The King Is Coming

Good morning. We are in Advent season. That is a helpful tradition that we can trace back to around the fifth century. It's helpful in that it helps us study and look at things that are taught in Scripture. We're actually a week behind in Advent. We were supposed to start last week. We've been singing Songs of Christmas, but we delayed getting into our Christmas narrative because, well, we wanted to and needed to end 2 Timothy. Advent is helpful as a tradition. It is not taught in scripture, prescribed or described. It's helpful because, just like so much of scripture, it's a reminder. It's a reminder. It's a reminder that God keeps his promises. One of the great things we see with Christ coming is that God has kept every promise. It's a reminder that it's right to feel that this world is not the way it's supposed to be, because it's not. It's a reminder that there are still promises to come. Christ will come again. This morning as we look at this text, we'll be thinking through the reminders and being reminded that God is still at work, God is powerful, God has kept His promises and God will keep every promise. This morning we're going to be looking at this text that deals with shame, doubt, fear, and shows that while God may appear slow, He is powerful and faithful. We're looking at Luke, so if you wanna turn there if you haven't already. If you don't have a Bible, please take one of the Pew Bibles. Luke, if you've been with us for the last few weeks, well, especially last week, should be familiar to you. Luke was in 2 Timothy 4, he was the only person with Paul at the time while he was in prison. And as a brief introduction, there are four gospel narratives, not four different gospels, These are four different accounts of how the apostles reminded the church and taught the church of who Christ was and what he did. They're ordered a little bit differently. They highlight different themes, but they all tell of the one and same Jesus Christ, who was the same yesterday, today, and forever. Luke was a companion of Paul. That is why he has that apostolic authority to write a gospel. He's a Gentile. We believe he's the only Gentile author in the New Testament. And interestingly, he probably wrote a quarter of the, well he did write a quarter of the New Testament. Acts and Luke are two of the longer books, really two volumes of the same work written to Theophilus. He's a physician, co-worker of Paul, and his Christmas narrative is just rich and long and highlights a number of things, but I wanna put it all under the one heading that our children have been learning on Wednesday night. It's good news of great joy for all people. What we're looking at for the next few weeks is good news of great joy for all people, that includes us. This morning we'll be looking at the good news that brings great joy for Zechariah and Elizabeth. Next week, more specifically, for Mary and Joseph. But really, as we're looking at all of this, it's good news of great joy for Israel, who's been longing and waiting for promises to be fulfilled, and for the entire world. If you're taking notes, there are four points. We might just get through three of them today, and that'll be fun. One, certainty. Two, restoration. Three, preparation for power. Certainty, restoration, preparation, and power. First, we see certainty. Let's look back at Luke chapter one, verses one through four. This is Luke's declaration of what he is doing. He is intentionally stating his purposes in writing. There are four parts, and I want you to see them as I read it. First, he tells us something has happened. among us. Second, he tells us that there were eyewitnesses that have delivered what happened. Third, he has researched and written. And fourth, we can have certainty. It's happened. It's been witnessed. It's been written. We can have certainty. for those four in the four verses of Luke 1. In as much as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also having followed all things closely for some time past to write and orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. Well, let's first look at, it's happened. He wants to compile a narrative, and a narrative can be fiction or nonfiction. It's happened, that's nonfiction. He's done research, he's requested information. It even appears he must have actually interviewed Mary herself. It's a non-fiction declaration of what has happened. And it's interesting, if you want to look through Luke, we'll be continuing in Luke for some time, past Christmas. But Luke 1928 is the hinge, most of the Gospels, or all the Gospels really have hinges that change the direction of the narrative. 