Is God's Grace is Too Good to be True?

There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.

I call your attention to three things we learn about Zacharias and Elizabeth from this verse. First, we learn that Zacharias was a priest, which means he was a Levite; a descendant of Aaron. Second, we learn that Zacharias was married to Elizabeth. And third, we learn that Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. In other words, her father was a priest.

These details tell us something about the character of Zacharias and Elizabeth. According to the Levitical law, priests couldn’t just marry whoever they wanted to marry. Leviticus 21:7 says…

They shall not take a wife who is a harlot or a defiled woman, nor shall they take a woman divorced from her husband; for the priest is holy to his God.

And then two verses later, in Leviticus 21:9, we read something about God’s stipulations for the daughter of a priest…

The daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by playing the harlot, she profanes her father. She shall be burned with fire.

The fact that Zacharias was a priest and he married Elizabeth, who was the daughter of a priest, tells us something about the character of these two people. The implication is that both of them had been living an honorable life from their youth. And verse 6 of our sermon text seems to confirms this. It says “they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.”

Yet, understand the chronological implications of what we learn from verses 5 and 6. When verse 6 says “they were both righteous,” the verb is in the imperfect tense. This means that Zacharias and Elizabeth had begun walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord at some time in the past, and they continued uninterrupted into the present time. But verse 6 doesn’t tell us how far in the past they began walking in the commandments and ordinances of the Lord. From both the theological and grammatical perspectives, going only off what is said in verse 6, it’s possible that they had begun walking in the commandments of the Lord 5 years ago. Or a decade ago. Or two decades ago.

We learn from verse 7 that Zacharias and Elizabeth were “well advanced in their years,” which means they were probably in their 60s when the events of our sermon text took place. So if we’re only going by what we read in verse 6, maybe they started walking in the commandments of the Lord when they were in their 40s or 50s.

The Bible gives us plenty of examples of people who did not walk in the commandments of the Lord when they were young, but began walking in the commandments of the Lord later in life, and the Bible describes them as righteous and honorable people.

Mary Magdalene is a good example. Everything we read about her doing in the Gospels is righteous and honorable. She’s a follower of Jesus. She’s walking faithfully with her Lord. Every aspect of her life displays loyalty and devotion to her Savior. Yet Luke 8:2 says that Jesus had previously driven seven demons from Mary Magdalene. In other words, there was a time when Mary was not walking in the commandments of her Lord. She was probably in her 30s or 40s when she met Jesus, was transformed by His grace, and began walking in the commandments of the Lord.

The point I’m making here is not that there’s something deficient about Mary Magdalene; that her ability to serve the Lord is somehow compromised because of her sinful past. Quite the opposite! When Mary received the justifying grace of God, she became a new creation. Her old things had passed away, and behold, all things had become new for Mary. She was every bit as much a child of God as somebody who had been saved at a much earlier age. This illustrates the point that I am making, which is: even somebody with an explicitly sinful past can be described as somebody who is righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord.

So when Zacharias and Elizabeth are described in this way in verse 6, we don’t know how long they had been walking in the commandments of the Lord. But when we factor in the details from verse 5, we have reason to believe this couple had been walking in the commandments of the Lord ever since their youth. Because Zacharias was a priest, his character and moral life would have been under greater scrutiny than people who were not a priest. And because Elizabeth was the daughter of a priest, her character and moral life would have been under greater scrutiny than women who were not the daughter of a priest. And because Zacharias married Elizabeth, we can conclude that both of them met the criteria we read earlier from Leviticus 21.

Why is this important to the narrative in our sermon text? Why is Luke establishing these details in verses 5 and 6? Because of what he introduces in verse 7. In verse 7, Luke explains that Elizabeth was barren.

You see, back in those days, there was a strong stigma attached to being barren. Because the Scriptures speak of children being a reward from the LORD, it was thought that a childless couple must have done something to provoke the Lord to withhold His reward from them. And because the Scriptures speak of bareness as God’s judgement (Genesis 20:17-18; Hosea 9:11,14), they thought that infertility was a sign of God’s punishment upon a couple. More specifically, they thought it to be a sign of God’s punishment upon the wife. If she couldn’t bear children for her husband, then she must have done something sinful to bring God’s judgement upon her.

