The Lord’s Message:  Word of God Speak:  Zechariah

The Lord’s Message:  Word of God Speak:  Zechariah
Date: November 30, 2025
Where:  Tilghman Methodist Church
Scripture Reference:  Luke 1:11-25

            Happy New Year!  This is the beginning of the New Year!  The church year begins with Advent and ends with Christ the King Sunday.  At the beginning of this New Year, we are going to looking at the ways in which God communicates with us.  How do we know it is God who is communicating with us and not our own thoughts or the devil?  How should we respond to what God is telling us?  Our theme for this New Year is Listening to God and doing what He says. 

I have always been fascinated with the ending of the Old Testament found in

Malachi 4:5-6.  The Old Testament ends with the promise of the coming Day of the Lord.  The sign of this coming is the return of Elijah to prepare the hearts of the people.  Then for 400 years, silence.  God does not speak during this time.  God has spoken from the beginning of the world.  God said, “Let there be light.”  There was light.  God said, “Let us make dry ground.”  Dry ground rose up out of the water.  God said, “Let us make mankind in our own image.”  We, male and female, were made in the image of God.  God spoke to Noah, Abraham, Sara, Moses, Joshua, Deborah, Gideon, Samuel, David, and Solomon.  God spoke to the prophets:  Elijah, Elisa, Isaiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Haggi, Zechariah, and Malachi.  Just to name a few.  Then boom, dead silence for 400 years. 

            Let us pray.  We are going to pray while listening to a contemporary song by Mercy Me that is titled, “Word of God Speak.”

            After 400 years, God sends an angel to very devout follower and priest, Zechariah.  We know that this is a true story and not a story that is made up.  We have concrete evidence that this story actually occurred.  If you open your Pew Bible to page 1587, then we will dive into this story.  The book of Luke is volume 1 and volume 2 is the book of Acts.  I have something very interesting.  Luke became a disciple of Jesus through the Apostle Paul.  Luke was a Greek doctor.  One of the commentaries that I was looking at suggests the Luke wrote these two books to a Roman judge named Theophilus in defense of Paul.  So, these two books are Paul’s defense briefs before Caesar in Rome.  Luke makes note throughout both books, mentioning the noted people during the time these events in the life of Jesus and Paul occurred, to prove Paul’s defense.  Here in Luke 1:5, Luke says that this event happened during the reign of Herod King of Judea.  There are five different rulers with the name Herod found in the New Testament:  Herod the Great, his sons, Herod Archelaus and Herod Antipas, and his grandsons Herod Agrippa I and Herod Agrippa II.

 Luke is referring to Herod the Great.  He was not from Jewish origin, but from Jacob’s brother, Esau.  He was an Edomite or Idumean ruler.  He was appointed by the Romans.  This event happened during the rule of Herod the Great. 

            This event happened to the Abraham and Sarah New Testament couple, Zechariah and Elizabeth.  According to verse 5, both Zechariah and Elizabeth are direct descendants of the first high priest, Aaron.  In verse 6, we learned that they are a devout couple.  In verse 7, we learned that they are childless and have been praying to God for a child.  We also learned that they are “well along in years.”  So, the chance of them having a child is very fleeting.  In this society for a wife not to be able to conceive was considered a disgrace and the husband could divorce his wife for this.  Thank God we have moved far past that. 

            In verse 8, Zechariah is fulfilling his duty as priest in the temple in Jerusalem.  In verse 9, Zechariah is chosen by lot.  This means that Zechariah has been chosen by God to fulfill a very important priestly duty.  An inscription discovered in 1962 in the Caesarea Synagogue records that during this time there was 20,000 Aaronic priests. For Zechariah to be chosen to burn incense in the temple of the Lord is a once-in-a lifetime opportunity.  In the morning and evening, three priests would go into this area.  One priest would cleanse the altar and prepare the fire.  Another priest would bring the sacrifice to be burned on the altar.  The third priest would bring in the incense and burn it in the altar of incense.  The priest that was chosen to prepare the fire and burn the sacrifice on the altar would perform their duties in the morning and evening, but not the priest who would burn the incense.  In this case, one priest was chosen for the morning and another for the evening. You can see how this was a once-in-a lifetime opportunity.  Both of these altars were positioned in front of the curtain which separated the Holy of Holies area.  These three duties were all chosen by lot.  Once the duties of the other priest were accomplished, they would leave and only the priest that was offering incense would be left.  The priest whose duty was to burn the incense would also lift up prayers to God.  The connection between burning incense and prayer might seem strange in our day, but in the Bible these two go together.  In Psalm 141:2 and Revelation 5:8 are two examples of the connection.  Those prayers would be for the nation of Israel, which at this time was under occupation by the Romans, for the people, and also for the leaders.  The priest would not pray for his own needs, even thou they would be on his mind.  Outside of the temple, the people would be in prayer.  When the two priests came out of the temple, this was the signal for the people to pray. 

