Take your Bibles with me again and turn to Luke 1. Luke 1.

Last week we looked at the first four verses of this chapter, which are really a prologue or an introduction to the book. Today we are going to jump past that prologue and get into the book itself.

As you are turning here, remember that God has been silent at this point for four hundred years. God had promised through the prophets that a Messiah was coming, David talked about Him, Isaiah talked about Him, Daniel talked about Him. The Messiah was coming - but then nothing happened.

400 years of silence. But the silence wasn't meant to last forever, and in our text today God is going to break that silence, fulfill Old Testament prophecy, give new prophecy and set in motion the coming of Christ.

Let's read chapter 1 verses 5-25 this morning:

[!bible] Luke 1:5-25 - KJV 5. There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. 6. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. 7. And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years. 8. And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his course, 9. According to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. 10. And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense. 11. And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. 13. But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. 14. And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. 15. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb. 16. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. 17. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. 18. And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years. 19. And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings. 20. And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season. 21. And the people waited for Zacharias, and marvelled that he tarried so long in the temple. 22. And when he came out, he could not speak unto them: and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple: for he beckoned unto them, and remained speechless. 23. And it came to pass, that, as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house. 24. And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying, 25. Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men.

I want you to take a minute and consider something with me this morning. Do you know that in Mattoon, in our town, there are at least 8 Baptist churches. According to google, there are 6 in Charleston. There are probably dozens more that are baptistic, meaning they baptize by immersion after salvation and have congregational church government.

Where I lived in Tennessee it was worse. Baptist churches were like an infestation. Our little county in rural Tenessee had 86 baptist churches. We used to joke around about starting one and calling it "another baptist church."

But here is what I want you to consider: it wasn't always like that. In fact, there was a time in this country when there were zero baptist churches and where there was all kinds of pressure to keep it that way.

In the 1651, in my Mom's hometown: Lynn, Massachusetts a humble Baptist man tried to have a home Bible study with three elderly people. He was caught, taken to Boston common, tied to a post and whipped with 30 strokes.

One of the early presidents of Harvard became a Baptist and was fired and had all of his assets seized.

Other people became Baptists in colonial America and were jailed or deported for it.

So there was a time when it seemed impossible that there would be baptist churches scattered across our country. But now they are everywhere. We have baptist colleges, baptist hospitals, multiple baptist denominations, large groups of baptists who came out and separated from those denominations.

The point I want you to make is that God was doing something, and when it first started, it seemed absolutely impossible. But God often does things that seem impossible to man.

But for God to do His work, someone had to believe and obey, even when it didn't seem humanly possible.

There was a time when an old man named Abraham and his old wife Sarah were told they would be the father of many nations, and that seemed impossible. Then that old couple had one son, Isaac. How could that turn into many nations? But God had other plans. God made of that one man not just one nation, but many nations.

But for that to happen, someone had to believe God when it seemed impossible. Someone had to take God at His word.

We got to visit some of our missionaries this year doing great things.

• A dozen or so churches planted.
• Old churches revitalized and on fire for the gospel.
• A Bible college, a Christian School, a children's home and a Christian camp started.
• Missionaries sent out from their ministry to other countries.
• Dozens of missionaries called and sent.

At some point, none of that seemed possible. At some point, it was just one missionary who obeyed God and took on an impossible task.

In our story today, God was about to do something, something He had been promising to do for a long time, something the character in our story wanted to see and had prayed to see - but he still lacked the faith to believe in what God was doing.

Out of 400 years of darkness, a 400 year intermission ends with the Temple. This place in Jerusalem was the religious center of Israel. Despite corruption in it's leaders, godly people came there every day to pray.

The actual work of the temple was carried on by priests. Those priests were all one family - the family of Levi - and over the centuries since the Tabernacle had first been instituted, the priestly family had grown to over 20,000 priests.

Now, think about this. 1 Temple. 20,000 priests. If all of them came to the Temple every day - no one else would be able to get in. You could say they were WAY overstaffed.

The way they took care of this was to divide the priestly family up into 24 groups and each group would minister for two weeks a year.

But think about that. 20,000 divided by 24. You have still have over 800 guys in each division. And you know, there just wasn't 800 jobs to do. There were maybe 8-10 main jobs to do at the Tabernacle every day.

So they way they handled that was they would draw lots. That's like casting dice. They would draw lots to see who got the jobs each day and they had a rule, that if you got the most high profile and sacred jobs, you could only do them once in your lifetime.

