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Introduction
As we begin our study through the Gospel According to Luke, I would encourage you to play the part of Theophilus each week.
Imagine that you’re Theophilus and you have just received this orderly account by means of a messenger and you are now beginning to read this massive book for the first time.
It’s going to take some doing because this isn’t our first time reading through Luke most likely.
We’ve heard these narratives before.
We’ve heard the parables and the teachings over and over again.
But if we can just pretend to be reading and studying them for the first time, I think we can see things from Luke’s angles that I talked about last week.
As we open up this text this morning, Luke introduces us to an older couple desperate for a son and a people desperate for a Savior, and in one fell-swoop, God gives grace to them all.
So Luke presents us with three matters for consideration.
The first is the matter of pedigree.
The second is the matter of prayer.
And finally, there is the matter of the proclamation.
Pedigree of the Parents
Prayer of the People/Priest
Proclamation of the Promise
The Pedigree of the Parents
The first matter we need to consider is the pedigree of the parents.
Luke begins by telling us, not only the names of the older couple that will soon become parents, but also their pedigree.
As Americans, we are not wired to think about aristocracy.
There are a few names that we might associate with it like the Rockefellers, the Kennedys or the Bushes, but typically we believe that anyone can attain great status through hard work and equal opportunity.
But pedigree means something in much of the world, and certainly meant something in the ancient world.
So as we read again the fifth verse, notice Zechariah and Elizabeth’s lineage.
Most of us probably know who Aaron was.
Aaron was the brother of Moses.
He was the first high priest for the Israelites.
He was Moses’s (the greatest of prophets) priest—a priest for the people, but working side by side with the prophet.
But we don’t know much about Abijah.
What we do know is that he was a priest during the time of King David, Israel’s greatest king!
At minimum, he was one of David’s priests.
David set up the various priests to minister two weeks out of the year—once every 24 weeks.
There were 24 priests, and so they rotated through the weeks.
Abijah was selected to be the eighth in line.
And this was to be a perpetual order so that the lineage of each priest would hold that spot.
Thus, those in the line of Abijah would always hold the eighth spot.
This was Zechariah’s spot, along with all those who were also of Abijah’s descent.
Abijah was a direct descendent of Aaron as well, through his son Eleazar.
Thus, really we have Zechariah who was of the line of Abijah, David’s priest, marrying Elizabeth who was in the line of Aaron, Moses’s priest!
This would be like a descendent of Theodore Roosevelt marrying a descendent of George Washington!
Anyone paying attention would be anxiously awaiting the birth of their children.
Who would they grow up to be?
What would they grow up to be? Certainly the greatest president we’ve ever had!
And what wonderful parents Zechariah and Elizabeth would have been!
They didn’t just have the pedigree they had the piety as well.
While not sinless, as no mere human could be, they certainly sought to follow God’s law, God’s way for God’s glory.
They weren’t like the Pharisees and Sadducees who paraded their piety around for the applause of people.
So they had the pedigree and the piety.
They were all set to rear the most amazing kids.
But here comes the sad news.
If anyone deserved children it was Zechariah and Elizabeth.
If anyone was capable of rearing godly children it would be these two people.
They had the pedigree.
They had the piety.
And they had nothing to show for it.
No child.
No heir.
The line would cease with them.
Elizabeth was barren.
She could not conceive.
Now they were advanced in years—an old couple who had come to the realization that they would never get what they had so wanted.
Unmet expectations are devastating, aren’t they?
It doesn’t matter where they come from.
Surely, those inner expectations can pain us the most.
We went to college, got a degree, and now we should have this particular job.
We stayed pure through high school and college, kept myself for my future spouse.
Where is she/he?
We may not be bachelor/bachelorette of the year, but we’ve got love to give and a life to share.
Or dreaming of a large family, but for whatever reason, no child comes.
And the heart breaks and the years go by, and still nothing.
But the since of failure that comes from others.
Maybe they don’t mean to heap the guilt on, but it’s there.
Did you hear Zechariah and Elizabeth got married?
Can’t wait to see them have kids.
When are you having kids?
Maybe parents asking when they will get grandkids.
And God won’t give them any children.
He’s closed her womb.
The pain and the shame and the sense of failure.
What do you do with that?
Grieve the pain.
Cry out to the Father.
And trust him to do what is right.
Talk with your brothers and sisters, and brothers and sisters, you don’t have to have the answers.
Listen and grieve with them and pray with them.
This sermon is not to say that your prayers will be answered, but to give permission to keep praying, keep crying earnestly, and keep trusting.
Do not lose heart.
The Prayer of the People/Priest
This leads us to the second matter Luke presents us to consider.
The first was the pedigree of the parents to be.
This second one is the prayer of the people and priest.
It was the time for Abijah’s clan to serve their week as priests in the temple.
There were various jobs to be done, but the one that everyone wanted to do was serve at the altar of incense.
For this, the priests would draw lots.
It was literally a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Once you served at the altar of incense, you could never serve again.
Here is Zechariah, well advanced in years, having served as a priest for decades and his lot had never been drawn.
Really?
One with such pedigree?
In the line of Abijah, a wife in the line of Aaron.
Both pious, both righteous before the Lord and he had not even given him the honor of offering incense on behalf of the people.
Until that day.
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