Word of Salvation – Vol. 46 No. 46 – December 2001

Burden Lifting

Sermon by Rev. A. Esselbrugge on Luke 1:5-7

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 40:1-11

Suggested Hymns: BoW: 503; 73a; 470; 193; 394; 358

Brothers and sisters, young people, boys and girls,

It's getting to that time of year again isn't it?  You can feel it in the air, there's something about how we react to the warming weather and the general air of anticipation for holidays and the new year, that puts an air of increasing momentum into our days.  It was with something of a shock last week that I realised just how close the end of the year is.

Do you ever ask yourself where it's all going?  We can pick up the Bible, and in one hand we hold God's revelation of Himself through approximately 6,000 years.  We read it, and it all seems so compressed, and God seems to have given this constant and steady revelation of Himself so that it's almost as though there was no time when He didn't speak to His people except for the last 2000 years.

Of course, it doesn't take us too long to realise that there have also been long periods when the people of God didn't hear anything from Him, except what they already had in His Word.  It would appear that we are in one of those periods now, where the Lord tests our trust in Him.  But God's plan is always on schedule.  If we look back, that's been evident from the beginning.  First He created the heavens and the earth, then in six days He populated the earth with animals and plants and people.  As we telescope history, we highlight the Biblical events, and they seem to centre on two great themes – the people turn away from God and God intervenes.  First with Abel and Cain, then with Noah and his ark.

Or He keeps His people wandering in the wilderness for several decades, or He sends an enemy nation to attack them.  Or the ultimate intervention, He takes their land, the Promised Land, away from them and exiles them to foreign parts.  On each occasion His purpose was to bring the people back, to make them wake up to the danger they were in of His really great and eternal anger.  That's the first theme, and it leads us straight into the second theme.

This second theme is that of restoration and forgiveness.  The people are led out of Egypt, out of slavery and are eventually permitted to enter the Promised Land.  Then they are given a great king, David, and the people of God prosper and grow and experience the peace and the fellowship of God They are restored to the land after exile and Ezra and Nehemiah lead them.  Finally the Lord Jesus Christ comes into the world to bring to full realisation His spiritual kingdom and glory.

All of that spans, as I said, some 6,000 years.  Since then we've seen the Lord cause the gospel to explode across the face of the earth, till there is now no part where the Name of the Lord Jesus has not been heard and preached.  The Lord brought restoration again after great darkness and evil in the hearts of people when He drew the dark ages to a close and sent John Calvin, Martyn Luther, Ulrich Zwingli; and the great Reformation restored the centrality of the Gospel, of the Word of God and of Christ's atonement for sin on the cross as being the only way of salvation by faith.  Since then we have lived in a period when little has been sent from God to us in that way.  There have been little bursts of light, small-localised revivals, the Gospel has been steadily proclaimed by God's people, the Lord has sent the world an Abraham Kuyper, a Charles Spurgeon, a JC Ryle, and a Martin Lloyd-Jones, but no great out-pouring across the world of His Spirit.  There have been throughout history, times when we have witnessed a faster fulfilment of God's plan, and at other times quieter and slower times.

But God's plan, as we said, is always on schedule.  So we may wonder from time to time, where is it all going, this mad rush and passing of the years?  Well God knows, and our trust is in Him, and when things begin to get us down or the particular burdens we carry begin to weigh more heavily, that's what we must hold before ourselves.

What we see in our verses before us, here in Luke, are the preparations God made for the birth and coming of Christ into this world.  After a great period of silence – it had been 400 years since the Lord had last spoken through the prophets – the curtain opens and God begins the preparation for the coming of the Messiah, by announcing the birth of another, of John, to be born to Zechariah and Elizabeth.

These two people were both in the priestly line.  Zechariah was a priest, and Elizabeth was a daughter of a priest, and they had married.  But, you see it there in verse 7; they carried a great burden.  They had no child.  I don't think we can fully appreciate the burden that is to a couple, not to be able to have children.  To choose not to have children is one thing, but to long for the laughter and cries of a child, and not be able to have what comes so easily and naturally to almost all others is a burden that Zechariah and Elizabeth carried.  We're also told that the problem was with Elizabeth.

Well, whatever the case, these two were well along in age by the time we meet them here in Luke, and Elizabeth would have been regarded as someone whom God was punishing, and she would have been looked down on and despised.  The Lord tells us they were basically good people, and yet they carried this burden.

