Zacharias' Prayers Are Answered
Tom Shrader walks through Luke 1:5-33, tracing the angel Gabriel's announcement to Zechariah that his barren wife Elizabeth would bear a son, John the Baptist, who would prepare the way for the Lord. He draws out pastoral applications from Elizabeth's suffering, Zechariah's doubt, and the principle that godly people are not exempt from hardship, encouraging believers to trust God's timing and faithfulness. The passage closes with the introduction of Mary and Joseph, setting up the announcement of Jesus' birth as the fulfillment of centuries of prophecy.
“The grace of God exempts no one from trouble — just because we're a Christian it doesn't mean we won't have problems.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: A Study Of The Life Of Jesus Christ (2003/2004)
Recorded: 2003 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 44 min
Themes: answered prayer, waiting on god, doubt, suffering, trust, god's timing, faithfulness, hope, struggling with unanswered prayer, dealing with infertility, feeling forgotten by god, new believer, parent, going through hardship, questioning god, married couple
Scripture: Luke 1:1-4, Luke 1:5-33, Matthew 2:16, Matthew 1:18-19, Numbers 6, Malachi 4:5, Isaiah 40:3-5, James 1:2, 1 Peter 4:12, John 16:33, 2 Timothy 3:12
Theological Themes: incarnation, messianic prophecy, forerunner, sovereignty of god, advent, biblical narrative, repentance, salvation
Full Transcript
Introduction to Luke's Gospel
As you open your Bibles to the Book of Luke, let me announce two more things. It is a pleasure to tell you that East Valley Bible Church in Tempe has called a teaching elder, Scott Maxwell. Scott was at Camelback Bible Church for almost seven or eight years, and he has accepted that position, so be praying for him, his wife Kim, and their children.
I also want to thank you — we have had four services already today, and this is our second week enjoying that New Year's resolution. Do you remember that from last week? We resolved that we are not closing Bibles and zipping them shut early. What happened is that when MacArthur was here teaching, I went to all six services and found myself in all six of them closing the Bible as I sensed he was closing. For years I thought you were the problem, but all of a sudden I realized it is just the natural response — when you sense it is the end, you start to pack up. I had people last week saying, "Thank you for saying that, because it is a distraction to me when others do that." They say it takes six or seven weeks to turn a behavior into a habit, so we are about a third of the way there after today.
We are looking at the life of Jesus Christ. We are harmonizing the Gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John — the best we can in chronological order, and we are going to spend some time now in chapter one of the Gospel of Luke. We looked at the first four verses last week. Luke tells us that he has undertaken to compile an account of the things that have been accomplished, that he has interviewed eyewitnesses, and that he has carefully and completely investigated all things, writing it out for the most excellent Theophilus — most likely a Roman dignitary. Luke is saying: I have taken the time, I have made the effort. He was not personally an eyewitness to the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ, but he has talked to those who were, and he has deliberately written out this account.
Luke is a Gentile — the only Gentile author in the New Testament — writing to Gentiles, hoping that you and I would understand who Jesus really is: that He is God come in the flesh, the Savior of the world, and that if we believe that Jesus is who He said He was and come to Him in obedience, repentance, and faith, we will have eternal life.
Beginning the Narrative
After that formal introduction of those four verses, Luke now begins the story. It is a narrative, and for those of you who teach, you know that is a somewhat different teaching style. I have always found myself more comfortable teaching something like "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves," and unpacking a verse like that. But this is a story, and it is obviously a continuing story. Chapters one, two, and three take us into the annunciation of the birth of Jesus, the birth itself, and the surrounding events.
We are going to look today at verses 5 through 27. I went ahead and recorded this passage ahead of time because I think it is important, since it is a narrative, to read it through first and then come back and break it down. So just listen.
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*"In the time of Herod the king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah. His wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commandments and regulations blamelessly. But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well along in years.*
*Once when Zechariah's division was on duty and he was serving as a priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshippers were praying outside.*
*Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him, 'Do not be afraid, Zechariah. Your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God, and he will go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.'*
*Zechariah asked the angel, 'How can I be sure of this? I am an old man, and my wife was well along in years.' The angel answered, 'I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not be able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their proper time.'*
*Meanwhile the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained"*
Herod's World and the Characters We Meet
When his time of service was completed, he returned home. After this, his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. "The Lord has done this for me," she said. "In these days He has shown His favor and taken away my disgrace among the people."
