Please turn in your copy of God's Word to Luke chapter 1. I'd like to read the next portion beginning at verse 5. There was in the days of Herod the king of Judah, a certain priest named Zacharias of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.

But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren and they were both well advanced in years. And so it was that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense. And then the angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.

But the angel said to him, Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for Your prayer is heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.

He will also go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. And Zacharias said to the angel, how shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.' And the angel answered and said to him, I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God and was sent to speak to you and to bring you these glad tidings. But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place because you did not believe My words, which will be fulfilled in their own time. And the people waited for Zacharias and marveled that he lingered so long in the temple.

But when he came out he could not speak to them, and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple. For he beckoned to them and remained speechless. So it was as soon as the days of his service were completed that he departed to his own house. Now after those days his wife Elizabeth conceived and she hid herself five months saying, thus the Lord has dealt with me in the days when he looked on me to take away my reproach among people." Thus far the reading of God's holy word. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever.

Heavenly Father, your Word is pure, refined Seven times, enduring forever. It is truth, and in it is life. Lord we ask that you might minister to us life this morning through your Word, that you would set us apart to be vessels fit for your service, that you would teach us, Lord, may your Word Convict us where we are in sin. Comfort us where we are in sorrow. Instruct us where we are ignorant.

But Lord, may we know You as we hear Your Word. May we learn more of you. That we may love you with a deeper and more fervent affection. So, Father, we ask for this ministry of Your Spirit in our midst this morning. In Jesus' name, Amen.

We saw last week that Luke had set out to give an ordered account of the life and the ministry of Jesus Christ, and of the establishment of the churches, of the conquering of all that went before the Gospel. The conversion of people, the changing of hearts, the changing of lives, through that the changing of the course of cities and nations. The fulfilling of what Jesus promised when he was about to leave this earth, when he told his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded you." And so, Luke wanted to give this ordered account, to set these things in order, and to lay out this narrative. And so he does now, begins this narrative in a very logical and ordered fashion, beginning in the days of Herod, King of Judah. King of Judah.

He goes to focus on a priest named Zacharias, who was of the division of Abijah. And he gives to us here this story of the announcing of the birth of the one who would announce the coming of Christ. He's backing up a couple steps to give us a full account, a full history. When this angel comes to speak to Zechariah, This is the first time in 400 years that God has spoken to his people. This was, Luke tells us, in the days of Herod.

Now just to put this in context let me give you a little background about the days of Herod in which this announcement came. Herod, that he is speaking of here, was raised as a Jew. He was the son of a man called Antipater. He was born about 70 BC, a little bit before. His father was an Edomite, so that's the area east of the Dead Sea, whose ancestors had converted to Judaism.

So he was raised a Jew. And Antipater, Herod's father, was an important official, government official, in the Hasmonean or Hasmonean kingdom. Now what's the Hasmonean kingdom? Well, you remember Israel's history over these last few centuries. They were conquered by Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar came in and destroyed the city, raised the city. They were a rebellious people who had been doing what was right in their own eyes. They were following the abominations of the nations that lived in the land of Canaan before them. Nebuchadnezzar under the Babylonians conquered Israel in about 600 BC and laid Jerusalem waste. Some Israelites then had returned to the land of Israel under Zerubbabel after the end of the seventy year captivity.

More Israelites came back seventy years after that under Ezra. That was in the period that they were being ruled by the Medes and the Persians who had conquered Babylon. And then in 332 BC, they surrendered, they capitulated the city of Jerusalem to Alexander the Great as he was in his campaign against the Medes and the Persians conquering the known world, which he did in a very short period of time. And then when Alexander the Great died, then they fell under this lucid rule. When Alexander the Great's kingdom was divided among his four generals.

They divided up the Greek Empire. And it was in this era that the events of Daniel 8 occurred. Remember these are prophecies that Daniel was given. He was told to seal up these prophecies for the time was many years in the future. But it is in this era that the events of Daniel 8 occurred under Antiochus Epiphanes.

He was a Seleucid king, or a king over that part of the empire. And he was away fighting in Egypt when it was rumored, This would be about the early 160s BC. He's fighting in Egypt when there was a rumor that he died. But as one writer said, those rumors of his demise were greatly exaggerated. But they didn't know that in Jerusalem and the high priest that he had deposed raised an army and revolted against the high priest that Antiochus Epiphanes had installed in his place and sent him away.

