One of my favorite parts of the Christmas season is the special music it brings. In fact I counted this week and discovered that my family owns 17 different Christmas CD’s and we have duplicates of many of these so that I can enjoy them in the office while I work without having to deprive Sue of being able to listen to them at the house.
I’ve been listening to our Christmas CD’s for a couple weeks now…and I heard a report earlier this week that tells me I’m not alone. A commentator on WTOP said that this year most people were listening to Christmas music way before Thanksgiving. I say GOOD FOR THEM!
Now, do we do this? I mean why is Christmas MUSIC so special to us? Well, perhaps it is because music helps us to celebrate the birth of Jesus better than anything else. And this is nothing new-because music has been an integral part of the celebration of our Lord’s birth for a long time-a VERY long time!
For example one of my favorite carols is “Good Christian Men, Rejoice.” Anyone else like that one? Well it was first sung in the 14th century. I’d say that seven centuries is a pretty long time for a song to be a hit, wouldn’t you?! The carol we sang this morning, “O Come O Come Immanuel” has been popular even longer. It was based on a text written in the 9th century-1200 years ago!
And you know, the truth is-CHRISTMAS SONGS go even farther back than that! I say this because the Bible tells us that the CENTRAL CHARACTERS of the Christmas story INSTANTLY responded to the events surrounding the birth of our Savior-with SONGS! And, we also know that the very first “Christmas Carols” that they composed caught on because from the early years in the church groups of Christians sang them as a part of their celebration of the birth of Jesus. For example: as early as 129 A.D., believers were singing the angel’s song,
“Glory to God in the Highest and on earth, peace good will to all men!”
Gives a whole new meaning to the term “Oldie but goldie” doesn’t it?! And you know, when you think about it, perhaps it’s the AGE of the Classic Christmas Carols that MAKES them so popular. Anytime we sing them-well, it gives us the sense of joining hands and lifting our voices with people who have sung these same songs down through the centuries. When we do this, it’s almost as if we touch the lives of those who sang at the FIRST Christmas.
Well, for the next four weeks I want us to do just that. I want us to “sing through” the very first songs of Christmas-recorded in the Gospel of Luke-in the hope that as we do WE will feel the excitement and wonder that those first Christmas singers felt as they watched the events unfold that led to the birth of God’s only Son.
So here’s the schedule…..Today we’ll look at Zechariah’s song…
- Next week, December 6 we’ll study Mary’s song.
- On December 13 we’ll study the angels’ song.
- And then on December 20 we’ll look at the song of Simeon.
Think of these sermons as a sort of “concert series.” Now, I don’t know about you but when I go to a concert I usually get there early so I’ll have time to read the program to help me understand both the setting of the songs as well as something about the life of the singers. This brief time of “pre-concert study” enables me to fully appreciate the beauty and the message of the music-so let’s do that together this morning before we actually listen to Zechariah “sing.”
Sermon: Now, the SETTING of this first song of Christmas is found in Luke 1:5-25. Unfortunately time doesn’t allow us to read it this morning…but go ahead and open your Bibles to this passage and follow along as I describe it’s content. The first thing we must understand to grasp the setting of these events is that they occurred during a GLOOMY period in the life of the nation of Israel. These verses describe a time when the nation of Israel was not living up to its calling from God. You see, the Hebrew nation was not just any nation. No-it had been chosen by God from among all the nations to be a priestly nation to the rest of the world. But…in the time of Zechariah, this nation that was TO LEAD all nations to God was BEING LED by the pagan empire of Rome. And Rome was just the last of a LONG LINE of pagan nations that had ruled Israel. For the past 580 years the Jewish people had endured humiliation and servitude under the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Egyptians, and the Syrians.
Now, in verse 5 of chapter 1 Luke reminds us that the king in Zechariah’s day was Herod-and he was the first Jewish king to sit on the throne since the fall of the Southern Kingdom some 580 years earlier. But Herod was not a REAL king of Israel. No-he was merely a puppet…put in office by the authority of Rome. In fact he wasn’t even a Jew. Herod was an IduMEan-a descendant of Esau-and as such he had no rightful claim to the throne. More importantly, Herod was not a man of God. He was just the opposite…a very ungodly, degenerate, and wicked man.
I mean, Herod should have been a spiritual leader-a model to the people, but he was everything but that. He was a cruel tyrant who personally bathed his reign in blood, including the blood of many members of his own family. Herod also introduced Roman temples into the land and built idols to the Roman gods. Under his leadership Israel became a land filled with immorality-the spiritual life of the Jews lost its vitality. Their worship of God became little more than dry ceremony-rote ritual for most people.
