LIFE LESSONS
ZECHARIAH
DR. JIM DIXON
LUKE 1:5-22
MARCH 13, 2005
All of us are created of God and we bear, in some measure, His image and His likeness, but perhaps we are not all children of God because the Bible tells us that, in order to become a child of God, we must be born again. “Anagennao,” we must be “born from above.” The Bible is very clear. We’re born again, we’re born from above when we embrace truly Jesus Christ as our Lord and as our Savior. When we do that, we enter the family of Christ and Jesus becomes our older brother. What He has by nature, we receive through adoption so that His Father becomes our Father and we become Sons and Daughters of God, The Church, the spiritual family of Jesus.
Many people are aware of course of the spiritual family of Jesus, The Church, but they’re perhaps not mindful of the fact that Jesus on earth had a physical family who were related to Him by blood. Jesus had brothers, perhaps sisters. Jesus had a mom and dad, cousins—first and second cousins—aunts and uncles. Beginning this morning, we’re going to look at some of the major members of the blood family of Jesus. In the weeks ahead, we’re going to look at His brothers, James and Jude. We’re going to look at His parents, Mary and Joseph. We’re going to look at His kinspeople and that includes Zechariah and Elizabeth and John the Baptist.
Today we have Zechariah. Next week on Palm Sunday, we’ll look at the life of Elizabeth. Now, as we look at the life of Zechariah, we recognize the fact that he was, through his wife Elizabeth, related to Mary, the mother of Jesus, because Elizabeth was a kinswoman of Mary, the mother of Jesus, perhaps her cousin, perhaps her aunt. The word kinswoman has flexible meaning. But as we look at Zechariah today, we have two life lessons and the first life lesson is this. “Be faithful to God no matter what you’re going through. Do right even when things are wrong.”
Now, in the year 167 BC, there arose a man named Judah Maccabee. Judah Maccabee was Jewish and he was a member of a prominent Jewish family is Israel, the Hasmonean family. It was Judah Maccabee who rallied the people of Israel and led them in their rebellion against their oppressors. The Jewish people in 167 BC were oppressed by the Seleucid Empire, by Antiochus IV, sometimes called Epiphanes. The Seleucids had conquered the Jews. They had butchered Jewish men, women and children in the streets of Jerusalem. They had Hellenized the Jews, bringing Greek culture and much immorality into Israel. They had desecrated the Temple and corrupted the priesthood. So Judah Maccabee arose.
His life is described in the Apocalyptic language in the Book of Daniel and also in the Apocrypha in the Book of I Maccabees. Judah Maccabee. He arose and he was supported by the Hassidim and the Hassidim was the ruling religious, the most powerful religious party in Israel. With their support, Judah Maccabee was able to raise a vast army and he went to war with the Seleucids and he drove them out of Palestine, drove them out of Israel. Then they purified the Temple and they dedicated the temple. Of course, these events are celebrated today in the festival, the Jewish Festival of Hannukah.
In the aftermath of these events relating to Hanukkah, the Hassidim split into two parties. Historians don’t know why but they know in the aftermath of Hanukkah, the Hassidim split into two parties and one of those parties was called the “Phariseoi” and that word is transliterated and anglicized today by the word Pharisee. So the Pharisees or the Phariseoi came from the Hassidim after the period of Hanukkah. The Phariseoi sought to separate themselves. That’s what the word Phariseoi means. It means, “separate ones.” They sought to separate themselves from the Hasmonaeans and the Maccabeans and from the Hassidim. They sought to separate themselves from the ways of the world. They sought to separate themselves from sin. They sought holiness. They sought righteousness. Of course, in the time of Christ, the Pharisees ruled the religious world of the Jews and there were 6,000 full-fledged Pharisees and countless supporters.
Yet Jesus rejected them. Jesus condemned them. He called them “whitewashed sepulchers,” “hypocrites.” He said that, “They were a brood of vipers.” He said to them, “You searched the whole world over to make one convert and when you find that one convert, you tum him into twice the child of hell that you are.” Not nice words. And yet these people were seeking righteousness and seeking holiness and Jesus is the Holy One. He is the Righteous One. Why did He condemn them? The answer is this. He condemned them because they did not understand holiness. They did not understand righteousness. They thought that holiness was all about an external code of behavior and they conformed to this external code of behavior and then they deemed themselves self-righteousness and sat in judgement of other people.
