It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas…

A lot can happen in thirty days. When I recently spent the month of October in the hospital, the seasons went from late summer to winter.  When I went in, they were still playing baseball.  By the time I got out, everywhere I went was being decorated for Christmas.  

Meredith Wilson is an Iowa native who’s best known for writing the musical, The Music Man.  In 1951, he authored the Christmas classic song, “It’s Beginning to look a lot like Christmas.”  According to that song, it looks like Christmas when there are Christmas trees visible everywhere.  When there are toys in every store and the five and ten has candy canes and silver lanes that glow.  At least that was the popular notion of what Christmas was like in the 1950’s.  But that won’t do in church.

In church Christmas takes on an altogether different meaning.  As you’ve heard, we’ve entered into the church’s season of Advent.  The word, Advent, means arrival, usually the arrival of someone important.  In the church, Advent means anticipating and preparing for Jesus’ arrival.

Jesus; whom the angel said would be called Emmanuel - or God is with us.  Now, I ask you, What does THAT look like?  What does it look like when God draws near?  That will be the focus over the next four weeks.  Today, we are going to visit the backstory of the Christmas story.  From Luke, chapter one, we are going to discover that when God draws near to us, it’s because God has remembered His people and His promises.  And whenever God has made a promise; He intends to keep it.  And when God has claimed for Himself a people, though He may be silent for a time, He is never far from them.

This morning, our text is from Luke 1:5 - 25.  

There we meet a couple experiencing an undeserved reality, 

who receive an unexpected answer 

which brings unimagined results.  

But first, a little background to our story, so that we will understand why it’s so surprising that God chose this moment in history to speak.  God has spoken to mankind throughout history, but there was a period of time when God seems to have been silent. The Word of God to Israel had been silent for 400 years. During that time Israel had been largely dominated by foreign powers, except for a brief independence under Judas Maccabeaus. However, the words of prophets were not heard in the land.

-The last word that God gave in the last book of the Jewish Bible is this: (Malachi 4:5-6) "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.  And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction."

The last Word before prophesy fell silent was a promise to send someone in the power of Elijah who would prepare the way for the Messiah.  Now, we turn our study to the most unlikely couple.

1. Body
1. Undeserved reality (vv. 5-7)
1. This is relevant for us today because many of us have experienced or are experiencing times when God is quiet
1. When God seems far off
2. When you feel deserted. 
3. Remember that even then, God is still at work.
2. We are introduced here to two people who only appear briefly in Scripture – Zechariah and Elizabeth. We’ve talked before about how important names are in the Bible and this is certainly one of those times where the names of the people involved in the story foreshadow what God is about to do in their lives.
3. Zechariah means “God remembers.” And we are about to see that even though Zechariah might feel like God has forgotten him, exactly the opposite is true. God remembers Zechariah and He remembers His people.
4. Elizabeth means “God is my oath.” And God is indeed about to make an oath, a promise, that is going to bring great light that will dispel both the darkness that Zechariah and Elizabeth have lived under and the darkness that Israel has experienced as a people.
5. We learn here that Zechariah and Elizabeth both come from priestly families. In the Jewish culture of their day, that mean that they would have been highly esteemed. They were righteous before God and kept His commands. Obviously that doesn’t mean they never sinned, But that description of their lives does indicate that they desired to live in a way that pleased God.
6. And yet, in spite of their life of service to God, there was a deep sadness in their lives because they had not been able to have children. This is just one of many places in the Bible where we discover that devotion to God does not guarantee that we won’t experience heartache and difficulties in life.
7. Having Children Was Seen As A Blessing From God In The Jewish Culture. If God was pleased with you, you could expect a large family. Yet here was a blameless couple without children. 
8. They were probably well into their sixties and for years prayed until they gave up but continued their service of God. Undoubtedly they¡¦d gone through all the stages that infertile couples go through and had concluded that it was over. There was little hope of things changing as they were old. The possibility of a touch from God was remote. 
9. Do you ever feel that it’s just time to give up?
2. Unexpected answer vv. 8-13a)
1. But they didn’t give up.  In a culture where barrenness was cause for divorce, Zechariah stayed with Elizabeth.  Even though God continued to be ignoring his prayers, the priest continued to worship God in His temple.
2. And then, one day, his routine is interrupted — Zechariah’s number comes up.  
1. Understand that there are estimated to be about 20,000 Priests at this time - and a priest could only be selected for this most sacred task of offering incense once in his life time. It was the climax to a priest’s career to offer the incense at the Altar of Incense. 
2. This offering was repeated morning and evening everyday.
3. When the priest entered the Holy Place with the incense, all the people were cleared from the temple. Profound silence was observed among the congregation who were praying outside. At a signal from the High Priest, the priest cast the incense on the fire and, bowing reverently toward the Holy of Holies, retired slowly backward and then joined in pronouncing the benediction to the people gathered. 
3. YET, even the routine of this extra special event was interrupted when God spoke.  
1. The Bible tells us that God speaks to people in different ways.  
2. There are those He spoke to directly, those He spoke to through an angel, and others He spoke to through dreams and visions.
3. Why different ways for different people?
4. Because different people listen in different ways…
5. When God speaks to you - He God speaks to you in a way that you can understand.
6. This time, God sent the angel, Gabriel.