1928 is the hinge for Luke. If you want to look at it, he starts headed to Jerusalem. born in Bethlehem to be the son of David, but headed to Jerusalem to die on the cross as the perfect lamb as planned and promised. These things happened. That word happened and accomplished, the word accomplished there, it could be completed. Because it's not just what Jesus did, it's what Jesus has fulfilled for all people. There's a loaded aspect to that term. He has come to fulfill what the whole world has been longing for. So it's happened. Second, it was witnessed. There were disciples, there were many who walked along with Jesus, there were many who heard him. And it's really amazing if you read along with the account or you follow along with us as we worship, they just don't get it time and time again. And that's why it's so significant. Jesus says in John, it is necessary for me to go away because if I do the Holy Spirit will come and he will remind you of the things I've said. Even that I witnessed was empowered by the Holy Spirit. The disciples walked with Jesus. They learned from him. They saw him die, their hopes and aspirations of what he would do were crushed, and then he rose again in victory. He was seen. He was believed. And notice it was proclaimed. In the beginning they were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word that was delivered. This isn't a clever myth. This isn't a creative story. It has been received. It has been delivered. The work of the apostle is the work of a mailman. Received. Delivered. The work of a preacher is the work of a mailman. Received. Delivered. The work of the Christian to tell the story is not one of creativity, but is merely one of deliver. Receive. proclaimed. It happened, there were eyewitnesses, it was delivered. And now Luke, he gives an orderly account. There are other writings. Maybe Matthew had preceded him, maybe Mark. Those are the two most common guesses. Maybe there were others that were writing things that just were not included in our final canon. Well Luke makes it clear, I wanted to do the research, I wanted to provide an orderly account, so he wrote it down. As we saw back in 2 Timothy 3.16, it is very important that God has given us the written words because when something is important, we put it in writing. We put it in writing. God has been kind to us to carry along these men so that the Holy Spirit uses their pen to proclaim the truths that can be trusted for certainty at all times. Yeah, Luke's personality comes out. This is some of the highest Greek grammar, so they say. I don't really know that. The written words, and well, let's just think here for a second. Who is Theophilus? Most excellent Theophilus. That's a title normally given to a governing authority. We don't know really anything about him beyond that title, so he must have been some kind of political figure. Luke is writing to him. Verse 4 is where we're going to hang out here for a little while. That you may have certainty concerning the things that have been taught. God's Word is breathed out. God's Word speaks with clarity. God's Word speaks with authority. As Scripture speaks, God speaks. And so here we're coming for understanding of the truths that have been taught to gain certainty, assuredness, to have a firm foundation. Certainty, that's a big promise. It doesn't mean we have all our questions answered. What it means is what God's word has intended to say, it can be received with certainty. He doesn't want us to be guessing people about who he is or what he says or how to be saved or what he expects. It's certain. God speaks, we need to listen with absolute confidence that we can be certain. Now this is the trick, and this is the point we've got to make sure is clear, and if you have questions afterwards, please ask them. God's Word is its own testimony of certainty. You may not like that. You may want to be able to say, well, I need to be able to stand on some other ground and look at it and know for a certainty. Well, that would make that a higher authority. God's Word is its own affirmation. It testifies to itself. Let me actually explain one of the ways it does that. That is very clear in our text and very important for our text. I believe we can be assured that this is the Word of God because of the theme of promise and fulfillment. We can be assured that this is God's word because of the promise and fulfillment that we see throughout scripture. In Luke 24, 27, this is after Jesus is risen. He's walking on the Emmaus road with some disciples, still trying to figure out what in the world's happened, and they're trying to understand, because Jesus has been seen as risen, but they don't realize it's Jesus. And he opens up the law and the prophets, the Old Testament. He starts explaining how all of the Old Testament is fulfilled in him. I can tell you that's the greatest theological lesson ever taught. Luke's giving us that as he said it's accomplished in verse 2 or it's gonna end with with all the Old Testament being fulfilled in Christ. It spans thousands of years. It spans the time, the themes that connect all together in Jesus. It has to be a divine book. The story we're gonna look at primarily today is that of Zachariah and Elizabeth. And what's amazing about this story is it connects us all the way back to Genesis three. Because after we sinned, after Eve was deceived, the consequence for her sin was pain and childbearing. One of the ways that pain is fulfilled, one of the ways that pain is felt is barren womb. That's what Elizabeth's consequence is. Then you start with the promised people of God, Genesis 12. Sarah has the same problem as Elizabeth, a closed womb. The way God's promised people begin is the way the fulfillment begins. It's amazingly intentional by God. And then our story not only is connecting this closed womb, the God who overcomes the closed womb, the God who blesses the closed womb, the God who overcomes the curse of the closed womb by