That is what people thought about barrenness back in those days. So before Luke tells his readers that Elizabeth was barren, he makes an emphatic declaration that she and her husband are both righteous people who have been blamelessly walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord. This is because Luke doesn’t want his readers to think that Elizabeth was childless due to the Lord’s displeasure with her. He doesn’t want his readers to think that her bareness was a punishment for her sins. No, her bareness is the consequence of sin, but not her own sin. It was the sin of Adam. That’s an important distinction to make. Zacharias and Elizabeth were dealing with infertility because they live in a broken world that’s been subjected to futility. They were childless because creation is in the bondage of corruption, and when creation is in the bondage of corruption, things don’t always work the way they’re supposed to.

One of the advantages of being raised by Christian parents, and in a home where the commandments and ordinances of the Lord are taught and upheld, is that the children are able to begin their adult lives without a lot of baggage. What I mean by “baggage” is all the problems people create for themselves by disobeying God’s commandments.

For example, I recently read a study from The Institute for Family Studies. The data for this study was collected in 2013, so things may have changed a little in the last ten years, but in 2013, first time brides had an average of five sexual partners before they married. And equally concerning, only 5 percent of first time brides were virgins when they married.

This study demonstrates an undeniable correlation between divorce and the number of premarital sex partners a person has. With charts and lots of data, the study shows that the strongest and most stables marriages are statically the ones where there has been no premarital sex. And the study also shows that the weakest and most unstable marriages are the ones where there has been lots of premarital sex.

But as Christians, we don’t need this study to make that correlation for us, right? We already know this because the Bible tells us how we should behave before marriage. God’s law prohibits premarital sex, which the Bible calls “fornication.” And the Scriptures plainly tell us that if you disobey God’s law, then you’re going to experience the negative consequences of your sin, or what I’m referring to as “baggage.” The sin of fornication creates a lot of baggage. The fornicator doesn’t realize it at the time he or she is committing the sin, but they’re creating baggage that’s going to cause some serious problems in their future relationships, especially if they ever get married. That baggage will strain their marriage relationships in ways they never understood prior before getting married.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. God tells us that if we walk in His commandments and ordinances, then we’ll enjoy His blessings upon our lives. Which is why I say, one of the advantages of being raised by Christian parents, and in a home where the commandments and ordinances of the Lord are taught and upheld, is that the children are able to begin their adult lives without a lot of baggage.

So children, I want to encourage you to thank the Lord for the Christian parents He has given you. I want to encourage you to be thankful that God has placed you in a home where His commandments and ordinances are taught and upheld. You’ve been given an extraordinary gift. You’ve been given a family where you are loved, nurtured, trained in the ways of righteousness, and you have the increasingly rare opportunity to transition into adulthood without all the baggage that so many other people your age are already carrying. And if it pleases the Lord to give you a spouse, then you have the opportunity to enter into that marriage covenant without the baggage that creates so many challenges and difficulties in marriage.

So be encouraged, children, be encouraged to know that when you walk in the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, you have every reason to believe that you’ll also be walking in the blessings of the Lord. But also be realistic about the problems and challenges you’ll face. You can avoid the problems and challenges that come from disobeying God’s law, but you cannot avoid the problems and challenges that come from living in a broken world which is in bondage to corruption.

Sometimes young Christians who have been careful to walk in the commandments and ordinances of the Lord will enter adulthood, or enter marriage, with the assumption that they won’t have to contend with any significant problems. These young Christians rightly understand that obedience to God generates blessings while avoiding hardships, but they fail to understand that obedience only avoids a certain category of hardship; namely, it avoids self-inflicted hardship. It avoids the problems and challenges that are created by the baggage of one’s own personal sin.

