"The Fear of Christmas"

“The Fear of Christmas”

Luke 1:5-25

Textual Idea – Luke points out the fear Zacharias had with his angelic encounter and news he would bear a son as an old man.

Sermon Idea – This Christmas, there is lots of fear and we need to be reminded the antidote for fear is faith!

Interrogative – What can we learn from Zacharias to face the fear of Christmas?

Transition w/ key word – Our text presents 3 highlights from the life of Zacharias that help us face the fear of Christmas.

I. The faithful priest - vs. 5-10

II. The fearful priest - vs. 11-17

III. The faithless priest - vs. 18-25

Introduction – In 1865, Phillips Brooks was the pastor of the Holy Trinity Church in Philadelphia and was widely considered to be one of the most outstanding ministers of the past century. He made a trip to the Holy Land and traveled to Bethlehem; where on Christmas Eve, worshipped at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. He was deeply moved by that experience. 3 years later, Pastor Brooks wanted to write a song for the children to sing in their Sunday School Christmas program. He reflected back on the peaceful scene & experience in Bethlehem that special Christmas Eve and wrote the words to one of our most beloved Christmas carols. He gave the words to his church organist, Mr. Lewis Redner to compose the music. Mr. Redner awakened from his sleep in the middle of the night before the program and sat down immediately and wrote out the present melody for O Little Town of Bethlehem! (No pressure for me or Roy!)

I’ve always been struck by the last phrase of the first verse. “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” Have you ever thought about that line? The contrast of all the hope in the world through the centuries to all the fears of the world through the centuries, met together in that little town of Bethlehem. They met in stable, when the Creator of the Universe, the Messiah, the Promised One of God going all the way back to the fall of man in Gen. 3; the Lord Jesus Christ was born in human flesh, deity & humanity, & laid in a feed trough. Fast forward roughly 2,053 years and there is still a lot of hope; hope in a vaccine, hope in a presidential candidate, a political party, hope in a new job, hope for new babies as we’re expecting two around here! On the flip side, there is also a lot, and I mean a lot of fear! There is so much uncertainty with the political situation, uncertainty about COVID, uncertainty about health issues that may make COVID much worse. Uncertainty about financial issues with lock-downs, the economy, our 401K. Fear about our very freedom & liberty to worship Jesus Christ!Quite frankly, every day we wake up in a COVID world brings with it an awful lot of uncertainty and with it, the kissing cousin of uncertainty, FEAR! Because we can’t control the uncertainty we’re drowning in, people are paralyzed by fear! Somebody once said “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Boy is that ever true! Phillips Brooks was right on target when he wrote that amazing line: “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” Last Sunday we talked about the gifts of Christmas as we concluded 1st John. Today we’re going to look at “The fear of Christmas” from Luke 1:5-25 as our text presents 3 highlights from the life of Zacharias that will help us face the fear of Christmas. Highlight 1:

I. The faithful priest - vs. 5-10

Explanation - This passage was from our SOAP journaling reading from Dec. 1st. I zeroed in specifically on vs. 12 “When Zacharias saw him, he was troubled and fear fell upon him.” It struck me because nearly everyone I talk to is in some kind of fear!The Gospel writer Luke, a physician, a man of orderly detail as Luke describes himself in vs. 3; set out to write about the life of Jesus Christ. Notice the confidence Luke has in vs. 4 - “that you may know the certainty of those things…” This is important because we live in uncertain times just as Zacharias did! Luke’s account begins in vs. 5 by giving us the time frame of Zacharias’ life; in the days of Herod the king of Judea. By the very mention of Herod’s name, Luke paints a picture of grave uncertainty with Herod the nut job. Both History & the Bible tells us Herod was a wicked, vile and evil man! I call him a nut job because he ordered all the male children two and under in the Bethlehem district to be murdered trying to kill Jesus according to Matt. 2:16-18. He literally slaughtered hundreds of infant boys trying to kill the Messiah, Jesus Christ, when he was told Jesus was the King of the Jews by the wise men. History records Herod’s further wicked thought process. He was paranoid he would lose his kingdom, so he executed at least 2 of his sons because of rumors of mutiny. He murdered his in-laws, and he was so jealous of his favorite wife (the same one he murdered her parents); he ordered his soldiers to kill her if something happened to him while he traveled out of the country! A final testimony to his bloodthirsty, evil, wicked demeanor; he gave orders that upon his death, several Jewish elders were to be murdered, so there would be mourning during his death & he ordered another son to be executed. What a sicko!

By the mention of Herod’s name, Luke has said all he needs to say about the crackpot nut job running the show in Judea. So Luke contrasts Herod’s wickedness with Zacharias the faithful priest. Zacharias was married to a descendent of Aaron, Israel’s first high priest (1:5). To be not only a priest but also married to the daughter of a priest was considered a great honor. In vs. 6, Luke records Zacharias & Elizabeth were both Godly righteous people! They walked in all the commandments & ordinances of the Lord, blameless! Keep in mind this is God’s assessment of Z&E that the HS inspired Luke to write! There’s one big glaring problem; they had no children and they are old (vs.7). For the Jewish mind, this was a terrible curse from God to be barren w/o children. Herod had married 10 wives and fathered 15 children, and murdered several of them. Z&E had no children, and had faithfully served the Lord all these years.