his own son, but then we have Malachi 4. Genesis is the beginning of the Bible. Malachi is the end of the Old Testament. The beginning of God's promises and the beginning of God's people. and the end of the speaking to God's people. Malachi 4, the very last chapter of the last book, the last words are quoted here with Zechariah and Elizabeth. All of the Old Testament is coming into a fruition right here in this new declaration that John the Baptist will be born and he will prepare a people God to orchestrate that, to show how he's been patient and appearing to be slow, to give so many promises that now come all together right here in a family who lives in the shame of a barren womb. So he can change their story, to tell us he can change our story. That is one of the ways we can have certainty. God's word gives us certainty. Our second point, restoration. Restoration. This is an unusual way to begin a story. He wants to introduce this couple who, he's a priest, he's significant, he's gonna have a significant role in the worship of God's people. But it begins even with the days of Herod. King of Judah, that gives us a time stamp. In the days of Herod, there was a priest named Zechariah, the division of Abijah. And that is just the way that the Old Testament divided up the priests who would serve in those different orders twice, two weeks a year. He had a wife from the daughters of Aaron. Her name was Elizabeth. So we have Zechariah, Elizabeth, significant characters. Let's remember those names. Look what's stated next. They were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. Now, we need to just pause here for a second. This does not mean they were without sin. It means as much as they could look at the Word of God and have their lives transformed by the Word of God in outward, clear obedience, they were doing so. It doesn't mean their hearts were completely purified of every evil desire. Their minds never wandered. It means that as much as they could see the word of God and depend upon his grace to be obedient, they were. That's important to Christian. Because sometimes we use that doctrine of total depravity as an excuse to keep sinning. We presume upon God's grace in that way. No, God's grace is able to save us and God's grace is able to help us present our members, to yield ourselves to God's faithful obedience. The reason blameless is significant here is because of what we see next in Elizabeth. Verse seven, they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both advanced in years. This is a sad beginning, an unusual beginning to a promised good news of great joy to all people. We have a barren woman who's advanced in age and there's no children, therefore there's very likely no hope of a child. In this culture, having children was a sign of God's blessing. In this culture, not having a child would have made people think, what's wrong with them? Are they sinful? There was a social stigma to it. That's why it's so important. Her barrenness has nothing to do with any sin she committed. Her barrenness is a consequence of the sin that affects us all from Genesis three. There are consequences that are not directly related to our specific sin. Zechariah, he's gonna have a consequence directly related to his sin in just a little while. But it's so important for us to realize, especially if you're a lady or if you're wrestling with some kind of health issue, there's a way in which we can think this has to be because of some sin, what do I repent of? And it may just be this is a clear consequence of the fall. Here, for Elizabeth, that's what is obvious. But we also realize that the social stigma that would have carried, the way in which she would have carried reproach among her people, the way she'd been looked at and sneered at and judged, would have been a heavy burden. My fear is I'm not sure we've actually advanced much from this. I'm not sure we've actually advanced much from making it clear that the pains of childbearing, the miscarriages, the barren womb, the closed womb, these aren't, these should be social stigmas. We as a church should understand that this is because of the sin from the beginning, and we should apply clearly the balm of the gospel to these situations. She's barren. She's advanced in years. This is a heavy, painful burden. But as we sang in joy to the world, as far as the curse is found, God's blessing comes. So too we see God's good news. Let's look at verse eight. Good setting, good storytelling, Luke. Great narrative. We've got our people, our place, and our problem. Barren. old without child. Verse eight, now while he was serving as priest before God, when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by a lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. This was a very rare opportunity. Most assume this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to actually go into that closest holy of holies and perform this prayer, and in here on this day, Zechariah, his lot is cast. And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside of the hour of incense, and there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zechariah responds appropriately. He was troubled when he saw him. and fear fell upon him. They were troubled, has a sense of just undone, unsettled, shaken. And the angel responds