back to index2022-05-01 Preparation for His Coming
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If you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 1. 00:00:11.080 |
I'll be reading from verse 5 through 10 this morning. 00:00:28.040 |
In the days of Herod king of Judea, there was a priest named Zacharias of the division 00:00:32.440 |
of Abijah, and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 00:00:38.000 |
They were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments 00:00:43.980 |
But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both advanced in years. 00:00:48.840 |
Now it happened that while he was performing his priestly service before God in the appointed 00:00:52.560 |
order of his division, according to the custom of the priestly office, he was chosen by law 00:00:57.200 |
to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 00:01:00.360 |
And the whole multitude of the people were in prayer outside at the hour of the incense 00:01:10.240 |
Gracious Father, we thank you for this morning. 00:01:12.160 |
We pray, Father God, that your word would really speak to us, allow us to hear your 00:01:23.440 |
Help us, Lord, to be illuminated, to not only know your thoughts, but your own heart. 00:01:29.480 |
We pray that we would get a glimpse of who you are, that we may learn to love you, to 00:01:42.720 |
You know, oftentimes when various things happen in our life, we don't have a complete answer 00:01:51.240 |
as to why is this happening, because we're not able to see the big picture. 00:01:59.640 |
So we oftentimes just trust that God is sovereign. 00:02:05.280 |
And typically we will read verses like Romans 8, 28, says, "We know that God causes all 00:02:10.120 |
things to work together for good, to those who love God, to those who are called according 00:02:16.080 |
And so we use that verse to encourage one another, to encourage ourselves, to remind 00:02:23.400 |
But oftentimes we don't know exactly where this is headed. 00:02:25.880 |
And so when we look at redemptive history, we're able to see the fruition of these passages. 00:02:37.240 |
Galatians 4, verse 4 says, "But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his 00:02:41.640 |
Born of a woman, born under the law, God waited for the perfect time." 00:02:48.720 |
And I remember thinking early on, and you hear maybe other people saying, "It made 00:02:53.680 |
a perfect time because the Romans, you know, they came into power and they created all 00:03:00.440 |
So that if you were going to go evangelize to the remotest part of the world, that would 00:03:04.680 |
have been the perfect time because all the roads have been created so that they can pretty 00:03:11.220 |
Or it was a perfect time because the language was united. 00:03:14.960 |
The Greeks did such a great job of bringing people together, all of a sudden they were 00:03:20.480 |
They had the local language and then they had Greek language. 00:03:24.040 |
And so because of that, now they were able to communicate with one another. 00:03:27.320 |
Politically, Romans conquered so much of the land that they were able to move from place 00:03:35.120 |
Now, all of these things may be true, but none of that is mentioned in the Bible. 00:03:41.740 |
Those are just speculations that, yes, it was an ideal time. 00:03:44.920 |
But what the Bible does mention is that God waited until the law exposed sin to be utterly 00:03:58.680 |
In fact, when you study the book of Romans, Romans begins by telling us this very thing. 00:04:05.160 |
And if you've studied the book of Romans, if you were with us a while back, and Romans 00:04:12.680 |
But if you look at Romans chapter one, it's clear that the reference that he's making 00:04:20.880 |
Even though it has ramification to all the nations, he specifically says the nation of 00:04:25.080 |
Israel, for even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks. 00:04:31.980 |
But they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened, professing 00:04:36.360 |
to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of God for the incorruptible God, 00:04:42.600 |
glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds 00:04:47.060 |
and of four-footed animals and crawling creatures. 00:04:49.200 |
Now again, this can be applied to all mankind, but specifically it's in reference to how 00:04:59.760 |
And yet, though God made it very clear to them who he is, showed them the glory, they 00:05:10.800 |
So it says in verse four, all the way down to verse 28, three separate times he mentions, 00:05:18.400 |
Verse 24, therefore God gave them over in the lust of their hearts to impurity so that 00:05:23.440 |
their bodies would be dishonored among them for they exchanged the truth of God for a 00:05:27.040 |