In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you." Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end."
That is Luke chapter 1, verses 5 through 33. Just by reading through that passage, even casually, without filling in any of the gaps, you get a sense of the story. The primary emphasis is on the account of Zacharias and Elizabeth, the visitation from the angel and her pregnancy, and then Mary is introduced as yet another character. Let's see if we can fill in some of those gaps, bring this to life a little more, and along the way take two or three opportunities to apply what we see here to our own lives.
Verse 5 tells us this takes place in the days of Herod. This was Herod the Great, the first of the Herodian dynasty, who ruled from 37 B.C. to about 4 A.D. He was the man who rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem, but he was also a ruthless and evil man, and history provides all sorts of illustrations of that. We have one right here in Scripture. In Matthew chapter 2, the Magi are coming to visit the king of the Jews, intending to worship Him. Herod hears about this and asks them to find the child, come back, and tell him about it. They decided that was not a good plan. Matthew chapter 2, verse 16 says, "When Herod realized he'd been tricked by the Magi, he was enraged and he had all of the male children in the area of Bethlehem, two years of age and under, killed." He was simply a ruthless man.
Zacharias and Elizabeth: Righteous but Not Exempt
It is during that time that we meet two characters, Zacharias and Elizabeth. Verse 5 tells us that Zacharias is of the division of Abijah — that is, he is one of the priests. Priests would always marry an Israelite woman if they could, and if possible a woman from the priestly line as well. Zacharias did exactly that with Elizabeth, for she is one of the daughters of Aaron.
Verse 6 tells us they were righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly. In God's eyes they had found favor. They were believers who had put their faith and trust in the one true God and were following the faith that was attached to that. That detail is important in light of verse 7, which tells us they had no children, Elizabeth was barren, and they were both advanced in years.
One author speaks to what it meant to be childless in that culture, and writes this: "To be childless was economically and socially disastrous. Economically, because parents had no one to support them in old age. Socially, because in the law, barrenness was sometimes seen as a judgment for sin. Many people assumed the worst possible cause of a problem. Most people assumed that barrenness was a defect of the wife. Jewish teachers generally insisted that a man divorce a childless wife so that he could procreate." This was a huge issue in that culture — and I am convinced it was a huge issue for Elizabeth personally.
Later in the story there is a telltale sign of just how large this burden had been in her life. Look at verse 24 of chapter 1. After these days Elizabeth his wife became pregnant, kept herself in seclusion for five months, and said, "This is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when He looked with favor upon me." Notice what she points to as the demonstration of that favor: He "took away my disgrace among men." In that one statement, this woman gives you an insight into her soul — into the pain, the embarrassment, the suffering, the persecution, and all the difficulties that had been at play in her life for so many years.
The Grace of God Exempts No One from Trouble
I want to stop there and apply that to our own lives, because there is a principle here. One author writes simply this sentence: "The grace of God exempts no one from trouble." That is a great thing to remember. We know it intuitively; we know it intellectually. Just because we are Christians does not mean we will not have problems — we have even said so ourselves. Yet when trouble actually comes into our lives, we are sometimes surprised by it, because even though we believe it intellectually, deep down we may think we have been good enough to be exempt from the rule.
You may have been in that situation where something comes into your life — and I do not know what it is, you fill in the blank — and among your many responses to it, one of them is: "What have I done? Is God punishing me for something?" That had to be at least part of what was going through Elizabeth's mind. My guess is that at some moment she gave serious thought to the idea that perhaps she had sinned, that she had done something, and that her barrenness was the price she would pay for it.
Make sure you understand that that conclusion is not necessarily true at all. Oftentimes you will sit in your circumstances and say, "But I have done this, and I have done this, and I have done this" —
God Uses Difficulty to Deepen Our Faith
God may be either causing or allowing difficulty in your life simply because you have cleaned up your act. He wants to take you even to a further depth of relationship with Him. We know that God causes all things to work together for good. As James 1:2 says, "Count it all joy when you encounter various trials," because the testing of your faith produces endurance. It may be that God is growing you.
Don't be surprised — that is the message. First Peter 4:12 says, "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeals among you which come upon you for your testing. Do not treat them as though they were some strange thing happening to you." Whether you are a Christian or not, you are going to have difficulties in this life. You will have pain, suffering, sickness, and hardship. You may have economic problems, children who get sick, or face illness yourself.