Jesus told them that real holiness begins in the heart. When you read the Sermon on the Mount, you see that sin begins in the heart. The Pharisees were indeed hypocrites because “in the heart there is none righteous, no not one.” Jesus told them that righteousness is summed up in love. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind. Love your neighbor as yourself.” And everything we do in conformity to the will of God should be prompted by love if it’s really righteousness and holiness. If it’s really righteousness and holiness, then we also reach out for the cause of social justice, not just personal morality. Personal morality and social justice are all part of righteousness. To be righteous is to be right with God, to do what is right in His sight.
The Pharisees did not but there were two individuals who were righteous before God. The Bible tells us they were Zechariah and Elizabeth. An incredible statement in Luke, chapter 1, that Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous before God, “walking in the statutes and ordinances of the Lord—blameless, “amemptos,” “without blame, “dikaios,” “righteous.” This did not mean that they were without sin. It simply means that they were in right relationship with God and God was pleased with them.
It’s kind of incredible because life wasn’t easy for them. It was not easy for Zechariah. He lived in a difficult time. It was not easy to serve God and follow God and obey God and love God. He lived in a very scary political climate. Externally the Jews of course were oppressed at that time by the Romans, and internally the politics of the Jews were controlled by the Sadducees. They were liberals who had sold out to Rome and were morally compromised. The religious world at the time was controlled by the Pharisees and they were kind of fundamentalists who had no love. Of course, socially the people had turned their backs on God. They were striving after the things of the world and everybody was compromised by hedonism and materialism, sins of pride. It wasn’t an easy time to follow God and to walk in His ways and to love Him.
It wasn’t easy personally for Zechariah either because he and his wife longed to have children. For many years they had prayed for this but they had kind of given up because Elizabeth was barren and they were both advanced in years now. Perhaps he had ceased to pray for children. It was a tough, tough time and yet they were faithful.
How about you? Are you faithful? Do you feel like you’re in right relationship with God? Do you love Him? Do you love people? Do you long to please Him? Do you seek to serve Him no matter what? We live in a culture that is fallen, little different today than it was in the days of Zechariah. People have sold out to the excesses of materialism and hedonism and all the sins of pride. People have turned their backs on God today. Judeo-Christian values are eroding in our schools and in our culture at large, in our communities. It’s not easy today to follow Christ, to walk with God and to please God. It takes courage. It takes faith.
I don’t know what you’re going through personally. You might be going through some really hard stuff. Maybe you’d like to have kids, you and your spouse. You long to have children. You just can’t make it happen. It’s not happening for you. Or maybe you have kids and you feel like they’re not turning out so well. Or maybe you are a kid and you feel like your parents aren’t turning out so well. Maybe you’re going through some tough times financially. Maybe you’ve lost your job. Maybe you can’t pay your bills. Maybe you’ve just been told you have cancer. Maybe you’re going through some real health problems. Maybe you’ve lost a loved one. Maybe you feel like your friends have rejected you.
I don’t know what you’re going through but I know God has called you to faithfulness—no matter what you’re going through—faithfulness to seek to please Him, to love Him, to serve Him no matter what. Of course, we all need encouragement in this. I need you. You need me. We all need each other. It’s been this way in the church of Jesus Christ from the 1st century. Faithfulness requires encouragement in the body of Christ and God has given us to each other that we might strengthen each other in the midst of the world of darkness, that we might be faithful in the light.
Many of you know that in the year 306 AD, Constantine ascended the throne of Rome. He became the Roman Emperor. You know it was Constantine who moved the Roman capital from the city of Rome in the west to the east to the city of Byzantium. In true humility, he named the city after himself. He changed it from Byzantium to Constantinople. Of course, today it’s called Istanbul.
We know that in the year 313, something happened in the life of Constantine. He had some kind of a vision, some kind of a mystical experience where perhaps he became a Christian. Certainly he began to be open to the Christian faith and he gave religious freedom to the Roman Empire and Christians suddenly were free. They had been persecuted and oppressed during three centuries and now they were free. Ultimately Constantine was baptized in the Christian faith. It was around that time that Christians began to build church buildings. Prior to Constantine, Christians never built church buildings. They were not against church buildings. They wanted to build them from the beginning but they were not allowed to because Christianity was illegal. Christians had to meet secretly in homes. They had to sometimes meet in dens and caves of the earth and in the Catacombs. They were not allowed to build. They were not allowed to be open and public.