lie, worshipped and served the creatures rather than the creator who is blessed forever. 00:05:32.760 |
And then again in verse 26, for this reason God gave them over to degrading passions. 00:05:38.080 |
For their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural. 00:05:41.680 |
And in the same way also the man abandoned natural function of the women and burned in 00:05:45.080 |
their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving 00:05:50.000 |
in their own persons the due penalty of their error. 00:05:55.000 |
Again in verse 28, and just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God 00:05:59.400 |
gave them over to depraved minds to do those things which are not proper. 00:06:04.040 |
So three separate times in chapter one he says wrath of God is being revealed and even 00:06:09.640 |
though he made who he is through natural revelation, specifically to the Jews through special revelation 00:06:15.920 |
through the law, and yet they continue to chase after idols, reject him, and he says 00:06:22.040 |
God gave them over, God gave them over, God gave them over. 00:06:25.720 |
So Israel's history is a repeating cycle of a rebellion against God and as a result 00:06:32.960 |
of that falling into sin and then God allowing this sin to bear the fruit that it's supposed 00:06:40.840 |
The reason why I say all of this is because Luke breaks into this darkness. 00:06:46.800 |
And so it's important for us to first recognize why, what made this the fullness of time? 00:07:00.080 |
It's almost as if God was waiting for whatever it is that they were chasing after to have 00:07:05.720 |
its full effect so that when Christ comes and he turns the light on, the people who 00:07:13.080 |
are in darkness would recognize immediately that must be Christ. 00:07:18.480 |
There's three people that are mentioned here that I'm going to go over that on the surface 00:07:24.680 |
Because Luke started by saying that he's going to make an orderly account, a careful 00:07:30.960 |
He's going to interview eyewitnesses and he's going to present it probably in a chronological 00:07:35.040 |
manner at least to the best of his ability and to present to Theophilus so that he may 00:07:40.640 |
be convicted about things that he's already heard of, right? 00:07:44.840 |
So typically in other Gospels they'll either start right off with Jesus or they'll jump 00:07:50.120 |
into John the Baptist shows up and he does ministry and he gets baptized and boom they 00:07:57.320 |
Here he spends quite a bit of time in chapter one of something that seems almost insignificant, 00:08:08.840 |
Initially he starts by saying Herod the Idrimian was the king of that time. 00:08:12.800 |
Now superficially that's how they dated things at that time, right? 00:08:17.400 |
Today if we want to keep a record of something we would say on this particular day, on 9/11/2001 00:08:28.360 |
Well at that particular time in order to date something they would date it based on who 00:08:34.560 |
This is the third year of king so and so or the fourth year or the beginning year of this 00:08:39.800 |
and that's how they knew exactly when this happened. 00:08:42.200 |
But in the Gospels it has greater significance than just dating when this happens. 00:08:49.240 |
Because if you look at Israel's history it's filled with God pleading with the nation of 00:08:55.760 |
Israel to turn from their sin and warning them that if they do not a foreign nation 00:09:05.060 |
He warns prophet after prophet after prophet that if you do not turn from your sin that 00:09:11.000 |
the Assyrians are coming, that the Babylonians are coming, that they will come and take away 00:09:16.880 |
your strongmen, your wives, your children and you will no longer be a nation. 00:09:27.200 |
The Assyrians come in 900 BC and they take the northern kingdom into captivity. 00:09:32.920 |
All ten of the tribes are taken into captivity never to be restored again. 00:09:39.680 |
In 587 BC the Babylonians come and they take the southern kingdom, Judah and the Benjamites 00:09:47.560 |
And so for over 900 years Israel's history is one oppression from a foreign nation, from 00:09:57.440 |
Assyrians come in, the Babylonians come in, after that the Persians come in. 00:10:02.200 |
During the Persian era God raises up a pagan king, King Cyrus and softens his heart and 00:10:10.360 |
he allows the nation of Israel to return back to their land to rebuild their temple. 00:10:15.620 |
But by that time Israelites have forgotten and have been moved so far away from God that 00:10:22.540 |
even though they had every support that they needed to go back and rebuild the nation, 00:10:26.200 |
only a very small remnant returned, drop in a bucket. 00:10:30.520 |
Which means majority of them have already forgotten about the covenant. 00:10:35.520 |