Well, Antiochus was not happy about that. And when they reported to him, history records that, raging like a wild animal, he set out from Egypt and took Jerusalem by storm. He ordered his soldiers to cut down without mercy those whom they met and to slay those who took refuge in their houses. There was a massacre of young and old, a killing of women and children, a slaughter of virgins and infants The Maccabees tells us the book of Maccabees and in the space of three days 80, 000 were lost 40, 000 meeting a violent death in the same number being sold into slavery. He came back.

He outlawed Judaism He ordered an altar to Zeus to be erected in the temple. He banned circumcision and ordered pigs to be slaughtered on the altar of the temple. He did everything he could to enrage the Jews, to desecrate the temple what was holy, and he succeeded. A few years later, under the Maccabeans, the Jews revolted and they were able to successfully recapture and cleanse the temple. And it's that re-cleansing of the temple that is celebrated in Hanukkah today, the Festival of Lights.

At that time, the Maccabeans established what is called the Hasmonean Jewish Kingdom. That lasted until the days of Herod. We are in Antipater's time, so in the 60s BC, was a time of great political intrigue because this is a time when Rome is conquering the Greek Empire and pushing back its empire on the eastern front. And so Antipater, Herod's father, recognized that the Romans were gaining ascendancy. Maybe he understood Daniel's prophecies and understood that the Roman Empire was going to conquer the Greek Empire, as Daniel prophesied.

In any event, he was a skillful politician. And he put his loyalties with the Romans, first siding with Pompey when he came through and conquered Judea and broke down the wall of Jerusalem. He went into the temple, but he did not desecrate anything. Unlike Antiochus, he had a respect for the sanctity of the temple. But he did break down the wall and there was destruction in Jerusalem.

So Antipater is siding with Pompey. When Pompey is killed, then he turned to put his loyalties with Caesar. And through his political skill and ambition, Antipater was placed in charge of collecting taxes and settling the disputes in Judea. Essentially, he was the governor in that time. But remember this is a time of a lot of intrigue and a lot of power vacuums.

But with his influence he was able to get his sons, Herod and Herod's brother, appointed to governorships. Herod was appointed to a governor in Galilee, and this is Herod that we might know as Herod the Great. And from there, with his intrigue and political cunning, Herod became king of Judea in 37 BC, essentially ending the Hasmonean Empire. But he was astute enough to realize that he needed allies in that camp as well, and he was able to marry into the Hasmonean family. And so he essentially ended their empire but marrying into that family and giving his loyalties but giving his political loyalties to Rome became the governor, the king in Judea.

That was in 37 BC, about 18 years later he rebuilt the temple. This is the great temple. He built it on a more magnificent scale than what had been rebuilt by Nehemiah in Ezra. He did it very quickly in about a year and a half, although work continued on that temple for another 80 years. He was a very growing up or coming of age in this kind of an era he was obsessed with power.

He was a wicked man. He was brutal, absolutely brutal and ruthless in securing this power and maintaining it. He put to death his one wife. He killed his brother-in-law. He killed three of his own sons, and he killed 300 military leaders, and he killed many other people, anybody, anybody, like like Stalin, anybody that that he had any suspicion about he killed.

He was a very wicked man. It is this king that ordered the death of all the babies under two years of age because the Magi had come asking about a king of the Jews. That's how paranoid he was. That's how wicked he was. So ruthless he was to maintain his power.

This is the days of Herod. That opens our narrative. Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth lived in evil times. They lived under an evil king. It is certainly as evil, if not more evil, than the rulers that we live under.

Although some may dispute that, I suppose. But they didn't give up hope. They did not give up hope. They were righteous people. They were righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless.

They were not pragmatic. They didn't say, well look, Herod is in power, look at, he's killing everybody, We need to do what we need to do in order to stay alive, in order to eat. Bible says that he and his wife were righteous. They were walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, they were blameless. Now, we'll misunderstand Luke if we do not understand what he means by righteous.

See, we sometimes think of the righteous as those who do what is right. Someone who walks blamelessly, someone who speaks the truth in his heart, someone who doesn't slander with his tongue or take up a reproach against his friends someone who respects his Neighbors chastity his property his name his life his health So we think of someone who does all these things as as righteous So in our view the righteous are those who fear the Lord and despise an evil person. Someone who makes a promise, as Psalm 15 says, and when things don't turn out the way that they thought they were going to turn out, they keep their word even to their own hurt. When we see somebody who is generous with their time, generous with their money, with their resources, skills, helping people who are in need without sending a bill afterwards, We think, now there's a good man, there's a righteous person. But see, if we think of it that way, then we misunderstand the Gospel.