But there’s another category of hardship in this world. To one degree or another, everybody suffers under the hardship created by the sin of Adam. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Christian or an atheist, whether you’re young or old, whether you’ve been walking in the commandments and ordinances of the Lord or you’ve been walking according to your own wisdom, everybody suffers under the consequences of Adam’s sin.

That’s what happened to Zacharias and Elizabeth. From what we can tell, they were raised by godly parents. Their parents loved them. Their parents cared for them. Their parents taught them to walk in the commandments and ordinances of the Lord. And Zacharias and Elizabeth did as they were taught! They loved the Lord, they served the Lord, they were obedient to the Lord, and consequently, they enjoyed the blessing of entering marriage without bringing along a lot of baggage created by their own personal sins. Nevertheless, Zacharias and Elizabeth struggled with infertility.

Back when they were young and newly married, they hoped that this would only be a short-term struggle. Zacharias, as a godly husband, began leading his wife in praying for the Lord to bless them with a child. But as the years went on, God didn’t answer their prayer. Eventually, Elizabeth reached the age when women stop bearing a child. By this point, they had probably resigned themselves to the thought that they’d never have children.

But then one day the elderly Zacharias went into the temple to burn the holy incense. Our sermon text tells us that an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. Zacharias was frightened, but the angel said to him…

“Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.

Notice two things about this angelic visit. First, we learn from verse 19 that the angel is Gabriel. Gabriel was a messenger from God. In fact, that’s what the word “angel” literally means in Greek; it means “messenger.” Gabriel was one of the chief messengers of God. He says is verse 19 that he stands in the presence of God and was sent by God to bring Zacharias these glad tidings. So when Gabriel appeared to Zacharias in the temple, that was a divine appointment. God was meeting with Zacharias through His messenger angel.

Second, notice where God chose to have this encounter with Zacharias. It was in the context of worship. The Lord’s message came to Zacharias while he was engaged in worship.

I think a lot of Christians today could benefit from a better understanding of what worship is. It’s not just going through the rituals of sitting, standing, singing, confessing, praying, reading, listening, praising, eating, and drinking. We need to ask ourselves why do we do those things? To what end do we do these things? And what is happening when we do these things.

A variety of answers can be given to these questions. One that you’ve frequently heard me say is that we come together for worship to stir up love and good works in one another. That’s a good answer because that’s what it says in Hebrews 10:24. Another answer is that we come together for worship to offer up praise and thanksgiving to God. That’s a good answer because that’s what Psalm 117 says. You may remember that Psalm 117 was used for our call to worship this morning. That’s quite appropriate. Another answer is that we worship to teach and admonish one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. That’s what Colossians 3:16 and Ephesians 5:19 say.

There are several other good answers that explain why we come together for worship, but when we group all these answers together into a single composite description of worship, we’re confronted with the reality that God is the Creator and we are His creatures. Which means, we’re dependent on God; we must continually receive life and salvation from our triune God. The essence of worship, therefore, is to receive God’s gracious gifts while offering our praise for who He is.

I think most Christians intuitively understand the part where we offer our praise to God for who He is, but I think many Christians have forgotten (or never really understood) that worship is as much about receiving from God as it is giving to God. We worship so that we can receive God’s grace. As dependent creatures, we come together for worship because we understand that this is where God regularly bestows His gracious gifts upon His children.

So it shouldn’t surprise us to see God giving Zacharias the good gift of answered prayer as Zacharias is involved in worship. Nor should it surprise us to see God giving goof gifts to any of His children as we’re involved in worship. In other words, you should come to worship expecting to receive good gifts from God. You should expect your doubts to be dispelled. You should expect your anxieties to be reduced. You should expect your fears to be calmed. You should expect your faith to be increased. You should expect your hope to be secured. You should expect your love to be expanded. You should expect your assurance to grow. You should expect your joy to multiplied. And you should except your prayers to be heard.