Whatever promises that God made, they've already forgotten about it because their life has 00:10:46.720 |
It's in the middle of this that Malachi is sent as a prophet and he's the last prophet 00:10:53.660 |
and after him there's 400 years where God no longer sends a prophet. 00:10:58.360 |
Malachi 3.1 says, "Behold I am going to send my messenger and he will clear the way before 00:11:04.680 |
And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple and the messenger of the covenant 00:11:08.800 |
in whom you delight, behold he is coming says the Lord of hosts." 00:11:11.880 |
So the last prophet, the last thing that he says is that once all this period that God 00:11:18.880 |
has ordained because of your sin, after that period is done, he will come. 00:11:25.520 |
The messenger is going to come, John the Baptist is going to come and he's going to prepare 00:11:28.960 |
for the Messiah to come and that's the last prophecy that was given to the nation of Israel. 00:11:41.160 |
Now for 400 years, even though there was no prophet, it doesn't mean that there was nothing 00:11:48.880 |
After that the Greeks take over and they Hellenize everybody. 00:11:53.200 |
If the Babylonians and the Persians made it easy to integrate into the pagan nation, the 00:12:00.800 |
I mean they even given them a name for some people who were Hellenized. 00:12:06.480 |
Meaning they integrated so well that they began to lose their culture and even their 00:12:15.320 |
They were Jew by heritage but in everything else they were Greeks. 00:12:18.720 |
That's how good of a job that the Greeks did. 00:12:21.200 |
And more and more people start to drift away from who God is. 00:12:25.480 |
And then after the Greeks leave, they have turmoil during that period. 00:12:29.560 |
There's some hope during the Hasmonean rebellion but that is almost immediately crushed. 00:12:37.160 |
And then the Romans come in and they completely dominate. 00:12:42.560 |
Romans conquered so much of that modern nation that they had to put puppet figures all over 00:12:51.640 |
You know kind of like what's going on with Russia and Ukraine right now. 00:12:54.280 |
The Russia came into Ukraine because they want to set up a puppet president that they 00:13:00.800 |
So they can make sure that that area is going to benefit them. 00:13:05.080 |
Well that's exactly what happened with Israel. 00:13:07.920 |
So King Herod of this time was a puppet king whose main job was to suppress rebellion from 00:13:21.040 |
So who he was on the surface is pretty obvious by what he did. 00:13:27.720 |
Remember the temple that Jesus comes in and he cleanses the temple right? 00:13:35.080 |
That temple was built by this king, King Herod. 00:13:38.680 |
Now you look at that and you say, "Wow he must have cared about his religion. 00:13:42.120 |
He must have clearly had some affection for God." 00:13:45.660 |
But this same king who made the temple, that same king also made dozens of pagan temples. 00:13:59.600 |
He was just a politician who's trying to appease both sides. 00:14:05.000 |
Now that in and of itself just kind of gives us a historical background of what's going 00:14:09.280 |
on but this king was so paranoid that his own family members would usurp his authority 00:14:16.600 |
that anybody that he considered a threat he just murdered. 00:14:21.240 |
Kind of like what's going on in North Korea right? 00:14:24.940 |
Anybody that Kim Jong-un thinks is a threat they're gone. 00:14:29.980 |
So if that wasn't enough, it's made very clear in Matthew chapter 2, 16 to 17, this king 00:14:37.020 |
was so paranoid that, let me just read it for you in verse 16 it says, "Then when Herod 00:14:42.380 |
saw that he had been tricked by the Magi, he became very enraged and sent and slew all 00:14:50.340 |
the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity from two years old and under 00:14:56.200 |
according to the time which he had determined from the Magi." 00:15:00.980 |
Imagine if you were a young family of that time and you had a child under the age of 00:15:07.500 |
And this king who wasn't even a Jew, he was an Edomite, who was a traitor to his people 00:15:14.180 |
and he was basically a politician setting up pagan nations, pagan temples, now came 00:15:22.440 |
Simply because he was afraid that one of those children were going to be usurping his authority, 00:15:28.160 |
that he was going to be the king of the Jews, the true king of the Jews was coming. 00:15:32.940 |
And just for that alone, he went and slaughtered all the children under the age of two. 00:15:40.020 |
Imagine the frustration, the anger, the bitterness, the sadness that Israel was under at this 00:15:50.240 |
And if they didn't submit, they would have come and completely destroyed them. 00:15:52.940 |
So there was constant turmoil among the Jewish nation. 00:15:56.280 |
