12-1-21 Grace-Tucson Advent Sermon

Pastor Tim Patoka

Angelic Announcements

Midweek Advent 2021

God Prepares His People Luke 1:5-20 1) Believe God’s Impossible News 2) Listen to Be Prepared You need to listen to what’s true in order to be prepared for what’s going to happen. As we approach Christmas, there are a number of special events happening around us. Perhaps you want to include some of the ones we have going on in Tucson like Winterhaven’s decorated houses and fun festivities, the ZooLights to see the animals under the twinkle of Christmas light. Before you do any of these, you’ll want to prepare yourself beforehand – to look at the weather forecast so you can dress appropriately, to see where and when these things are happening so you can show up at the right time and right place. Because if you don’t look up the right information or if you ignore everything you read, you might be the only one showing up for something that may not even be happening.

If you want to be prepared for what is going to happen, you need to listen to what is truly speaking about it. That’s some advice that Zechariah could have used when the angel Gabriel announced John the Baptist’s upcoming birth to him. At first, Zechariah did not think that this impossible news could be true and, as a result, did not listen to it. But after receiving a sign that he would never forget, Zechariah soon did believe and listen to it so that he and Elizabeth could be prepared for it all. It was through the angel Gabriel that he prepared Zechariah and Elizabeth to be parents and to send him off for the special task that God has appointed for him. And in the same way, God prepares his people today by telling us his impossible news in his true Word so that, by our listening to it, we can be prepared for what God is going to do.

1) Believe God’s Impossible News Zechariah was quite surprised when he saw the angel Gabriel and heard his angelic announcement. He was busy burning incense in the Temple in Jerusalem and his mind was likely focused on what he was doing. It was a huge honor to be the one burning incense and, because this person was chosen by lot, it was an honor that statistically speaking happened only once in a person’s lifetime. Zechariah was also surprised because of where he was. The altar of incense was inside the Temple, within eyesight of the curtain that shielded the Holy of Holies from people’s sight. The last thing he would have expected to find in the Temple was anybody else, let alone an angel!

Yet the angel Gabriel made his presence known by standing on the right side of the altar.

After calming Zechariah’s nerves, he says, “Your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear a son for you, and you are to name him John.” (Luke 1:13 EHV) The impossible is going to happen! After long last and who knows how many prayers, Zechariah and Elizabeth 1

Pastor Tim Patoka

Angelic Announcements

Midweek Advent 2021

will finally be blessed with a child of their own. And God has plans for this child. In addition to calling him John, “he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to drink wine or beer.

He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. 16He will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God. 17He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, to turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to prepare a people who are ready for the Lord.” (Luke 1:15-17 EHV) In addition to living as a Nazirite for all his life, John will be God’s instrument to prepare the people for Jesus’ visible coming by turning the people’s hearts back to God through his baptism of repentance. This was all a doozy for Zechariah to hear at a most unexpected time.

And what was Zechariah’s response to this? Doubt. Not believing in it. Letting physical impossibilities invalidate these angelic announcements. We can’t necessarily blame him though.

He and Elizabeth was beyond the years of bearing children and they had tried and asked for God’s assistance. They were convinced that the ship of them being parents had sailed off into the sunset, never to return again. Not only did Gabriel announce the impossible birth to an aged woman, but also what all this child was going to do. And although Zechariah was a priest who knew his Old Testament Scriptures, he still responded in the instinctual way we sinful humans do – doubting the impossible, even when it’s coming from God. Because isn’t that our first reaction to something that’s impossible? If I were to say that tomorrow we’re going to get 3 feet of snow, you would doubt me even though I hope you think that I am a trustworthy guy. We also do the same with what God tells us even though he will never lie to us. To say that I, a sinner, can be part of God’s family and one of his beloved children? That’s impossible! To say that my spiritual dead heart can be made alive and turned to God? That’s also impossible! To say that a barren, aged woman named Elizabeth became pregnant? Likewise.

Yet God will fulfill his promises, no matter how impossible they may be. As we count down the days to Christmas and hear the other angelic announcements, we see that Christmas’ events is one impossible action followed by another. The barren birth of John the Baptist. The virgin birth of Jesus Christ. And so much more. And when you include what else God promises us, we see how common it is for God to what cannot be done – to secure our salvation through Jesus Christ, to make us his children through faith in his Son, to declare us at peace with him now and forever. When God tells us what is going to happen, there is no reason to doubt him.

Rather, we have every reason to believe him and all he says.

2) Listen to Be Prepared When it comes to God preparing us for what he is going to do, the first step to believe what he says. Because if we don’t, we will pay no attention to it. After believing what God says, 2

Pastor Tim Patoka

Angelic Announcements

Midweek Advent 2021

we are then to listen to it so that we may put it into practiced and be prepared before it even happens.

We again look to Zechariah to see what shouldn’t be done. After hearing Gabriel’s angelic announcement, he asks for a sign to persuade him to believe when he says, “How can I be sure of this?” (Luke 1:18 EHV) Gabriel pulls rank and tells him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God and was sent to speak to you in order to tell you this good news. 20Now listen, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things happen, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled at the proper time.” (Luke 1:19-20 EHV) Gabriel had stood before God himself and came on direct orders to tell Zechariah this good news. Gabriel has no reason to lie. Plus, to question God’s messenger is to question God himself.

Gabriel gets Zechariah to listen with believing ears by giving him the sign he asked for – Zechariah would be unable to speak from that day until John was named. As we see in the verses after what we read, Zechariah fully believed and listened to Gabriel’s angelic announcement. It was by this believing and listening that God prepared Zechariah. What to communicate to the people when he left the Temple, what to prepare his wife Elizabeth for, and what to ask for in a 1st century Israelite baby shower (if they even had such things back then).

God also prepared Zechariah and Elizabeth to send John off for his appointed task when he grew up so that they wouldn’t be helicopter parents and frustrate God’s plans.

We know that we can believe what God says he will do, even if it is impossible things.

As such, we would be wise to listen to his true Word so that he may prepare us accordingly. As we prepare to celebrate Christmas, we listen to its impossible events with believing ears of how our Savior was born to us. As we hear of God’s impossible blessings of forgiveness, life, and salvation for sinners like ourselves, let us listen to what God has done for us individually with believing ears. As we dig into our Bibles to learn what else God has promised us, let us listen to it with believing ears so that we are prepared for whatever the Lord will do just as he intended.

Amen.

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