Then the law becomes this 12-step program for how we can be prosperous, successful, respected among men, and have a good life. It becomes a 12-step program to how to be an excellent wife, or how to raise wonderful, obedient children. How to look good. But that's not what Luke is talking about. That's not the righteousness that the Bible speaks of.

That's the righteousness that Paul speaks of when he says of the Jews that they being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. Rather the righteous are those we learn in Romans 4 are those who believe, who believe, not those who work. It's those to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, but those to whom he by faith, those to whom he imputes his righteousness, which is something that is received by faith to those who believe. It's not those who have an outward sign like circumcision. It's not something that is through the law, but it's a righteousness of faith.

So who are Zacharias and Elizabeth, these people who are righteous? These are people who are righteous because of the righteousness of Christ imputed to them, to us by faith. And you notice what happens, what is the fruit, what is the result of those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The fruit of that is that when the Holy Spirit is dwelling with us, when we are walking with the Lord, when we have been crucified and the life that we live in the flesh we live by faith in the Son of God. When Christ lives in us then the fruit of that is that we are enabled to walk in the commandments and ordinances of the Lord.

Not because we are seeking to gain the Lord's approval, because we aren't accepted by these things, but because of our love and devotion to the Lord, because the Holy Spirit is with us. It is our desire. It is our joy. It is our privilege to walk in the commandments and ordinances of the Lord. It is also our duty as well.

So these two are righteous. In the midst of a very wicked nation, in the midst of a lot of perversity, in the midst of many Jews who were far from the kingdom. Remember this is the era of the Sadducees and the Pharisees. These are the people among whom Zacharias lived and worked. The Pharisees, the Sadducees, all the people that Jesus pronounced the woes upon, who said they were blind guides, who said their righteousness was no good.

These are the people that Zechariah worked among, them. And yet he and his wife were righteous. They had not given up hope. They had not forgotten that God had promised to send his son. They had not forgotten that God promised that the Messiah would come and turn the fathers to their children and the children to their fathers.

Fathers. Elizabeth was barren. One of the hardest trials that a righteous wife would ever have to endure is to want children and not be able to have any. Elizabeth and Zacharias were old, advanced in years, past the years of childbearing. And we see at the end that they were reproached.

Elizabeth was reproached among the people. It's the attitude that the disciples even displayed at times. Lord, whose sin that this man was born blind? You can imagine all the people who were thinking, maybe even saying, what sin have you committed that you don't have any children? God hasn't seen fit to give you any children.

God had judged them righteous and blameless. Because they, by faith, were waiting for the coming of the Messiah. They were looking forward to that. They hadn't forgotten, even though it has been 400 years since there had been any revelation, any prophet of any sort that had spoken God's Word, Malachi was the last one. But they hadn't given up hope.

But the people, the people reproached Elizabeth. Zacharias now is serving as a priest before God In verse 8, in the order of his division, the priests were divided into 24 divisions, sections. Now he wasn't descended from Abijah because in the captivity, when they returned from captivity only four of the 24 divisions came back. And Abijah wasn't one of those. Only descendants of those four divisions came back.

And so they had reapportioned the priests that did come back and assigned those that did come back to the original 24 divisions. And so Abijah's division continues to go by that name even though none of his descendants are serving as priests anymore. Each section, each division would have served one week. So that means that in the course of a year they would ordinarily have served twice, two weeks in Jerusalem. The other times they would have lived among the people throughout the land of Judah.

Many lived near Jerusalem. We were told that Zacharias, later on, that he lived in the hill country around Jerusalem because that's where Mary went. Now it may sound like an easy job working two weeks a year, But let me just Put a little context behind that work the Levitical duties Were hard repetitive work on a daily basis They had to fill the laver For the sacrifices They had to remove the ashes from the altar of burnt offering. They had to prepare fresh wood and put it upon the altar. They would then announce the evening and the morning sacrifice with the trumpets.

Then they would have to slay the lamb and collect the blood that poured out of the lamb as its arteries were cut for the special uses that it had in the sacrificial system. They had to lay the sacrifice upon the altar. They had to salt the sacrifice because nothing could be offered that wasn't salted. In fact, Mark even tells us that. No offering was made without salting it they did then cleanse the candlestick and replace the wick and replenish the oil they had to replace the refill the showbread leading all this leading up to the high point of the of this whole service which was the offering of incense on the altar of incense.

The incense Remember that was composed of those four special spices that the Israelites were forbidden to mix on their own. And then offered with coals taken from the altar of burnt offering. So all this had to be done. It was exacting and repetitive work and it was hard work, lugging sacrifices around lambs and butchering. Essentially, it was a butchering job.