as an angel almost always does, do not be afraid. It is right that Zechariah is afraid and the angel must say, do not fear. Why is it right to be afraid of an angel? In this season where we see them on trees and in yards and all over the place, they look so cute and cuddly. Why would you be afraid of one of those angels we decorate with? This is a holy being sent down from a holy God in his holy place. This is frightening. Anytime our sin comes in any kind of direct contact with a holy and just and perfect God, we should be terrified. This is a holy one from God with a holy message. And they're in the temple, the whole point is to build up a reverence and a right reverence and a right fear of God. Our danger is that we want to tame God and remove His holiness. No, His love has its perfect context. when we truly see that he is the one holy God who condescends. He comes down to us. He sends this angel to stand next to Zechariah. Zechariah rightly has fear, and the angel comes to make it clear, do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your prayer has been heard. What was he praying for? We don't know. Could have been praying for a son. He may have still been holding out hope that he would have a son. That would make what happens next kind of confusing. Maybe he's praying for the people of Israel as a priest because that's his job to represent the people towards God and he's praying for deliverance from the Roman troops and the Roman oppression. Maybe he's praying for joy. Maybe he's praying for God's salvation to come. We don't know what is most important is this. Believer, listen to this. Your prayer has been heard. He's a listening God. He's a listening God. Whatever he has come and spoken to of God, God comes and says, I've heard you. This is important. It doesn't always feel like someone's hearing. Be assured, as much as you are praying to God, he's listening. He's listening. Zechariah, your prayer has been heard. In the immediate connection, your wife will bear a son, and you shall call his name John. This is a work of blessing that reverses the curse of the closed womb. He is going to open the womb. He's going to give this untimely born child. In the advanced years, just like Abraham and Sarah, this story is meant to look and sound very similar. And then look at verse 14, this will bring joy and gladness and many will rejoice. The many who's been giving your wife reproach and disappointment, they're now going to rejoice. Notice, we'll come back to verses, verse 13. I'm sorry, verse 15 through 17. Notice Zechariah's response to this good news about his problem. He's married to a barren woman and they have no child. This is meant to be a moment of rejoicing and Zechariah responds to the angel, how shall I know this? Logical, I'm an old man and my wife is advanced in years. That must be like the nicer way of saying old. I'm old, but I'm gonna talk about my wife, and she's advanced in years, seasoned. Notice the angel's response, the holy one's response, who really appears to be angry. I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God. And I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. Do you not know who I am? Zechariah, you're an older man who's been studying the scriptures. You should have wisdom by now. You're an older man who's meant to teach the people of God. You have taught people about Abraham and Hannah and Sarah. You know these stories. And you're gonna ask, how shall I know? This is doubt. This is clear doubt. He isn't taking the certainty that God speaks with power and purpose. He himself should be leading God's people, but instead he has doubt. And Gabriel's answer, I stand in the presence of God. I'm an archangel. I was sent down here to give you this message and you're gonna ask how to know beyond I'm Gabriel, I'm from God, this is a message from God? Again, there's no certainty beyond God's word. Look how gracious God is in verse 20. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words. It's a consequence for his sin of doubt, of unbelief. But he's actually gracious because he got what he asked for, didn't he? How will I know? You won't be able to talk. Now you know. But that's gotta be a painful nine months. He heard the word of God. He heard the word of promise. And he can't proclaim praise. He would not trust the word of God and therefore his words are taken from him. How gracious it is that God would give him the sign he wants, this is true. How sad it is that his moment of doubt gives him a temporary consequence that he cannot use his mouth to praise the God who has given such good news. He doubted. God is gracious to doubters. We're sometimes afraid of the doubts we have. We're sometimes afraid of talking about them. We're sometimes afraid of how people might judge us. We're afraid of how God will look at us. If you read the Psalms, they are full of doubters professing and proclaiming the doubt directly to God. How long, oh Lord, will you forgive me? God is not afraid of doubt. He's secure. Doubters are welcome. Doubters are welcome. to God, to this church. I am certain there are many of you out here right now listening who have doubts, and you're afraid to talk about them. Let's get past that. God is not afraid of your doubts. He actually teaches you how to talk about them properly. We as a