This tape contains the first of a series of six sermons entitled The Characters of Christmas, delivered by the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia. The title of this sermon is Zechariah and Elizabeth, and the scripture reference is Luke chapter 1, beginning with verse 5. Advent, I just said, is a time of preparation, a time of getting ready, getting spiritually ready to meet with the Lord. And the season of Advent is an unusual time in the church's calendar because it's looking in two directions at once. It's looking back to the time of Jesus' first coming among us when he came as a baby born in Bethlehem.

And we are rehearsing that first Advent, that first time of preparation when he made his way into the world of men. At the same time, Advent is looking forward to a yet greater coming, to his return in glory when he establishes the kingdom that the disciples were asking about. He is king now.

He reigns right now. He's Lord right now. But the world as a whole doesn't know that.

It refuses that. It ridicules it. You and I know a secret that one day all of creation will acknowledge.

It says every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of the Father. We know that now, one day all of creation will acknowledge it with us. But in terms of establishing that kingdom throughout the whole world, we're really a fifth column on enemy territory.

And when that kingdom is established here, it will be a greater coming. than even the first one was. And so Advent is looking back to what already happened.

It's looking forward to what we still anticipate and await. Paul writes to the Romans, it's time to wake up. The day of Christ's return is even closer now than when we first believed.

And if that was true when he wrote it, how much truer today. Don't think that because a long period of time has gone by that the Lord has forgotten all the promises of the glorious kingdom here on earth. He says, don't fall asleep at the switch.

The day is closer now than when we first believed. Jesus himself said to his disciples, you won't know when it comes. If you knew when it was coming, you'd be ready.

But because you don't know when I'm coming, be ready always. Be ready always. Don't let it catch you completely unprepared.

The world would have us believe that that's all myth, all legend, all superstition, all foolishness. Jesus lived and died and maybe in some strange spiritual way his spirit lives on, but surely we've grown up, we've gone beyond the expectation that the same Jesus, the physical human being who walked this earth, would come back amongst us. Don't let the world's skepticism lull you into sleep, into an unpreparedness.

He says, I am coming. When you least expect it, don't let it catch you unprepared. Well, that's what Advent is about then.

a looking back and a celebrating of his first coming, and as we identify with the people who went through that experience of preparation for his coming the first time, so we also would be readying ourselves afresh for his return in glory, whenever that might be. This year, as we celebrate Advent, as we move up to the time of Christmas, What I'd like to do with you is share a series of brief meditations on the principal characters surrounding that first Christmas story. To just identify ourselves with those first Advent characters.

And I'd like, therefore, to turn to Luke's Gospel in chapter 1 for the first of them this morning. The interesting thing that you're going to discover, I think, is that very few of them really were prepared. Very few of them were prepared to meet the Lord when he came amongst us the first time.

Luke begins a little bit further back than the other gospel writers do. Luke begins with the story of the parents of John the Baptizer. Zechariah, and Elizabeth.

Let's pick up at verse 5. Luke chapter 1 and verse 5. In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah of the division of Abijah.

And he had a wife of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless. but they had no child because Elizabeth was barren and both were advanced in years.

Zechariah was a priest and as such his job, his ministry was twofold. The role of a priest is first of all to represent the people before the Lord to go and intercede on their behalf to bring their prayers and their praises to the Lord, to be the representative of the people to God. And then he turns right around and represents God to the people.

He becomes the spokesman of the Lord back to his people. And that's the duty of a priest. That's what it is to be a priest, to represent the people to the Lord and to represent the Lord to the people.

Now one specific duty that was assigned on a rotating your particular opportunity to fulfill this task would come up on a rotation, was to go into the temple and to burn incense before the Lord. Most of you would be aware of the fact that the principal feature of this tremendous glorious temple in Jerusalem was a double room, two chambers that were tied related to each other. The outer one was called the holy place.

The inner one was called the holy of holies. And they were separated by a great thick veil. And nobody could go beyond that veil except the high priest, and he only once a year.

On the Day of Atonement, the high priest would go in as the representative of the people and would bring, in essence, the confession of all of their sins and the offering of a blood sacrifice on behalf of all of God's people, sinful men, women, and children, to be reconciled with Holy God. That's what the Day of Atonement means. A day of at-one-ment.