            I want to pause for a moment and talk to the couple that is trying to get pregnant.  First off, I want you to both know that God loves you.  The devil will try to turn you away from God, but God cares about you and God wants the very best for you.  The Bible tells us in Luke 12:7 that God cares about us so much that He knows the hair that is on our heads.  If God is that concerned with our lives, then we should know that we are invaluable to God.  Keep praying and keep trusting in God.  We do not know God’s timing, but His timing and His blessing is always perfect.

Zechariah is left in the temple all alone.  Remember Zechariah is there by divine appointment.  As Zechariah is burning the incense on the altar of incense and in devout prayer in verse 11, an angel of the Lord appears to him.  In verse 19, we learn that this angel is no ordinary angel.  This angel is Gabriel.  Gabriel’s job is to deliver God’s most important and divine messages.  Gabriel delivered messages to Daniel and will deliver God’s divine message to Mary.  In verses 13-17, Gabriel is delivering God’s message to Zechariah that his wife, even though she is past the age of childbearing, will have a son who is to be named John.  This son will have the power of Elijah to prepare the way for the Messiah that is prophesied in Malachi. 

This is good news!  Zechariah is thinking how is this possible.  He is completely dumbfounded.  In verse 18, he asked the angel, how is this going to happen.  The angel, Gabriel, had been given special powers from God.  God knew the response of Zechariah to this good news.  So, God gave special powers to the angel to mute Zechariah’s tongue.  Look what it says in verse 20. 

Now the normal procedure after the priest burns the incense and offers prayers is to emerge out of the temple and join the other two priest and together with the people, they proclaim a thanksgiving blessing to God, the Aaronic or priestly blessing, as found in Numbers 6:24-26.

After a longer than normal time, Zechariah emerges from the temple and the people are wondering what has taken Zechariah so long.  Then they realize that Zechariah is mute and is making hand gestures that he saw an angel while in the temple, verses 21-22. 

After Zechariah’s duties at the temple come to an end, we are told in verse 23, he returns home, still unable to speak.  But, soon after, his return home, Elizabeth gets pregnant, verse 24.  In verse 25, Elizabeth gives thanks and praise to God for her pregnancy, and in some way, she must have known that this son is going to Elijah to prepare the way for the Messiah.  The reason that I say this is found in verse 60, when all the people want to name the child, Zechariah, she says no, “His name is John.” Zechariah is asked the same question and using a writing tablet, he writes the name, “John.”  This occurred during the time of circumcision. 

On the eighth day after birth is the day of circumcision.  The boy will be circumcised to become part of God’s family of the nation of Israel and will also receive his name.  Most of the time the name is after the father or some relative or some name to honor the blessing that God’s given.  To everyone shock and amazement, Mary says, and Zechariah writes that the name for this baby boy is to be, “John.”  Then Zechariah’s mouth becomes unmuted and filled with the Holy Spirit in verses 67-79, Zechariah launches into the song of praise to God. 

In verse 80, we find that John becomes a strong man filled with the Holy Spirit, ready and willing to carry out God’s plan to announce the coming of the Messiah to save all people from their sin and to bring them into relationship with God. 

Let us quickly look at the ways that God spoke to Zechariah, and Zechariah and Elizabeth’s response to God’s message.  First, even before Zechariah knew that God was going to speak to him, God provided the way for divine appointment.  God selected the time and place for God to speak to Zechariah.  If God did not plan out this divine appointment, Zechariah could have other priestly duties and may have been outside of the temple.  God appointed Zechariah to be the priest that burned the incense.  Then God sent His angel, Gabriel to bring the message that Zechariah was to have a son.  He was to name him, John.  John would have the power and Holy Spirit to be the Elijah of the New Testament to prepare the way for the Messiah.  Zechariah and Elizabeth responded in faith and said, “Yes” to God’s plan. 

We do not know if today, God is setting an appointed time for each one of us to come face to face with God.  We might even be eyewitness to an angel.  This angel might tell us about God’s plan to use us to tell others about Jesus.  I believe that divine appointments are occurring every day to us.  I do not believe that events happen by chance, by accident or by a fluke.  It is up to us to recognize these appointments and said, “Yes!” to God.  We are all called by God.  Let us listen to God and do what He says.  Amen.