Luke 1:5-25 Sermon for Dec. 14, 2025

“In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest of Abijah’s division named Zechariah. His wife was from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. Both were righteous in God’s sight, living without blame according to all the commands and requirements of the Lord. But they had no children because Elizabeth could not conceive, and both of them were well along in years. So, you had a bunch of King Herods in the span of, say, a hundred years. Herod the Great led from 37 BC to about 4 AD. He died around the birth of Jesus. You then have Herod Archelaus, who led from 4 AD to about 6 AD. Then you have Herod Antipas, who led from 4 AD until about 39 AD. This Herod is the one who will eventually behead John the Baptist. Why do we have two Herods at once? Well, because after the death of Herod the Great, his kingdom was divided among his sons. The Herod we’re reading about here is Herod the Great. He was notorious for cruelty, including the slaughter of the innocents. If you’re ever curious about Herod the Great and want to do a deep dive, I recommend HEROD THE GREAT by Norman Gelb. Ok, let’s move on. Don’t want to lose you here. You have Zechariah and Elizabeth. It says here that “both were righteous in God’s sight, living without blame.” What this means is that they both were exceptionally godly, devoted, and obedient people, known for their integrity and faithfulness to God’s law, not that they were sinless or perfect. I read that and immediately become convicted. Why? Because that’s the man I want to be. That’s the kind of role model I want my kids to have. That’s the type of lifestyle we all should aspire to chase after. In a world where a lot of churches have been circuses and have lacked a fear of God, Zechariah and Elizabeth are a model for us here. Now, does this mean they were perfect? No, absolutely not. For the Bible tells us in Romans 3 that no one is righteous. That no one is good. Isaiah even says, “All of us have become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment; all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind” (64:6). So, no, no one is perfect. What this means is that they were righteous relative to those around them. Everyone around them were acting a fool. Everyone around them were living godless lives. Sort of like Noah, where it says in Genesis 6:9 that he was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and walked faithfully with God. My question for you is this: are you righteous relative to the people around you? Do you stand out? Can people tell that you are a Christ-follower? And I think that a major problem today is that there are a lot of cross wearers but not a lot of cross bearers. I see people all the time put “God is #1” in their social media handle and profile but they out here living a life with a rotten attitude and doing whatever they want to do. Listen, if God is #1 in your life, you’ll become obedient to Him. In the Bible, it tells us this: “If you love me, you will keep my commands” (John 14:15). You see, the evidence of a believer is their fruit; not their religious behavior in church or whatever cute Bible quote they put in their social media profile. It’s their fruit. It’s their obedience to Jesus. Christ-followers take it seriously when Jesus commands us to have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. That’s the fruit of the Holy Spirit. We’re not here to judge. Yet, when someone says they love Jesus and your fruit ain’t showing, something isn’t right here. If you love Jesus, you’re gonna carry the cross. You’re gonna obey His commands. You’re gonna kill sin before sin kills you. So, again, are you pursuing righteousness? We need more righteous people. The church is full of the opposite right now. There is no fear of God in many churches today and we need to repent and reverse that reality. You are a sanctified people. It doesn’t mean you are perfect and ought to hop on a high horse. No. You are a forgiven people and what Jesus has done in your life ought to compel you to live righteously; to pursue the holiness of God. Now, it tells us here that they were unable to have children. I can’t tell you why. But what I can point out here is a striking thing and it’s this: while they grieved their entire lives at the fact that they couldn’t have children, they still were considered obedient to God. So, can you be obedient to Jesus both in the valley and the mountain top? When his division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, it happened that he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense. At the hour of incense the whole assembly of the people was praying outside. An angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense. Let’s talk a minute about his role here. Back then, there were priests who would serve in rotations. There were about 20,000 priests available at the time. So, to be chosen to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense was truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The text tells us that they cast lots to determine who would be chosen. It’s a lottery system, but let me say a word about something here. God chose Zechariah. God ordained this to happen. Some of you need to understand the Providence of God in your life; not the coincidence in your life. No, God is at work in your life. And before we equate this lot casting with some of the demonic stuff happening today, let me say this: Lots were a way of submitting decisions to God’s sovereignty, trusting Him to guide the outcome. And something that is pervasive in our society right now is this perverted search to make sense of life outside of God, predict the future, and manipulate fate through horoscope, tarot cards, sage burning, astrology, palm readings and all other forms of demonic witchcraft and I am urging you, if you’re dabbling in it, to stop right now. You need to throw away Palm readings and starting doing Psalm readings. We say things like, “The universe this or the universe that.” We say things like, “Karma.” We say things like, “positive energy.” Listen, stop all of that and opening doors for the enemy to creep into your life. Open Scripture and rest in the fact that God has full control over your life. We don’t need to understand the full complexity of it. We just need to submit to it. When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified and overcome with fear. But the angel said to him, ‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John. There will be joy and delight for you, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord and will never drink wine or beer. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother’s womb. I absolutely love this! It says, “He will be filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother’s womb.” Ok, let’s understand something here. That is a child inside that womb. That is life inside that womb. That is a precious, DNA unique, human being in that womb. Psalm 139:13-14 says, “For it was you who created my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will praise you because I have been remarkably and wondrously made.” Every human being formed in any mother’s womb is designed by God. There are no accidents. Every life is worth protecting. Every life is precious no matter how they come out. Our text tells us that many will rejoice at his birth. Listen, children are not a burden. They can be a little wild at times, but they are not an inconvenience. My prayer is that, one day in America, we will rejoice at the birth of every child created by God. We will rejoice at the announcement of every pregnancy because and defend the voiceless. Proverbs 31:8-9 says, “Speak up for those who have no voice, for the justice of all who are dispossessed. Speak up, judge righteously, and defend the cause of the oppressed and needy.” And here, Zechariah has this prophecy from Gabriel that his wife, in old age, will indeed, have a child! At first, he’s fearful, but then the angel tells him to settle down. “Listen, your prayers have been heard.” Ya’ll ever pray for something for so long, you sort of maybe thought that the Lord forgot and then your prayers are answered and you freak out for a moment. Can this be, Lord? I’m not saying that the Lord will answer every prayer we have in the way we want, but I can tell you that the Lord hears you. For years, the Lord heard the prayers of Zechariah and Elizabeth and I think it’s remarkable that they still lived righteous lives while grieving the fact that they couldn’t conceive a child for many years. When life is not going the way you anticipated, are you still able to throw up those hands and and worship Him and live righteously? He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to make ready for the Lord a prepared people.’ This child is going to grow up leading many to God! He’s going to preach repentance. He’s going to prepare people for the coming of someone greater than he! And honestly, we need to be preaching this way more often than we are today! There’s too much “feel goodism.” There’s too much cake, glitter, rainbows, and unicorn preaching. There’s too much entertainment preaching and preaching that has no fear of God in it. A question was asked to a preacher by the name of Paul Washer. What is the greatest threat to the American church today? After a minute of silence and thinking, he said, “Preachers.” I fear that we are not leading people to the Lord. We need to be. We’ve lost a sense of urgency for the gospel and we’re playing around too much. My goal in preaching isn’t to just f ill a room with bodies; it’s to fill a room with souls sold out for Jesus and ready to put on the armor of God and enter into battle. It’s to see souls redeemed and ready to grow in their walk with Jesus and recognize that it ain’t gonna be easy a lot of the time. It’s to preach with a calling for you and I to understand our mission. Yes, Jesus is our friend. But He is also our Creator, our Judge, our Redeemer! Let’s be careful in trading reverence for God for casualness with God. ‘How can I know this?’ Zechariah asked the angel. ‘For I am an old man, and my wife is well along in years.’ The angel answered him, ‘I am Garbiel, who stands in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and tell you this good news. Now listen. You will become silent and unable to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time.’ Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah, amazed that he stayed so long in the sanctuary. When he did come out, he could not speak to them. They then realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He was making signs to them and remained speechless. When the days of his ministry were completed, he went back home. After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived and kept herself in seclusion for five months. She said, ‘The Lord has done this for me. He has looked with favor in these days to take aways my disgrace among the people.’” We read in our passage that Zechariah was struck mute for asking, “How can I know this?” You might ready this and wonder a bunch of things like why did he get dealt with harshly when others didn’t appear to when having done the same thing. Like when Mary said, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” Well, one is skepticism by a priest who really should have known better. The other is a sincere curiosity by a teen virgin who is about to carry the Messiah of the world. You have to remember that God didn’t destroy Zechariah, He simply silenced him. Zechariah’s response was rooted in unbelief while Mary’s response was rooted in faith seeking understanding. As I invite Hannah back up here, I’ll end with another observation of our text and it’s when Elizabeth said, “The Lord has done this for me. He has looked with favor in these days to take away my disgrace among the people.” In these times, the disgrace meant infertility but that is because there were social expectations, economic and security concerns, and religious stigma around women who couldn’t bare children. It’s really important to know that it isn’t theologically correct to correlate infertility with disgrace. No, for Elizabeth, it meant that she could walk around without side eyes on her, etc. Infertility does not equate at all to God’s disfavor on you. Please hear that. But, what I find pretty interesting in this last verse of our passage this morning is that word FAVOR. Favor, theologically and biblically, is for the Lord to show kindness and grace to you. At it’s root word, it’s grace. And some of you in this room and online and elsewhere need the Lord’s favor to shine upon you and I’m going to pray that for you. Some of you are praying for the Lord to show kindness to you in a season that is really, really difficult. And so I pray that you’ll experience the loving kindness of the Lord and that the loving kindness of the Lord will heal you, touch you, and lift you out of the pit of despair so that you can shine radiantly for His glory.