I don’t blame Zacharias one bit for being frightened when Gabriel suddenly appeared before him. That doesn’t ordinarily happen when God’s people are worshipping. But for Zacharias to receive the assurance that his prayer has been heard is not an unusual part of worship. What’s unusual in Zacharias’ case is the mode by which God declared His assurance to Zacharias. But what’s not unusual is that God declares assurance to His people within the context of worship.

So Gabriel appeared to Zacharias and announces that Elizabeth would soon give birth to a son. But Gabriel announced much more than this. He also announced the name of the child in verse 13, “and you shall call his name John.” Then in verse 14, Gabriel announced the response to the child, “And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth.” Then in verse 15, Gabriel announced the calling of the child, “For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.” Then in verses 16-17, Gabriel announced the ministry of the child, “And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 He will also 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 a people prepared for the Lord.”

Notice the grand scope of these announcements. Not only will Zacharias and Elizabeth rejoice at the birth of John the Baptist, but so will “many.” Who those “many” are becomes more clear as the announcement continues. Gabriel proceeds to say that John is going to be great in the sight of the Lord. Notice that John is not going to be great according to a human scale of measurement, but he’s going to be great according to the Lord’s scale of measurement. This infers that John is going to be used by God for something important.

This inference is further reinforced as Gabriel explains that John shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. Zacharias would have immediately connected this with the Nazarite vow. He would have recalled how Nazarites, such as Samson, were set apart by God for special ministries. And when Gabriel said that John will be filled with the Spirit, even from his mother’s womb, Zacharias would have made the connection to the prophet Jeremiah. He would have remembered that when the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, God said…

“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you were born, I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” (Jer 1:5)

And when Gabriel said that John will go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children’ and to make ready a people prepared for the Lord, Zacharias would have most certainly understood that Gabriel was saying that John is going to be the long-anticipated prophet that Malachi had written about.

Don’t forget that Zacharias was a priest. He was a learned man. He knew the Scriptures backwards and forwards, so the details and implications of Gabriel’s announcement would not have been lost on him. And don’t overlook the fact that at this particular time in redemptive history, God had not given any special revelation to His people for about four centuries. The last prophet that God had sent to Israel was Malachi, and that was about 400 years before the events of our sermon text. So Israel had been in a sort of “dark ages” for 400 years. Malachi had prophesied that the day will come when God will send a prophet like Elijah, so the Jews had the expectation that God was going to continue speaking to them through prophets, but they didn’t know when that prophet would arrive.

So as Gabriel is describing the calling and ministry of the baby Elizabeth will soon be giving birth to, he’s telling Zacharias things that God’s people had waiting 400 years to hear! He’s telling Zacharias that his baby boy is going to be the forerunner to the Messiah; that “the Seed of the woman” prophesied all the way back in the Garden of Eden is about to be made manifest to Israel, and John is the prophet who’s going to proclaim this to the world!

Onca again, let me remind you that Zacharias was a priest. He knew what the Scriptures say, so he didn’t need Gabriel to explain the meaning of these things. Yet notice how he responds to Gabriel. He responds with skepticism and unbelief. Not unbelief that God is breaking 400 years of silence. Not unbelief that God is raising up a prophet and forerunner to the Messiah. Not unbelief that the Messiah is about to be revealed to the world. But unbelief that Elizabeth is able to conceive and give birth to a baby. Look at verse 18…

And Zacharias said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.”

It’s peculiar the things we have trouble believing God about. We believe that He’s the Maker of the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is them. We believe that He upholds all things by the word of His power. We believe that He works all things according to the counsel of His will. We believe that He has numbered the hairs on our head. But when we’re told to believe that God is using a difficult situation for our good, we sometimes respond with skepticism. We say, “I don’t understand how God is going to do that.”

Or we believe that God never abandons or forsakes His people, and yet, there are moments in which we question whether God has turned His back on us.

We believe that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills and is that He’s the source of our daily bread, yet there are times when the balance in our bank account causes us to doubt the Lord’s faithful provision to us.

We believe that God has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, but when we frequently doubt that His directions for mending strained and broken relationships will do any good.