As Christians, we have challenges beyond those, because we also face the persecution attached to our faith. Paul writes to Timothy that all who desire to live in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. On the night He was betrayed, Jesus uttered these words in John 16:33: "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage. I have overcome the world."
Zechariah and Elizabeth: Godly People
It is significant that Luke includes verse 6 to establish that these are godly people. The cultural wisdom of the day might suggest there was something wrong because they had no children, but Luke is saying no — not at all — they are godly people. This is a great lesson to you and me. They are now going to join the ranks of Abraham and Sarah and become great examples to us. Elizabeth will be like Rebecca, Rachel, Hannah, and the mother of Samson.
The Priestly Duty of Burning Incense
Verse 8 tells us that it came about while Zechariah was performing the priestly service before God in the appointed order of his division. According to the custom of the priestly office, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. There were approximately 8,000 priests in Palestine at this time. They were arranged in 24 divisions, a structure set out almost 1,000 years prior by David. These priests served for a week at a time but could not serve in consecutive weeks.
Part of their priestly duty was to go in and burn incense in the holy of holies. One scholar writes of this honor: "The honor of offering incense was the grandest of all in his earthly existence. Many priests never had the privilege, and no priest was allowed to offer it more than once." A specific division of 300 or more priests would be on duty, lots would be cast, and one would be chosen to go in and burn the incense. The burning of incense also had a very practical benefit — it drowned out the stench of all the burning sacrifice.
The lot falls upon Zechariah. In he goes. Verse 10 tells us that the whole multitude of the people were in prayer outside at the hour of the incense offering. In the morning and in the evening, at this formal time, the public would gather — the women in the court of the women, the men typically in the court of Israel — and they would be there praying for the sacrifice.
The Angel Appears and Fear Grips Zechariah
Verse 11 lays out something extraordinary. An angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense. Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear gripped him. Here is Zechariah at the pinnacle of his priestly duty, performing a function highly valued and esteemed by himself and his colleagues — something he will do only once in his life. In the midst of this, an angel appears to him. He is startled by the experience, and then fear comes upon him.
It is helpful to read what J.C. Ryle writes at this point. He writes: "How do we account for this fear? To that question there is only one answer. It arises from our inward sense of weakness, guilt, and corruption. The vision of an inhabitant of heaven reminds us forcibly of our own imperfection and of our natural unfitness to stand before God." When we work our way through Scripture, there is no more classic example of this than Isaiah. When Isaiah sees a holy God, he says, "Woe to me, for I am undone. A man of unclean lips among a people of unclean lips." He is saying: I had it all together, and now it has all come apart. What happened? Sinful man has seen a holy God, and when we see a holy God for who He really is, we are immediately placed where we properly belong. We come face to face with our weakness, our guilt, our corruption — even as followers of Christ, we see that.
That is why it is so alarming when you hear the cavalier attitude that appears so frequently among some Christians who claim to have seen God or talked to God — "How are you doing, God? Good, how are you?" — and then describe a back-and-forth conversation in which they questioned and even defied Him. We do not see that anywhere in Scripture. As Ryle says, when you see an inhabitant of heaven, the response is something altogether different.
Reverence, Boldness, and Approaching God
There is a fear that grips you. That fear should be a reverence and an awe, an understanding of who He is. We use that word in our culture a great deal — "awesome." We talk about something being awesome, but the one true thing, certainly supremely more awesome than anything we could ever experience, would be an encounter with the one true God. Having said that, while there is that reverential awe, there should not be fright in our life.
Ryle continues and writes this: "Believing in Him, we may draw near to God with boldness and look forward to the day of judgment without fear." That is a fascinating sentence. We as Christians look forward to the day of judgment. Why? Because we know that we do not stand condemned. Our fear of Him is reverence and awe, and yet there is great boldness in our approach to Him.
We do it so often that I am afraid we miss the significance of it. We begin this service by going before the Creator God of the universe and speaking with Him — and we do it boldly. Not because of who you are or something that you have done, but because of who God is, who Christ is. I go clothed and bathed in the righteousness of Christ, and now I have access to Him. I can go boldly — not with presumption, but with boldness.
"Do Not Be Afraid"
The angel comes in verse 13 and says to him, "Do not be afraid." Let me stop there. I had been a Christian just a short period of time, driving down the road, listening to a man teach on the radio. He said the most frequent prohibition in the New Testament is "Do not be afraid." I remember pulling over and saying, I better write this down — this is important, this is big. I did not know why, did not know where, did not know when, but I knew it was significant.
