Description

Blameless & Barren
Sunday, December 7th, 2025
Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Luke 1:1–25

Prayer

O Father, we thank You for the miracle of grace, that takes away the reproach of our sins. Teach us now to believe more firmly the testimony of Your Word, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction

Well, if you have ever wondered what the longest book in the New Testament is, you just heard the first 25 verses of it. Yes, the Gospel of Luke is the longest book in the New Testament by word count (and the second longest is Luke’s sequel, the book of Acts). And so this morning we shall begin our journey through this gospel, although because of its length, we may take some breaks along the way, we shall see.

• Now what is unique about Luke is that it gives us many stories and details that no other gospel records.
  • For example, Luke alone tells us about the angel Gabriel appearing to Zacharias. Luke alone tells us about the angel appearing to Mary, and how she responds with her now famous Magnificat (“My soul magnifies the Lord!”). Luke alone gives us the “Song of Simeon,” which we sing as our benediction during Advent. Luke alone gives us the one story about Jesus as a boy, which all the other gospels remain silent about. Luke alone also contains some of the most famous parables like the Prodigal Son, and the Good Samaritan.
  • So there is a real sense in which Luke is the most detailed and comprehensive account of Jesus’ earthly life. An account that begins even before his birth, with the miraculous conception and naming of John, who according to the angel shall make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
• So this morning on this Second Sunday of Advent, in this season of preparing ourselves for the coming of Christ, I want to consider the question: How does God prepare His people for His own Son’s arrival? How does God make ready those faithfully awaiting the Messiah, and what we can learn from this inspired history that Luke records for us?
  • There are three answers to this question we find here in Luke 1:1-25. And they are
    • 1. By Sending His Most Certain Word
    • 2. By Answering Our Former Prayers
    • 3. By Reconciling Us to Himself and One Another
  • So let’s walk through this text together just focusing on those three answers. How does God prepare us for His only begotten Son’s arrival?
    • The first way is….

#1 – By Sending His Most Certain Word

• God does through the Luke as the author of this gospel, and then also through many figures within the gospel story.
• First observe how Luke describes the reason for him writing this gospel. He says in verse 1 that others have attempted this work (like Matthew and Mark), and yet there is still so much more to say about Jesus. And because Luke has access to reliable eyewitnesses, referring to the apostles (ministers of the word), He says in verses 3-4, It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus,That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.
  • So notice that Luke’s intention is to give certainty/assurance to those who already believe and have been instructed (κατηχήθης, catechized).
  • This name Theophilus means “lover of God” or “friend of God” and he was most likely the patron who funded the writing and distribution of this work and the book of Acts.
    • Luke says in Acts 1:1, The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach.
    • So who is Theophilus? He is the “most excellent friend of God” and patron of these two important treatises, Luke & Acts, which together make up almost a third of the whole New Testament. So whatever it cost Theophilus to fund Luke’s work, I think we can safely say it was money well spent!
      • By way of application, we could ask ourselves: In what ways are we being friends and lovers of God like Theophilus? In what ways can we support and assist those laboring to make the truth known in our day? The ordinary way is by our tithes and offerings, but there also many other ways that we can be using what God has given us to further His kingdom. It says in Proverbs 22:9, He that hath a generous eye shall be blessed. And so are you aspiring to be generous like Theophilus?
  • So God prepares people for Christ by inspiring individuals like Luke and Theophilus to get in writing what the apostles and other people saw from the beginning. Written records matter! And back then writing was not cheap.
    • Given the contents of this gospel, Luke must have had to interview Mary, Elizabeth, Zacharias, and others. How else would he know what they saw, said, and thought within themselves? So Luke has his work cut out for him (he will need to travel and schedule meetings with these people), and then gather up all this eyewitness testimony in his library so he can them put into an orderly account.
    • And so notice that while “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Tim 3:16), the Holy Spirit uses many earthly means to write the Scriptures. He does not merely dictate to Luke the words to write, He uses Luke’s human efforts, education, and acquired skills of writing and composition to author this masterful and coherent narrative.
    • And so while human beings are involved in the process of writing Scripture, the result of Luke’s work is still the very Word of God, authored ultimately by the Holy Spirit with Luke as God’s instrument. In a similar way, whenever you preach the gospel to others, whenever you tell someone the truth about Jesus, you are functioning as God’s prophet, you are God’s instrument to bring people into the kingdom.
      • It says in Revelation 19:10, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. And it is by testifying of Jesus that God fulfills the promise Joel 2:28, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.
  • So this is one of the ways God prepares people for Christ. By using fallible and mortal creatures to bear witness to the infallible and immortal truth of what God has accomplished in Jesus.
  • God does this by sending His most sure and certain Word, through human messengers.
• Second observe, that God also uses angelic messengers to prepare His people. And in verses 5-20 we have the angel Gabriel bringing good news to Zacharias the priest. And the message of Gabriel illustrates this second way in which God prepares us, and that is….

#2 – By Answering Our Former Prayers

It says in verses 5-7,
5There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. 6And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. 7And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years.