Well, in the midst of these dark and gloomy times, Luke introduces us to a simple, faithful couple, an elderly priest named Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth. Now Zechariah was a descendant of Aaron. That automatically made him a priest-and as a priest the law required him to marry a Hebrew…but Zechariah had done even more. He had married a DAUGHTER of Aaron-the daughter of another priest. I mean, it was as if a preacher’s son was marrying another preacher’s daughter. So the marriage of these two was sure to have been seen as a great blessing to their families. There was much rejoicing when Zechariah and Elizabeth wed.
However, the rejoicing quickly faded when years passed because it became evident that Elizabeth was barren. And to fully grasp how crushing this news was to them we must understand that in these days a woman of Israel lived for one thing and one thing only: to bear children. Women who could not bear children were shamed and humiliated by their communities. They were the source of constant gossip and slander. In fact, the Jewish Rabbis said that seven types of people were excommunicated from God and the top of the list was, “a Jew who has no wife, or a Jew who has a wife who has no child.” With this mind set we can understand why childlessness was grounds for divorce in this day.
Well, Zechariah and Elizabeth had lived with this shame throughout their married life but I admire them because it had not caused them to become bitter or abandon their faith in God. Verse 6 says that “Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly.” In other words, they held to their trust in God-even though life was disappointing to them both. Perhaps the fact that they had endured decades of ridicule because of their barren state had led their peers to respect them for their attitudes of unwavering devotion to God even though He had not seen fit to bless them with a child.
Now, at this time in the life of Israel there were approximately 20,000 descendants of Aaron…all of them priests by birth…just like Zechariah. That’s a lot of preachers! And since there were so many priests-and only one temple-they were divided into groups, and those groups served in the temple only two weeks in the year with various duties allotted to each priest. Zechariah was sort of a “reservist priest” – one of many. Now, the greatest privilege granted to an ordinary reservist priest like Zechariah-the thing they each lived for-was the privilege of burning incense on the altar of the Holy Place. Understand-this was not in the HOLY OF HOLIES itself. Only the High priest was permitted to enter this most sacred place and he did that only once each year on the Day of Atonement. No-this was just OUTSIDE the curtain that surrounded the Holy of Holies and, this coveted privilege of burning incense there was granted by lots which means only a few priests were given this opportunity and if you ever were you never got the chance to try again for you were only allowed to do this once in your entire life.
So when Zachariah was chosen for this privilege it was the chance of a lifetime. Of course you and I know that this was no chance of coincidence but rather the hand of God. As someone has said, “coincidences are actually miracles for which God chooses to remain anonymous.” God wanted Zechariah to have this assignment for a very important reason. Well, when this most solemn occasion began that day, the priests ascended the steps leading to the Holy Place.
When they got to the top they spread coals on the golden altar, arranged the incense, and departed, leaving Zechariah alone before God. Zechariah was to offer his prayers of intercession for the people of Israel and then put incense on the coals of the altar as a powerful, beautiful symbol of the prayers of Israel rising to God.
While he was doing this, outside in the court of Israel a great multitude of people waited laying face down on the floor in prayer, praying with the priest who represented them in the Holy Place.
Well, they were hardly prepared for what was to take place that day and neither was Zechariah because in the midst of his prayer an angel of God appeared and stood at one end of the altar right in front of the aging priest.
Now, we must understand the stunning significance of this event. I mean, not only was it a shock for an angel to show up. It was also a shock for God to speak to His people. You see, there had been no word from God since those the prophet Malachi had delivered 400 years prior. Well, when the angel appeared Zechariah was understandably afraid. But the Angel calmed him-and it seems to me that this is always the way it is with angels in the Bible. They show up-people are afraid-and the angel says, “Don’t be…”
His next words to Zechariah were, “Your prayer has been heard!” Now…what had Zechariah been praying for? Well, I doubt that he was praying for children. Zechariah and Elisabeth had prayed for children for a long time but in their minds the physical possibility for that happening had long passed so probably this godly man was praying for the Messiah to come-for God to keep His promise to His chosen people. But God’s answer through the angel addressed both prayers. You see, the angel said that Elisabeth would bare Zechariah a son and that this little boy would not be just any child. No, Zechariah’s boy would be named “John” and he would fulfill the 400 year old prophecy of Malachi 4:5-6 and the 800 year old prophecy of Isaiah 40:1-5! In verses 16 & 17 the angel referred to these prophecies when he said, “Your son, John, will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous-to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” In other words, Zechariah’s son would have the great privilege of preparing the way for the coming of the Messiah.
