IN THE SPIRIT AND POWER OF ELIJAH

Luke 1:5-25 

Key Verse 1:17a

And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah

What do you know about Herod and his leadership? (Mt.2:16-18)  Who were Zechariah and Elizabeth?(vs. 5,6)  How did they live their lives.(v.6)  What personal problem did they have.(v.7)  

-Herod was Roman client king of Israel.  He is known for his colossal building projects in Jerusalem, including rebuilding the Second temple in Jerusalem.

-He was also a very evil, paranoid, and vain madman,  He murdered two of his own sons, to protect his position.  He is the one who ordered that all baby boys in the vicinity of Bethlehem, two years and under to be murdered after hearing of the birth of Jesus from the Magi.

-Zechariah and Elizabeth were a priestly couple.  Both were descended from the line of Aaron.

-Despite such dark times, they were both upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly.

-The personal problem they had was that they had no children, and they were both well along in years.  Elizabeth, humanly was probably beyond the age of childbearing.  This highlights there blameless lives a bit.  Being priests of the Lord, and having no children, they could’ve easily thought that maybe they were cursed by God or being punished. They didn’t compromise, though.  Despite their situation, they remained faithful to the Lord.

What special opportunity came to Zechariah?(vs.9) As Zechariah stood at the altar of incense, what happened?(vs.11)  How did Zechariah respond?(vs. 12) What had evidently been his personal, secret, lifelong prayer topic?(v.13) 

-From the passage, when Zecharaih was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense.

- If this tradition of going into the temple to offer prayers for the people is done only once a year, to be chosen to go into the temple to burn incense.is like winning the lottery. Most priest were never selected to go into the temple to burn incense.

-The angel told Zechariah to not be afraid, and that his prayer had been answered.  His wife was going to bear him a son.

-Zechariah was fearful.  In the bible in this account and in the account of when the angels of God appeared to Isaiah, Isaiah 5 or 6, and to Zechariah, here both were gripped with fear.  This may have something to with, being a sinful person, and basically standing in the presence of God.

-vs. 13b seems to be a key factor in the birth of John the Baptist.  When Zechariah realized that his wife was barren, apparently he adopted the prayer topic for his wife to have a son.  Although it started out as his personal prayer for a son, it yielded one the greatest servants of God who ever lived.

-There may be many times when someone in the ministry encounters a very difficult situation like this.  There are plenty of people who try to comfort them, even with words like, “O I’m sorry that this is God’s will for you.”

-I don’t know the exact vs. now, but there is the verse from Ephesians, “Give thanks for this is your will in Christ Jesus.”  There is also another vs., not sure of the location, “The kingdom of heaven is forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hands on it.” How many people must’ve to tried to comfort and console Zechariah in his situation.  Zechariah didn’t give in to human .  Instead he prayed.

-In the worse case someone may find out that they have a terminal illness.  If they just let it go, and do nothing and die, okay thats God’s will.  If they pray, and get better, that’s God’s will too.  God won’t rebuke a person who seeks his help.  Look at General Naaman, who sought the Lord’s help for his leprosy.  He was a general of an enemy nation and God healed him.  What was the problem, with all those in Israel at that time who also had leprosy.  None of them were cleansed, why?  Apparently they just didn’t take to the step to go see Elisha who was in their own backyard.  

-So Zechariah sets a very good example, in how to pray and seek God’s, of course for mission, and also our own personal prayer topics, with great persistence.  The fruit it bore as we know just didn’t serve his personal situation, but it produced one of the greatest prophets, and servants of God in the Bible. 

-The people who pray are the ones who help the will of God to be manifested, and they are active participants.  Prayer coupled with serving the mission of course is a very powerful weapon.

-Those who don’t pray, are kind of like someone standing on a river bank, just watching the river of God’s will and work flow by.  Figuratively, Zechariah by his prayer, placed himself right in the middle of the river. 

What was to be the name of Zechariah’s son?(v. 13)  What kind of man was John to be?(vs. 14,15)  What was the extent of his mission?(v.15,16,17)  How powerfully would he serve his mission?(vs.17)  Think about how God used so powerfully Zechariah’s prayer for a son.

-The name of Zechariah’s son was to be John.  People, in some cases like to name their kids after themselves.  In this case, however,  God made it clear what the boys name was to be.  It also showed that this son was to be set aside, wholly for God’s purpose,  not Zechariah’s.  

