Third Sunday of Advent..."about 9 months earlier"...sermon post

 


I have been really concentrating on making each meeting at the church during this Advent season focused on Jesus' birth.  What is the big story?  What led up to this event?  Who are the characters?  What was the purpose of it all?  How does this change our time together as families and church families?  Every time the church gathers over this time I want us to be saturated with a different message than what we have been bombarded with throughout the week.  This is a message that needs to be proclaimed that good news has come to the world that God created and so loved.

This week we are introduced to Herod the Great, Zechariah, Elizabeth, John and the angel Gabriel.  The events of the birth of John the Baptist are critical to the birth of Jesus the Messiah because the Scriptures tell us that a messenger would come before Him to proclaim who He is.  John the Baptist did this when he pointed to Jesus and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!  This is He of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who has been ahead of me, for He existed before me.'  I did not know Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing with water" (John 1:29b-31 LSB).

We will add to the meanings of the names this week but so far we have...

Zechariah - "God remembers"

Elizabeth - "My God is faithful"

John - "God is gracious" or "God gives grace"

God remembers after 400 years of silence and speaks to Zechariah in the Holy Place of the temple while he is offering prayers up on benefit of the people of God.  The angel Gabriel breaks the silence to let Zechariah know that God is faithful to His word and God is about to give His grace.  The birth of the messenger adds to the events of Jesus the Messiah's birth because it supplies another prophecy being fulfilled.  

One lesson from the sermon is how the well-versed "church guy" Zechariah responses to what God has made happened before with Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac; what God set up to identify those committed to Him, the Nazarite Vow; and God's very words said by the angel Gabriel.   Gabriel points out to him that he is not believing God's words.  How about me?  How about you?  Do we believe what God has said?  Do we not only believe it but do we act upon it in submission and obedience?  

Leading into next week, Luke does a great job of putting Zechariah's response next to Mary's response so we can compare them.

Adam




A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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