And so mentioning Herod the Edomite, just knowing the background, the context of which 00:16:03.960 |
he says it, and all of this is to emphasize for us that this has become a dark period 00:16:15.840 |
God gave them over to their lust, God gave them over to their passion, God gave them 00:16:19.200 |
over to what they pursued in their rebellion, and as a result of that, this is the fruit 00:16:27.480 |
But along with that, we have two other people mentioned here that on the surface doesn't 00:16:33.960 |
Now, we know he's a significant figure simply because he's in the Bible. 00:16:42.440 |
Like President Biden today, he was a vice president for eight years under Obama. 00:16:50.480 |
What did you know about President Obama or President Biden today when he was vice president? 00:16:59.480 |
Because usually what happens is if the president comes out and you do a piece on the president, 00:17:05.280 |
and you may do a little side piece on the vice president, because his whole job is if 00:17:13.040 |
So unless there's a danger of Obama dying, usually they'll just say, oh, this guy's a 00:17:17.960 |
politician, these are his views, and then they move on, right? 00:17:22.640 |
They don't do a piece about his mom, his dad, and even Hunter Biden, what's going on. 00:17:28.560 |
All of that was revealed because he's a president, but while he was vice president, nobody really 00:17:42.960 |
Most of you, many of you probably already forgot, right? 00:17:59.440 |
You don't know anything about Dick Cheney's wife or husband, not husband, but mom or dad. 00:18:06.720 |
You don't know because he was just a side piece, right? 00:18:11.240 |
Just in case Bush dies, but we don't know much about him. 00:18:14.440 |
So imagine if the president is, you know, they're running for president, they do a piece 00:18:19.080 |
about the vice president, not only the piece about the vice president, but his mom and 00:18:29.080 |
He says he's going to give an orderly account, and he starts with John the Baptist, who's 00:18:34.520 |
supposed to go six months before him, and then spends almost a whole chapter talking 00:18:44.360 |
But we have to ask, like, why is he, why are they in here? 00:18:51.880 |
Zacharias' name literally means God has remembered again. 00:19:07.020 |
Not God has remembered, not God has forgotten, but God has remembered again. 00:19:13.520 |
And the reason why this is significant is because all throughout Israel's history is 00:19:21.000 |
You know, many people study the book of Hosea, and they come out and say, well, it's a great 00:19:24.540 |
love story between God and sinful nation, and how God is so patient. 00:19:29.580 |
God tells Hosea to marry this prostitute, basically, who continues to commit adultery 00:19:34.960 |
against him, and God continues to chase after him, and he illustrates this between the relationship 00:19:43.800 |
And typically we come out saying, well, what a beautiful story of God's unconditional love 00:19:51.000 |
Now that may be true, but if you study the book of Hosea carefully, Hosea is actually 00:19:59.080 |
It's not just saying, oh, look how much God loves us. 00:20:02.600 |
But if you study it, the end result is because God has given you chance after chance after 00:20:08.280 |
chance after chance, and you continue to commit adultery, that the Assyrians are coming, the 00:20:16.520 |
nations are coming, and you're going to be under their bondage. 00:20:24.640 |
But along with the judgment against the nation of Israel, almost every prophet that brings 00:20:30.740 |
judgment upon Israel, God always ends, almost always ends, with a glimmer of hope. 00:20:38.040 |
That hope is mentioned in Hosea chapter 14, 4 through 6, is I will heal their apostasy. 00:20:43.640 |
I will love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them. 00:20:49.080 |
He will blossom like the lily, and he will take root like the cedars of Lebanon. 00:20:53.320 |
His shoots will sprout, and his beauty will be like the olive tree, and his fragrance 00:20:59.360 |
Can you imagine if you heard everything that Hosea was saying, and the captivity actually 00:21:04.960 |
happens exactly like Hosea said, they would be holding on to this passage and say, when 00:21:14.360 |
We get it, we sinned, we made a mistake, we want to repent, but when is this going to 00:21:20.040 |
They waited 900 years for the fulfillment of that prophecy. 00:21:25.840 |
Now God initiated it, the final fulfillment will happen at the end, but this is what they 00:21:33.160 |
were waiting for, and so when Zacharias appears, God has remembered again. 00:21:45.720 |
Zacharias it says was a priest of the order of Abijah, and Elizabeth is a descendant of 00:21:51.360 |
Aaron himself, and so they were priests together, and again to better understand what's going 00:22:01.520 |
