The old man climbed the steps from the courtyard and entered the doors of the temple. There was a barely perceptible stoop to his shoulders as he advanced the sixty feet across the floor of the room, the Holy Place, passing by the seven-fold candlestick on his right, and the table of showbread on his left. At the end of the room he stopped.
Before him was an altar: 3 feet high, and 1½ feet square. This was the altar of incense, and twice every day a priest, chosen by lot, offered incense on it and prayed for the redemption of the people of Israel.
Behind the altar was the ‘wall’, which was really a thick curtain, that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place, or the Holy of Holies. The Most Holy Place was where God himself was said to dwell. In ancient times, the Most Holy Place housed the Ark of the Covenant, which was God’s throne, but that had been lost in the mists of history for centuries already.
As incense was offered, the smoke of the incense, rising before the Most Holy Place, represented the intercessory prayers of the priest rising before the presence of God.
The old priest’s name was Zechariah. He was a righteous man, and his wife Elizabeth was a righteous woman. Both were known for their humble love of God, and the integrity of their character. So it was all the more a pity, their friends said, that they were childless. It was the greatest blessing of their culture to have children. The more children, the greater the blessing. It was considered something of a curse and a source of shame to have no children. Zechariah and Elizabeth were ‘well advanced in years’. In other words, they had no children, and now they never would.
Today, as he burned the incense and watched the smoke, he prayed fervently that God would come to the aid of his people. He believed with al his heart in the God of his fathers. He clung, as so many did, to the promises of Scripture that God would send a Messiah: a prophet, a priest, a king, who would rescue Israel from her enemies and re-establish her as God’s chosen, blessed people.
For most people, the great enemy was Rome, under whose power the Israelites had chafed for 5 decades. The puppet ruler under Rome was Herod the Great, whose paranoia and violence were legendary. He ruled by fear. Israel longed for the deliverer who would throw off the yoke of Rome, and elevate Israel again to greatness.
But Zechariah knew that Rome was not the real enemy. The real enemy was sin, the historic refusal of Israel to live under the Lordship of God. Even now, there was a show of religion, but no real heart for God. Zechariah was the rare priest who truly loved and sought the honor of his God. The religious system as a whole paid lip service to God, but was built upon rituals and rules, while the leaders’ character remained corrupt, and the people’s hearts remained untouched.
And Zechariah was acutely conscious of the veil that he now stood before, the veil the separated him and the people he represented from the perfect holiness of God. Until the issue of sin was addressed, there could be no meaningful interaction between the people and God.
Suddenly Zechariah became aware of a man standing in front of him, beside the altar. He saw him, but felt something, too: a power, a sense of holiness. Zechariah was instantly overcome with fear. Whenever an angel appeared to a person in Israel’s history, the uniform response to the angel was fear. When Gabriel had appeared to Daniel, Daniel’s companions fled in fear even though they did not see the angel but only felt his presence. Daniel himself fainted. Now Zechariah knew that fear.
The angel said to him, Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard.
He went on to say that Elizabeth would bear a son, who would be a great joy to Zechariah. This son, whom they were to name ‘John’ would be great in the sight of God, a prophet in the class of Elijah, who would turn the hearts of people back to God and so prepare the way for the coming of the Lord.
Zechariah was stunned. He knew from the Scriptures that before the Messiah they longed for would come, there would be someone else, a fore-runner likened to Elijah. The angel was saying that Zechariah’s own son would be that forerunner, and that therefore the Messiah’s own coming was also imminent.
But before he could process what he heard, there was an inconvenient fact that stood as a hurdle to belief: Elizabeth could not have children. She was too old. And he said as much to the angel, How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.
This time the angel is stunned. Doesn’t Zechariah know what it means when an angel gives a message? Has Zechariah forgotten the women of his history: Samson’s mother, Hannah, Rebekah, all of whom were barren but bore children at God’s promise? Has he forgotten Sarah, who at 90 years old bore Isaac when the promise of a child for Abraham was beyond all sense and became purely a matter of faith. Did Zechariah forget all this? Could Zechariah really know he is in the presence of an angel and yet doubt the word that the angel has spoken?
