Zechariah and Elizabeth The Life of Jesus Christ - Part 5
The Teaching Ministry of Rick Trice
December 15, 2002
Trinity
Scripture:
Matthew 1:1-17
Luke 1:5 - 25; 39 - 45; 57-66
Acts 1:6-11
Revelation 1:19-3:22
ZECHARIAH:
(READ Luke 1:5-22)
SIGNIFICANT FACTS ABOUT ZECHARIAH:
*name meant in Hebrew “whom YAHWEH remembered”
*priest in the order of Abijah in the temple in
-responsible for lighting the incense inside the temple
*descended from Aaron
*upright (blameless) in the sight of God
*elderly and childless
*had a visitation from Gabriel
*Gabriel foretold that he would be the father of John the Baptist.
(This mirrored the prophecy given to Abraham and Sarah)
*he doubted the prophecy and lost his speech
*it is believed he was eventually murdered in the temple at the orders of King Herod, who also murdered John the Baptist
Here was a man of faith and righteousness in God’s eyes, living at a time when history was about to be radically changed. He was asked to be a witness to God’s plan....and he doubted!
Let’s contrast him to his wife:
ELIZABETH: (READ LUKE 1:23-25; 39-45; 57)
WHAT WE KNOW OF
*(Hebrew): “God is my oath”
*also descended from Aaron
*also righteous and blameless before God
*the mother of John the Baptist
*relative of Mary, mother of Jesus
In contrast to her husband,
When she was visited by her cousin Mary, baby John jumped in her tummy, and she was filled with the Holy Spirit, and immediately had faith and knew what was going on. (Luke 1:42ff)
ZECHARIAH FULFILLS HIS WITNESS: (READ LUKE 1:57-66)
If Zechariah and Elizabeth lived at the threshold of a revolutionary time, and took the opportunities given them to be great witnesses, then how are we today, living at the threshold of a similarly revolutionary event, to respond?
CHRIST IS RETURNING (READ ACTS 1:6-11)
If the Bible is God breathed, then every word of it is true. And the Bible predicts over and over the return of Jesus Christ, and the coming of the end times of the earth.
Those who are His, and in His hand, will be spared. Those who are not His will suffer eternal separation from Him. End of story.
Now, I’m not preaching numerology here. But if the cataclysmic events of the Bible occur at roughly every 1000 - 2000 years (the creation to the flood; the flood to the peak of David’s reign over Israel; the decline of Israel in to captivity till the birth of Christ; the ascendecncy of the church of Jesus Christ until our times), it would appear that we may also be on another threshold.
So are we prepared? Is our righteousness such that we can withstand the events surrounding Christ’s return? The truth is that we are only righteous through the shed blood of Jesus.
But if we dare call ourselves righteous and don’t take every opportunity to share the revolutionary good news of Jesus Christ with every one we come in contact with, we may have our mouths shut.
Jesus told John in Revelation that there were seven churches that were characteristic of modern Christians.
The most praiseworthy was the church in
The worst one was the church of Laodicia (rev.3:14-16), and Jesus was about to “spew them out” of His mouth.
Which type of Christian do you want to be?
(c)2002 Richard C. Trice
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