on here, there were 18,000 priests at that time. 00:22:06.880 |
Of 18,000 priests, and obviously they're not, you know, you don't need that many people 00:22:11.600 |
to go in and out of the temple, so they divided into 24 orders, and so he was under one of 00:22:16.560 |
those orders, Abijah, and so if your group happened to be chosen, you came and served 00:22:23.400 |
one, two weeks out of the year, whole year, and out of that they would throw lots, and 00:22:29.400 |
whoever gets chosen, one priest would represent and go into the holy, holies, not the holy 00:22:34.880 |
of holies, and then they were able to light the candle representing the prayers of the 00:22:40.920 |
That's why all the priests are sitting, standing outside praying for the nation, and that one 00:22:44.840 |
priest that was chosen would go in and light these candles representing the prayers. 00:22:50.600 |
You have to understand for a priest, that's like winning the lottery, because majority 00:22:58.880 |
Now John the Baptist was prophesied, right, 400 years before he came, so Zacharias is 00:23:10.000 |
the father that was necessary for the son to come, yet all of this happens on the surface, 00:23:20.640 |
Even his choosing, you would think that, you know, Zacharias, there's some angel would 00:23:26.080 |
Instead, a lot takes place, and then just randomly, it's like rolling dice. 00:23:31.280 |
It falls on him, and he wins the lottery, and he goes in to light the candle. 00:23:37.480 |
What seems chaotic and random on the surface is never random, because we believe in a sovereign 00:23:45.920 |
In Proverbs 16, 32, it says, "The lot is cast into the lap, but every decision is from the 00:23:55.240 |
Remember in Acts chapter 2, after Judas betrays, there's only 11 apostles left, and they need 00:24:00.840 |
to fill the number 12, and so they decide that they have some parameters, that they 00:24:05.800 |
need to be somebody that was with the Lord and saw his life, and was there when he was 00:24:10.920 |
resurrected, and they break it down to two people, Matthias and Barsabbas. 00:24:17.160 |
Now both of them qualified, but now they needed to choose one, and they cast lots. 00:24:23.840 |
This is the 12th person of the apostles, who's going to have an eternal position, and yet 00:24:34.960 |
You know, you say the other 11, you say, well Jesus chose me. 00:24:38.800 |
Right, and you're going to eternity, and Matthias, how did you get here? 00:24:46.560 |
It's like, well he kind of did, but through the apostles, through the lots, right? 00:24:51.600 |
So it seems so random that a 12th person of the apostles will be chosen in that way. 00:24:58.040 |
But God says, again, he didn't just randomly choose anybody, he said he met the criteria, 00:25:05.080 |
So again, my point is, on the surface it seems like nothing, it seems random, but clearly 00:25:12.360 |
He's breaking into the darkness through this man to remind the nation of Israel that the 00:25:21.640 |
The rest of the time I want to spend on what's happening with Elizabeth. 00:25:26.160 |
It says in verse 6, and you really have to pay attention to this, because this is really 00:25:31.240 |
the main point of what he's trying to say here. 00:25:33.800 |
They were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments 00:25:41.440 |
Clearly he's not talking about judicially he was innocent before God. 00:25:45.320 |
The whole reason why Jesus came is because all have sinned and fall short of the glory 00:25:50.040 |
He's saying that in their walk, just like Apostle Paul says in Philippians chapter 3, 00:25:59.520 |
Meaning that he lived his life to fulfill the law and to obey to the best of his ability. 00:26:05.120 |
It doesn't mean that he was innocent before God. 00:26:08.760 |
The reason why I mention that is because I hear a lot of times people saying that there's 00:26:12.160 |
nothing we can do to please God or displease God once we're justified. 00:26:25.640 |
You can live a life that honors and pleases God. 00:26:32.440 |
That Elizabeth and Zachariah lived an honorable law abiding to the point where God was pleased 00:26:43.680 |
But the point that he's trying to make is in the commandment and requirements of the 00:26:55.320 |
They had no child because Elizabeth was barren and they were both advanced in years. 00:27:00.360 |
Now again, understand these are John the Baptist's parents. 00:27:04.880 |
John the Baptist was prophesied 400 years ago that before the Messiah comes, John the 00:27:16.200 |
In fact, it says they were advanced in years. 00:27:19.680 |
The reason why they contrast their barrenness and their righteousness is because at that 00:27:26.440 |
time if you had any kind of physical ailment, they attached it to some spiritual defect. 00:27:33.600 |
We see that clearly in John chapter 9, 1 to 3. 00:27:36.960 |