So we have this old priest, and his name is Zacharias. His name, ironacly, means "God has remembered."

Zacharias isn't just a preist. He is a godly man. He has a godly wife. Her name is Elizabeth. Their own great shame is that they were never able to have children.

It's Zachariah's turn to go to the Temple for two weeks, and when they draw lots, Zachariah get's picked for the most special job in the Temple - offering incense.

The incense bearer would march into the temple with a priest on either side, and that would let everyone at the Temple know it was time to worship. He would go through the outer court and into the Holy Place - a place he very likely never got to go to in his entire life as a priest.

The other priests would light candles and make sure everything was ok, and he would be left alone in there to burn this incence and pray. (The incense was a picture of the prayers of God's people.)

In that instant, as Zachariah prayed in the holy place and the people around the Temple prayed, he was the representative for the people of God. He was praying to God on behalf of all of Israel.

It would have been the highlight of Zachariah's life. Something he dreamed about since he was a boy. Now, he's an old man, and he finally get's his chance.

He's in there all alone, right next the curtain. On the other side of that curtain is the ark of the covenant. The place where God's presence dwelt.

He is literally as close to God as any regular priest could ever be, and closer to God than any regular Israelite could ever be.

And he's praying. He's praying earnestly.

What was He praying for? I think he was praying for the salvation of Israel. I think he was praying that God would fulfill all those promises from the Old Testament that he no doubt knew and that God would finally send a Mesiah.

So he's praying, and all of a sudden an Angel is there with him.

And Zachariah is terrified by this. And the angel says

Fear not, Zachariah, your prayers are heard.

Wow.

God is breaking His silence. God is finally going to do it. God is going to send the Messiah.

Then the angel says:

and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.

John, by the way, means "God has been gracious." The angel goes on and tells Zacharias that this son is going to be the promised forebearer of the Messiah, the one who would come in the spirit of Elijah.

Hold your finger here and go to the very end of the Old Testament. Malachi 4. Look at the very last verses in the Old Testament, starting in verse 5.

[!bible] Malachi 4:5-6 - KJV 5. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: 6. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

This is how the Old Testament ends. This is the last thing God said before 400 years of silence.

And God is picking right where he left off and saying to Zachariah "You are going to have a son, and he's going to be That guy."

Let me stop here and make some points I think this text is making for us.

A. God is up to something.

That's really the feeling. The vibe that you get from this text. The period of silence is over. God has spoken. God has given new prophecy. God has answered prayers. God is up to something.

Let's talk a bit about what God is up to here, let me give you six quick thoughts on this before we move on to the rest of the story:

1. God is up to something...and it isn't on our timescale.

People had no doubt had been praying for 400 years. They had been claiming the promises of the Messiah for 400 years. They had thought, time and again, maybe today is the day. Maybe it's now.

And nothing. Nothing for four hundred years.

But that didn't mean that God wasn't working - it just meant that God's timing isn't our timing. God doesn't do things when we want Him to.

As Peter said

[!bible] [2 Peter 3:8 - KJV](https://bible-api.com/2 Peter+3:8?translation=kjv) 8. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

God's timescale for His work doesn't match ours.

Remember, God gave Abraham a promise. You will be the father of many nations. But Abraham trudged on in faith for decades with no action on that promise. It wasn't that God had forgot. His time table didn't match God's time table.

I want you to see a second thing in this text about what God is up to...

2. God is up to something...and it involves the fulfillment of scripture.

You see, when Gabriel the angel shared this prophecy - He did so in a way that pointed back to the promises of scripture.

On the face of it is the promise at the end of Malachi that we read. But there is even more fulfillment going on here.

You see, the last time we see Gabriel the angel speaking, it was to Daniel who promised a messiah would be coming.

The message was clear - God was going to start fulfilling all of those promises He made through the Old Testament prophets.

And how would God fulfill them? Through John, but the exciting thing about John the Baptist wasn't John the Baptist - it was who John the Baptist came to prepare the world for.

So the third thing I want you to see this morning is...

3. God is up to something...and He is doing it through Jesus.

John was coming to prepare us for "the great and terrible day of the Lord." He was coming to make a way in the desert for the coming of the Lord. (That's in another part of Malachi.)

What's exciting here is that Jesus was coming.

Can I tell you that the work God is doing in this world is still through His Son Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the Alpha and Omega. The beginning and the end. The first and the last.

[!bible] Romans 11:36 - KJV 36. For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

[!bible] Ephesians 3:21 - KJV 21. Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

God's work on this earth is all about Jesus.