• Here we are introduced to the parents of John the Baptist. The name Zacharias means, “God has remembered.” And the name Elizabeth, means “My God is abundant,” or “My God has sworn an oath.”
  • And so in the very names of this godly older couple are contained a message of hope and expectation that God will remember His Word. My God has sworn and made promises and He shall keep them. And yet despite Zacharias and Elizabeth being righteous before God and blameless, they are also barren.
  • This should call to mind for us the first promise of the gospel in Genesis 3:15 where God says to the Serpent, And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel. And so from Genesis onward there is this expectation that through the bearing of godly seed, salvation shall come, the Serpent shall be defeated and the curse undone.
    • And then starting in Genesis this pattern of barrenness that precedes a miraculous conception becomes a theme of the Old Testament. We might think of Abram and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel, Manoah and his wife (who gives birth to Samson), and perhaps most similar to our scene here in Luke 1 is the scene in 1 Samuel 1, where Hannah miraculously conceives and gives birth to the priest Samuel.
    • So according to God’s Word, children are a heritage from the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one’s youth (Psalm 127:3-4)
    • And in Exodus 23 and Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 7 God tells Israel that if they keep covenant with Him, none shall be barren, they will be fruitful, multiply, and prosper.
  • And so the fact that Zacharias and Elizabeth are now old and still without this blessing, made them “a reproach among men,” as Elizabeth says in verse 25. There was a kind of social shame and suspicion that maybe they had done something wrong to deserve this barrenness.
    • We might think of the disciples in John 9:2-3 who ask Jesus, “Master, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.
    • And so like the man born blind, Luke tells us that for Zacharias and Elizabeth, it was not for any personal individual sins that they lacked children. Instead, it was the consequence of living in a sin-cursed world, amongst a covenant breaking people. They are collateral damage of decades of Israel’s apostasy and in a most personal and painful way, unable to have children.
    • So the Bible has a category for people (like Job, or like Joshua) who are personally righteous and blameless, but who suffer various pains and evils of God’s curse. This could be 1) Because of original sin in Adam such that we all die, or 2) Because of national sins of idolatry and the corporate stain of bloodguilt, or 3) Simply because God is going to glorify Himself and strengthen our faith through the suffering He permits.
  • Whatever the case, Zacharias and Elizabeth are innocent and faithful covenant keepers, but who are members and part of a corporately/nationally guilty people. They represent the righteous remnant who dwell among an unrighteous people.
    • Luke frontloads this reality by telling us when this angelic appearance took place, it was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea. In other words, if Herod is the king, something has gone tragically wrong for the nation. If a blameless priest and a blameless daughter of Aaron are without the blessing of children, the nation must be under the curse of God’s covenant.
    • So this is an important distinction we need to remember as Christians. Some of our misfortunes and trials are direct consequences of our own sin and folly (we can draw a direct line between the two). But there are other times when we cannot. And so we need to remember this biblical category of the righteous individual who suffers the consequences of their nation’s corporate sins.
      • Christ is of course the perfect example of someone who is perfectly righteous and innocent, and yet who suffers the consequences of other people’s sins (even the whole world). As it says in 2 Corinthians 5:21, For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
    • So we don’t always know the why for our lack of blessings, sometimes it’s us directly, sometimes it’s the result of Adam’s sin and living in a fallen world, sometimes it’s the consequence of corporate sins of our nation or family, but in either case, we always ought to be praying for and seeking after God’s blessing, trusting what the names of Zacharias and Elizabeth signify, God shall remember and My God has sworn, and He will make us abundant according to His promise.
• And so with this burden of barrenness weighing heavy on this blameless couple, God visits them in a momentous way: By an angel with a most certain word, and by answering the prayers Zacharias had prayed from long ago.
• It says in verses 11-13 that while everyone was praying outside,And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. 13But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.
  • John’s name means “The Lord is Gracious.” And by this angelic announcement we have the answer to the constant cries of the Psalms and Prophets who say to God, Be gracious unto me, O Lord. Have mercy upon your servant. Do not forget thy covenant which You have sworn of old. In answer to that hope and longing, God gives a son named, “The Lord is gracious.”
• However, observe that Zacharias does not respond with joy and thanksgiving. This otherwise blameless priest suddenly has a crisis of faith.
  • Perhaps his heart had grown weary from hoping against hope. It says in Proverbs 13:12, Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.
  • Perhaps Zacharias was so sick with sorrow that even an angel appearing to Him does not rouse him to believe. What a state of despair to be in that even an angel from heaven does not awaken your faith.
• In verse 18 he says to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.” It’s as if Zacharias has forgotten his own history, his own priestly lineage, he has forgotten that his God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who has done this thing before! Zacharias has forgotten God’s Word, forgotten his own prayers, and so God answers him with a sign that matches his unbelief.
  • It says in verses 19-21,And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings. And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.
    • The angel’s answer to Zacharias is (I think very humorously), “I am Gabriel (my name means Man of God or God my strength), I stand in God’s presence. I visited Daniel 400 years ago. And God sent me to tell you these things. Are you so dumb as to not believe me? Oh yes, you are, and so silent you shall be for 9 months, until God’s word is fulfilled.”
• Summary: So how does God prepare His people for Christ? First, He sends His most certain word, through human messengers, through angelic messengers, and Second, He is so gracious that He answers the prayers of someone who is experiencing a crisis of faith. And this should be a great comfort to us.
  • Maybe it was ten years ago that you prayed with great faith and fervency for the conversion of a family member, or for healing, or for a spouse, or to conceive children.But because nothing seemed to happen, heaven appeared silent, you stopped praying, you lost heart. And so the question I ask you today is: Would you believe it if God answered that prayer from ten years ago, today? Would you believe that your former prayers of faith are still heard by the eternal God, even if you are presently struggling with doubt in the now?
  • It says in Isaiah 49:14-16, But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, And my Lord has forgotten me.”[And God says in response] “Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me.
    • Although a mother may forget her own child, God shall never forget you. And it is this truth that God uses to stir up and renew our faith and our hope, to renew our prayers and zeal to ask for great things that only He can give. How many of need to repent for our unbelief? Even as we are praying Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
    • It says in Numbers 23:19, God is not a man, that he should lie; Neither the son of man, that he should repent: Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
  • God never forgets His promises or His people, and He loves to prepare us for new blessings by answering even our former prayers.
• Third and finally, we see from Gabriel’s message to Zacharias that John’s ministry will be to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. And if we look at Gabriel’s prophecy about John, we see that God also prepares us….