When they're walking by and they see a blind man, it said he saw a man blind from birth 00:27:41.640 |
and his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be 00:27:49.040 |
Jesus answered, "It was neither that this man sinned nor his parents, but it was so that 00:27:56.800 |
You see the prejudice that they had toward him? 00:27:59.400 |
They just automatically assumed that he must be blind because he must have deserved it 00:28:05.240 |
or maybe the parents did something, they deserved it. 00:28:08.240 |
And this was a common prejudice against anybody who had some sort of a physical defect. 00:28:15.640 |
So I mean you could imagine like again, we live in a culture where we have all kinds 00:28:21.040 |
of rules and even in the church, like the bathrooms have to be a certain height or you 00:28:25.800 |
know, like you have to make the entrances a certain way and it's like all kinds of 00:28:31.040 |
stuff that somebody who's in a wheelchair could have easy access, right? 00:28:35.040 |
I mean at this particular time, not only did they have difficulty just live, people assumed 00:28:43.400 |
How their life was like, in fact, not only did the culture view it that way, many times 00:28:50.480 |
even the families thought that the only way to remove themselves from the curse is to 00:28:59.040 |
And if you know the story in John chapter 9, that's exactly what happens. 00:29:01.960 |
After he opens his eyes, his parents wouldn't even stick up for him because they were afraid 00:29:06.280 |
that they were going to be shunned by, shunned into the synagogue. 00:29:12.080 |
They could have easily said, "Clearly he was blind all his life. 00:29:23.880 |
So can you imagine the suffering, the shame that somebody who was barren at that time. 00:29:34.040 |
Clearly something, something must be going on with them. 00:29:37.400 |
In fact, in the Talmud, Talmud is basically the commentaries that the rabbis created to 00:29:45.160 |
And in the Talmud, they said, "A man is no longer bound to his barren wife after 10 years 00:29:59.920 |
And he is by law, law that they created, that he can just dismiss her if she doesn't bear 00:30:12.440 |
And he is able to do that up to two times, right? 00:30:19.040 |
I mean, so if you were barren at that time, not only do you have the pain of not being 00:30:24.520 |
able to have a child, you have the law that's against you. 00:30:31.800 |
And you have the shame that you have to live with. 00:30:34.640 |
So he says, "They were born, they were both righteous in the sight of God, walking in 00:30:38.400 |
blamelessness, but despite that, she couldn't have children." 00:30:46.400 |
As painful as this must have been, God clearly has a purpose. 00:30:52.560 |
Just like when Lazarus was dead, he said, "This is not going to end in death. 00:31:05.320 |
Just having children, bearing children, and not being able to have children, if you haven't 00:31:11.400 |
experienced that, you don't know the pain that comes with that. 00:31:19.280 |
But early on, when we first got married, Esther went through the first miscarriage. 00:31:26.640 |
And then I had to go through the operation, and I could see how she was devastated. 00:31:31.560 |
Went to the hospital and did some blood work, and they basically told her that you couldn't 00:31:39.800 |
And I remember going through that, and at that time, we were pretty young. 00:31:47.480 |
Or we won't have children, and we'll have plenty of time to do ministry, go out, become 00:31:52.840 |
missionaries, plant churches, visit churches to go speaking. 00:31:55.920 |
And so, okay, that's what I was thinking, the insensitive man. 00:32:00.860 |
But in the back of my mind, I said, "Oh, they actually said she has some sort of a blood 00:32:05.680 |
disorder that fights pregnancy, and she can't have children the normal way." 00:32:12.360 |
And I remember when she was pregnant, and we thought that maybe she was going to have 00:32:19.980 |
And right around that time, I went up to a retreat. 00:32:23.760 |
And at the retreat, we had older people who were giving testimonies, and one lady who 00:32:29.040 |
was about 10 years ahead of me in age, and she started sharing about her testimony. 00:32:34.360 |
And in her testimony, she said that she had five miscarriages, and she still didn't have 00:32:44.760 |
But what really got me was, as she was sharing that, she was starting to break down, and 00:32:48.280 |
she said by the time she had her fifth miscarriage, she said, by her own words, "I no longer feel 00:32:55.600 |
I remember when I listened to that, my heart ached for her, but at the same time, I was 00:33:02.400 |
thinking, "Is this what Esther's going through?" 00:33:07.040 |
I remember I came back from that, and I didn't really share this with Esther, but I started 00:33:14.040 |