Over the years it has been a message I have returned to periodically here at church, and when I speak elsewhere — at conferences or other settings — I will do a session called "What Are You Afraid Of?" I subtitle it "What Is Your Neighbor Afraid Of?" because when I ask what you are afraid of, most of you say not really much. But then when I ask what you think the people around you are afraid of, it becomes a fascinating exercise.
I have done it at summer camp with junior high and high school students. I have done it with all women, all men, business people, friends, strangers, and professional athletes. When the senior tour was in town a few years ago, there were some men who were literally heroes of mine in the world of golf — men who had won major tournaments — and they were there with their wives. I asked them what they were afraid of. It does not matter which group I am with; every single time I get exactly the same list.
The Universal List of Fears
The list goes something like this: death, rejection, loneliness, failure, suffering, and what I call economic insufficiency. Most of us are not worried about ending up out on the street, but there is a quiet concern about whether we will have enough to live the way we would like to live. There are just a couple more — a set package of seven or eight fears that appear every time.
Then there is one I save for the end. It is mine — my special one — and in all these times, with one exception, no one has ever mentioned it. That exception happened at ASU. We were in a classroom, a theater-style auditorium. Sitting way in the back was a student I can only describe as your stereotypical extreme kind of student — dog collar, leather, tattoos, piercings, funky spiked hair.
I said there was one fear everyone had missed, that no one had ever gotten it, and at their age I would not expect them to get it. I asked if anyone had a guess. This young man raised his hand. I called on him. He said, "Insufficiency." I asked him to repeat it. He said, "Insignificance."
The Fear of Insignificance
That is one of the things I am genuinely concerned about — I am not sure "fear" is quite the right word, but it is something that weighs on me. I do not want to live my life, have a memorial service, and then have people go through the motions and move on. Other than those who share my DNA, my fear is that no one would ever know I was here. Every thoughtful man I have ever spoken with says exactly the same thing. I presume women have a similar feeling, though I can speak with certainty about men.
Whatever your fears are, here is the point the angel makes — here is the point Jesus makes. He says do not be afraid, even though that is your natural flinch. Do not be afraid.
Zechariah's Prayer Is Answered
Then the angel says to Zechariah, "Your petitions have been heard." The language indicates he is speaking of the answer to a prayer Zechariah was offering at that very moment. This is rich with insight. He is in the Holy of Holies performing his priestly duties, and in the midst of this, he is praying. What is he praying for? A child. And the angel says, you are going to have a son — you are going to name him John, which means "God is gracious." Then in verses 14, 15, 16, and 17...
Six Characteristics of John the Baptist
The angel speaks about John and says, "You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He will drink no wine or liquor. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit while in his mother's womb. He will turn back many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God. It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children and the disobedient to the attitude of righteousness so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
The angel speaks six characteristics of John's life, and you can go through them and make your own list. He will be a source of great joy — not just for Elizabeth and Zacharias, but for the nation, for the people. When Luke talks about joy, it is generally linked with the idea of salvation as well. John will be great in the sight of the Lord.
John will take a vow and be set apart — he will never drink wine or liquor. Numbers chapter 6 describes the Nazarite vow: those who took it were set apart, they cut their hair, and there were all sorts of distinctions associated with it. John will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb, meaning that at some point before his birth, God had already invaded his heart and set him aside for a specific duty. Many of the nation of Israel will come back to the Lord through him.
John will also be a forerunner. Malachi chapter 4, verse 5 says, "Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet coming before the great day of the Lord." Isaiah chapter 40, verse 3 declares, "Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness. Make smooth in the desert a highway for God. Let every valley be lifted up and every mountain and hill be made low. Let the rough ground be made plain and the rugged terrain a broad valley. Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh will see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken."
Those are the prophetic utterances from the Old Testament saying there is one coming who will be like Elijah, who will declare the truth, who will speak, who will make clear a path for the Messiah, the Savior, the Redeemer. That is the very role John the Baptist fills as the forerunner of Christ.
Zacharias Doubts the Angel's Word
Now look at Zacharias — this godly man. That is what we saw back in verse 6: he is a godly man walking blameless in the sight of the Lord. Look at his response in verse 18: "How can this possibly be? How can I know this for certain? I am an old man." He says a little more delicately, rather than stating it plainly, that she is also advanced in years. But his point is that he wants to know this for certain. He should have known better.
