen in his marriage with his wife, Elizabeth, those accounts were out the door, they were out the window, they left no lasting impression upon him. In this moment, rather, as he faced this angel who was now making this similar announcement to him. Somehow Zechariah managed to block out and forget that God had accomplished this seemingly impossible and these very circumstances before. And it’s somewhat ironic, because Zechariah’s name, we’ve seen this in prior studies, means “God remembers.” But here, Zechariah was shown his own failure to remember all that God had done.

Second, Zechariah’s unbelief was rooted in his failure to recognize how his prayers were being answered right before his very eyes. Remember, he and Elizabeth had prayed for a child. They had prayed for the Messiah to come. He knew, as a well-trained Israelite priest, that the Messiah would be preceded by a forerunner. And now, with the angel of God in his presence and the reality of his prayers being answered right there staring him in the face in the person of an angel -- verse 13, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard.” -- he’s now suddenly unable to put two and two together. He’s not now able to connect the dots. He’s unable to think about the Zechariah of years before when he was a young man, would have rejoiced over this news. But now, with the passage of time and the passage of years and with each passing month in which Elizabeth did not become pregnant and the sadness, and the disappointment, and the frustration, and the hopelessness that set in. Rather than expressing joy and thanksgiving over this news about the fact that their prayers had been answered, Zechariah here is expressing doubt and consternation.

Third aspect of his unbelief here is that Zechariah’s unbelief was rooted in his unwillingness to take God at His word. Here this priest was standing in the presence of an angel of the Lord, a messenger of God. He’d received a word from the Lord through this angel. He’s heard these words clearly. There’s no error or confusion or hedging about what the angel is saying to him. But Zechariah, having heard it, wasn’t buying it. The word of God wasn’t sufficient for him. He needed something more, he needed a sign.

Now, preachers will sometimes lament the difficulty of preaching the Gospels. Because of the difficulty of bridging the gap from then to now. And drawing this straight line from the context of what was happening over there in first century Judea to what is happening in our lives today. Here, there really isn’t all that much difficulty. Because there are several parallels that we can draw between what Zechariah was going through here and what we go through in our lives today as those who have been declared righteous before God by putting our faith in Jesus Christ -- when we go through our own cycles of doubt and unbelief, when we get caught in a cycle of thinking that this or that relationship is irreconcilable, or that hope of a spouse is unattainable, or that wayward child’s will is unbreakable. We can look at what was exposed in Zechariah’s heart and ask ourselves, are we tempted to fall into the same traps of doubt and unbelief? And in doing so, are we somehow, like Zechariah, forgetting the faithfulness of God? Are we somehow, like Zechariah, failing to see how God is answering our prayers? Maybe not the way that we would want Him to answer those prayers, but the way He’s designed to answer those prayers. Are we in any way refusing to take God at His word? I could say much more, but we need to move on.

And as we do so, we see that there was in Zechariah’s case a consequence attached to his unbelief. Here’s our second point for this morning, “A Punitive Muting.” So, we’ve seen “A Priest’s Mistrust,” next is “A Punitive Muting.” Look at verses 19-20, it says, “And the angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands before God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good 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, Zechariah had his chance to speak. And as he spoke, we saw in verse 18, he expressed his doubt, not only his doubt, his unbelief. And now, as the angel replied to Zechariah, his heart must have sunk as the angel identified himself here as Gabriel. You see it there, “And the angel answered and said to him, ‘I am Gabriel.’ ” Gabriel is only one of two angels mentioned by name in scripture, the other being Michael. And Gabriel, Zechariah would have known, was the angel who appeared to Daniel in Daniel 8 and Daniel 9, to reveal to Daniel and give him understanding of all that would take place in the last days. And Zechariah would have known that Gabriel was this angel who was known for giving revelation and giving understanding. And in the case of Daniel, causing Daniel to be in this place of humiliation and self-abasement.

But to Zechariah, it all started to set in. Because Gabriel, not only identified himself as Gabriel, which means ‘strong man of God,’ but he also revealed his position in the presence of God. He said, “I am Gabriel, who stands before God.” That was a statement about his dignity, about his authority, about his place of preeminence. And again, Zechariah would have known who Gabriel was, so when he revealed his identity, he understood that Gabriel was speaking as one who had been in the throne room of God and he would have thought to himself, oh it’s that angel. And look what Gabriel says next, after saying “I am Gabriel, who stands before God.” He says, “I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.” In other words, he wasn’t self-appointed, this wasn’t an angel who had gone rogue. Rather, he had been sent, sent by God Himself, sent to speak to Zechariah. And he was sent by God to Zechariah to deliver a message, that message being, it says here, “this good news.” Those words come from the Greek noun “euangelion.” It’s the same word from which we get our English word, “evangel.” The good news message of what Jesus Christ did for sinners like you and me, by dying in our place on Calvary’s cross. And absorbing the wrath of God in our place. And offering Himself up as a perfect sacrifice, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. That’s the ultimate good news, the gospel by which you and I are saved. And the gospel we are called to go proclaim.