And closer to the events of our sermon text, we sometimes pray to God, asking Him for His blessings and seeking His grace, but we don’t really believe that He is going to answer our prayers.

That’s what Zacharias is doing in our sermon text. He had prayed for many years that Elizabeth would bear a child. And now, the angel Gabriel is standing before him, telling him that God has heard his prayer and Elizabeth is going to bear a son, and Zacharias responds with skepticism. He says, “How can I know the things you’re saying are really true? After all, look how old we are. Can the mighty Creator of the heavens and the earth really make two old people like us have a baby?”

Gabriel responds, “Okay, I’ll give you a sign. You will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own time.”

Notice how Zacharias responded to this. He had just been struck mute, but he continues to perform his priestly duties. After the incense was lit, it was customary for the priest to come out of the temple and pronounce a blessing upon the worshippers. Zacharias came out of the temple, but he couldn’t pronounce the blessing because he couldn’t speak. So he gestured to the people, and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple. Now look at verse 23…

So it was, as soon as the days of his service were completed, that he departed to his own house.

Brothers and sisters, Zacharias didn’t stop worshipping God. Even though he was mute, even though he had been rebuked by the angel Gabriel for his disbelief, Zacharias remained in Jerusalem and he continued worshipping the Lord until the days of his service were completed.

Let me remind you why we worship, brothers and sisters. We enter into the presence of our triune God because we are His dependent creatures. We worship, therefore, to receive our Lord’s gracious gifts while offering Him our praise.

Zacharias had stumbled when he was told his prayer has been heard. His stumbling was an unambiguous reminder that he was a dependent creature of God. What better response can a dependent creature have than to worship God? What better response can a dependent creature have then to position himself in the place where God regularly pours forth His grace and mercy?

We should worship God at all times, brothers and sisters, but especially during the times when we stumble… especially during the times when we fall… especially during the times when we lack faith and we’re doubting the truth of God. It’s crucial that we appear before our Lord in worship during these troubling times, brothers and sisters, because worship is where He builds us up. Worship is where He equips us for our calling. And worship is where His sanctifying grace flows freely to all who come into His presence by faith. Don’t forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, because worship is where dependent creatures encounter the Lord is magnificent ways.

When Zacharias had completed his worship, verse 24 says that he went home to Elizabeth and she conceived. This was the beginning of the fulfillment of the announcement that Gabriel had made to Zacharias. He told Zacharias that Elizabeth would conceive, and she did. He told Zacharias that he and Elizabeth would rejoice in their son, and they were already rejoicing. Elizabeth says in verse 25…

“Thus the Lord has dealt with me, in the days when He looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”

By way of reminder, her reproach was not that she had been barren for so many years. That wasn’t her fault; that was a result of the fall. There’s no reproach in being barren. Her reproach was in the misperception of the people. And Elizabeth knew this. That’s why she says at the end of verse 25 that God has taken away her reproach “among the people.” The reproach was never among God; the reproach was only among the people. The people had privately concluded that God was punishing Elizabeth for some secret sin, but now that “conspiracy theory” has been proven false. And Elizabeth is giving glory and praise to God for His mercy upon her. She’s rejoicing in His answer to her prayers.

What we’re seeing in our sermon text is that when God answers His people’s prayers, He often answers them in ways that far exceed the actual prayer request. What Zacharias and Elizabeth prayed for was a child they could rejoice in. What God gave them was a child they could rejoice in, and many other people will rejoice in, as well. He gave them a son who would be the forerunner to the Messiah. A son who would be the greatest of the Old Testament prophets. A son who would break 400 years of silence by boldly and faithfully declaring the word of the Lord to dependent creatures of God.

What we’re seeing in our sermon text, therefore, is an example of Ephesians 3:20, which tells us that God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.

Do you believe this, brothers and sisters? You have to believe this, because it’s God’s inerrant word. It’s His infallible truth. It’s His gracious promise, given to His dependent creatures who love Him and worship Him. So please join your hearts with mine as we ask the Lord to strengthen our faith and equip us for the calling He has placed on us. Let’s pray.

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