Atonement. The high priest, once a year. But the other priests, of whom there were very many, would go into the holy place.

Not the Holy of Holies, but this outer chamber. And they would go in there, again, representing the people. The people themselves would not come into either room.

But the priests would come in, and their principal function in coming into the holy place was to stop just short of the veil. And just in front of the veil, if you want to picture it, you could see a great veil here approximately where the communion rail is. And right in front of it was a special altar, not an altar on which animals were ever sacrificed, but an altar for the burning of incense.

And incense to the Jews was always representative of the prayers and praises of God's people. You may remember the phrase from the 141st Psalm, Let my prayer rise before thee like incense, and the lifting of my hands as the evening sacrifice. Do you remember that?

I might just mention that it nowhere says that you ought to kneel, but in many places it says you ought to lift your hands. You might just meditate on that a little while. Let my prayer rise before you as incense.

You see. And literally they offered incense. They burned incense and it was a kind of a living symbol, a kind of a vivid picture of the praises and the prayers of God's people being offered up before him.

And so this great cloud of smoke would rise and with it, of course, the pungent, sweet scent of the people's praises being raised before the Lord. Principally, the priests would offer this at the time of the morning sacrifice and the time of the evening sacrifice. It was a continual kind of a thing.

The high priest once a year into the Holy of Holies. The other priests continually offering up the incense offering before the Lord. Well, this fell.

On this particular occasion, this duty fell to Zechariah. And as he entered into the sanctuary, into the holy place, he would come in and recite these words. May the God of mercy enter the sanctuary and be pleased to accept the sacrifice of his people.

And then he'd burn the incense, and after that was over, he'd come back outside to the worshipers who were waiting outside the door, and he would bless them in the name of the Lord. And you see, by implication, what's going on is, he is saying, God has heard your prayers. He's heard your praises and he accepts them.

May the God of mercy enter the sanctuary and accept, you see, the sacrifice of praise of his people. And so he comes out and he blesses them in the name of the Lord and they're assured that God has heard them and has accepted their prayers, their praises. Well, on this particular occasion, we read in verse 11 that Zechariah went in and lo and behold there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing at the right side of the altar.

Now I trust that you are well aware of the fact that when the scripture speaks of an angel of the Lord we are not talking about some frail, willowy, feminine creature in a yellow negligee. That is not how angels appear in the Bible. Much less a cuddly little baby that forgot his diapers and suddenly sprouted pigeon wings, right?

I mean, I don't know what comes to your mind, but we've been so brainwashed by medieval art. We have this weird view of angels that wouldn't know enough to get their own lunch. When you meet an angel in Scripture, you are meeting an absolutely overwhelming figure.

They are always masculine. If there are female angels, the Bible doesn't mention it. If there are baby angels, the Bible does not mention it.

It's terribly important, it's possible that you're not aware of this, it's terribly important that you understand that when people die and go to heaven, they do not become angels. That's just part of us. Weird mythology that we've developed.

Angels are angels. People are people. The one never becomes the other.

If you die and you've put your trust in Christ you will be made more like the resurrected Jesus. Your body will undergo changes but you will never become an angel. You are a human being, a redeemed human being.

So when I say there are no female and there are no baby angels, we're not saying anything at all about the place of women and children in the kingdom of God. We're talking about another order of creation. If you ever met an angel in the Bible, you would meet a massive, robust, sturdy, masculine figure, more often than not clothed in armor.

No halo up here. Usually no wings. It appeared like a man.

Slightly larger than life. And absolutely awesome. Everybody who ever met an angel in the Bible had the response of panic.

I mean, why do you think they say, Fear not. that's what they always say fear not can you imagine being afraid of those dopey willowy angels that you see not even touching the ground you want to protect them from the rain the angels in the scriptures say fear not because they're frightening they're overpowering overwhelming As a matter of fact, in many of the appearances in the Old Testament especially, it's almost impossible to know whether you're dealing with an angel from the Lord or the Lord Himself. It gets all confused.

As they address whoever this is, they more often than not call him the Lord. Because he represents, he's so imbued with the glory of the Lord. But it's hard to tell the difference.

let me tell you that the last thing in the world Zechariah expected when he went into the holy place was to run into an angel and that raises an interesting point I don't know how many people go to church prepared to worship prepared to read the prayers out of the book prepared to sing the hymns prepared to come to the Lord's table prepared to go through the ritual prepared to give their offerings prepared to sign a stewardship pledge totally unprepared to meet God. Zechariah went in to do his priestly duty and the last thing in the world he expected was that he was going to run into the Lord. You better watch out.