1. When you’ve a fearful encounter
1. The first thing that the angel says is, “Do not be afraid, for your prayer has been heard.”  
2. What prayer? 
3. Some suggest that this was the request for a baby. But if so, I would have expected the angel to say: “Your prayers (plural) have been heard.”  
4. The word used is for a specific request and seems to indicate it was a prayer on one specific occasion. Typically this would be for the salvation of all of Israel and the coming of the promised Messiah. This was a prayer that all Israel had been praying 400 years. 
5. So His prayer for Israel and for God’s plan to move forward. 
   Not a prayer for himself resulted in a child for him. 
6. Do not be selfish when you pray. 
7. James 4:2-3. …you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
8. 1 John 5:14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
9. John 14:14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. (Jesus)
10. But here the angel says, your request has been recognized. God has heard it and what the angel promised would be an answer to that prayer of salvation, but within this, it would also be an answer to Zechariah and Elizabeth¡¦s prayers about a child. God would fulfill his promises and touch them as well.
1. Unimagined results (vv. 13b-25)
1. Are you praying as if God will hear and answer?
2. What if God were to answer your prayers ina bold, unexpected way?
1. When you can’t believe your ears or eyes
2. When you’ve a spectacular promise
3. But lingering doubts remain.
4. What do you do with doubts?  Zechariah reminds me of the disciple Thomas, who would not just take someone else’s word for it. He had to see for himself before he was willing to really believe. And Jesus was gracious to him, but also said, “Blessed are those who have not seen, yet have believed.”
5. Who are you going to trust? The experts? The Discovery Channel? The Scientists who study God’s intricate creation and somehow insist that He does not exist?
6. When God gives you an unmistakable promise, your best response is not, “How can I be sure of this?” Your best response would be closer to that of Mary. Even though she didn’t know how she would give birth to a son since she had not been with a man, her best response is found in Luke 1:38 "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Later, the Son that she gave birth to uttered similar words to His Father in heaven: “Your will be done.”
7. Every time you trust someone there is an element of surrender. When you ride with certain people, at some point you start to realize that no matter how hard you press on the passenger floorboards, the brakes will not come on! I can remember riding with various people and thinking, “Well, this could be my time to go.” That doesn’t mean I stopped praying, but since there was nothing I could do, I gave up trying to control the situation.
8. God may take you for some wild rides, but I can tell you this: You can trust Him! He knows what He’s doing, He knows what you’re doing, and He knows how to bring those two activities closer together.
9. God can be trusted with your life, your dreams, and your future. His plan for you is so much better than your greatest ambitions! So we pray. God will hear and answer with a promise. Then it is ours to trust Him!
1. Conclusion
1. What does it look like when Emmanuel happens?  When God draws near?
2. It looks like God responding to the fervent prayers of a nation and in the process, blessing a barren, elderly couple.
3. Do you believe that God can hear your prayers? He can!   That God will answer as you pray?  He wants to! 
4. Are you in the same situation as Zechariah and Elizabeth — literally they had given up the hope? They thought that their situation was beyond God.  It wasn’t.  
5. Don’t give up — nothing is impossible for God. He can reach down and touch you at the most unexpected time in your life. Unexpected for us maybe,  but not for God. God’s answer always comes in God’s perfect time. 
6. Are we ready for God’s answer?
7. FOUR ATTITUDES WE NEED TO GET OUR PRAYERS ANSWERED
1. You Must be Willing to Let God Answer IN HIS OWN TIME.
2. You Must be Willing to Let God Answer IN HIS OWN WAY.
3. You Must be Willing to Let God Answer IN HIS OWN POWER.
4. You Must be Willing to Let God Answer FOR HIS OWN PURPOSE.
5. As Jesus taught us to pray; “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”