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Thanksgiving has come and gone and there are now 28 days until Christmas.
As we anticipate the Christmas holiday, I worked up a sermon series I am calling Journey to Bethlehem.
Over the next few weeks, we are going to walk through the timeline of the New Testament leading up to the birth of Jesus on Christmas day.
Today we are beginning in the book of Luke with the angelic announcement of John the Baptist’s birth.
The New Testament opens by breaking 400 years of prophetic silence.
At the close of Malachi, God no longer spoke through his prophets.
This does not mean that God was not silent or uninvolved in the affairs of his people.
This simply meant that he had revealed all he needed to reveal through his prophets and now his written word would sill speak every day.
We know that God is not absent in the proverbial silence, but continues to speak if he is sought after.
The same is true today.
God no longer speaks in an official capacity through prophets like he did in the Old Testament.
With the entirety of his revelation complete and canonized in the 66 books of the Bible, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in every believer, all God needs to say has already been said.
Our job is to listen to what he said.
The story of Christmas begins with the breaking of this prophetic silence one fateful day before Jesus was born.
Here, Luke sets the stage for the event that is about to unfold.
There is a man named Zacharias, sometimes spelled Zechariah in other translations, who is a priest.
He and his wife are very old.
They have no children.
The prospect of having children is long gone.
This is a big deal back in those days because it meant there was no one to pass things on to when they pass away.
Having no children was also seen as a sign that God had withheld blessings from you typically because of something you have done.
His wife Elizabeth would have been looked down upon for never having children.
She would have been seen as less of a woman.
No matter whether it is true or not, when people believe something about you, it can become very easy to take on that as part of your identity.
A loving husband who cares for his wife shoulders some of that burden knowing he is powerless to change it.
These thoughts are likely floating in the back of their minds as he is doing his duty in the temple.
So Zacharias is in the temple burning incense and there is a multitude of people outside praying.
Zacharias was a descendant of Abijah, a priest who served during David’s reign.
All the families in the tribe of Levi were priests and long ago they divided up temple responsibilities among the families so that they worked in rotation all year long.
The roles were divided up in such a way that Zacharias probably only got this opportunity once in his lifetime.
So to do so would be a high honor.
Woah! there is a lot going on here!
First, an angel shows up!
That never happens!
Then an angel gives Zacharias the craziest and greatest news he could hear!
You’re going to have a son!
After all these years he and his wife would finally have a son.
Not only that, but this son is going to turn the hearts of the people back to God!
He is going to precede the Messiah, the man Israel had been hoping for.
Wow.
What a kid this will be!
But wait a minute…Zacharias is old.
Just like that, Zacharias is mute.
It is clear that he doubts the word of the Lord delivered by the angel.
It’s kind of hard to fault the guy though, right?
I mean if an angel came to Harold and Barbara White and told them they were going to have a child, that would be a pretty tough pill to swallow.
How in the world is God going to do that?
Zacharias’ doubt was not a matter of understanding how God was going to pull something like this off, it was a matter of God’s ability to pull this off.
It’s as if Zacharias took one second to look at his and his wife’s old age and said, “Nah.
That’s impossible.”
So the angel responds, “Ok.
Tell you what.
Because you didn’t believe me, you will be unable to speak until this baby is born.”
Then the angel is gone.
It’s been a while now and everybody outside is getting a little worried.
He comes out is unable to speak, and the people realize he had seen a vision.
He finishes his job and he and his wife go home.Nine or so months later, a baby arrives.
The baby is born in Luke 1:57-66.
Elizabeth wants to name the baby John, but everyone is saying, “What for?
Nobody in your family has that name.”
(It was customary to name people after ancestors.)
So they go to dad and he motions for a writing tablet.
He writes four words: His name is John.
Immediately, he regains his ability to speak.
There is no way to explain this story except to acknowledge the hand of God or resort to claiming it is a complete fabrication.
Seeing this as a true historical event, there is no way to explain how this is possible unless the supernatural is possible.
Since God exists, and he is by definition supernatural, the supernatural is possible.
I want you to see what Zacharias did here.
He looked at his situation, considered the facts, and said this couldn’t happen.
He did not believe God could do this.
He looked at his circumstances and then placed limitations on what God can do.
Because God is supernatural, we must trust him to fulfill his promises no matter how impossible they might seem.
This is not the first time God had done this.
He did the same thing with Abraham.
If he could do it then, there is no reason to believe He couldn’t do it again.
God does this as a demonstration of his power and might.
He does this to demonstrate he can defy the nature he built to bring about glory for himself.
He allowed Zacharias to experience this as a testimony to his power and might.
Zacharias could never have taken credit for this miracle.
That was the thing that was impossible.
God is the God of impossible.
So many times we get it into our minds that God cannot do something we are waiting on him to do.
Then we begin to question whether we heard him correctly or whether he can do what he said he would do.
Also notice that God never does anything he never said he would do.
Sometimes we thing he said something, but maybe that was just us.
God always does just what he said he would do.
This makes him trustworthy.
Zacharias thought he was too old.
It seems he thought God could not overcome the physical limitations to child bearing at such an old age.
The truth is we find ourselves waiting a lot longer than we thought for God to do what he said he would do.
I waited thirteen years for God to fulfill his promise in calling me to pastor a church.
If it had happened any sooner, I probably would not have been ready.
For thirteen years I waited and questioned whether I heard him correctly and there were numerous temptations to chase other paths.
Aren’t you glad I didn’t give up waiting?
I know I am.
So many times we let life or culture or our sphere of influence tell us what we can’t do.
You’re too old for this.
You’re too young for that.
You don’t have enough education for this.
You don’t have enough experience for that.
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