Among the Jews, “the commencement of old age” occurred when a person became sixty-five. At seventy, he was said to have reached “hoary-headed age.” After eighty, he was said to be “well stricken in years.” So here is old Z, over 80 years old, and no son or child to carry on the family name.

The priests were divided into twenty-four courses (1 Chron. 24), and each priest served in the temple two weeks out of the year. In spite of the godlessness around them, Zacharias and Elizabeth were faithful to obey the Word of God and live blamelessly. Luke records it was Zacharias turn to burn incense in the Holy Place of the Temple. The priests on duty drew lots to see which ministries they would perform, and Zacharias was chosen to offer incense in the holy place & this was a high honor. The incense was offered daily before the morning sacrifice and after the evening sacrifice, about 3 o’clock in the afternoon. It was probably the evening offering that was assigned to Zacharias.That leads us to the 2nd highlight of Z’s life.

II. The fearful priest - vs. 11-17

Explanation - In the Holy Place, his duty assignment finished, the old man prepared to leave and then he saw him! A shining angel standing next to the altar of incense. Luke records 2 responses of Zacharias: 1) Troubled - the word “troubled” means dumbfounded, perplexed, confused. Why would he be confused? Well with the closing book of the OT Malachi, God closed up the windows of Heaven and didn’t speak to His children again by prophetic word for over 400 years! Of course Z is confused! God’s people are under the excruciating control of the Roman Empire and specifically in Judea, a crazed bloodthirsty nut named Herod. It’d be like going through time twice the age of the United States and not a peep from the God of the universe who chose the COI to be His own special people! They’ve been in distress all this time & God has said all He had to say for the time being. So the COI would scour the Scriptures, the Prophets looking for the Messiah. They were longing for deliverance from their harsh oppressors. So let’s cut Z some slack since God broke the silent treatment while Z was burning incense in the temple! His 2nd response 2) paralyzing fear! The word “fear” is the word Phobos where we get our word phobia from. Once Z’s brain kicked into gear from being confused and troubled at what was happening & figured out he was the guy God chose to speak to through this messenger, an angel from another world, for the first time in over 400 years, he was paralyzed by fear! Vs. 13 Here’s another one of those “big buts in the Bible” as I like to say. “But the angel said to him, ‘Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard’!

John’s Coming Foretold (1:13–14)

The angel’s first words hushed the mounting terror that took possession of the old man. “Your prayer is heard; and your wife Elisabeth shall bear a son, and you shall call his name John.” Many a time this aging couple had cried to heaven for a son, but their prayers seemingly had been ignored. Perhaps even as he went about his once-in-a-lifetime duties in the Holy Place, standing by the golden altar burning incense, watching the perfumed cloud ascend, he whispered, “Oh God, if only I had a son!”

“Your prayer is heard!” He could hardly believe his ears. A son! To be called “John” - “Jehovah shows favor!” or “God is gracious!”. The fifteen-hundred-year reign of the Law was about to be replaced by an age of grace. While the text doesn’t tell us, I like to use my sanctified imagination and I kind of think part of Z’s fear was the reality of having a son as an 80 something year old man! I think of it kind of how I tease my sweet wife; we like the idea of owning a puppy, but the reality as empty nesters is something different; no offense to Wilson. I think Z like the idea of having a son and reality began to set in and fear made his blood run cold!

“You shall have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth” (1:14). With these words a gap of four hundred years of silence on the part of God was broken. There had been four centuries of war and woe. Poor little Israel had been kicked back and forth like a football in the ceaseless struggles between Syria and Egypt for power. Finally, the Jews had struck back and gained a measure of independence, but then the Romans—and Herod—had come. And now John, the son of Zacharias,

the herald of the Messiah, was to come, bringing joy and gladness for the old priest and his wife and rejoicing for the nation—and then Jesus was to come!

John’s Character Foretold (1:15)

He would be great in the eyes of men and in the sight of God. The angel prescribed total abstinence from wine and strong drink. He was to be filled with the Spirit from his mother’s womb. The hallmarks of his life—from his conception to his execution by Herod—would be personal holiness, moral authority, and spiritual power.

John’s Career Foretold (1:16–17)

The Old Testament had ended with a promise. The Lord would come, but before that, Elijah would come (Mal. 4:5–6). Then the nation would be confronted with the Christ.

