The Spirit Speaks - Luke 1:39-45 - February 20, 2022

 Luke 1:39-45 The Spirit Speaks

Good morning! Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter one, verse 39, page 856 in the pew Bibles.

Last week we left Mary having just been visited by the angel Gabriel who told her the good news that she would bear a Son by the Holy Spirit. He also told her that her relative Elizabeth in her old age had also conceived a son and was in her sixth month even though she was previously barren.

So Mary traveled from Nazareth to see her relative Elizabeth and that is where we will pick up in verse 39.

39 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, 40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

Let’s pray.

I’m inclined to think that the Holy Spirit conceived the Lord Jesus in Mary’s womb right in the middle of verse 38: And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

It’s not really that important to have an opinion on this but I think that when Mary said, “Behold I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word,” it happened according to his word and then the angel departed from her.

Regardless of your opinion on the subject, within the next few days she went from Nazareth to a village in the hill country of Judah. And like most details in Scripture, there is some debate among the scholars of whether Luke , rather uncharacteristically, didn’t name the village in the hill country of Judah or if he actually meant the village in the hill country called Jutta.

There was, and still is, a village called Jutta in the hill country of Judah that was one of the cities of the Levites described in the Old Testament. Is this detail important? Maybe not, but at least allow, this detail to inform you that there is a lot of detail that we can learn in and about Scripture that may not necessarily be on the surface but that can definitely deepen our understanding of Scripture if we will just take the opportunity to look.

So, regardless of the name of the town that Zechariah and Elizabeth lived in in Judah, Mary went with haste to visit Elizabeth.

Now, just by way of reminder, Mary didn’t have email. She didn’t have Facebook. No phone, no texts, no way of letting Elizabeth know, in that short span of time, what had happened to her and that she should expect a visit from her in a few days.

Mary traveled on foot the roughly 60-70 miles from Nazareth to see her relative Elizabeth.

And when she arrived, Mary greeted Elizabeth, and that’s when things get interesting.

39 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, 40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. 

Who’s the baby that Elizabeth is carrying? John the Baptist. Remember what the angel Gabriel said about him back in verse 15, …he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.

Now I want to be clear, for the four hundred years prior to this, it’s not that the Lord was not active, He kept the planet spinning and He kept people’s hearts beating and their atoms from flying apart. What He hadn’t done was spoken through a prophet. This encounter was taking place at the end of four hundred years of prophetic silence.

Throughout the Old Testament the Lord spoke to His people through the mouths of prophets who were filled with the Holy Spirit, but they were only filled temporarily. It wasn’t until the Day of Pentecost that the Holy Spirit fell on all the believers in Jesus and dwelt within them. Before that day the Holy Spirit only filled people for specific tasks at specific times, except for John the Baptist.

So four hundred years of prophetic silence were finally ended with little unborn baby John the Baptist, full of the Spirit, jumping for joy in his mother’s womb at the arrival of Messiah. Microscopic Messiah in His own mother’s womb.

But John wasn’t the only one filled with the Spirit that day. Let’s consider Elizabeth’s response.

And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

Isn’t it wonderful that after four hundred years of prophetic silence the first person to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to speak was a woman? I don’t think that’s insignificant. 

In fact, Galatians 3:27-28 says: 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

That’s a discussion for another time, but one worth having. 

Elizabeth didn’t know that Mary was pregnant, she didn’t know Mary was coming to visit. But the Holy Spirit did and revealed it to her. And since it was the Lord speaking through her it was a beautiful and perfect response to the Lord’s work in Mary’s life, one of blessings, and humility, and joy.

Far too often we respond in our hearts to the blessings in other people’s lives with envy not with sincere praise. We need to be mindful of how we respond to the movement of the Lord on other people’s lives, praising Him for His grace and mercy instead of subtly being jealous.