church are not afraid of your doubts. We want to walk with you through them. Everyone who is a believer has to have some doubt, and this is how I know that. Because we all have finite minds and fickle hearts. We all have some kind of doubt at some point. Because we all have finite minds and fickle hearts. It's what we do with that doubt. Do we hold on to it? Do we hide it? Or do we take it to the Word of God that speaks with certainty and let the Word of God measure that doubt, inform that doubt, help us to understand his truth and power so that that doubt may not have an answer but is at least put in proper context. It's an amazing story about a doubter who was one of Israel's teachers. Let's continue. After Gabriel, Makes it very clear, do you not understand who I am, where I came from, and what I just said to you? You cannot speak now. And then we see verse 21, the people were waiting, Zechariah, they were wondering what was taking so long. Verse 22, when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, as God has declared, it is true. And they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple, and he kept making signs to them, and remained mute. And when his time of service ended, he went to his home. He went back to his wife, advanced in years, barren. As we read that verse seven again, they had no child because Elizabeth was barren. The blameless one was barren. And there's a sense of disappointment That the story has begun with a sadness, a problem. And the promise given to Zechariah, most of the words are there with Zechariah. Well, the end stress is for her. Her very few words are so loaded theologically. After these days, his wife Elizabeth conceived. For five months, she kept herself hidden, saying, thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me to take away my reproach among you. These words, if you're wrestling with some trial, physical, spiritual, emotional, vocational, whatever it is, these words. She lived a long life of suffering, reproach, of suffering, disappointment, of suffering, longing for something she didn't have. A consequence of the curse, not a consequence of her own sin. God has spoken a promise, and He fulfilled that promise. She conceived. This is the end stress of this story. This is the showing of how God is taking this small family, and He's showing His power to save, His power to heal, His power to bring a hope. And this little small story of this family being restored is going to have incredible Consequences for all the world. But he starts it with this very small personal story. How this woman is seen by God and he does great things for her. Look at what she says first. The Lord has done for me. He has opened my womb. He has blessed me with child. He has taken away what was reproach. He has given me the child I've longed for. The curse that had left a painful, difficult consequence has been reversed and now there's blessing. Notice what she says next. The Lord has done for me when he looked upon me. God sees us. He's not distant. He's not blind. He's not deaf. He sees us. He's looking for us. He's looking at us. He sees our problems, our pain, our troubles, our difficulty. He sees our sin and still says, I'm going to come to be with you and for you and save you. What promises? He removed her reproach. This is a gospel theme. We normally talk about guilt and forgiveness because that is the primary theme throughout scripture. There is guilt, we're sinners, we deserve judgment, and there's forgiveness. But here's another gospel theme. One clear gospel theme is guilt, forgiveness. Another one is shame and glory. We who walk in shame, God calls us up out of it and gives us his own glory. It's very direct, it's very clear. There was a shame and a reproach from her own people because she could not have a baby and God gives her that very clear blessing. Now let's be very clear, a pregnancy isn't the solution for every shame problem. And not every shame problem gets this kind of a clear, direct answer. But God lifts up his children. He is the one who instills worth, value, purpose, and joy. This is God. He's the one who speaks to us so that we actually understand what our worth and value are. He's the one who speaks to us so that we understand who we are before Him. As we think about this, what is your worth? As you think about yourself, and just to be honest, we think about ourselves a lot. What's our worth? It's easy to think, let's look at our bank account. That's my worth. Easy to think all the things I've got. I've got maybe a spouse. I've got this number of kids. I've got these jobs. I've got these blessings. We too oftentimes think of our worth with what we have. Those are blessings. Our worth isn't what God says about us. Our worth is in that we're image bearers, made to reflect Him. Our worth is that if you're a believer, you've been purchased with the precious blood of Christ. That is your worth. Believer, when you have a value dilemma, When you have a worth worry or a shame spiral, you stop it by going to God's certain word and hearing the things that he declares to you. You're my child. I'm with you. I've purchased you. I love you. I forgive you. I have made plans. I have prepared work for you to do. I will be with you so that you can walk in my kingdom before me as my own child. Just step