And so there was a high division of labor. And every family, if you go back and read in Chronicles, well, every family had different responsibilities that were specifically assigned to them. So we can read in, for example, 1 Chronicles 23. In verse 24, These were the sons of Levi by their fathers' houses, heads of the fathers' houses, as they were counted individually by the number of their names who did the work for the service of the house of the Lord from the age of 20 years and above. For David said the Lord God of Israel has given rest to his people that they may dwell in Jerusalem forever and also to the Levites that they shall no longer carry the tabernacle or any of the articles for its service.

For by the last words of David, the Levites were numbered from twenty years old and above, because their duty was to help the sons of Aaron in the service of the house of the Lord, in the courts and in the chambers, in the purifying of all holy things, in the work of the service of the house of God, both with the showbread, in the fine flour for the grain offering, with the unleavened cakes which is baked in the pan, with what is mixed with all kinds of measures and sizes to stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord and likewise that evening and in every presentation of a burnt offering to the Lord on the Sabbaths and new moons and on the feast By the number according to the ordinance governing them regularly before the Lord that they should attend to the needs of the tabernacle of meeting the needs of the holy place and the needs of the sons of Aaron their brethren in the work of the house of the Lord that there was a lot to be done and you notice this whole service which took a couple hours all this preparation and work and cleansing, was repeated twice every day, morning and evening.

Of course, that's why the Levites only served for 25 years. At 50 years of age, they retired from the heavy lifting. But they would continue, Numbers 8 tells us, they continued to work there. They just didn't have to do the heavy work. They did the less strenuous work.

They were more of the supervisors and managers. But you notice also there was the mention of the Levitical duty was the providing of music at every morning and evening sacrificial service. They used their voices, They were singers and they also used instruments. And that was their only duty. Praising and thanking God in song, 1 Chronicles 9 says, and these are the musicians, chief of the fathers of the Levites, who remaining in the chambers, those are the things around the temple, were free from all other duties because they were employed in that work day and night, morning and evening.

They were the ones who praised God, singing and making music. Psalm 92 makes reference to this daily routine. Psalm 92 opens a song, or song for the Sabbath day. It is good to give thanks unto the Lord, to sing praises unto your name almost high, to show forth your loving kindness in the morning and your faithfulness every night upon an instrument of ten strings and upon the sultry upon the harp with a solemn sound. This is all going on twice every day in the temple.

So It's a busy time. But there's another aspect of this service each morning, and that is the evening and the morning prayer. That was something that began in the days of Nehemiah. And we know the approximate times of these evening and morning services because the book of Acts makes reference to them. It says, we know the morning sacrifice was about 9 a.m., the third hour.

But the preparations, of course, would have had to commence a couple hours before that. And that's why at the day of Pentecost, there is a large crowd gathered in the temple when the Holy Spirit fell upon the disciples there and they began speaking. Remember what people said of them, that they're drunk. And Peter got up and said, No, they're not drunk because it's only the third hour of the day. They were there for the morning prayer service.

And in Acts 3-1 we read that Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour, or about 3 p.m. So twice a day we have these services that are continuing and Luke tells us here that it's the custom according to the custom of the priests to assign these specific duties by lot each day and some of the historians give us a little more detail of that a lot assignment but the the duty of offering the incense was the being the high point of the service that was assigned by lot for each service so their regular duties apparently all the other duties were assigned by lot by day, but the offering of the incense, what Zacharias does in our text, was assigned twice a day, once, and typically given the numbers of priests and the number of times that this would be done, this typically might only be done once in the life of a priest. Twice a day there have been about 700 and some of these offerings each year and generally over the course of 20 years you're looking at 28, 000 or so offerings.

So probably only once in a priest's life would he be given this duty. He would have had an assistant to help him take the coals off of the altar of burnt offering and to put in order The incense and they would have gone into the holy place Where the assistant would have laid the coals out and prepared the incense and then and then left leaving Zacharias alone waiting until the time of the it was time in the service to offer the incense. And so on this day, in about four, five or six B.C., it's Zacharias' duty and privilege to offer the incense. And while he does that, the people are outside in the court praying. The whole temple would have been in silence, silent at this moment.

Revelation describes, gives us a picture of it. It tells us in chapter 5, I believe, that the incense Are the prayers of the Saints and in chapter 8 though it it says when he? Opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven for about half an hour And I saw the seven angels who stand before God and to them were given seven trumpets. And then another angel having a golden censer came and stood at the altar and he was given much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints ascended before God from the angels hand." So that's what's happening.