Consider at least four things. First, Zacharias knew the Scripture. He knew the Old Testament. He knew that God on occasion would communicate through an angel. He was a God-fearing man, and he knew that God answered prayers. His mind should have gone — as mine did when I considered this — exactly to Abraham and to Sarah. The promise comes to Abraham that he will have descendants as plentiful as the stars in the sky, and Abraham said there is no way. "I am 100 years old, she is 90 years old, she is barren — it is not going to happen." And God said, "I am the God of the impossible. Nothing is impossible with God."
I think Zacharias knew that story, and I think he knew about Elizabeth — and about Rebecca and Rachel and all of that. I think he knew that God was a God who does the impossible. But in the back of his mind, I think he thought, "But not for me." He will do great things for a lot of people, but not for me. Have you ever done that yourself? "God is a great God, and God answers prayer, and I see it all around me — look at what God is doing over here, and over here, and over here. But He will never do it for me. I am not even going to waste time praying for it. Or if I pray, I pray with a double mind."
Do you understand, if you are a follower of Christ, if you are a Christian — if you are going to join us in a minute for communion — that He has already done the impossible in your life? He took your heart that was spiritually dead and brought it to life. He is a God who does extraordinary things. That is the God we serve.
I fear that in my life, and maybe in yours too, we so often read these stories and say, "Isn't that incredible? What an extraordinary story. God was really something back then." But the same God who was God then is God now, and the same Spirit that was working in Paul's life, and Peter's life, and Abraham's life, and Sarah's life is the same Spirit that is working in your life.
The Consequence of Unbelief
Because of this questioning, there is a punishment. Look at verse 19. The angel answered and said, "I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God. I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words."
Gabriel says, "I am going to demonstrate this to you. It is going to take place. You will be silent." And notice — this fulfillment will take place when? In the proper time. We could do a whole message on that phrase alone. More than anything else, we want to know God's will and God's timing. That is the way we pray. The elders get together and pray about so many different things, and at the end, it is almost always the same heart — Lord, in Your timing, in Your way.
Aligning Our Will With God's Timetable
When we pray, we must constantly keep this before the Lord: this is what we want, and we want to be honest about it. But if He does not want us to have it, we do not want it either. We ask Him to change our hearts. And when it comes to timing, the goal is not to take God's timetable and move it over to ours, but to take our timetable and line it up with His. We want everything in His proper time, and we want simply to be servants.
The People Wait for Zechariah
Verse 21 tells us the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering what had happened to him. He had been inside a long time — burning incense normally would not take that long — and they were wondering. Perhaps they were concerned that he had done something disrespectful and been struck dead. But there is another side to this: if his sacrifice was not acceptable, their prayers would not be answered. So the question on their minds was, what is going on in there?
He came out unable to speak. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, and he kept making signs to them, but he remained mute. Somebody comes out, they get the vision, he cannot speak — we do not even know if he could hear — and yet somehow they understood that he had seen a vision. Verse 23 simply says that when his duties were finished, he went home.
Elizabeth's Seclusion and Relief
Verse 24 tells us: after these days Elizabeth, his wife, became pregnant, and she kept herself in seclusion for five months, saying, "This is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when He looked with favor upon me to take away my disgrace among men."
There it is again. There is real pain in those words — you can hear it. But there is also great relief. There is joy, thanksgiving, and praise for this child, and especially some relief from all the people around her. And for now, that is the end of that part of the story.
Gabriel Is Sent to Nazareth
Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. So about six months later, this same angel Gabriel comes to Mary, and over the next few weeks we will unpack that more fully.
What strikes us here, not just from this passage but from knowing the full story, is the humble means by which the King of kings came into the world. That is contrary to everything we do. Consider how we treat the arrival of important people.
The Contrast With Worldly Expectations
Think back to when Prince William and Prince Harry were born — the photographs, the spectacle, Charles holding the baby. Think of when John F. Kennedy Jr. was born — that was a major event, and we are still releasing books about John and Caroline. When Madonna had her baby, that was a huge deal. We have a certain view of how significant arrivals are supposed to look.