Elizabeth gives us the second phrase of what would later become the “Hail Mary,” “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”

The word translated, “blessed,” both times, means to be a recipient of God’s favor. This is important to know because our translators used the word blessed here three times in this passage but the Greek words aren’t all the same. The first two “blessed’s” are from the Greek word eulogeo, where we get our word “eulogy” which means “to tell of blessings.” The third, “blessed,” is from the Greek word, makarios, which means “happy.”

So Elizabeth’s response begins with blessings because of God’s favor, not only on Mary but on the world, and that leads to the second theme of her response, humility.

 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

Through the Holy Spirit it was revealed Elizabeth, and confirmed to Mary, that Mary’s child was the long awaited Messiah.

For six months Elizabeth knew that the Day of the Lord was coming. No doubt Zechariah had filled her in on the details of the angel’s visit and his message, even if he had to do it in writing. But in her humility she didn’t count herself worthy to have the Lord’s mother grace her with her presence.

Again, it’s important to note the details here. When Elizabeth uses the word, “Lord,” she didn’t use a word that would be used of just any human ruler like we hear the words, “my lord,” used on tv and in movies. Elizabeth used the title for God and Christ, she was proclaiming in the Spirit that Mary carried the Messiah and she was humbled by the blessing.

Lastly, both Elizabeth and John responded with joy.

44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

There’s our third, “blessed,” only this time the Greek word means, “happy.” 

Baby John is jumping for joy, and in her joy Elizabeth declares the joy of she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.

We have a tendency to arrange things into hierarchies, to arrange things in order of our perception of importance. Who is more important in this account, Elizabeth or Mary? 

While they should be honored for their service to the Lord and their humble submission to His plan, they aren’t any different. 

They were both sinners, they both needed to be redeemed by faith in Jesus Christ. 

They were both people that God the Father chose to use to accomplish His purposes in the world. 

In that way, they were no different from each other and they are no different than us. 

Mary and Elizabeth only had the Word of the Lord to go on, same as us. 

Like them, we are all sinners in need of God’s grace and forgiveness that is only available through faith in Jesus Christ, and like them, all we have is the Word of the Lord to go on, but we also get the Spirit of the Lord to guide and empower us to follow the Word and thus follow the Lord.

Amen.

Expecting Unexpected - Luke 1:26-38 - February 13, 2022

 Luke 1:26-38 Expecting Unexpected

Good morning! We are back in the Gospel of Luke this morning, chapter one and we are going to look at verses 26-38, page 855 in the pew Bibles.

Let’s pray.

This account that we are  going to look at this morning shares a common theme with our text from last week, and that is, the angel Gabriel announcing babies to those who least expected them. 

Mary and Elizabeth were not expecting the unexpected, rather it was expecting that was unexpected! (you’re welcome.)

Let’s look at our text…

26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 

34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” 

35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. 36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

I’d like to do two things this morning based on this text. First I’d like to examine what Mary is versus what she is not as there has been much confusion about this based on the teachings of the Catholic church. The second thing I’d like to do is to contrast Zechariah’s and Mary’s responses to Gabriel and his message.

If you grew up Catholic or if you have ever watched much TV, you’re familiar with saying the “Hail Mary.” Maybe if you’re a football fan you’ve heard of throwing a hail Mary.

In case you’ve never thought about the meaning of that phrase, it’s a pass where the ball stays in the air long enough to say the “Hail Mary.” And if you grew up Catholic you can probably recite the “Hail Mary,” or Ave Maria, as it’s often assigned for penance in confession.

It goes something like this: “Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen” (please don’t say your amen to that.)

That prayer is based on parts of this text and partly on Elizabeth’s response when she sees Mary later in this chapter, and partly on the wicked imaginations of men.

So it’s important to consider what Mary is not versus what she actually is.

Mary is not our mediator, meaning she is not to be prayed to. 1 Timothy 2:5 says, For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus…

Mary is not “full of grace,” she is the recipient of grace. This prayer falsely attribute Mary with being full of grace in and of herself instead of being a sinful child of Adam in desperate need for forgiveness just like the rest of us.