Well, this news overwhelmed Zechariah. I mean, the answer to his prayers was simply too much for him to believe so immediately his FAITH gave way to REASON and in verse 18 he said,
“How can this happen? I mean, this is impossible. My wife and I are old…too old.” And at this point Zechariah made the mistake that many of us do. He looked at God through his problems rather then looking at his problems through the power of God. Well, the angel rebuked his lack of faith in verses 19-20. In essence he said…. “How dare you question me….I am not just any angel. I am the angel Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God and I have been sent to speak to you and tell you this good news! You should be deliriously happy, praising God, not questioning my word. To prove to you that this is God’s truth that I am proclaiming you will be mute for nine months….until the day that John is born.”
Now-Zechariah deserved this judgement because he was questioning God’s ability to fulfill His own Word. Zechariah knew better than to do this! Had he forgotten what God did for Abraham and Sarah in their old age? Did he think his physical limitations would hinder almighty God? But before we judge Zechariah-let’s ask ourselves…DO WE TAKE GOD AT HIS WORD? DO WE LIVE IN SUCH A WAY THAT WE TRUST HIS PROMISES TO BE TRUE? I imagine that if Gabriel were to give us the punishment we deserve, things would be kind of quiet around here!
Now-I want to point out that this sudden muteness made things hard for Zechariah right away.
You see, this once-in-a-lifetime privilege of praying in the Holy Place was to be followed by a benediction that he would be expected to offer. And he couldn’t speak! Now while Zechariah was spending all this time in the Holy Place-much more time than normal-the people were lying prostrate on the floor, wondering what was keeping him. When he appeared before them obviously mute, they knew that something special had happened. So they watched as Zechariah beckoned back and forth to them in an improvised sign language…perhaps the first game of charades…silently attempting to pronounce the traditional blessing-all the while knowing that a far greater blessing was yet to come.
Well in spite of his verbal handicap Zechariah completed his two weeks of priestly ministry and then returned home-and shortly thereafter, Elisabeth conceived. Nine months later the baby was born and on the 8th day he was circumcised. On this day it was customary to name the child-and it was common practice to name the boy after his father. So the relatives and friends who had gathered for the circumcision of this special child born to these septuagenarians probably assumed that this first-born son-surely the ONLY child this couple would ever have-would be called “Zechariah, Jr.” But Elisabeth said, “No….he shall be called JOHN!” Zechariah had apparently told her of his experience with the angel. In fact, I imagine they passed quite a few notes back and forth as he attempted to describe what had happened to him that day in the temple. Well, the neighbors and relatives then appealed to ZECHARIAH-as to what HIS will was in the naming of his son and he asked for a writing tablet-probably one covered with wax and he wrote on it four words:”HIS NAME IS JOHN!” not “Shall be,” but “is!” Zechariah knew that, like all children, his son’s life began at conception, not birth, and that God had already named him-that he was already JOHN.
Well when Zechariah wrote this note-the last of nine months of notes-his mouth “was opened”….his tongue was loosed and the first thing he did with it was sing. Now, can you imagine his pride! “My son the prophet! First one in 400 years and it’s MY son!” If they wore vests in those days I think Zechariah would have popped his buttons as he filled his diaphragm to sing what is literally the FIRST SONG of Christmas! Over the years the church has given his song the title of: “THE BENEDICTUS”…or “The Blessing” – we don’t know the melody but look now at verses 68-79 of Luke 1 and follow along as I read the lyrics:
68 – “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has come and has redeemed His people.
69 – He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David
70 – (As He said through His holy prophets of long ago),
71 – salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us-
72 – to show mercy to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant,
73 – the oath He swore to our father Abraham:
74 – to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve Him without fear
75 – in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.
76 – And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for Him,
77 – to give His people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins,
78 – because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
79 – to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
Okay, in the lyrics of this ancient Christmas carol Zechariah sings of 3 essential truths about God.
1. And the first truth he sings is that our Heavenly Father always answers PRAYER.
As I pointed out earlier, when Zechariah fulfilled his priestly duties that day outside of the Holy of Holies, God answered not one but two of his prayers-but according to His perfect timing. Think of it. God gave him and his wife Elizabeth the son they had prayed for-but decades after they had stopped praying-long after they thought it was possible for God to answer this request. He also told Zechariah that the Messiah was soon to be born-and this was the answer to centuries of seemingly unanswered prayers. This should tell us that God ALWAYS answers prayer but not necessarily IN THE WAY we think He should or even WHEN we think He should. He gives us the answers we NEED not necessarily the answers we WANT.
And, this reminds me of the following three basic principles of prayer. They’re not original with me but all Christians who want to understand prayer should remember them.