#3 – By Reconciling Us To Himself & One Another

Gabriel says in verses 13-17, And thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, 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.

• First notice that God thinks you need time to prepare yourself, to prepare your heart, so that when Christ comes (whether for salvation or judgment!), you are ready to receive Him with joy and faith.
  • It says in Isaiah 59:2-4, But your sins have built barriers between and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken lies, Your tongue hath muttered perverseness. None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: They trust in vanity, and speak lies; They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
  • And so because your sins and lies imprison you, they shut your eyes to God’s goodness, He sends messengers on ahead of Christ, to call you to repentance. To give you a heads up that judgment day is coming, and you need to get right with the Lord and those you have sinned against before you die.
• And so John’s ministry is to be the “Turning Point” for Israel. It is a ministry of repentance and reconciliation, between God and between men. Repentance has a vertical dimension that reconciles us to God, and it has a horizontal dimension that reconciles us to one another. True repentance includes both of these dimensions.
  • Now there are three turnings that Gabriel prophesies shall result from John’s ministry.
  • 1. In verse 16 it says, many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God.
    • This is the first and foundational repentance for judgment day. Turn your attention to the LORD God. Worship God. Fear God. Obey God. Do everything for the glory of God. Without this turning to God you will die in your sins.
  • 2. In verse 17 it says, he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children.
    • This is the healing of generational strife between fathers and their children. However disobedient the children may have been, however prodigal and foolish a son or daughter may be, the sign of a repentant father is that his heart yearns with compassion for his children. His heart reflects the heart of God the Father, as it says in Psalm 103:13-14, As a father pities his children, So the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.
    • And so fathers, what is your heart’s disposition towards your children? It is easy to love an obedient son, a respectful daughter, but what about when they are disobedient and disrespectful? Do you still love them the way God loves you?
    • Is your discipline of them just and equitable and intended for their good, or is it just venting your anger, or avenging your own wounded pride?
    • God knows our frame as imperfect fathers, and so He gives us clear instructions like, Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged (Col 3:21).
      • And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph 6:4).
      • And in 1 Thessalonian 2:11-12, Paul says You know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children, that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.
    • The sign of a man who is at peace with God, is that he is tender-hearted towards his children, and seeking to be at peace with them insofar as it is possible. So fathers, is your heart turned towards your children?
  • 3. Also, in verse 17 it says that John will turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the just.
    • This refers to the turning away from folly and the pursuit of earthly gain at the expense of heavenly treasure.
    • We are given a few examples of such turning a few chapters later when John begins preaching.
      • It says in Luke 3:10-14, So the people asked him, saying, “What shall we do then?” He answered and said to them, “He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.” Then tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Collect no more than what is appointed for you.” Likewise the soldiers asked him, saying, “And what shall we do?” So he said to them, “Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages.”
    • So these are the fruits worthy of repentance. For soldiers and tax collectors it did not mean quitting their jobs, it meant doing what is just and fair without taking advantage of other people. And for those not in positions of authority it meant looking out for those in need.
      • As Paul says in Galatians 6:10, As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

Conclusion

This is how you make ready for Christ’s coming.

• 1. When God sends His Word, choose to believe it. This Gospel contains eyewitness testimonies to real historical events, that God orchestrated and authored for your salvation. Do you believe this?
• 2. Renew your prayers. Repent of your unbelief. Don’t be like Zacharias who was struck dumb for doubting the word from the angel, a word that was intended to bring him joy. Don’t miss out on the joy God wants to give you by praying fervently and hoping in His Word.
• 3. If there are people you are out of fellowship with, who you have wronged or sinned against. Seek out their forgiveness. Jesus says in Matthew 5:23-24, Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
  • What does God want more than your tithes and offerings and sacrifices? Reconciliation between estranged brothers. This is how you prepare yourself for God. And so may we, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.