Here’s the reality of what the Bible says about Mary versus what the Catholic Church says about her:

Gabriel said that she was highly favored, the Catholic Church says that she is the dispenser of favors. 

Elizabeth said that she was blessed among women, the Catholic Church says that she is raised above women. 

Mary said that she was a servant of the Lord, the Catholic Church says that she is the Queen of angels and Saints in Heaven.

The truth is that the Catholic Church has made Mary into an idol saying that she was conceived without sin like Jesus, when in reality, just like us, she too has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. She too has been saved by faith in Jesus.

Jesus Himself said, in Luke 11:27-28 when a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” 28 But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

What Gabriel said was true, she was highly favored, she was chosen by God to bear the Lord Jesus and should be honored for her faithful service not worshipped.

So now that that is out of the way, let’s consider our text and compare Mary’s experience with Zechariah’s. I said to Karole-Ann this week as I was preparing that this all seemed very familiar, just another sermon about Gabriel showing up to tell somebody else that they’re having a baby! 

The reality is, that though there are definite similarities in these accounts, the reactions of the recipients of Gabriel’s news was actually quite different.

So let’s look at their reactions.

26 In the sixth month (actually Elizabeth’s sixth month of pregnancy) the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.

Zechariah was serving in the Temple in Jerusalem and Mary was living out in the sticks, in the backwater town of Nazareth. 

11 And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12 And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him.

Zechariah and Mary were both doing their thing and Gabriel shows up. Both are troubled, the Greek root word is the same. But they were troubled by different things. Gabriel hadn’t said anything to Zechariah yet, he was troubled by his presence. Mary, on the other hand, was troubled by what Gabriel said. Not that his presence was not surprising but her main concern was what the angel’s greeting meant.

Mary was a pensive person, we can see that throughout the Gospel accounts, that she treasured up things and pondered them in her heart, wondering about the meanings of things. When the shepherds showed up at the manger, and when Jesus was a boy in the temple and he was teaching the experts there in Jerusalem at twelve years old.

When Gabriel appears to Zechariah he was gripped with fear, but when he appeared to Mary she carefully considered his greeting.

Another major difference is in their response to what Gabriel was there to tell them, that they were each going to have a son. 

We looked at Zechariah’s response last week. He responded with doubt and distrust. He said, “How will I know this? I’m and old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” He basically asked the angel Gabriel who stands in the presence of God, “How do I know that what you’re saying is true?” He dishonored God with his response.

Both Zechariah and Mary responded with questions of “How.” But where Zechariah questioned the plan’s accuracy, Mary questioned its possibility.

Zechariah asked, “How can it be?” Mary asked, “How will this be?”

She didn’t doubt the Lord’s word through Gabriel, in fact her response showed just the opposite. Her response showed admiration and faith. She simply asked, “How is it to be contrary to the natural laws of human birth?”

34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” 

Mary had a fiancée not a husband, she was betrothed to Joseph but they weren’t married yet. Betrothal in the first Century was a legally binding arrangement ended only by divorce as you can see from Joseph’s heartbreaking response to finding out Mary was pregnant and that he wasn’t the father in Matthew 1.

Because Mary did not yet have a husband, in her mind, there was no way for her to conceive a son.

But Gabriel went on to explain the plan a little more fully and to bolster her faith with news that her old cousin Elizabeth was expecting too.

35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. 36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Where Zechariah responded to the angel with doubt, Mary responded in faith and humble submission. But where Zechariah was made mute for his response, Mary would suffer much more for hers.

Mary would have to suffer the shame of being pregnant before she was married, the Law said that she was to be stoned to death. She had to explain the situation to Joseph and to her family. But even after Joseph’s dream and his decision to take Mary as his wife, she would have to watch her Son suffer more than any man even though He was innocent. She would watch as He was beaten and crucified for the sins of the world.

Warren Wiersbe wrote, “Mary’s believing response was to surrender herself to God as His willing servant. She experienced the grace of God and believed the Word of God, and therefore she could be used by the Spirit [of God] to accomplish the will of God.”