The Jews had always built buildings and they built the Temple with all of its glory, and they built synagogues throughout the Holy Land and indeed synagogues throughout the Roman world, but the Christians were not allowed to build. Suddenly they were and they began to build churches. They began to gather en masse like we are today. They began to gather en masse but something happened. As they built these buildings and cathedrals, they began to lose a little intimacy because they used to meet in little small groups in house clusters. So suddenly that support, that encouragement, that intimacy began to be lost. It was about that time that Christian churches began to form small groups. Some of them met in homes like the house churches had. Some of them met within the church buildings but they split into small groups.
Of course, we have small groups here at the church in all their diverse forms. We have over 400 small groups and I hope you’re in one. I hope you’re in one where you can find strength and encouragement to walk in the light in a world of darkness. I hope you’re in a small group where people can love you and you can love them, people can pray for you and you can pray for them, and you can laugh together and eat together and pray together, learn together, grow together and support each other because we need each other. I hope you know that we’re committed to supporting you. We have a counseling staff ready to serve you. We have support groups. We have groups that are recovery groups, grief recovery, groups to help us in our addictions, whatever our problems, that we might learn faithfulness even in a world where it’s tough. So we have this first life lesson from Zechariah. Be faithful. Walk in the statutes and ordinances of the Lord even though the world is kind of crazy and maybe things aren’t going so well in your life.
There’s a second life lesson this morning. The second life lesson is this. Believe the promises of God. Do you believe the promises of God? Zechariah was a priest and this was at a time where there were many priests. Depending on the ancient historian you consult, there were 6,000 to 18,000 priests in Jerusalem in the days of Zechariah. There was only one temple and too many priests, so they divided the priesthood into divisions—24 divisions. Zechariah was in the division of Abijah which was the 8th division. Each division served the temple one week at a time twice a year, so for two weeks every year each division was responsible in the temple. Then once in a priest’s lifetime, a priest was called to go during the morning or evening sacrifice into the Holy Place next to the curtain which led into the Holy of Holies where the altar of incense stood. Once in his lifetime a priest was called to go and light the altar. Only once according to the Mishnah, only one time. It was a great privilege. Priests looked forward to it their whole life that they would be drawn by lot, that it might be their turn to go into the Holy Place and light the altar at the time of prayer.
Finally, it fell by lot to Zechariah. It was his time, his one time. Zechariah, probably during the evening sacrifice, because there was a large multitude of people praying at the hour of incense. It was probably during the evening sacrifice. Zechariah went into the Holy Place. This was the closest he would ever get to the Holy of Holies, and there at the altar of incense, he was to light it. It was at that time and on that occasion that an angel appeared to him, Gabriel, which means, “God the Mighty.” Of course, Gabriel had a promise for Zechariah. Gabriel said, “Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son. You will call his name John, “Johannan,” which means, “gift of God” or “grace of God,” and he will bring joy to many. He will call the people to righteousness and he will herald the coming of the Messiah. What a promise! But Zechariah did not believe. He did not believe. He just could not. He said, “How can I know this? How can I believe this? I’m an old man. My wife is advanced in years. How can this be?” The angel was kind of ticked. Judgement fell on Zechariah and speech was taken from him for he did not believe the promise of God.
How about you? Do you believe the promises of God? With regard to the Christian faith, if you don’t believe the promises of God, God would just assume that you kept quiet. Do you believe the promises of God? Wow! I mean, as Christians, we’ve entered a world of promises and those promises are all sealed in Christ.
In the Egyptian world when they sealed a promise or a covenant, they did it with the word Aman because the Egyptian name for God was Amun-rah, Amun, so when they sealed a promise, when they sealed a covenant, they would say, “Aman.” Some etymologists, some historians believe that around the year 1500 BC, during the time of Joshua when the Jews were in Goshen in the land of Egypt, they adopted this practice. We really don’t know. There are some etymologists who believe that the Hebrews took the word “amen” from the Egyptian “amun.” We don’t know that but we do know this. We know that the Hebrews would feel a promise, they would feel a covenant with the word “amen.” That’s how they sealed a promise. That was the guarantee. Amen means, “true.”