A. First, we must understand that if our request is wrong-God’s answer will be “NO.”
Remember the time James and John came to Jesus and asked if they could make reservations for the best two seats in heaven-on Jesus’ right and left? Jesus’ answer was, “NO-I’m not going to grant that one.” Or how about the time Jesus and the disciples were denied a “travel permit” through a certain part of Samaria. This ticked the disciples off so much that they asked Jesus to destroy the entire place with fire from heaven. And once again Jesus answered their prayer in the negative. Well, just like those disciples we are very capable of making inappropriate requests of God. And when we do, God answers, “NO.” Have your children every asked you to do something that you knew was not good for them? “Mom, can I have ice cream for supper?” “Dad, can I play in the street?” Sure they have! And if you love your kids you reply is NO to requests like this.
Well, our Heavenly Father is no different. When our requests are destructive, or self-serving, or shortsighted, or if God has something better in mind for us-if the request is wrong in any of these ways-God’s answer will always be “NO.”
B. And then, if WE are wrong, God’s reply will be: “GROW.”
You see the truth is, many of the times we are to blame when God doesn’t answer prayer the way we want. Sin in our own lives becomes an obstacle to the miracle God want’s to work for us. Psalm 66:18 says if I regard sin in my heart-in other words-if I’m leading a life of disobedience to God the Lord will not respond to my prayers. Matthew 5:23-24 warns that if there is relational discord between me and someone else-if there are private wars going on-well, it cuts us off from close fellowship with God…and hampers our prayer life. 1 Peter 3 get’s specific about this and says, “Husbands live with your wives in an understanding way. Grant them honor-so that your prayers won’t be hindered.” Any husbands out there wondering why your prayer life is powerless?
Well, the principle here is that whenever we are sinning-whenever we are disobeying God, and we ask something of Him in prayer His reply is basically, “Why should I honor your requests when you don’t honor Mine?”
I mean, if you want to pull the plug on the power of prayer, then dishonor God in some area of your life on a continual basis and if you want to have a close relationship with God…if you want a powerful prayer life, then be mature enough to obey Him…and when you sin, repent and ask his forgiveness.
If the motive is wrong God will say NO. If we are wrong, God will say GROW and then…
C. Third, if the TIMING is wrong. God will say “SLOW.”
To borrow from the parenting analogy again…have you ever had to tell your kids, “not yet?” You’ve just begun a three hour drive to grandmom’s house for Thanksgiving. Fifteen minutes into the trip just as you slow for a traffic pile up at the beltway the kids ask, “Are we there yet?”
And you say, “No…not yet.” Or, Thanksgiving dinner is about two hours away and your kids say, “Can I have some turkey?” And you say, “No…not yet.” Or, it’s two weeks before Christmas and your kids want to open their presents that are under the tree and you say, “No…not yet.” Well, many times adults are childishly impatient in their prayers. We ask our Heavenly Father for things at the wrong time…and He lovingly, simply says, “Slow down…I’ll answer but not yet.”
We need to understand that God’s delays are not necessarily His denials. No matter how long it takes God, He WILL accomplish His stated purposes so we must be patient. Once one of Philip Brooks’ deacons found him pacing back and forth in his study and he asked: “What’s the matter Pastor?” and Brooks replied, “I guess it boils down to the fact that I’m in a hurry and God Almighty doesn’t seem to be.”
Well, God is never in a hurry because He always knows when the time is right-and it was finally right for Him to answer the prayers of Zechariah. The lyrics of his song show that this experience helped him to learn that God ALWAYS answers prayer-but according to His perfect timing.
2. And then a second thing his song tells us is that God is INVOLVED in our world.
Now, this is something Zechariah must have doubted. I mean as he looked around at the state of his nation-oppressed by it’s pagan enemies-slipping further into immorality-this aging preacher must have wondered, “Why doesn’t God do something!” And if you were honest wouldn’t you admit that there have been times that you wondered the same thing today? I mean we watch the news and it looks like the bad guys always win-and we wonder why our Almighty God doesn’t get involved.
When theologian and author Thomas Carlyle was well along in years, he became seriously ill and experienced deep depression. A friend was visiting with him one day and the subject of religion came up. The friend commented, “I can only believe in a God who DOES something.” Carlyle reportedly winced as if in physical pain and said with a sigh, “But that is just the problem. He DOES nothing…nothing at all.” Now, to those who have read his works, it is obvious that this statement is by no means typical of the true depth of Carlyle’s faith. It simply represented the way he honestly felt at that moment as the clouds of depression totally engulfed him-and many of us have felt the same way in our lives at times. When nightmarish problems persist and it SEEMS that God does “…nothing, absolutely nothing at all…” we honestly feel that God is, to use H. G. Wells’ bitter phrase, “…an ever ABSENT help in time of trouble.”
