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Dr JD Harless
Tri-County Christian Church
December 3,2017
Resources: Commentaries
A SPIRIT OF ENCOURAGEMENT (ELIZABETH)
LUKE 1:5-23, 39-45, & 57-58
Isaac and I are starting a new sermon series this morning that is titled “The Spirit of Christmas.” We often think about God om the Christmas story. And we certainly think about Jesus. But I wonder how often we think about the Holy Spirit? What did he have to do with the Christmas story … if anything. Well he did … in fact he is mentioned several times throughout the story. So we want to share with you this month three of those things that the Holy Spirit did during that miraculous and history changing event.
• He brought a spirit of encouragement to Elizabeth
• He brought a spirit of extravagant praise to Mary
• He brought a spirit of fulfillment to Simeon.
This morning I want to talk to you about the encouragement the Holy Spirit brought Elizabeth … so turn with me to LUKE 1 where we will find this account.
I want to begin by seeing why Elizabeth … and Zachariah, her husband … need encouragement in the first place.
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Let’s begin with VERSE 5-7 … READ … 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. 6 Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. 7 But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.
Don’t you hate the word “BUT”?
• It looks like you would be a very good employee … BUT … we have selected someone else
• I would like to marry you … BUT … I love someone else more
• We would like to come home for Christmas … BUT … there is just too much going on in our lives right now.
We don’t like that word … and I am sure Elizabeth did not like it either!
According to God’s word here … both Zach and Liz were good, godly people. And yet … even though they were living their lives for God … there was a ‘BUT’ in their lives … But they could not get pregnant. And prospects were not looking good … they were both very old.
I am sure they were discouraged because not having children in the 1st Century culture was a painful and embarrassing thing!
• Being childless was a sign that you were being cursed by God.
• Being childless meant no laughing children in the home.
• Being childless meant no free labor in your fields
• And … in that culture … when a man married a woman … they typically built an addition on the side of his parents’ house and lived with them. No grandchildren to bring a smile to grandpa and grandma.
VERSE 25 sheds some light on this discouragement … 25 “The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”
There is no doubt that both Elizabeth … and her husband … had to be discouraged.
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Now let’s look at VERSES 8-10 … READ … 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.
We can see the Holy Spirit at work here … even though Zach and Beth may not have. He is about to set up a meeting with Zach through the angel Gabriel. But he wants to meet him alone … and in a holy place.
Notice the words … he was chosen by lot in VERSE 9. There were approximately 18,000 priests whose job was taking turns serving in the Temple for 2 weeks at a time. Zachariah was one of the 18,000. There were 800 priests in just his tribe alone. A priest could serve his whole life and never be chosen to go into the Temple and burn the incense. The odds of Zach being picked for this opportunity was 1 in 18,000. That is of course if you don’t take into consideration that the Holy Spirit orchestrated this whole event!
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VERSES 11-22 describes what happened in the Temple on that day. I am not going to read this lengthy part of the passage … let me just tell you what happened.
Zach was burning the incense and an angel shows up. Obviously, Zach is surprised and terrified … just like any of us would be. The angel tells Zach that he and his wife Liz were going to have a child … not just any child … someone very special in God’s plan. Zach questions how he would know it would happen and the angel makes him mute until the birth of his child.
The people waiting for Zach to come out were wondering why it was taking so long and when they see him and notice he cannot talk … they knew that Zach had had an encounter with someone out of this world.
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And then comes the blessing of God … READ VERSES 23-25 … 23 When his time of service was completed, he returned home. 24 After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. 25 “The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”
I am going to skip VERSES 26-38 this morning. Isaac will be preaching from that portion of this passage next week.
For the rest of the passage … I would like to share it with you through video so that we all might experience it at a little deeper level …
Show Video … The Visitation (u-tube) … 2:43
There are three avenues in which I believe the Holy Spirit brings encouragement to Zach and Liz … and to us as well. Let’s take a look at them now …
1 … THE HOLY SPIRIT ENCOURAGES PHYSICALLY
As I mentioned earlier … Elizabeth must have been truly discouraged! And it had been that way for years! NO KIDS!
• No joy of their laughter and running through the house.
• No joy of seeing them succeed in school
• No joy of seeing them get married
• No joy of seeing them have kids.