Jesus who came to this earth and lived the perfect life we could not live.

Jesus, who alone fully fulfilled the law.

Jesus, the only innocent One, who died on the cross in our place.

God is up to something today, and that something is reconciling the world to Himself through Jesus.

And that brings me to the next thought in this line...

4. God is up to something...and it involves pointing people to Christ.

Look at what the angel told Zacharias in verse 16. He said:

[!bible] Luke 1:16 - KJV 16. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God.

John the Baptist would be great - because He would point people to Jesus.

Listen, what this world needs is to be pointed to Jesus. The world doesn't need better politics. The world doesn't need more education. The world doesn't need more medicine or more wealth. The world needs Jesus!

When we meet Jesus, when we come to Him in faith and believe what He has done for us on the cross. Jesus makes us new. He shows us how to live and gives us power to live as we ought. He realigns our center. He gives us new purpose.

As the old song says "People need the Lord." If you want to get in on what God is doing, get in on pointing people to Jesus.

Two more thoughts and then we'll get back to our story...

The fifth thing thing reminds me of is this...

5. God is up to something...and it will bring families together.

Notice what the angel said about John the Baptist's ministry. He's quoting the last verses of the Old Testament:

[!bible] Luke 1:17 - KJV 17. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

One of the symptoms of our sin-sick world is the breakdown of the family. Fathers who do not care about their kids. Who are forsaking their God-given responsibility to bring their kids up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Children who despise their parents and do not submit to them.

Families are a mess.

The statistics don't lie. Divorce is up. Child bearing out of wedlock is way up. We can't even define a family anymore.

But we don't need statistics. I have personally seen some truly horrific things sin has done to families. I'm willing to bet you probably have too.

My own family life was a mess. My parents divorced in the messiest way. My mom took us and was living with one of my dad's friends hundreds of miles away. It was just as broken as the homes of the many kids we see around here.

Do you when my family changed and changed for good? When my stepdad got up one Sunday and walked down the road to a baptist church and accepted Jesus as his savior. When my mother, who was saved as a teenager, got her life right with God.

My family wasn't perfect. Far from it. But it was restored by Jesus.

My wife's family was no different. Her dad was serving a long jail sentence - only because the prisons were full. Her mom was on the way to divorcing him. A man came by his jail cell and pointed him to Jesus. That changed everything for my wife's family.

Listen, when Jesus comes into our life, He doesn't just give us a new heart, He doesn't just give us an eternal home in heaven, He changes our family life. He changes our work life. He makes us new all over.

So God is up to something. That's what we see in this text.

But there is one more thing that will lead me into the rest of the story...

6. God is up to something...and it will involve us.

The angel Gabriel told Zacharias these things and what was Zacharias' reaction? He doubted it.

Look at verse 18:

[!bible] Luke 1:18 - KJV 18. And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years.

Now, Zacharias had been praying for the salvation of Israel. he was a godly man. He knew the stories of Abraham and how God gave Him a miracle child. He knew the stories of Samuel and Samson. He knew that God had miraculously provided children many times.

He also knew the promises of God. He knew these verses in Malachi and was praying to see their fulfillment.

But still - he doubted.

Verse 20 says:

[!bible] Luke 1:20 - KJV 20. And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.

God judged his doubting by striking him dumb. He couldn't speak. For 9 months he had to write everything down.

He couldn't announce to the people waiting outside praying. He couldn't say anything. He had to tell Elisabeth on paper.

Here is a man who, of all men, should have believed - he was pious, holy, faithful, praying - and yet he still doubted the work of God.

So that brings me to my second point which I will give you and be done.

B. God is up to something...and we must believe it.

I'm convinced of one thing - many of us do not believe God is working in this world through Jesus Christ.

Oh, we say we do. We don't disbelieve it.

We sing about it. We teach it to our children.

But we do not believe it like we should, because if we believed it like we should, we would tell more people about Jesus.

If we truly believed that God is doing a work in this world through Jesus, and that the gospel saves people and rescues families, that it is the power of God to salvation - wouldn't we share Christ more? Wouldn't we point people to Him more?

I'm preaching to myself here.

How can a man be inside the temple, in the holy place, praying for God to deliver Israel and send the Messiah and then doubt God when God sends an angel to do that very thing?

It's the same way we can pray for the salvation of the world, but never share the gospel. We can pray for the evangelism of the world, but never get involved in world missions.