The angel said concerning John, “And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias [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.” The angel’s words were a quotation from the Old Testament (Mal. 3:1; 4:5–6). The expression spirit and power of Elias can be rendered “the powerful spirit of Elijah.” Elisha received a double portion of that spirit (2 Kings 2:9–14). Elisha performed exactly twice as many miracles as Elijah did. John, by contrast, with a purely spiritual ministry, performed no miracles at all (John 10:41). John’s ministry was wholly spiritual and was in all ways subservient to that of Christ. The whole point of John’s ministry is in the last phrase of vs. 17 “to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” I wonder, are we a people ready and prepared for the Lord? These are two highlights: a faithful priest, a fearful priest, now:

III. The faithless priest - vs. 18-25

Explanation - The Angel’s Astonishment (1:18–20)

The old priest, dumbfounded by both the messenger and the message, finally found his tongue: “Give me a sign. We are both very old, my wife and I,” he said.

Now it was the angel’s turn to be astonished. No one had ever doubted his word before. So this old man wanted a sign, did he? Then he’d give him a sign! “I am Gabriel,” he said, “that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to show thee these glad tidings.” It would never have occurred to Gabriel to doubt for a moment the word of God. “You want a sign, do you? Well, a sign you shall have. Because of your unbelief, you will be dumb until your son is born.”

And so it was. Thus, this old priest might have come out of the temple with a tongue on fire to tell the good news that the promised forerunner of Christ was soon to be born. Instead, he was tongue-tied for the next nine months.

The Angel’s Accuracy (1:21–25)

You would think that the presence of an angel and the announcement of God’s Word would encourage Zacharias’ faith, but they did not. Instead of looking to God by faith, the priest looked at himself and his wife and decided that the birth of a son was impossible. He wanted some assurance beyond the plain word of Gabriel, God’s messenger, perhaps a sign from God.

This, of course, was unbelief, and unbelief is something God does not accept. Zacharias was really questioning God’s ability to fulfill His own Word! Had he forgotten what God did for Abraham and Sarah? (Gen. 18:9–15; Rom. 4:18–25) Did he think that his physical limitations would hinder Almighty God? But before we criticize Zacharias too much, we should examine ourselves and see how strong our own faith is.

Faith is blessed, but unbelief is judged; and Zacharias was struck dumb (and possibly deaf, Luke 1:62) until the Word was fulfilled. “I believed, and therefore have I spoken” (2 Cor. 4:13). Zacharias did not believe; therefore he could not speak. When he left the holy place, he was unable to give the priestly benediction to the people (Num. 6:22–27) or even tell them what he had seen. Indeed, God had given him a very personal “sign” that he would have to live with for the next nine months.

Lessons from Zacharias’ replacing fear with faith!

1. The antidote for fear is faith, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ!

2. Do not be afraid, God knows your name, where you are & the burden on your heart. 3. Don’t give up on your prayers. “Your prayer is heard.”

4. God’s timing is always perfect. “In a world of prime be patient for God’s time.” 5. Your best days are ahead. Vs.19 Glad tidings fulfilled in their own time. Vs.17 “To make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Are you prepared for the Lord’s return? Share the ABC’s!

Close – The Black Death plague ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1351, killing some quarter of the population, around 25 million. The British Isles lost about 800,000, the world as much as 75 million! This terrible plague was the worst in history. It was a particularly vicious form of bubonic plague which covered the body in a black rash. It was not known at the time that it was transmitted to humans by fleas from black rats. What a fearful time to live!

But God was working during the black death plague.

You see a man by the name of John Wycliffe was born in 1330 and he went to Oxford University in 1346 the year before the plague broke out. Wycliffe was one of the protestant reformers who opposed the Catholic Church - specifically the doctrine of transubstantiation & indulgences. He was charged with 18 counts of heresy and at a hearing, said: “I am ready to defend my convictions even unto death.… I have followed the Sacred Scriptures and the holy doctors.” He went on to say that the pope and the church were second in authority to Scripture.

He began translating the Bible into English so the average person could read it & the church bitterly opposed it. Wycliffe said “Englishmen learn Christ’s law best in English. Moses heard God’s law in his own tongue; so did Christ’s apostles.” Wycliff died before the translation was complete but his good friend John Purvey finished it after Wycliff died, and the first Bible in English, available for common man to read was finished!

I love this quote of Wycliffe that reveals his great faith in Jesus: “Trust wholly in Christ; rely altogether on his sufferings; beware of seeking to be justified in any other way than by his righteousness.” John Wycliffe left quite an impression on the church: 43 years after his death, officials dug up his body, burned his remains, and threw the ashes into the river Swift. Still, they couldn’t get rid of him. Wycliffe’s teachings, though suppressed, continued to spread.

So what? Folks, every decade throughout the centuries has had much to be afraid of; including the disciples after Jesus’ death! Wycliffe didn’t allow fear of the black plague keep him from being faithful to serve Jesus Christ! And because of a faithful fearless saint name John Wycliffe, you and I have an English Bible to read “Do not be afraid! You can face the fear of Christmas by faith in Jesus Christ! The hopes and fears of all the years are met in Jesus Christ! “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and of a sound mind.” 2nd Tim. 1:7 I refuse to live in fear of COVID & I’m determined to honor Jesus Christ.