What have you come here today with?  What is it that troubles and disturbs your sleep?  You have all sorts of blessings.  You live well, and yet there is this thing that troubles and disturbs you and it eclipses all your blessings.  What is your burden?  Is it a wrong relationship with others?  Perhaps it's ill health?  Maybe you've got money worries?  Or is it that there are certain troubles in your home?  And then again, perhaps there is a certain sin you have a lot of trouble getting away from.  Whatever your particular burden, I invite you to take special note of Zechariah and Elizabeth.

On the day recorded for us here in Luke, God answered their prayers.  For years they had prayed to the Lord to pour out His peace upon God's people, for years they had prayed for a child, and on this day God would satisfy their prayers fully.

It was an ordinary day like any other.  They both went about their respective duties and tasks, and Zechariah went off to the Temple.  There it was his turn to lead in the most solemn part of the entire worship, the burning of incense.  It was his duty to approach closest to the veil that separated the holy place from the Holy of holies, that curtain God tore from top to bottom at the moment Christ died on the cross 33 years later.  Twice a day the incense was offered.

Zechariah would have gone to the golden altar, accompanied by two assistants.  One of the men would have carried in a golden bowl, burning coals from the altar of burnt offerings, and he would spread those coals on the altar of incense, and then would withdraw.  The other assistant carried a golden censer filled with incense.  He arranged the incense on the altar, and would also withdraw.

And then a profound silence would settle on the place, because only then would the most solemn action in the ritual occur.  A signal was given, the sacred moment had arrived for Zechariah to place the incense on the coals, causing a cloud to rise, its fragrance rising and spreading.  Together with the ascending aroma, a fervent prayer, a prayer of thanksgiving for blessings received and a prayer asking the Lord for peace upon God's people were given by the priest.

The people gathered outside the sanctuary also prayed, prostrate upon the ground with their hands outstretched.  They waited for Zechariah to return from the altar, and on the steps in front of the sanctuary, Zechariah, accompanied by other priests was expected to pronounce the Aaronic blessing, and say, "The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace”, after which the people would sing songs of praise and present their offerings.

Well, the people waited, and waited, because an angel of the Lord spoke to Zechariah, and afterward he couldn't pronounce the blessing, having lost the ability to speak under the order of the angel.  This was the day God lifted Zechariah's burden.

There are others, many others in the Bible that experienced days like this; let's call them burden lifting days.  I only need to mention a few, like blind Bartimeaus, crying out to the Lord, “Jesus, Son of David have mercy on me", and the Lord said, "Go, your faith has healed you", and he immediately received his sight.  And there's little Zacchaeus up in the tree, a wealthy man, a man who cheated and connived to get rich.  But the Lord entered his home and sat down with this sinner to eat and Zacchaeus repented of his sin, vowed to give half his riches to the poor and to repay four times over those he'd cheated.  And the Lord's response was, "today salvation has come to this house."

We could go on to mention many others, the Samaritan woman who was rather loose sexually, and yet the Lord spent time with her and she came to faith in the Lord and brought many others to believe as well.  What blessings they each received when their burden was lifted; blessings that far exceeded their fondest expectation.

Zechariah and Elizabeth had hoped for a baby.  All they wanted was someone to take their sadness away, to lift their standing in the community, a child they could love and one they could see themselves in.  That's what a baby and child is about.  It's about having this precious bundle on whom you can pour out love and affection and whom you can cherish.

But, as you see it here, they received so much more.  God gave them a child we still remember today; and during his lifetime, crowds flocked to hear him preach.  They would travel out into the desert regions to find him, and they heard him tell of the One to come, that they were to prepare for the coming of the Lord Jesus.  Even evil king Herod was in his congregation.  John was the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, the very one of whom Isaiah had prophesied some 600 years earlier, that he would come to prepare the way for the Lord.

The angel announced to Zechariah, there in the temple at the time of prayer, "...your prayer has been heard.  Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son.  You are to give him the name John" (vs.13), "...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 from birth.  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, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous to make ready a people prepared for the Lord" (vss.15-17).

Follow along with me as I read what happened.  Zechariah doubted the Word of the angel, so the angel replied: (read here vss.19-25, vss.57- 66, and 67-80).

Well congregation, what is your burden?  What is your area of defeat, that sin or that weakness over which you seem so powerless?  What is your need?  God will meet your need today!  Will you trust Him?

God's plans are always on schedule.  God's plans are perfect and true and right.  He is the Lord.  Whatever your burden, trust Him.  Turn to Jesus, the Saviour.  His grace is wonderful.

Amen.