Sermon Tone Analysis

Bridge Bible Church December 2022

From the beginning of creation God has progressively revealed Himself to mankind.

First to Adam in perfect sinlessness.

After the fall… after man’s rebellion against God in the garden, God still gave mankind information about Himself.

Who He is… and how He would rescue mankind from their sin.

God made a promise in Genesis 3:15 that a Deliverer would one day come to fix the sin problem brought into the world by man.

From that point on, God’s revelation… His plan of redemption was laid out for mankind piece by piece… step by step throughout history.

After Adam and his children, then to Noah and his descendants.

Then to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses.

After Israel crossed the red sea and was led out of Egypt, God continued to reveal the details about His plan of redemption through people like Joshua, Rahab, Ruth, Samuel and the other Prophets like Isaiah, Daniel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and others.

As God revealed His gracious plan of redemption .. His Divine Drama of salvation traces the development of the Promised Deliverer… the One who would come to pay the penalty for sin… and finally rescue mankind from their fallenness.... from our sin.... and give us an opportunity to have a restored relationship with God… our Creator.

God’s prophetic Word develops the truth of a coming Deliverer… a God given Anointed One… A Promised Messiah all the way up until the end of the Old Testament.

Then...

When the writer of the last part of the Old Testament put down his pen, God pressed the pause button on the giving of HIs prophetic Word.

For more than 400 years, no one heard a word from God.

The end of the Old Testament leaves the reader waiting and wondering… when will the promised deliverer come…when will the Promised Messiah appear?

People were waiting… they were anticipating the coming of the Messiah,… but what God would do next was totally unexpected.

All of a sudden, after 400 years of prophetic silence, God begins to speak.

He speaks through His messenger Gabriel... and the lives of one extended family were changed forever.

There is no way they could have anticipated all that would happen to them.

As our focus shifts to the Christmas season, did you realize that the Christmas story actually involves the lives of 4 cousins… Elizabeth, a married woman who wasn’t able to get pregnant.

Mary, Elizabeth’s unmarried cousin who shouldn’t be pregnant… and two baby boys, John and Jesus.

I want to share a little bit about one of these Christmas Cousins with you today.

I would highly recommend that you continue this study on your own over the next few weeks.

Just as God’s plan of redemption has a growing anticipation that leads to Christ… studying through the lives of each of these cousins will help us to eagerly anticipate the truth and celebration of our Saviors’ birth.

Please turn in your Bibles to chapter 1 of the gospel of Luke as we look at the first of these “Christmas Cousins”, as she and her husband live out the reality of Anticipating the Unexpected.

Most people think that Gabriel’s first message from God about the birth of a promised baby boy – was to Mary.

But, Mary was not the first person in the New Testament to learn that her family would receive the gift of a promised child.

The angel first came to the family of Zechariah and Elizabeth (Mary’s cousin).

Let’s look at chapter 1 as we are introduced to the characters in this unfolding drama.

To start out with in verses 5-7, Luke introduces the players that will be actively involved in this portion of God’s divine drama.

Introduction of the Players (5-7)

Verses 5 and 6 sets the historical context for the beginning of these Christmas events and introduces a godly couple that will soon be used to further God’s plan of redemption in a miraculous way.

The text tells us that these events are taking place during the days when Herod was King.

Herod was known as a brutal man.

He had already ordered the murder of the Jewish high priest simply because the priest was more popular with the people than he was.

Herod was already 70 years old when these events in Luke chapter 1 took place.

Before he died he would have two of his sons murdered simply because he couldn’t stand the thought of them taking his place.

He imprisoned his third son and then had him executed after his son’s failed attempt to escape from prison.

He was extremely jealous and brutal, but because he had beautifully remodeled the temple, the people tolerated him.

Josephus, the first century Jewish historian tells us that this temple project involved 10,000 Jewish laborers under the direction of 100 priests.

He wrote that the Temple was refurbished with imported cedar and white marble.

Much of the temple was overlaid with plates of solid gold.

The people were waiting for – and hoping for God’s promised Deliverer… But for 400 years now it had only been darkness and despair with no sign of God’s Promised Rescuer.

But now as God begins to speak again.... the darkness is beginning to lift… Hope is beginning to rise... God’s divine drama of redemption is being further revealed as Herod’s ungodly character is contrasted with the godly character of two people in verse 5.

Zechariah

Elizabeth

We’re told that a priest named Zachariah was faithfully serving in his division of priests.

We know from history that there were around 10,000 priests serving at this time who lived in and around Israel.

They were divided into 24 groups.

Each of the groups was assigned to work for one- week periods, twice a year.

Luke informs us that the division of Zachariah was under the heading of Abijah.

From these brief comments, we’re able to learn something quite interesting about this old priest.

Zachariah wasn’t one of the elite members of the priesthood.

These priests in his division didn’t even live in Jerusalem.

They were not among the well connected families of priests.

Zechariah wasn’t considered to be anyone important.

He would have been referred to as an ordinary country priest – one of 8,000 who lived outside the city limits.

But, Zachariah was married to Elizabeth.

She was a direct descendant of Aaron – Israel’s first High Priest.

A priest who was married to the daughter of a priest was considered a very big blessing – but for Zachariah, it was even more so, for she had directly descended from Israel’s high priestly family.

And by the way, once her son John is born, he would act in many ways as a High priest should act – calling them back to repentance – preparing their hearts to hear the voice of God.

Luke describes this couple with very gracious and warm words —

Verse 6 told us that they were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord.

They weren’t perfect … but they were passionate about God and His ministry.

That’s why the next verse is so surprising.

Verse 7 tells us that they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren.

Wow!

This is shocking news!

You would expect the next phrase to read, “And they had 14 children.”

“And God was just blessing them left and right!”

That’s what you’d expect to read.

Right?! — Not… they were childless.

The religious culture around them would have been unforgiving to them.

Faithful believers expected to be part of the Covenant blessings of prosperity and fertility.

But… Elizabeth was barren.

In that day, a woman who could not have children would have assumed that she had been somehow been abandoned by God for something that she had done.

In fact, everyone around her would have probably thought the same.

That’s why Elizabeth says later in verse 25 that God had taken away her disgrace.

By the time of Christ, the Rabbi’s taught that several people were unable to enjoy close communion with God – one of them was a Jewish man who’s wife was unable to have any children.

In fact, barrenness was considered valid grounds for divorce in this culture.

After 400 years of silence… with whom does God choose to communicate?

— With this barren… childless family that no one expected....

Don’t overlook the last phrase of verse 7 –

7 But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.

Luke tells us a little bit more about Zechariah and Elizabeth because he knows that we need to understand how incredible this miraculous conception was.

So, Luke gives us this side comment, “they were both advanced in years.”

The Jews categorized old age with several different phrases.

They believed the beginning of old age began at 65.

So a 64 year old wasn’t old – but at 65 he began to enter old age.

I don’t know how that makes you feel – I hope it makes you feel young.

At the age of seventy, he was said to reach “hoary-headed age” – in other words, at 70 a person was now among the grey haired and wise.

After the age of 80, they were considered “well stricken in years.”

This is the phrase used here in Luke 1 to describe Zachariah and Elizabeth… “well stricken in years”.

Zachariah and Elizabeth are in their 80’s!

I’m sure that they thought that they would never get to hold their own baby.

By the time we’re introduced to them, they most likely weren’t praying for a child . . .

they had probably stopped praying children years ago.

They were faithful to God and to each other – even though for some reason it seemed like God wasn’t listening.

We are not told that they were living in sin or in rebellion against God– they hadn’t abandoned their faith.