And by the way, I’d be remiss not to mention here that if you’re here this morning and you have not believed in that gospel -- if you have not repented of your sin and turned to Jesus Christ and trusted in that gospel -- if you have not believed that there’s a God who created you -- if you do not believe that that God is perfectly holy and just in all His ways -- if you’ve not believed that you are a sinner and that in your sin you stand condemned before a holy God -- if you’ve not believed that God also, in addition to being holy and just, is a God of love who sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, into the world to seek and to save that which was lost -- if you’ve not believed that Jesus Christ did come into this world and He came to this earth and He took of flesh and He was crucified and He died in your place and on the third day He did rise again -- if you’ve not believed that there is nothing you could do to merit your favor or merit any sort of favor with the infinitely holy God Who you now stand in opposition to -- if you have not believed what Jesus has done for you as the only means by which you might be restored to a right relationship with God -- if you haven’t believed in those truths -- if you haven’t turned from you sin and put your faith in Jesus Christ -- I implore you, right now, turn from your sin, turn to Christ, run to the world’s one true Savior, seek forgiveness and pardon and shelter from God’s holy wrath through Jesus Christ, and be saved.

Well, that’s the good news of the gospel that we who are believers in Christ are used to hearing. And that’s what we’re charged to proclaim to the world.
But now we have to get back to our text, and address this question, what’s this good news that Gabriel was imparting to Zechariah in our passage? Well, in context, it was the good news that Zechariah and Elizabeth would have a son, a son named John, who would not only be an answer to this couple’s prayers, but would be the forerunner to the coming of the Messiah.

Now, while this angel was there to deliver good news to Zechariah about this coming Messiah, there would first need to be some punishment meted out. Look at verse 20. This is Gabriel as he speaks to Zechariah still in the holy place. He says, “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, because of Zechariah’s doubt and his misgivings and his unbelief, he would lose his ability to speak until his son was born. That’s what’s meant by the words “you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place.”

So, God had through this angel Gabriel brought Zechariah this good news, this incredible news of all that was about to unfold through the coming of the Messiah. And not only that, this angel Gabriel had communicated to Zechariah that his family, namely his wife, would be used in a special way to prepare for the coming of the Messiah. But Zechariah refused to believe as we’ve seen. And his refusal to believe, his rejection of Gabriel’s message was serious. And consequences would be attached until the day that his now-promised son would be born, namely he’d be completely tongue-tied, he’d be unable to speak. And not only that, we know from verse 62 that he would also be rendered, not just mute but deaf. Because in verse 62 we see others were “making signs” to him because he couldn’t hear what they were saying.

Now, we need to remember. It bears repeating, because Luke repeats it here in the passage, that Zechariah found himself in this situation of not being able to speak and not being able to hear, because of his refusal to trust in God’s word given to him through the angel Gabriel. Again, verse 20, “you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words.” That goes back to Zechariah asking the question in verse 18, where he says, “How will I know this?” That was him requesting a sign. And he got his sign, alright, just not the kind of sign he wanted. It was the sign of being mute and deaf for his lack of faith.

Now, as we see from the end of verse 20 here, God would cause all of this to take place in the manner and of the time that was perfectly and divinely designed and decreed. It says these things “will be fulfilled,” end of verse 20, “in their proper time,” again, at the appointed time, the time at which God, in His sovereign control of all things, and these events in particular, would determine that they be fulfilled. The conception, the pregnancy, the arrival of this son, the eventual loosening of Zechariah’s tongue, the eventual unstopping of his ears -- they would all take place, as it says here, “in their proper time.”