But there was something even bigger than that. In their culture … when the parents grew old … the kids took care of them. There was no such thing as nursing homes or assisted living. So not only was there no joy … but there was no security either. Who is going to take care of us when we cannot take care of ourselves?
Several years ago, I asked my son what he was going to do if I was confined to a wheelchair … He told me he was going to push it out into a busy street. He was joking … I think!
Listen again to how the Holy Spirit encourages Liz … VERSES 24-25 … 24 After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. 25 “The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”
The Holy Spirit opens the womb of an old woman beyond the years of birthing a child … and gives her a child. The same way that he did for Abraham and Sarah.
The Holy Spirit really does meet physical needs.
• Sometimes it is allowing couples to have a child
• Sometimes it is to take away a cancer that is threating your life
• Sometimes it is providing that someone special that you can share your love with.
Whatever it is that the Holy Spirit delivers … it is an encouragement beyond our greatest expectation … just like Liz having a son at her age.
Does he allows give us what we want physically? NO … not allows. Because we don’t allows see the big picture … and what we want may not be the best thing for us … and certainly not the best thing for God’s purpose.
2 … THE HOLY SPIRIT ENCOURAGES EMOTIONALLY
The Holy Spirit not only encouraged Liz physically … but he also encouraged her emotionally.
Look one more time to the last part of VERSE 25 … “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”
I imagine that there is not much that is more emotionally discouraging than to be a disgrace to those around you! And because being barren … not having children … was considered a curse on the woman by God … meaning that God did not like what was going on in her life … it had to be discouraging! Especially if you had been living your life in a righteous way. And according to VERSE 6 … Liz had been living a righteous life!
Some of you might remember Jim Baker … the host of “Praise the Lord” TV show. If you do … you might remember that he was put in prison in 1989 for misappropriation of funds and … having an affair with his secretary … Jessica Hahn … according to him … and raping his secretary according to her. That my friends, is disgrace! And it became obvious when he wrote his book “I Was Wrong” and said so.
Talk about emotionally discouraged!
Liz was truly emotionally discouraged by the disgrace heaped upon her by those in the community.
But the Holy Spirit delivered! Listen to these two verses … VERSES 13b-14 … Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth
And then there is this … VERSE 58 … 58 Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.
Her disgrace had been removed and she was set free emotionally! No longer discouraged … but encouraged!
Have you ever been emotionally discouraged because of someone blaming you of something disgraceful? Maybe you really did do it … like Jim Baker … or maybe you were falsely accused … like Liz. If you are still discouraged and depressed because of that ‘disgraceful thing’ … remember … the Holy Spirit specializes in encouraging us emotionally. And he is busy right now getting that job done.
3 … THE HOLY SPIRIT ENCOURAGES SPIRITUALLY
The Holy Spirit was involved in encouraging Liz physically and emotionally … but more importantly … he encouraged her spiritually!
You might remember that in the last sermon series on MALACHI … I told you that God did not speak to the Jews through prophets for 400 years. The last prophet he spoke through was Malachi. He broke that silence with John the Baptist … Zach and Liz’s kid!
Listen to VERSES 15-17 … 15 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 with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. 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.”
I cannot think of anything more encouraging spiritually than to find out that the 400 years of silence from God is about to be broken. And the child you are going to give birth to is the one that is going to break that silence! GOD IS BACK!
Do you think that encouraged Liz? I do! Listen to VERSES 41-44 … 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Liz … and her yet to be born son, John the Baptist … realized that they were in the presence of the Lord … the one who would bring encouragement to those who were spiritually depressed! And notice who put that realization in her head … VERSE 41 … Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
CONCLUSION
Maybe you are spiritually discouraged today … maybe you think God has forgotten you and you may even be wondering if he even cares at all. Listen to the Holy Spirit who is talking to you right now … God does care! God has sent his Spirit to encourage you in a time when you seem most discouraged! And he as a message for you … just like he had for Liz … God has prepared a way to be set free from anything that might be discouraging you today! Whether it is physical … or emotional … or especially spiritual. The Holy Spirit puts it this way in ISAIAH 9:6 … 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. But not only the government … but whatever discouragement you might have as well!
Will you let the Holy Spirit lift that discouragement from your shoulders? Will you let him encourage you beyond your wildest dreams?
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