Even when you had your own children, it was a big deal. You went home and fixed up the room, got it all arranged, got it pink with little ruffles — or if you are a man, you got your newborn son what every newborn obviously needs: a football. Because unlike you, he is going to be a real athlete. That is not going to happen. He has your genes, so he is limited and slow and cannot jump, but you got him the football anyway. He would probably be better off with a dictionary, but that is not as manly.
The point is this: the angel simply appeared. That is humble means. The cross-reference from Matthew puts it plainly: "The birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they had come together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit, and Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, desired to put her away secretly." We will unpack that more over the next couple of weeks.
What We Know About Mary and Joseph
We know very little about Mary and Joseph. Here is what we know about Mary: she was probably from the area of Nazareth, she was probably quite poor, she had a sister, she was from David's lineage, and she was a godly and submissive woman — we will see more of that in the weeks ahead. We know even less about Joseph.
The Youth of Mary and Joseph
Joseph was a craftsman, probably a carpenter, and a righteous man, as we saw in verse 19. When we consider Mary and Joseph together, there are a couple of things that are really interesting, and I love to be reminded of them. Mary was probably somewhere between twelve and fifteen years of age. Now, the cultures are different, and it is not apples to apples, but I meet men all the time who are wondering whether they ought to let their thirteen-year-old daughter go to the mall with four other girls chaperoned by a parent — and this thirteen-year-old girl is about to become pregnant with the Savior of the world. I know men with sixteen-year-olds who say they would not trust their son with the car, and yet this sixteen-year-old boy is about to become the stepfather of the Savior of the world. It is an extraordinary moment when you think of it in its full humanity.
The Meaning of Betrothal
Mary and Joseph were engaged. If you look at Matthew chapter 1, verse 18 says Mary was betrothed to Joseph, and verse 19 calls him her husband. That is because engagement had a very different meaning then than it does now. Last night my daughter Sarah got engaged, so that was a significant moment in our house. Today, when two people get engaged and then, for whatever reason, one of them changes their mind, the only issue they have to settle is who gets the ring — no harm, no foul.
In that day and age, however, when you were betrothed or engaged, it was the same as being married. There was a contract. In fact, if Joseph were to die, Mary would be considered a widow. That is why you will sometimes see the expression in Scripture that might not immediately make sense: a virgin widow. That is precisely what this situation would have been.
The Imagery of the Bridegroom
This is rich with imagery. The bridegroom would go to his father's house and prepare a place for the bride. Then, usually after a year or so, the bridegroom would come back unannounced and call for his bride, and he would take her back to his father's house, to the place he had prepared. You know the imagery, don't you? Jesus is the Bridegroom, the church is the bride, He has gone to prepare a place for you and me, and one day He will come to take us to that place. It is a continuing story of how God became flesh and dwelt among us — a magnificent story of His faithfulness to us.
Do Not Leave Jesus in the Manger
I hope you do not grow weary of that story. It is absolutely essential to us. Do not leave baby Jesus in the manger, meek and mild. Allow Him to grow up, to live a perfect life, and to die an agonizing death on the cross so that you and I might have eternal life.
An Invitation to Communion
It is now that time when we as God's people come together to worship Him through communion. The servers are going to bring the elements to you. If you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, will you join with us in this time of communion?
Perhaps you are here and you are not a Christian. You came with some friends or family members or neighbors, or somehow God brought you here today. It is an honor to welcome you, and we are glad you are here. We encourage you to pick up tickets and come back Christmas Eve and join us. For now, however, we must tell you that communion is not for you — communion is for those who know Christ in an intimate, personal way.
In just a moment the servers will come and present the elements to you. Hold them until your heart is prepared and ready. Then go ahead and celebrate communion on your own. Afterward, Gary and the team will close our time together in worship through the songs of the season that so richly reinforce this magnificent story of the birth of Jesus.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for Jesus. Thank You for His life and His death. Thank You for all that You have given us. At this time of year, it can be a tough time, because we celebrate and we rejoice, and yet we know that for many it is a painful time. God, thank You that we do not need to be afraid, that we know You love us more than we love ourselves, and that You care for us in a more perfect way than we can possibly even care for ourselves.
Thank You for Your provision. Thank You for Jesus, for His life and His death and His resurrection. God, thank You for these people who are here. They are so generous. They have been given so much, and yet they understand it is from You. We offer not just material things but our whole life to You as an acceptable act of worship. Father, we love You, and we pray that You would cause us to love You even more. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.