Sermon Tone Analysis

When you think about the term, “faithful,” what comes to mind?

Maybe a few of you thought of the geyser known as “Old Faithful”, which is largest regular geyser in Yellowstone National Park.

For some, you may think of a dog you have had for years who is always there to greet you at the door when you come home.

Perhaps your first thought was of a husband and wife who keep their marriage vows to each other without straying; they are faithful to each other.

This morning, I want you to see that Christmas is all about faithfulness.

The Christmas story and the events surrounding it are all about God demonstrating his faithfulness through faithful people.

Over the last few weeks, we have tried to join Charlie Brown and others throughout history in figuring out what Christmas is all about.

So far, we have gone back to to find that Christmas is all about a world that has been broken by sin.

Sin is anything we do or think that goes against who God is and what he expects of us.

Even when we broke the world through our sin, God gave the hint of a promise that he would one day set the world right again.

Last week, we saw that in greater detail as we saw how God explained that promise in .

We saw that Christmas is about God sending a person who would be God in the flesh, wise beyond compare.

He would bring in peace like the world hasn’t known since we pushed God away all the way back at the beginning.

These promises are fulfilled in Jesus, whose birth we celebrate at Christmas.

Turn over to as we get ready to look at the life of Zechariah and Elizabeth today.

Turn over to as we get ready to look at the life of Zechariah and Elizabeth today.

This morning, we are fast-forwarding 700 years ahead of last week’s passage.

In the passage we are picking up with today, the time has almost come for the promise to be fulfilled.

The man and wife we look at today aren’t in anyone’s nativity scene, and they don’t have a direct role in the Christmas story of Jesus’ birth.

However, they are a part of demonstrating how God is faithful to keep his promise.

The promise they are given is that God will give them a child, even though they are too old to have children.

That child, whose name will be John, will be the one to prepare the hearts of the people to receive what Jesus, the Messiah, would do during his earthly ministry.

When you think about the term, “faithful,” what comes to mind?

Maybe a few of you thought of the geyser known as “Old Faithful”, which is largest regular geyser in Yellowstone National Park.

For some, you may think of a dog you have had for years who is always there to greet you at the door when you come home.

Perhaps your first thought was of a husband and wife who keep their marriage vows to each other without straying; they are faithful to each other.

This morning, I want you to see that Christmas is all about faithfulness.

Zechariah is a priest, and his wife Elizabeth is also from the tribe of Levi, so they are coming from a great, godly line.

Zechariah is a part of the division of Abijah, which was one of the 24 divisions of priests who rotated through serving in the temple two weeks out of year.

It is during one of those rotations where he has an encounter with the angel Gabriel that demonstrates the faithfulness of God through these faithful people.

What does that have to do with us?

Although God isn’t calling you to father the child who would be the prophet to prepare the world for the Messiah, he is still the same faithful God he was then, and he still works to show that through people who are faithful to him.

We must be willing, then, to honor God by being faithful to serve him like Zechariah and Elizabeth did.

We are going to be challenged to serve faithfully at least three different ways from this passage.

First, we see that faithful servants honor the Lord by being...

1) Faithful to serve despite disappointments.

Read verses 5-6 with me to get an idea of who this couple is.

Zechariah is a priest, and his wife Elizabeth is also from the tribe of Levi, so they are coming from a great, godly line.

Not

Zechariah is a part of the division of Abijah, which was one of the 24 divisions of priests who rotated through serving in the temple two weeks out of year, which will be important in just a minute.

They are good people.

He’s a priest, and her family is from the same priestly line.No

They didn’t just come from a good family, though.

Look again at how they were described in verse 6.

It is during one of those rotations where he has an encounter with the angel Gabriel that demonstrates the faithfulness of God through these faithful people.

The Bible even says they were both righteous in the sight of God…That’s an incredible commendation!

That doesn’t mean they were perfect.

However, these were good, godly people.

However, these were good, godly people.

They had a genuine relationship with God that showed itself in the way they lived.

People around them could see that they really loved the Lord.

If you don’t know the story, then you might be tempted to say, “So what?

Of course they are doing what they’re supposed to.”

After all, he’s a priest, she comes from that same lineage…you would expect them to be religious people, right?

Here’s what sets them apart, though: Zechariah was serving despite a severe disappointment.

Read with me verse 7…

Zechariah and his wife were not able to have any children.

In our society, that brings mixed emotions.

Some couples are choosing to be childless, and that’s between you and the Lord.

Others, like Zechariah and Elizabeth, long to have children and for whatever reason, God hasn’t seen fit to move in that way in your marriage.

Although we understand that there are a variety of complications that can cause a family not to have children, it can still be a great source of pain.

In that day, it would have been even worse.

You see, in , Solomon writes that children are a gift and a reward from the Lord.

So, then, many

Those who lived around Zechariah flipped that around backwards and assumed that if God didn’t give you children, you must have done something wrong and were being punished.

Luke makes it clear that

I love that Luke starts his gospel out by showing that this isn’t true at all!

That’s not the case, though, is it?

They were just described as righteous and blameless!

They were just described as righteous and blameless, so it had nothing to do with punishment!

They weren’t childless because of their sin; they were childless because God was doing something different in and through their marriage.

Unfortunately, though, this would have been an ongoing source of pain for them.

You know they caught the sideways glances and heard the whispers.

It may have even been more overt than that, where people acted like Job’s friends and pestered them about what they had done wrong.

Even if no one thought wrongly of them, they still had the pain of trying, hoping, and not being able to have a child.

They carried the weight of that hurt for years, and yet they continued to serve faithfully.

And then, as the years went by, they reached the point where it was no longer possible to have children.

They carried that disappointment, knowing that there was no way it was ever going to happen.

And yet, where do we find Zechariah and Elizabeth?

Faithfully serving the Lord.

Verse 8 finds him fulfilling his calling to serve in the role God gave him.

Are you willing to be faithful like that?

Are you willing to faithfully serve the Lord when you are wrecked by some disappointment that may never go away in this life?

Are you willing to serve in spite of doubts and questions about why God did or didn’t do something?

The first mark of faithfulness in Zechariah’s life is that he is continuing to serve the Lord, living a life that honors God in every area, despite a major disappointment and pain.

That’s where we find him in verse 8-10.

He had been appointed to offer the incense on that given day, which would have been a special honor.

In fact, this would be the only time in his life he would have this privilege.

That incense represented the prayers of the nation, and while he was representing the nation, an angel appeared with an incredible message.

As he was faithfully serving, he is confronted with an impossible situation.

His wrong response, however, shows that he was…

2) Faithful to grow despite failures.

Stick with me on this; it will make sense in a bit.

The angel has tremendous news.

Not only will Zechariah and Elizabeth have a child, that child will be the one who prepares people for God to send the Messiah!

Their son will be the prophet who gets the people ready to receive the one who will rescue Israel from sin, who had been promised for thousands of years!

This would be hard to believe, right?

Zechariah responded with doubt.

Look at verses 18-20.

“This is impossible—we’re too old!”