So, Zechariah just encountered this angel. He’s been told by this angel, Gabriel, that he and Elizabeth would have this son named John. He’d expressed his disbelief to this angel. He’d been stricken mute and deaf by this angel. And all the while there’s been this crowd outside, praying for Zechariah, waiting for Zechariah, waiting for his eventual exit from the holy place inside the temple. Point number 3, if you’re taking notes, is “A Perplexed Mass.” Look at verses 21-22, it says, “And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and were wondering at his delay in the sanctuary. But when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. And he kept making signs to them, and remained mute.”
So, starting in verse 21, Luke tells us that “the people were waiting for Zechariah.” Which people? Well, the same people actually mentioned up the page in verse 10 where it says, “And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of the incense offering.” So, while we’ve been looking these past couple of weeks at all that’s recorded here in this section of Luke1, the angel’s appearance, Zechariah’s feelings of fear and being troubled, the angel’s assurance to Zechariah, the angel’s description last week of the features of the forerunner, Zechariah’s response including his response of doubt and disbelief, the angel’s reply here in verses 19-20 -- while all this was happening, this whole time, there’s this multitude of people waiting outside, waiting outside in the courtyard of a temple.

And note what Luke reports next in verse 21. It says, “and [they] were wondering at his delay in the sanctuary.” In other words, they were growing impatient, they were getting antsy, they were getting worried. Normally, the priest who was on duty to burn incense wouldn’t be in the holy place all that long. This was normally one of those “in and out” kind of jobs. And when he came out. The expectation was that he would give that familiar priestly blessing of Numbers 6, “The Lord bless you, and keep you,,, and make His face shine upon you,” [NASB] and such. Well, Zechariah here was taking this abnormally long time, which was cause for concern with the people, cause for alarm, cause for consternation. This sense of alarm and danger was growing and the sense of suspense. What had happened to him? Was he ok? It was well-known that the altar of incense inside the holy place, as we saw a couple of weeks ago, was very close in proximity to the very presence of God in that inner sanctum of the holy of holies. And there’s only a veil separating the two places inside the temple. And it was very well-known that to come so close to the holy of holies, seen as God’s very present dwelling place, was fraught with danger. Everybody knew the line from Exodus 33:20, that no one can look on the face of God and live. So, the concern here was, had Zechariah somehow unwisely peeked behind the curtain of the holy of holies? And had he been consumed by fire? Was he hurt somehow? Was he in trouble? Was this some sign or omen of trouble that was about to befall Israel? These would have been some of the questions that had been circulating in the courtyard as these people waited and waited and waited for Zechariah to come out.

And then look what comes next in verse 22, it says, “But when he came out, he was unable to speak to them.” In other words, the punishment that God had meted out by Gabriel to Zechariah for his unbelief took place immediately and in a manner of moments, following his exchange with that angel in the sanctuary, in the holy place. And now that he’s facing his countrymen out in the courtyard of the temple. Zechariah has lost his ability to speak. And not only speak, but verse 62 of Luke 1 will tell us, to hear.

Now, apparently, the people waiting outside the temple had some sort of understanding of what had happened to Zechariah. Look at verse 22, as we move on, it says, “and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary.” So, when Zechariah finally emerged after this noticeable delay, the people waiting in the courtyard noticed that he wasn’t able to speak. Probably because he didn’t give the customary blessing they were used to hearing when the priest came out and gave the Numbers 6 blessing. But there was something else going on, there was something else that was apparently off about Zechariah. And as you read the commentaries there’s all sorts of speculation. People think maybe he had bugged out eyes. Maybe he had blanched skin, you know, he was white as a sheet. Maybe he was trembling, it’s possible. We don’t really know. All we know is that something visible, something noticeable, something about Zechariah’s appearance was communicating to the crowd that something was off. And that something supernatural had happened to him while he was inside giving that incense offering.

And by the way, the crowd’s corporate intuition was confirmed by what we see next, in verse 22 at the very end, it says, “And he kept making signs to them, and remained mute.” Now, in earlier Old Testament revelation, muteness was often associated with some sort of divine encounter with the Lord. Here’s Ezekiel 3:24, it says: “The Spirit then entered me and caused me to stand on my feet, and He spoke with me and said to me, “Go shut yourself up in your house. Now as for you, son of man, they will put ropes on you and bind you with them so that you cannot go out among them. Moreover,” this is God speaking to Ezekiel, “I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth so that you will be mute and cannot be a man who reproves them, for they are a rebellious house.” Or Daniel 10:14, the Lord says this to Daniel, “Now I have come to give you an understanding of what will happen to your people in the last days, for the vision pertains to the days yet future.” And then Daniel says, in verse 15: “Now when he had spoken to me according to these words, I turned my face toward the ground and became speechless.”
In other words, back here in Luke, the people waiting outside the temple in verse 22, in the courtyard, they had arrived at the correct conclusion. That Zechariah had experience some sort of supernatural encounter, so that it was now impossible for him to give his priestly blessing. He had no ability to speak verbally. He could only communicate by way of signs, perhaps motioning, perhaps nodding, perhaps waving, whatever he could do without words to communicate.