Every morning at 5 o'clock, I would go there, and that's all I prayed for during her pregnancy. 00:33:19.280 |
I prayed, I prayed, "Lord, please answer this prayer. 00:33:26.400 |
And then, sure enough, she had her miscarriage. 00:33:30.120 |
If there's any one period in my prayer life where I was severely disappointed, it was 00:33:37.880 |
I mean, there's a lot of things I prayed for a long time, but I can only think of a handful 00:33:44.360 |
of things where I literally cried out to God and pled before God, and for several months 00:33:56.480 |
And then when she had the miscarriage, I remember thinking, "Where are you?" 00:34:08.880 |
We're willing to suffer for your kingdom, and you won't answer this prayer?" 00:34:12.720 |
And I never shared this with anybody, but I remember the disappointment that I felt 00:34:19.120 |
Third child comes along, pregnancy, and we already are thinking she's not going to have 00:34:25.680 |
She goes to the hospital, and the doctor says, "You had another miscarriage." 00:34:34.640 |
She's not going to be able to have children the normal way. 00:34:38.520 |
We didn't have enough money to think about adoption. 00:34:43.360 |
We were just thinking, "Well, let's see what happens." 00:34:46.520 |
So, after that initial appointment, she came back and just lived a normal life. 00:34:54.200 |
And at that time, I was a youth pastor, so I remember taking the kids to Magic Mountain, 00:34:58.960 |
and she rode the roller coaster and did all of that. 00:35:04.320 |
Drank coffee, whatever you're not supposed to do, she did everything. 00:35:08.480 |
And at the end of fifth month, she just went in for a checkup, just to see, just to make 00:35:14.220 |
sure that everything has been moved from the body. 00:35:17.440 |
And she came back, and the way she came through the door, I knew something was wrong. 00:35:30.800 |
And she came back with an ultrasound, and she's like, "Oops." 00:35:38.400 |
I mean, maybe the doctor was just automatically assuming she's not going to be able to have 00:35:41.080 |
a baby, so she maybe didn't examine carefully. 00:35:43.520 |
But whatever happened was, we've already accepted that, and we knew the emotions behind all 00:35:49.600 |
And I can tell you, each one of our kids, we had some drama behind. 00:35:54.000 |
And God allow us, at least emotionally, feel what it's like to possibly have a kid with 00:36:01.220 |
We had another kid that we thought was premature, and was in the incubator for a couple months. 00:36:13.400 |
Each one of us, I'm not going to go into all of that, but God allowed us to feel the emotions 00:36:18.480 |
behind the heartache that many parents go through in different situations. 00:36:23.040 |
But I can tell you that not being able to have a child, I understand. 00:36:31.740 |
And I know there's a lot of people in our generation that, because of this desire, there's 00:36:37.600 |
a temptation to compromise our Christian ethics, to do things against the will of God. 00:36:45.960 |
I'm not going to get into that this morning, but I want to encourage you. 00:36:55.080 |
What's happening in your life isn't by mistake. 00:37:04.120 |
Whether you end up having a child or not having a child, trust God. 00:37:12.800 |
You know what's interesting about this story? 00:37:16.520 |
There's major markers in how God's covenant is being fulfilled. 00:37:22.560 |
And each one of those markers, it comes through a barren woman. 00:37:49.960 |
That doesn't mean that if you have a hard time having a child, that if you trust God 00:37:59.080 |
But what it does mean is that our God is completely sovereign. 00:38:05.440 |
That even in the most randomest and difficult and the darkest situation, God has not lost 00:38:13.880 |
The reason why Elizabeth and this story is here, which seems random on the surface, is 00:38:23.520 |
In Isaiah 54, 1 through 8, it says, "Shout for joy, O barren one. 00:38:29.040 |
Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud. 00:38:31.960 |
You who have not prevailed, for the sons of the desolate one will be more numerous than 00:38:36.240 |
the sons of the married woman," says the Lord. 00:38:42.960 |
Lengthen your cords and strengthen your pegs, for you will spread abroad to the right and 00:38:46.960 |
to the left, and your descendants will possess nations and will resettle the desolate cities. 00:38:54.240 |
Do not feel humiliated, for you will not be disgraced, but you will forget the shame of 00:38:58.280 |
your youth and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more, for your husband 00:39:03.640 |
is your maker, whose name is the Lord of hosts, and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, 00:39:11.120 |
For the Lord has called you like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, even like a wife of 00:39:15.520 |