You have this amazing statement in Revelation, chapter 3, where Jesus is speaking to the church at Laodicea and Jesus identifies Himself as, “THE Amen.” “I am the Amen,” He said. Of course, the amazing statement in 2 Corinthians, chapter 1, where it says, “All the promises of God find their “yes” in Jesus Christ. This is why we utter the amen through Him to the glory of God the Father.” Jesus seals the promises of God.
If you’ve become a Christian, if you’ve made that commitment to live for Him and serve Him as Lord and Savior, then you’ve entered a world of promises that are sealed and you’d better believe them. You’re never going to live like He wants you to live if you don’t believe them.
In 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Do you believe that? I mean if you believe that promise, you’re going to live a life with a lot of joy and very little guilt if you really believe the power of Christ to forgive by the blood of the cross. If you believe the promise that Jesus has power to forgive anything if you come to him in repentance, what an amazing promise. John 3:16, “God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have “zoe aionios,” eternal life.” Do you believe that? Do you really believe you have everlasting life? If you believe that, it’s going to affect your attitude in life. It’s going to affect the way you live, it’s going to affect the way you die, if you really believe the promise of God. Romans 8:28, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose.”
Do you believe that? Do you believe that God is working through all the events of your life to bring good? Do you believe it? Because if you believe it, no matter what you’re going through, you’re going to count it all joy. There’s going to be at least some corner of your heart that counts it all joy because you believe the promises of God.
Of course, God has promises for the church too. Matthew 16:18, “I will build My church and the powers of death, the powers of hell, will not prevail against it.” We’re gathered here under that promise, that Christ builds His church. The powers of hell will not prevail against it. Matthew 18, “Where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of them.” We gathered here this morning. He’s here. That promise is sealed. He is here. Do you believe it? Do you believe that? It affects your whole attitude in this worship experience, the promises of God.
Now, sometimes I think, even with the promises of God, we need encouragement, don’t we? People remind us of the promises of God and encourage us to believe them when times are tough, don’t we? Perhaps some of you have heard of the Bore War, sometimes called the Bar War, sometimes called the South African War. It took place between 1899 and 1902. It was a war between the British and the Bars people. It was a battle over diamond fields and gold fields. The British won that war but there was one British soldier for whom things didn’t go so well. This soldier got back to London and he was tried for war crimes and convicted. What was his crime? Amazingly, historians tell us he was guilty. He was charged with the crime of discouragement and found guilty. He had gone amongst his own troops in the midst of the Bar War and just constantly talked about how bad everything was, how vast the enemy is, how relatively small our forces are, we’re going to lose, everything is going to go wrong, and people remembered. As far as I know it’s the only time in history that a man was convicted of a war crime of discouragement.
None of us need discouragers in our lives. In the New Testament, 62 times as Christians, we’re told to encourage each other. With regard to the promises of God, I need your encouragement. You need my encouragement. We need the encouragement of each other. There are a lot of things in this world that pull us down. God has given us to each other to hold each other up.
During the Colonial period in America, churches had, in every sanctuary, a comer called “Amen Comer.” You may have studied church history and know that about Colonial America. In virtually every church, in the sanctuary, there was a section called “Amen Corner.” You could not just go there and sit there because you were willing to shout “Amen!” The people who sat is Amen Corner were trained. They actually went to rehearsal like people in a choir. They went to rehearsal every week and they learned to say “Amen” in unison and at the proper time. The pastor came to that rehearsal in the middle of the week and kind of gave them a foretaste of the message so that they would know when he would proclaim a promise. When he proclaimed a promise of God, they would all shout in unison, “Amen!” It seems kind of hokey, kind of crazy, but they did it because they were trying to encourage people in the promises of God.
The only issue today is, “Is there an Amen in your heart?” In your heart, do you say “Amen” to the promises of God. You’ve got a choice how you live life. Even as a Christian, you have a choice. You can live with joy and you can be above the fray. You can live triumphantly believing the promises of God and walking faithful even in the troubled times. You can live in despair and doubt. The choice is yours. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.