It's silent throughout the temple. All the people are praying, Luke tells us, out in that court. And Zacharias is standing alone at this altar, at the high point of the service. The whole point of the sacrifice is to prepare the way of the people, the way to the throne of grace, the way to the Father. And now, that way having been prepared by that sacrifice that was pointing to Christ, now comes the time of offering the prayers unto God.

Zechariah offered his prayer to God. Luke doesn't tell us the text of the prayer, but generally those were known. Asking God to remember his people, to gather the scattered ones into his holy courts, to keep his statutes and to do his good pleasure. And it's right at this time as Zacharias is offering his prayers to God that the angel Gabriel is standing beside him. And all of a sudden he notices, actually it's on his right side, right side of the altar.

Luke records that detail for us. And Zacharias is afraid. That's the response of every person who stands in the presence of an angel. These are the ones who stand before God. This is Gabriel, the one who came to announce to Mary that she would have a baby a little later.

And the one who came to Daniel as well. It's one of, I think one of a very few, one of two angels I think that are named in the Bible. Interestingly Zacharias' name means Jehovah remembers. Jehovah remembers. Zechariah, Yah is the word for Jehovah, and Zechariah is to remember.

Jehovah remembers and Gabriel stands beside him and says, Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard. Zacharias' prayer that he was offering up, that he and righteous people like him and Simeon and Anna had been offering up for 400 years because God always has His remnant. God always has His people who are faithful, who are righteous, who believe. He has His believers, as he told Elijah. God says to him, The Lord has remembered Zacharias.

And God is going to send your wife a son. And his name will be called John. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb, and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord. He will go before him, that is, who is that? He is the Messiah.

He will go before the Messiah in the power and spirit of Elijah and then to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just and to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. That's what Zechariah was praying for. That the Lord would make ready his people. That the Lord would send his Messiah. And Angel Gabriel came to him.

Right? As those prayers were being offered to say those prayers have been answered. That's what we need to remember too. We need to remember. This has been 400 years that the people had been praying.

That they had seen all manner of desecration committed on the temple. Jerusalem had been conquered by countless armies, ruled under countless leaders who didn't care anything about God. And yet the righteous were praying. They were praying that God would accomplish and do what he had promised to do and send the Messiah. That he would rebuild the temple.

That's the faith that we need to have today. That God will do what He has promised to do. He left His disciples and said, Go, disciple the nations, baptizing them and teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you, and though I am coming again as you see me go." As the angel told the disciples that. He is coming again. It's been a long time.

It's been a couple thousand years and we don't know how much longer it will be. But we know what we are to be doing. We are to be praying. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That means that we can pray for Christ's kingdom to come.

We can pray for abortion to be ended in this land and we can pray believing that God will do it, that He is powerful enough to do it, that He has promised to do it. We can pray with the faith that Zechariah and Elizabeth had that God would come. We can pray for an end of government schools, for an establishment of Christian education. We can pray that our land is healed and turned back to the Lord. We can pray that the gospel goes forward, because it's the gospel that does all this.

The gospel is the power of God to salvation, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. So let's not be discouraged. Let's not give up hope. Let's not compromise with this world. Let's not be pragmatic and go along to get along, but rather by the grace of God pray that we might be those who believe, those who live each day in faith and repentance, putting off of the old nature, renewing our minds, putting on the new nature, being clothed in obedience, praying and working as our Savior calls us to do, knowing that it isn't by our might, it's not by our power, but it is by His Holy Spirit.

That's whom we have to depend upon. That's how Zacharias and Elizabeth were living. Let us pray. Living. Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for what you have written to us in your word that we might be thoroughly furnished to every good work. Your Word is profitable for doctrine, for correction, for reproof, for instruction and training in righteousness Lord teach your word to us because we want to know more of you We want our heart to beat with your heart to love what you love To have fellowship with you to know Your presence to know your power as we work your power that is that is made perfect in our weakness. We thank you Lord for the weapons that you have given to us, not carnal and fleshly weapons, but those that are mighty in God for casting down strongholds in every argument that exalts itself against you. Father, may we be those who do arm ourselves with your armor and not this world's armor. Father, we ask for your blessing.

We ask that you would encourage and strengthen us by your word, that you would fill us and feed us today. In Jesus' name, Amen. Hi, everyone. Welcome to the 2018 U of T University of California. I'm going to be talking about the U of T University of California.

I'm going to be talking about the