Well across the centuries this charge has repeatedly been leveled at God but the Bible records the fact that God has always been involved in the affairs of men-that history is really HIS story. In fact if God stopped what He is doing, the whole universe would fall apart. As Colossians 1:17 says, “the universe as a whole in Him holds together.” I mean, I could not show up for work and things would move right along-but if God ceased His involvement in this universe even for an instant everything would come to a grinding halt. God IS involved in our world. He’s not some absentee landlord uninterested in the affairs of men.
In fact, in his song Zecharariah foretold the greatest example of God’s involvement-the night soon to come when God would literally join us in the human struggle that night of nights when He would be born in that manger in Bethlehem after which He would go on to live a sinless life and then die on the cross for you and mine.
There is a psychiatrist in NYC named John Rosen who works with catatonics. He breaks the precedent of doctors who remain separate and aloof from their patients. You see Rosen loves them enough to move into the ward with them. He places his bed among their beds. He lives the life they must live. Day to day, he shares it. If they don’t talk, he doesn’t talk either. But then Rosen does something else. He puts his arms around them and hugs them. This highly skilled, highly paid physician who is like God to the patient in that he sets the limits on their lives…holds the unattractive, unlovable, sometimes out of control persons and literally loves them back into life. Often, when they finally speak, the first words they say are thank you.
Well, Rosen provides a similar example of what God has done in Jesus. He came to walk the roads we walked. He entered our existence. He took the punishment for our sins. Through His great love He made it possible for us to have eternal life. God couldn’t become more involved than that!
3. And then finally Zechariah sings of the fact that…God Keeps His PROMISES!
And, promise-keeping is a wonderful thing. Lewis Smeades writes, “When a person makes a promise he stretches himself out into circumstances that no one can control and controls at least one thing…with one simple word of promise a person creates an island of certainty in a sea of uncertainty.”
Well, Zechariah joyfully reminds us that God keeps His promises. In fact, in the lyrics of this song sung by one of the proudest fathers of all time Zechariah verbalizes the joyful realization that the meaning of both his and Elizabeth’s names was true. You see, “Elisabeth” means “The promises of God.” And Zechariah’s name means, “Jehovah remembers.” Together they mean, “God remembers His promises!” And John’s birth showed Zechariah that God does indeed! In His song Zechariah belts out to all who will listen, “God has done as He said he would through His holy prophets of long ago….He has remembered His holy covenant that He swore to our father Abraham…”
And you and I need to realize that God has gone on record in His book that He will keep His commitments because it is God’s nature to be absolutely faithful. You can count on the fulfillment of each of His promises as surely as you can count on the sun rising and setting each day. This is why Hebrews 10:23 urges us to, “Hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful!”
The fact that God keeps His promises means everything to me. I am able to relax about my future because in Mark 6 God has assured me that I need not worry about the dark uncertainty of tomorrow. The Bible says God will guide my every step. I never worry about being alone because I have discovered that just as He promises in His word God is an, “ever PRESENT help in time of trouble. When I fail due to my own sinfulness I know that in 1 John 1:9, God has promised to forgive me and cleanse me and help me to start over. I know that one day I will die but I am filled with confidence and gratitude because in John 14:3 God has made a steadfast commitment to take me to heaven on the merits of Christ. I have peace in life not because of years of trying to accumulate good works…not from self-awareness or some secret wisdom but simply because I have put my trust in the grace-filled promises of God…
One of the things we have done to try and prepare for our children’s college over the years…is to purchase savings bonds. And tens of millions of people have done this same thing for their children. They buy US SAVINGS BONDS, and they do so not because they pay more than other investments but rather because they are backed by the promise of the US government and therefore are relatively secure. Well, I “buy” Scripture’s promises because they are backed by nothing less than the inherent character and nature of God and absolutely nothing is more secure than that.
Invitation:
This morning I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing Zechariah’s song. I pray that after our study you feel as excited as Zechariah did as he realized these things that he sang about! You can even break out in song if you like. But I want all of you to know that Zechariah was right on all three counts! God always answers prayer! He always keeps His promises! And-He IS involved in this world-in fact, more than anything else, God wants to be involved in YOUR life. He wants each of us to make that all important decision and respond to Jesus’ death on the cross by repenting of our sin and asking him to come into our lives as Lord and Savior.
As we sing of God’s great faithfulness won’t you respond by making that decision? And then if you’ve already made that commitment…perhaps God is calling you to be involved with His work here in this church. If so come and join our church family. We’d love to have you. Won’t you come now as God leads?