-John would be a joy and delight to his parents.  Many children are not a joy and delight to their parents.  Sometimes children as they grow up become angry and rebellious.  Instead of becoming productive members of society, they do other things like indulge their sinful desires, disrupt the lives of others, and even worse.

-Because of mission to bring many of the people of Israel back to the Lord their God

-The more he served his mission the more he made himself less attractive, and the more moved peoples attention to the Christ.

-When you are waiting at the grocery store checkout line, you can see all those magazines where people are just trying to magnify their own names.

-Yet, John lived to magnify the name of Jesus.  His message was very simple.  “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near; “Repent and produce fruit in keeping with repentance,” and “One more powerful that I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”  

-John made himself less attractive, he wore camels skin, and ate locusts and wild honey. 

-vs. 14,“For he will be great in the sight of the Lord.  He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled wit the Holy Spirit even from birth.” 

-Fermented drink such as wine, beer, liquor, etc. represent the spirit of the world.  John is not to be influenced at all by the spirit of the world, but be fully devoted to the mission to bring God’s people back.  

-vs. 16,17 say, “many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God.  And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah.”

-John’s message was very simple.  In Matt. 3:2 he preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”  In Luke 3:7a, he says, “You brood of vipers!  Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?  Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”

-Many people went to him to hear his message and to be baptized.  In Luke 3: 5, it says that people went out to him from Jerusalem, all Judea, and the region around the Jordan.  The whole countryside was going to hear John’s message and repent of their sins.  

-When it says that he would go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, it was comparing him to what Elijah did during the time of king Ahab and Jezebel.  The leadership in Israel at that time was very corrupt.  Jezebel, the wife of king Ahab, had lead the nation to worship the idol Baal.  She even maintained Ball prophets who  lead the people in worshiping the idol.  Elijah stood up to the leadership, and challenged them to repent of Baal worship and worship the Lord.  In that climactic even where he held a challenge with the 450 Baal prophets, they wound up being killed, and Elijah became fugitive fleeing from Queen Jezebel.

-In a similar way, when the Pharisees and Sadduccees come out to where John was, he called them a brood of vipers, and he told them to repent in keeping with repentance.  He also rebuked their pride in thinking that they were something, because they were descended from Abraham.  John told them that God could raise up children of Abraham from out of the stones.  He also told them that the ax is at the root of the trees, and any tree that does not produce good fruit in keeping with repentance would be cut down and thrown into the fire.  Like Elijah, John challenged the established leadership to repent.  We know of him even rebuking king Herod for taking his brother Philips wife, and this of course lead to John’s death after Herod had him locked up in prison.

-John clearly stated to those who came to him in Luke3:11, that while he baptized with water, one who come after him who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  

How did Zechariah respond to the angel’s message?(v. 18) As an Israelite priest, what were some historical events he should have been able to recall? (Gen.18:14,25:21;1Sam.1:6,10)  How did the angel rebuke and train Zechariah? (v. 20-22)

-After Zechariah heard the message of the angel about the birth of his son, Zechariah could only say, “How can I be sure of this?  I am an ole man and my wife is well along in years.”

-Maybe in surprise, he forgot about the prayers he had said concerning this matter.  Also the Lord he served, is the Almighty God.  Nothing is too hard for the Lord, (Gen.  ).  He should have at least been able to recall the example of Abraham, Isaac, and maybe Hannah’s prayed for son before the priest Eli.  

-So he said words that were unbelieving, and not at all pleasing to the angel.

-As a result the angel gave him silence training, telling him that because he didn’t believe the angels words, he would be silent until it happened. 

How was Elizabeth blessed through Zechariah’s prayer? (vs. 24,25)

-In vs. 25 when it says, “The Lord has done this for me,”  “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”, it really shows how being barren affected her.  She was filled with a sense of disgrace.  Since she had no children, with age it didn’t even get any better but got worse, because when people have children for the most part, they can see their children grow up, establish their families and place in societies, and even have Grand children.  Yet, Elizabeth couldn’t enjoy any of this as she grew older.  

-Now, God was having mercy on her because of Zechariah’s prayer according to his message.  All her disgrace and darkness due to her barrenness was gone.  She could hum, a joyful hymn in her heart.