back from the story. God hears us. God does for us. God looks at us. And God changes the story. That's not all that's going on here. Third point, God has shown us how to have hope in doubt. God has shown us how to have hope in shame or worry or a worth problem, but we've got to look at the bigger picture and that is the preparation. Third point, preparation, same story. Let's look back at the story because we see here that God is changing the story of Elizabeth and Zechariah in order to show what he's been doing all along for all people throughout the world. Here, we've just looked at a promised baby boy and a fulfillment of that conception. Really, if we look through scripture, Genesis 3.15, we see a promised son. God promises Satan that a son will be born of Eve and that son will crush Satan. Abraham is promised a son who will fulfill that promise to Satan, God promised Abraham that a son will be born that will fulfill that promise to Satan, and that son will come now through the line of Abraham, and then Judah, and we see this promised son to Abraham even when there's a, he takes Isaac up, and he's gonna sacrifice him, and God declares, no, I'm gonna promise a substitute. And then we saw a few months ago, God promised David in 2 Samuel 7, I will give a son to the line of Eve, to the line of Abraham, to the line of Judah, and now to the line of David, a son who shall reign forever. Chapter one, verse one of Luke. And as much as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished, God is fulfilling all those promises. But the promised son here isn't that son. Who is it? It's a promise that we actually could go back and look at in Isaiah 40. In Isaiah 40, God says, I will send a prophet, a voice crying in the wilderness to prepare a way for the son I've promised. We can look back to Malachi 4, a prophet like Elijah. John the Baptist is the last Old Testament prophet. And what's amazing about him, he's not gonna say, he's coming, he's coming, he's coming. What's he gonna say? Behold the Lamb of God. Look, he's here. You can know for certain. We look back at our text, Zachariah was promised a son because his prayers were heard. He's promised that this is gonna be joy and gladness, verse 14. Now we're gonna look back at what kind of son this is. Verse 15, who will he be? Verse 15, who will he be? For he will be great before the Lord. He must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. There's a handful of important declarations here about who he is. First, but every parent would love to hear, he will be great. Now, we need to put this in context. He will be great before the Lord. He will be great in faith. He'll be great in obedience. He will be great in accomplishing God's will because he's gonna be aligned with God. He will not be great before men in this world. When Jesus describes him in Matthew, He's asked, why did you go out and look at John, a reed blowing in the wind? He was nothing to look at. He had very little fashion sense. He was nothing to look at in worldly perspective. He's going to be beheaded by the king. But before the Lord, he was great. Because he trusted God. He obeyed God. He proclaimed God. Parents, what a challenge. How do we want our children to be great? Do we want them to be great before the Lord? And suffer the consequences of John the Baptist, of being despised by the world and beheaded, but rejoiced by God himself? What are our longings for our own children? They'll be great before the Lord. The next thing, he must not drink wine or strong drink. This looks like the Nazirite vow. He's going to be set aside for a special purpose. He is going to be anointed and blessed by God, and he must keep himself holy. And in case the holiness of the strong drink isn't clear, he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. This is unique. The Holy Spirit came upon many prophets, priests, kings at times of old, and he came upon them and anointed them so they could fulfill his purpose. This is different. He's going to be filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb. He's going to be filled from the very beginning by the Spirit of God, and Luke has a very clear theology of the Holy Spirit that runs throughout his two volumes. The Holy Spirit is here involved with the very proclamation that Jesus is going to come. This son is set apart, John the Baptist, to do a specific job. Who he was, great, set apart, filled the Holy Spirit, now we're gonna look at what he does, verse 16. He will go before him. That's kind of interesting, we don't know who him is yet, do we? 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 for the Lord a people prepared. That's what he does. He's going to proceed. He's going to be the highway that makes a way. He's going to be the one who starts proclaiming, repent, for the kingdom of God is near. In the power of Elijah, Turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. This is where we look back and we look at Malachi 4. The curses of Genesis 3 have been reversed. The promises that relate to Abraham and Sarah have been alluded to. Now we see this is referring to the very last chapter of the last book, the last words. 