Yes, he can.
The angel speaks out sternly to Zechariah, saying essentially: “Do you know who I am? I am Gabriel. Does that name sound familiar? I am not one of those usual courier angels. I stand in God’s presence and he has commissioned me specially to tell you this, and because you did not believe me, you will be unable to speak until what I have said takes place.”
It was a big deal for this man of God, this priest, to doubt what God has said. But isn’t it easy to doubt? The first sin ever committed was the sin of doubt: when Adam and Eve believed the serpent and doubted what God had said.
What has God said that you doubt?
Maybe that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You just cannot believe that God doesn’t hold your sins against you. What sin are you carrying around? Sex before you were married? That addiction, past or present? That outburst. Do you doubt that the death of Christ was sufficient to atone for your sin? Do not doubt. If you are in Christ, there is no condemnation.
Do you doubt God when he says I will never leave you? Maybe you are in crisis of some kind: health, finances, marriage, work, economy…. Maybe you are wondering (maybe subconsciously) why God has left you. He has not. That doesn’t mean we always feel him. But his presence, even in the valley of the shadow of death, is his promise to us.
Do you doubt that present hardships will be far outweighed by glory?
Do you doubt that all things work together for the good of those who are called by God? That means that whatever your circumstances – no matter how trapped you feel, how painful it is – God sees it, knows all its dynamics, and promises, “This is the road to your best possible future, and I, the God of heaven and earth, will make sure of it.”
Do you doubt that God has given you everything you need for life and godliness? Whatever your situation, you are not helpless in the face of it. This does not ruin your life or even your day. But joy, love, integrity, patience are all yours because you are God’s. That is hard to believe in the face of anger, or depression, or frustration. But you are not bound by those things.
Sometimes we do not believe that what God calls us to as a church has primarily to do with the character within us, and with people around us: the poor, those who are far from God. We doubt it and believe that what God wants for us is religious activity, or church program, or a well-oiled institutional machine. But God has said, Make disciples of all nations…. give water to the thirsty and clothes to the naked… defend the cause of the fatherless and oppressed. I am not sure we always believe what he says he wants from us.
When God has spoken, we must beware of responding with ‘But….’, as Zechariah did.
Then the angel was gone, and Zechariah was left standing. When he tried to finish his prayers, which were prayed aloud, he could not. His lips moved, but he was silent.
Some time later his wife Elizabeth conceived and became pregnant. She secluded herself for five months. In the sixth month, Gabriel was sent with another message, this time to a young girl in Nazareth. She, too, would become pregnant, though she was a virgin. Her child would be the son of God, the Messiah long-expected by Israel, the Deliverer. As a confirmation to her of his word, Gabriel directed her to her relative Elizabeth, whose pregnancy was also a miracle.
So Mary went down to see Elizabeth, where she spent three months, and witnessed the birth of relative’s son.
When Elizabeth gave birth, her community rejoiced and considered that God had been extraordinarily merciful to her, taking her reproach at being childless. On the eighth day, as was custom, they came for a circumcision party: to mark this child with the sign of the covenant, and to name him. They were going to name him Zechariah, but Elizabeth said, “No, he shall be called John.” They were surprised at this, since none of the relatives were named John. So they asked Zechariah, who was still mute. He asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, “His name is John.” As soon as he had done this, his speech was given to him, he was filled with the Holy Spirit and erupted into a psalm of praise to God. It was the first thing he said for over nine months, since his day at the temple.
He spoke a blessing over his son John, later nicknamed ‘The Baptist’, who would be a prophet of the Most High God. But first he praised God for the Messiah, who he knew, because of Mary’s presence in his home, was soon coming.
This is what he said:
Blessed be the Lord, God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has and raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke through the mouth of his most holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
Notice two things that Zechariah, by the Holy Spirit, says about what this Messiah will do, and why. First, the what: that he would deliver God’s people from their enemies. Second, the why: that they could serve God without fear, and in holiness and righteousness.
