Expectations...
We approach society with certain expectations, we come to life with expectation that we believe are reasonable, but it is interesting when you use the word Christmas in front of expectations everyone gets that crooked smile or that sneer because they have been there before, expectations of warm cocoa when you come in from the cold. Why is it that things go south when meals burn, guest complain about the gifts, when our relatives get sauced on the wrong sauce, when family get together end up in family feuds. We go from frustration to dissatisfaction to suppression (where we say never again will I allow this to happen) (never again will I make these big plans with these big dreams only to have them crushed).
Christmas Is A Call To Expect Great Things From A Good God
Luke 1:1-64
We will be looking at Luke’s Gospel Chapter 1 because it is about two people, a man and a woman who plays an intricate part of the Christmas story and demonstrate the fact that great things come from a Good God, between God and People.
1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
5 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron.
Your job was to bring the sacrifices before God to the table at the alter at the temple on behalf of God’s people for their redemption, forgiveness of their sins. It was your job to be an advocate for the people to God and God to the people.
6 Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly.
Righteous doesn’t mean perfect they were people who earnest desire was to follow God’s law and to do what was right in God’s eyes
7 But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.
8 Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense.
10 And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.
This is a big deal, in the 24 divisions of the priesthood, each division was given two weeks a year to serve at the alter and lots were taken of the people within those divisions take to be able to see who would be the person to go and to light the incense in the holy of holy days. Many people never got around to be chosen for it. It was a very big deal, the odds were not in your favor, and on this day Zechariah was chosen. You can consider this the most important day of Zechariah’s life, the most important day of his career as a priest
11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear.
Why was he Gripped with fear? Because in the Old Testament when the angels appeared usually that was not a good sign for the people they appeared too. Not always but most cases. Angels are not what they appeared today like cute people with wings. Angels were considered to be fierce warriors because they were there to do God’s bidding they were there to help secure salvation for men as God’s servants.
Zechariah was going in there hoping everything will turn out right, expecting this was his special day and when he enters this fierce angel is standing before him. What do you think was the first thing he was thinking? maybe, ‘not my day...yea, I knew I wasn’t good enough to come in here and God knew it also, now he is going to make me pay for it...” but the opposite happened...
13 But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John.
Zechariah was not in there praying for a son, how do we know this. If you look back it says “they were both very old” the days of praying for a son was over. He was in there praying for the redemptions of Israel and the angel appeared and said we heard your prayer and you are going to have a son.
14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord...
16 He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
God is getting ready to change the whole game and he is going to do it with Zechariah’s son and he is going to be an intricate part of something great
18 Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”
We don’t look to God for anything Great. We believe if we ask for something great we will just get disappointed We ask for small things thinking we speaking to a small God. The God we worship is not a small God. The small things should be in the context of pursuing the bigger/greater things. When you pursue things that are not right then you will get disappointed. We can underestimate the small things when they connected to the bigger, greater things. Christmas is a call to expect great things from a good God that loves you, from a God who wants to do great things in you.
19 The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. 20 And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”...
Gabriel silences Zechariah. Zechariah should of gotten the message but he didn’t, he is a priest and he still didn’t get it. We know the promises that he made that he will never leave us. It is a sin not to expect great things from a good God. It’s a sin to settle for less, to be less, participate less, not to dream what is good before God and the glory it give him and the redemption of us.
57 When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son...
59 On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, 60 but his mother spoke up and said, “No! He is to be called John.”
61 They said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who has that name.”
62 Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. 63 He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s astonishment he wrote, “His name is John.” 64 Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to speak, praising God.
At this moment after being silenced for months to have to contemplate how great God is and how good he is and how much Zechariah underestimated him. When it all came to pass and God loosened his tongue he blurted out what he wanted to blurt out for months. That God is great and God is good and you can expect big things from him.
Throughout history no one ever believed we could break the sound barrier, light barrier, color barrier, replace the horse and carriage, just a history of things no one every believe and yet we believe those things today, but we still don’t believe God can do great things in us.
Expectations from marriage, expectations of what parenting would be like, expectations of how you should be treated on a job, expectations on society and how you should be treated, expectations on justice. you don’t have to be around long to realize that there is very little you can expect in this world except what Jesus said, in this world you will have trouble but fear not I have come to overcome the world if you head the call to expect great things from a good God.
Notes taken by: lorelllawrence@comcast.net
The notes is for you to have for review in the series, also to reflect on during the week.
God Bless,
Sermon by: Pastor Frederick Williams