As we turn to verse 23, we see a transition in the narrative. And this is our fourth heading, by the way. Here we have “A Preparatory March.” Verse 23, “And it happened that when the days of his priestly service were fulfilled, he went back home.” Now, as you’ve heard me explain a few times now, the priests in Israel, they operated in these 24 divisions at this time, of something like 750 priests per division. And each division served for two individual weeks in Jerusalem, after their week of service heading back to wherever they came from. And that was Zechariah here. He was not only through with his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to offer incense inside the holy place of the temple, but his entire week of service, along with the rest of his division, the division of Abijah, was now over. So, his tour of duty, that weekly tour of duty in the temple, was now done. And so, verse 23 says “he went back home.” And you can only imagine, with all that’s transpired up to this point, what that must have been like for him to go from where he was in Jerusalem, to where he was living. What feelings of joy and awe and fear and amazement must have been swirling through him as he made that trek back to the home front. And where was home? Well, home, verses 39-40 of Luke’s gospel, chapter 1, just down the page, home for Zechariah was the hill country of Judea. Look at Luke 1:39, it says, “Now at this time Mary arose and went in a hurry to the hill country, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.” So, they were from the hill country of Judah which would have been south of Jerusalem and really the heartland of ancient Israel.

And note, as he’s heading home, making that trek from Jerusalem down to the hill country of Judah, he was still unable to speak, he still can’t talk. He’s unable to hear. So, two senses are off the table for him. He had eyes to see all the terrain as he’s walking back, or riding back, to his homeland. But as he’s doing so, he’s grappling with the reality that he wouldn’t be able to verbally tell Elizabeth about any of it when he got home. His temple service, the lot being cast in his favor to make the incense offering, the interaction he had with the angel Gabriel, the fact that she would bear a son to him in her old age, the role their son would play, his incidence of unbelief, his now inability to speak -- she wouldn’t be able to hear any of it from his lips. He’d have to figure out another way to communicate. And we can only imagine, and that’s all we have in this space, with what’s revealed to us, we only have imagination. But we can only imagine how furiously Zechariah went about scribbling out all that had happened, when he got home to Elizabeth. Whether it was with a stick or a stylist or papyrus, or writing on the wall, or the floor, on a kitchen table, we don’t know. What he wrote, how fast he wrote, the text doesn’t tell us. What we can say, though, is that, as he had to find another way to communicate to his wife all that had happened in his week of service, all of it was to serve as a reminder of his inability to believe, his lack of belief, his unbelief concerning God’s words and God’s promises. But these were also reminders to him, that this very sign -- his inability to speak, his inability to hear -- they were a sign that God ultimately would bring about all that He had promised to bring about, there at the end of verse 20, when all things were “fulfilled in their proper time.” Well, with that I mentioned verse 23, sort of a transition in the narrative. We now move from Zechariah’s priestly service in Jerusalem and now his trek home, to now his being at home.

And here we come in verses 24-25, to our fifth and final point, which would be “A Praising Mother.” Verse 24 says, “After these days Elizabeth his wife conceived, and she kept herself in seclusion for five months, saying, ‘This is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when he looked upon me to take away my disgrace among men.’ ” Now, note the part of the story we don’t have here; it’s the part of the story we all wish we had. That part of the story where, how did Zechariah go about telling his wife in their home that she would conceive? We aren’t told. We aren’t told if, you know, he flung open the door or kicked in the door, and said, “Guess what!” We have no clue, we aren’t given any information, even about how she reacted to him, facially. Whether she trembled or teared up or if she shouted out in excitement, in awe. All we’re told is what we see here, “after these days,” after Zechariah’s days of priestly service were over, and after he returned home to their home in the hill country. And then it says, “Elizabeth his wife conceived.” There’s no more elaboration, there’s no more fanfare. There’s just this simple declaration, that what the angel Gabriel had promised Zechariah back in verses 13-17 about the forerunner had come to pass. Elizabeth, the elderly, the one who was described in verse 7 as being barren and advanced in years, was now carrying a child, and pregnant, just as the angel Gabriel had told Zechariah would happen.