Most people would have assumed that deliverance from enemies meant Rome. But Rome was not the real enemy. Nor are our enemies the things we usually think of as our enemies. Your cranky boss, an anti-Christian culture, someone whose gossiping about you, difficult circumstances. Those are not enemies. Our enemies are those things that keep us from knowing God and experiencing the life he has for us, and those enemies are only two: One, they are spiritual forces. The Bible talks about Satan and his cohorts who actively seek to devour us, to steal and kill and destroy. It is not even because he hates us. It is because he hates God, and God loves us, so Satan (a rotter to the core!) tries to get at God by hurting us.
So these spirits wound. They tempt. They distract. They lie. Because they want to keep us from knowing and trusting God. They are one enemy.
And two, the other enemy is purely internal. The saying, ‘He’s his own worst enemy’ is tragically true. It is the stuff inside us that is our true enemy. It is not the person speaking ill to us. It is the bitterness that wells up within us. It is not the changes happening around us, it is the need to be in control of it all. It is not busyness of our lives, it is our mistaken priorities. It is not the pornographers, it is our lust. It is not the crisis, it is the fact that we are anchored to the wrong thing.
My greatest enemies I carry around within my own heart.
Jesus said that: he said the things that defile a person spiritually aren’t the breaking of the rules (working on Sunday, not tithing, missing your devotions). He said it was greed, lust, envy, adultery, pride, foolishness, fear….
Jesus came to do battle, to deliver us from our enemies. How did he do that? In his life he pushed back the kingdom of sin and all that goes with it, by healing the sick, casting out demons, freeing people from religion and to God, offering dignity and friendship to the marginalized. By his death he bore the punishment of our sins on his own shoulders and took it down to the grave with him. By his resurrection he conquered death. He cannot die again. He has faced it and won.
And the Bible says the most incredible thing: that we share in his resurrection. That means death does not win for us either. Because of Christ we, too, will emerge out the other side and into eternity. No fear of death any more.
It also means that the life of Christ is given to us, seeded into our hearts to blossom and bear fruit, and the enemies we have found in our hearts suddenly do not have the run of the place. There is another reality within as God forms the character of Christ in us and as we walk in that new reality, the enemies are choked out. We find our character changing.
Jesus did that, though, in order that we might serve God, without fear, and in holiness and righteousness. In other words, he came to accomplish for us the very thing for which we were created but we tossed away in turning from God. Living for ourselves has not worked very well for us.
God sent us to free us from the service of ourselves (which is merely the service of Satan disguised) and to service of God. Because only in the willing surrender of our lives to God is there freedom, or, to use the Christmas phrase, comfort and joy.
We serve him now without fear: fear that our service of him is unacceptable and not earning his favor. His favor is a gift of grace, already given in Christ. We can stop trying to be religious or good to get into his good books.
No fear. Fear that God is angry at us. Fear that our sins still separate us from him. The veil in the temple was torn when Jesus died, signifying that in Jesus’ death the barrier between God and man is removed. Zechariah understood that this is what the Messiah would do.
We serve God from a new character, Christ’s character of holiness and righteousness, growing in us and transforming us.
Is it complete and immediate now? No, it is not. On December 21st, the days will start getting longer, and the earth will begin its tilt toward the inevitable spring. The hardest days of winter are still ahead, but the move toward spring has started and cannot be stopped. Our life of faith is like that. The life and death of Jesus set history on a new, inevitable course. The reality of Christ in us, that comes to us by faith, marks a point of no return for our lives. The enemies rear their heads. Winter is not gone. We still sin, still struggle. But the move toward spring has begun.
If you are frustrated by the enemies that still seem to have power over you, in a few moments, as we celebrate communion, we are going to celebrate a powerful reminder of the battle that Jesus fought and won for you. As you come forward for communion, come in the knowledge that in Christ, God has given all you need for life and godliness. You may want to come in an attitude of prayer, asking God to help you live in the reality of what Christ has done. If you are struggling right now with something: spiritual unfaithfulness (fear, anger, lust, lack of faith, doubt, whatever it is), come receive the bread and the cup, and know that Jesus gave his life to free you from your enemies, that you may serve God without fear, and in holiness.
Amen.