It gets more and more dangerous to come to church. I mean, the Lord keeps popping up all over the place, you see. And so the angel says, fear not.

Don't be afraid. It says, your prayer has been answered, Zechariah. And we haven't heard anything about Zechariah's prayer up to this point.

But clearly, he and Elizabeth have been praying presumably for years about their barrenness as a couple. from the Jewish point of view to be childless is to be greatly afflicted and the angel says God has heard your prayers Zechariah you're going to have a child Elizabeth's womb is going to be opened and you're going to have a son and his name is John that's interesting biblical names almost always mean something the name Zechariah means remembered of God. Remembered of God.

And that's what the angel is saying. You're remembered of God. Now you thought God had forgotten all about you.

You thought that for all these years you've been offering prayers, begging God to hear you, begging God to give you a child, and He'd simply forgotten you. But He hasn't. He hasn't forgotten you, Zechariah. The Lord has heard your prayers, and He's going to do something about it.

and the name John means the graciousness of God or the gift of God and that too is exactly what the angel is saying God is being gracious to you God is giving you a gift and the second thing that I'd like us to just meditate on for a moment is the fact that had that prayer been answered years ago when it was first prayed Zechariah and Elizabeth might well have had a lovely son and the timing would have been altogether wrong for him to become the man that God wanted him to be with the job that God wanted him to do. Does that ever strike you? That God has not only heard and not only remembered Zechariah's prayer but that God's timing is better than Zechariah could ever have hoped for.

You're not only going to have a son, but your son, says the Lord, is going to be the herald of my son. And I've saved the answer to your prayer until this moment in history, when he'd be the right age to go before my son and prepare people's hearts to receive him. angel goes on to say a couple of very very interesting things he says in verse 15 something that is never said anywhere in all the scripture about any other human being he says he will be filled with the holy spirit even from his mother's womb it's an extraordinary statement john the forerunner john the baptizer will have an anointing of God upon his life and his ministry from before he's even born.

Whatever John was, he was not a Baptist. He was a baptizer. And, verse 16, he will turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God.

And he'll go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready for the Lord a people prepared. Would you just hold your finger here for a moment and turn back to Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, just before Matthew's Gospel. Malachi chapter 4.

I want you to notice what's really happening here. Malachi chapter 4 in the last two verses he says behold I will send Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes and he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers lest I come and smite the land with a curse. Those words were spoken by the prophet Malachi and recorded as part of scripture over 400 years previous to this incident.

And that's the last book of the Old Testament. After this, there are no more prophets. Israel, whose whole history has been interwoven with the gift of prophecy.

God has raised up prophet after prophet to speak to his people, has now had 400 years of silence. No prophet, no Isaiah, no Jeremiah, no Ezekiel or Daniel, no Ezra, no Nehemiah, no Elijah. For 400 years of oppression.

And for 400 years they've been waiting for all the promises to come true. and this one in particular. The Lord is coming amongst us.

The Lord's going to visit His people. The great day of the Lord is going to come and just before it does, I'm going to send somebody like Elijah. Somebody to move in the spirit and power of Elijah.

Somebody who's going to call my people to repentance. And amongst other things, that's going to involve the healing of relationships between the generations. That's going to bring children back to their moms and dads, parents to their children.

We might pause and reflect on our own repentance and our own preparedness for God to move in a mighty way in our hearts and lives. How's that affecting our relationships across the generations? He says, if you don't get your act together in your families, I'm going to come and smite the land with a curse.

before I visit my people I'm going to send one like unto Elijah of old and he's going to do a work of preparation he's going to preach repentance he's going to call men and women back to me and back to wholeness in their families can you imagine the impact on Zechariah as he hears the angel saying, God has not only heard your prayer, God has not only remembered your need, God is not only going to visit you and Elizabeth in your old age, God is not only going to give you a son, your son is going to be this son. Can you imagine what that would feel like? And Zechariah's knees cave beneath him.

And his response is sheer unbelief. He says, how can I believe this? How can I know this is so?