one's youth when she is rejected," says your God. 00:39:18.240 |
"For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will gather you. 00:39:22.600 |
In an outburst of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting loving 00:39:27.380 |
kindness I will have compassion on you," says the Lord, your Redeemer. 00:39:32.800 |
What seems random on the surface is not random at all. 00:39:37.520 |
When God says that He remembers every strand of hair on our head, He means it. 00:39:43.280 |
You know, we're in a wedding season right now. 00:39:50.400 |
And so I was at one yesterday and I remember just sitting around with Waller, Bree, and 00:39:54.920 |
some of them that I've known for almost 20 years. 00:39:58.440 |
And we're thinking about how weddings used to be a long time ago, right? 00:40:05.480 |
I forgot how long it was, but a while back, right? 00:40:13.080 |
They were the first couple at our church, right? 00:40:15.840 |
Back then, most people did not have wedding coordinators because I was their wedding coordinator. 00:40:24.000 |
So whenever they got married, you know, I'd gather up the people and say, "We need to 00:40:30.440 |
We're going to show up at two o'clock and we're going to set up the tables and, you 00:40:34.040 |
And then after the wedding was over, we would stay longer and clean up and we would say 00:40:37.920 |
bye to them as they go and then we would stay behind and clean up for them. 00:40:42.260 |
It was like that in the beginning because our church was smaller. 00:40:44.940 |
And so every wedding was a huge celebration, right? 00:40:51.320 |
Stuck around and it's like, "Oh, they're getting married." 00:40:53.160 |
And so every event, they didn't even have to send out invitations because our church 00:41:01.800 |
Like a lot of college students who had no idea who they were, they would just show up 00:41:06.260 |
But that was all calculated into the meals and into the celebration. 00:41:10.020 |
So we're just reminiscing about that and how it used to be and, you know, how every celebration 00:41:14.520 |
when people had hardship, we were all there together, cried together, laughed together. 00:41:18.760 |
But one of the difficulties now that the church is bigger, it's hard, right? 00:41:23.360 |
You know, it's hard to even get to know everybody. 00:41:27.080 |
And so that's one of the things that happens when the church is big. 00:41:31.000 |
And I know there's some of you who were there like 20 years ago thinking, "Oh, you know, 00:41:35.400 |
only if it was like that, only when it was a long time ago." 00:41:38.660 |
But obviously we're growing because God is blessing us. 00:41:41.000 |
There's people coming to hear the word and so greater things are happening. 00:41:46.320 |
But sometimes when you think about it, it is a bit sad because I know people who are 00:41:50.440 |
going through hardship and can't be there for all of it. 00:41:54.280 |
A lot of you have gone through a lot of hardship in the last two years. 00:41:58.560 |
There's things that you're celebrating and we can't make it there. 00:42:02.120 |
Just yesterday we had two weddings on the same day. 00:42:06.840 |
As we wrestle and struggle with that, as much as I would like to be there, I am not your 00:42:28.680 |
Whether you are 50, 500, 1,000, or 10,000, or a billion, our God is sovereign and He 00:42:40.080 |
Even for a barren woman in her old age, even for this old couple who may have lost all 00:42:48.040 |
hope, that as He comes to save the world, He comes to this couple who would have no 00:43:03.840 |
That's the sympathetic high priest that we love, that we worship. 00:43:10.120 |
And so as we continue to study the book of Luke, as I mentioned, as His humanity is presented 00:43:15.840 |
to us, as His compassion we're able to see up close, that you would remember, He says, 00:43:23.080 |
we have a high priest who sympathizes with our weaknesses. 00:43:31.200 |
Enter the throne with confidence to seek help in time of need. 00:43:40.800 |
That God would not just be some figurehead, some power up above who created the universe 00:43:44.560 |
and just kind of disappeared from the background that we worship from a distance, but that 00:43:49.200 |
we would see His love for us, that we would desire more than anything else to be near 00:44:06.040 |
Lord, as we remember that you remembered Zacharias and Elizabeth, countless number of people 00:44:17.360 |
who came before them, countless number of hurting and aching souls that came after them, 00:44:28.640 |
all reminding us that you care for us, that you love us, that we are not insignificant 00:44:40.160 |
We pray, Father God, that you would soften our hearts, help us to see our sympathetic 00:44:47.040 |
high priest, that we would love him as he loves us, that we would worship him as he