400 years of silence are broken by this angel to prepare the way for the one who will begin proclaiming Jesus is coming. If we go back to Malachi, it's the last book of the Old Testament, right before Matthew. Last book, last chapter, last words. And behold, the day is coming, verse one. The day of the Lord is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all the evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. Verse two, but for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. We sing that in Hark the Herald Angels Sing. The sun will rise. It'll be healing. Elizabeth says amen. Notice what he says next, verse four. Remember the law of the servant of Moses. This isn't something completely new. Remember, look back, what God has already promised. And then he says, behold, I will send you something new, Elijah the prophet. It's not Elijah reincarnated. We don't believe in reincarnation. A prophet like Elijah. Before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes, He will proceed and He will turn. He will bring an about face. He will bring change, repentance, conversion. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, the hearts of the children to the fathers. Look at this, it's about generational faithfulness. Something you didn't see in the Old Testament. Something I fear we really don't see that often among the new people that Christ has purchased. Generational faithfulness. lest I come and strike the land with the decree of utter destruction." Zechariah goes home. He's with his wife. He has to wait. He has to wait. Looking back at that declaration, verse 20, which will be fulfilled in their time. 400 years Israel's waiting for God to fulfill his promises. Nine months, Zechariah is waiting to fulfill the promise. You know what Zechariah's name means? The Lord remembers. He remembers what he's promised. He's able to keep those promises. He hears us when we pray. He does what we need. He sees us. He changes the story here because of this prophet, John the Baptist, who's going to come. He's going to change the entire world. Because John is going to say, behold, He is the Lamb of God. Before we conclude, I do want to list turnover because these two stories are so parallel. We're going to come back to the birth of Jesus foretold next week and spend more time on it. Fourth point, if you're taking notes, God's power. Notice, same angel, Gabriel. Instead of God coming to a priest in the temple who's old, who should be wise, who should understand God's word, who should respond with faith, he comes to a young virgin directly. She's not like Elizabeth. Elizabeth is married, but barren. She is a virgin, 13 to 15 years old, about to get married. And the angel comes, and instead of saying, do not fear at first, this is the unusual instance, he says, greetings, all favored one. And because he didn't say, do not fear, and he said it'd be all favored one, she's actually troubled, she's unsettled. What, an angel doesn't, isn't supposed to talk like this. Favored is the same word for grace. God has not looked upon her and said, you are so worthy of this. God looks upon her and says, I will give you this good gift. You've been favored, Mary. Look at a picture of this. 13, 14, 15 year old girl. She hears this. You will conceive and bear a child in your womb. His name will be Jesus, which means Yahweh saved. He'll be great, not great to the Lord. He's great, he's great, just great. He'll be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him a throne. It's repeated, throne, reign, kingdom, 2 Samuel 7. Here's this young lady. She's from Nazareth. It's a nowhere town. And she's gonna give birth to a king? Improbable. She's a virgin. She's gonna give birth to a baby. Impossible. She, a human being, is going to give birth to God himself. Impossible. Look at her question. How will this be? She doesn't ask, how will I know, like Zechariah. She asks, how will this be? A perfectly logical, right question, because I have not known a man. The angel's answer is, Amazing. It doesn't go less theological, it goes more. The Holy Spirit will come upon you. The power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born shall be called holy, the Son of God. Behold, your relative Elizabeth. It's all so bright. I think that would just leave me with more questions. Do you realize that the first full doctrine of the Trinity was just revealed here to a 14-year-old girl when she asked, how will a virgin conceive of a baby? There is no way she comprehended any of this. But she understood, God is speaking, it's certain. There's no way she understood there's one nature in three persons. There's no way she is really comprehending and wrapping her head around the God who can do all things, more than we can ever imagine. Unlike her uncle, who should have been so familiar with the things of God, he doesn't ask, how will I know? He asks, how can this be? We see her, a model of faith. You don't need the comprehension, you need to know who's talking. And just to be very clear, another miracle, Elizabeth is pregnant. Verse 37, this is your memory verse. For nothing is impossible with God. Mary said. Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. That's faith. Whatever you've said, God, it's trustworthy. It's certain. It's true. It's good. It's beyond my comprehension. But you are the good God who hears me, who sees me, who does great things for me. Let it be to me according to your word. Will you pray with me?