I'm too old, and Elizabeth is too old. See, there's no way for God to do that. The angel says, now, Zach, he says, I'm not sure if you've recognized who I am.

My name is Gabriel. And for some reason, the Lord keeps sending me out with birth announcements. And he says, I've learned something, Zach.

He says, when I announce a birth, you don't really need a whole lot of proof. It sort of takes care of itself. But, because you have disbelieved, I'm going to give you a sign.

You're not going to be able to speak another word until it happens. It's an interesting priest we're dealing with, isn't it? He comes to church with no expectation that he's going to meet God.

And he prays for years with no expectation that his prayer is going to be answered. The purpose of the tongue of a priest is that he might pray God's people's prayers and that he might bring to God's people blessing. But if his heart is crippled by unbelief, his tongue is useless.

And so the angel says, you're not going to speak for the next nine months. And he doesn't. We're told very little about Elizabeth. It appears that Elizabeth has no such problem believing this great news.

When Zechariah gets home and scribbles it out on some sort of a pad and she perceives what's being said, she receives the news with gladness and joy and believes it. And a few months later, there's a remarkable encounter between Elizabeth, pregnant in her old age, and Mary, her cousin or kinswoman, pregnant as a very young girl, and we'll come to that in a few weeks' time. I'm going to skip that this morning.

Pick up the story in verse 57. Now the time came for Elizabeth to be delivered, and she gave birth to a son. And her neighbors and kinfolk heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her and they rejoiced with her.

And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child and they would have named him Zechariah after his father. That was the Jewish tradition. You give the son the name either of his father or perhaps his grandfather.

But his mother said, Not so, not so. He shall be called John. And they said to her, But none of your kindred is called by this name.

And they made signs to his father inquiring what he would have him called. And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, His name is John. And they all marveled.

Verse 64, And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed and he spoke, Blessing God. And fear came on all their neighbors. If you go on and read his psalm, psalm, his song of blessing.

He can hardly contain himself. That might well be true for any of us who have been silenced for nine months, but he bursts forth in praise to God for his mercy, for his faithfulness, for his redemption, and specifically for remembering. He's a God who remembers.

Zechariah says, I understand. He remembers. He remembers his oath.

He remembers his covenant to Abraham. And he remembers me. And Zechariah can't keep it in.

He praises God. He extols God. And then he turns and he addresses, he prophesies to his own infant son.

And he says, John, your ministry is going to be one of giving light to people who sit in darkness and leading God's people's feet into the way of peace. This I'd suggest to you really is the first miracle of Christmas. That God would visit this ancient priest and his wife.

That he would visit this minister of his who is bound with unbelief and make a believer out of him. And aren't you glad? There's hope for the clergy.

Don't give up. God hasn't given up on us, okay? Don't you give up on us.

There's hope for the doubter. There's hope for the unbeliever. what's the message of Zachariah and Elizabeth number one when you come to church come prepared to meet God I mean what a tragedy if you've come here just to go through the motions if you've come to meet God then you've learned the lesson of Zechariah.

Number two, when you pray, dare to expect that God will hear you in answer. What in the world is the purpose of sending your prayers if you're just hearing yourself? Should God's answer be, wait, Dare to believe that His timing is better than yours.

He's got something better for you than you could have ever had for yourself if you'd grabbed what you were asking for when you asked for it. He's got more blessing in store than we've ever dared to imagine. Paul writes to the Ephesians, He is now unto Him who is able to do among us more gloriously than we can ask or think.

number three I think the message to the message of Zechariah and Elizabeth is that we would literally become expectant even in our old age God hasn't forgotten God has not forgotten it may seem to you a long long while God hasn't forgotten He keeps His oath He keeps his covenant. He keeps his promise. He moves more wonderfully than you've ever dared to imagine.

And his timing is absolutely perfect. Let's bow our heads together. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel.

For he has visited and redeemed his people. and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. Lord Jesus, make us expectant.

We would dare to believe You for great and mighty things. As we come to worship You, it would be with the expectancy that herein we'll meet the living God. As we offer our prayers and praises, it would be in the confidence that You hear, and you're more desirous of meeting our need than we are most of the time to believe you for it.

And so we worship you. We say hallelujah to you, Lord Christ. Hallelujah to you.

Amen.