The next piece of data we are given by Luke here, is that after she conceived, verse 24, “she kept herself in seclusion for five months.” And why? Some have said that she did this to protect herself from all the commotion and the excitement that surely would have come upon an announcement of her pregnancy. Maybe to protect herself physically. Maybe to protect the baby physically. Some have said that she feared being singled out, as the barren one. And this was a time in which barren mothers who could not conceive were mocked and scorned as having done something wrong. And maybe she thought, if I make this announcement about what Gabriel has announced to my husband, back in the temple in Jerusalem, about me now carrying a child, and that child’s not obviously showing in the first five months of the pregnancy, I’ll receive even more mocking and scorning. Whereas, five months later, by contrast, with that basketball-sized bump in her belly, people would get it, and praise God. Others have said that she isolated herself for these five months as an act of devotion and worship to the Lord, to spend this time as a god-fearing woman in consecrated prayer and giving thanks to God. This was a season for her, a sweet season of grateful worship of God, as that baby was developing and growing in her womb.

Well, as my fifth point, “A Praising Mother,” indicates, it kind of gives it away, I think that the third one is the correct one. I think that fits best what’s happening here in light of what comes next, namely, Elizabeth’s own words in verse 25. And note how these words connect back up to verse 24. Verse 24 ends with her saying that she “kept herself in seclusion for five months,” and then in verse 25, we get her words, “This is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when He looked upon me to take away my disgrace among men.” There’s no exclamation point here either in the English or the Greek, but make no mistake, these words encapsulate the great joy and relief that Elizabeth was experiencing over this news. This was joy and relief similar to what Sarah experienced in Genesis 21, or Rebekah in Genesis 25, or Rachel in Genesis 30, or Hannah in 1 Samuel 2, and as we’ll see, Mary later on in Luke’s Gospel. God, in other words, had acted in Elizabeth’s life by removing from her the source of pain and embarrassment, and now she was offering praise for the favor He had shown her. That disgrace that she had experienced before, that reproach that she had experienced before, that humiliating social stigma that she had experienced before, was now gone. No doubt she and Zechariah had faced comments and remarks over their childlessness for many, many years at this point. But sort of the explanation point on this whole section is that God was now going to bless this righteous couple in a way that they had never dreamed of. Because not only would Elizabeth now be improbably carrying a child in her old age, so late in life, but she’d be carrying a son who would pave the way for the arrival of the long-anticipated Messiah of Israel.

Now, we’ve worked our way through another segment this morning of Luke’s Gospel. Dealing with this account of Zechariah and Elizabeth, this priestly couple who God chose to be the parents of John the Baptist, the forerunner to Jesus’ arrival on earth. But let’s remind ourselves one more time as we close, what the names of each of these players, in the story so far, meant.
Zechariah’s name meant “God remembers,” which as we’ve seen, He did. Elizabeth’s name meant “the faithfulness of God” which He was and is. And the son, who would soon be filling their lives with joy, John, his name means “God is gracious,” which He was and is. God is a gracious God, God is a faithful God, God is a God who remembers. That’s one of those eternal truths that we can carry over. That’s a truth that surely would have ministered to Zechariah and Elizabeth, as they received this joyful news. Those are truths that would have carried over to the days of Mary and Joseph, just a little bit later in the narrative. And those are truths that we can carry into our lives today. As followers of the One that John pointed to, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let’s go to Him in prayer now, as we remember His gracious, faithful and remembering ways.
Let’s pray.

God, thank You for a chance this morning, to unpack the truths of Your word as we do each and every Sunday. Thank You, for these reminders from Luke’s Gospel, as we have looked at this account of Zechariah and Elizabeth, in their hope and their prayers being answered. Thank You, that we can look at an example like Zechariah, all these years later, here where we sit, in this part of the world, in a time in which we live, and see a man who was righteous and walking blameless, but yet had doubt, and yet experienced unbelief. God, I pray that some of the truths that we’ve seen this morning, and heard this morning, would remind us that we aren’t spared seasons of doubt and unbelief. We will go through seasons of doubt and unbelief even as believers. But what we need to do is see some of these truths that we’ve seen this morning and allow them to sink into our hearts and transform our lives as we remember how faithful You are. We remember how You answer prayers, according to Your perfect timeline. We remember how we have answers given to us in our era in Your word. And as we remember who You are in Your character, that You are gracious, You are faithful, and You are a God who remembers. God, may those truths impact our hearts, and equip us for more faithful service to You this week. In Jesus’ name. Amen.