Gabriel’s message to both Zechariah and to Mary is not unlike the gospel. 

The gospel announces the grace of God into impossible circumstances, though we are sinners and are undeserving of God’s forgiveness, because of His great love for us he sent His Son Jesus to live a life without sin and to die on the cross in our place, that whoever would believe in Him, through faith in His Name would be forgiven of their sin and given a place to live in his eternal Kingdom as His child forever!

Let’s respond like Mary, in humble submission and faith.

Amen.

Prophecy of a Prophet - Luke 1:5-25 - February 6, 2022

 Luke 1:5-25 Prophecy of a Prophet

Good morning! We are back in the Gospel of Luke this morning, chapter one, verses 5-25, page 855 in the pew Bibles.

I’ve said to you all before that the whole Old Testament is about the person and work of Jesus, but that isn’t always apparent to everybody, especially if you never read it.

I want to start our study in Luke with a quick look at Malachi. Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament and after it comes 400 years of silence. No prophets spoke or wrote or appeared in Israel for 400 years. 

400 years is a long time. To give you an example of just how long 400 years really is to hopefully make it a little more real to you, 400 years ago this past Thursday, Miles Standish was elected Commander of the Plymouth Colony.

So just Imagine that Miles Standish was the last person to speak on God’s behalf to us and you’ll have a picture of how long the Jewish people had been waiting to hear a message from the Lord.

And what was that message? I’d like to read two pieces of it from Malachi 3:1, and 4:5-6.

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.”

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

Now with those words ringing in our ears let’s look at Luke 1:5-25.

5 In the days of Herod, king of Judea, 

Actually, we have to stop there so we can look at another prophecy concerning the coming of Messiah, one way older than Malachi’s, in Genesis 49:10.

10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his.

Verse 5 says, In the days of Herod, king of Judea… Herod was not from the tribe of Judah, Herod was an Edomite, appointed by the Romans to govern Judea. As Moses had written in Genesis 49, the scepter had indeed departed from Judah and the ruler’s staff from between his feet. But He to whom it belonged was about to come on the scene. In case you’re curious, that’s Jesus! So even Herod ruling over Judea was a fulfillment of prophecy of the coming Messiah Jesus.

5 In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6 And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. 7 But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years. 

8 Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, 9 according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. 11 And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12 And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. 13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. 14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, 17 and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” 

18 And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” 19 And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 20 And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” 21 And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple. 22 And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. 23 And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home. 

24 After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, 25 “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.” 

So in Luke’s orderly account, the only Gospel writer to include the birth of John the Baptist, he paints a picture of the Land of deep darkness before the great light of the coming of the Lord Jesus.

And who do we see, and what can we learn about them and from them?

Zechariah and Elizabeth.

Zechariah and Elizabeth were, as Luke writes, righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statues of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years. This means over sixty, sorry folks.

By most accounts these were good people, the kind of neighbors you would want to have. Their only problem was that they didn’t have any kids. In our culture today that isn’t that big a deal, you don’t want kids don’t have them. To each his own.

But in their culture not having children brought shame and disgrace on a family.

Zechariah served as a priest in the division of Abijah. This is also not an insignificant fact. Maybe. The sons of Aaron, brother of Moses, were to make up the class of priests for the nation. Aaron’s two sons, Eleazar’s and Ithamar’s descendants would be those priests and they were divided up into 24 divisions, 16 from the eldest son, Eleazar, and 8 from the younger son, Ithamar. The division of Abijah was the eighth of the divisions of Ithamar, the last division.

So here is Zechariah, a nice, devout, older fella, but kind of low on the ladder being of the last division of priests, and certainly lower because he was under that cultural shadow of being childless. 

Zechariah was chosen by lot, however, to offer incense in the holy place during his week of service at the Temple. The 24 divisions of priests represented around 20,000 priests, so each division was between 800-850 men. It was said that having the lot fall to you for this responsibility was once in a lifetime and today was certainly Zechariah’s day.

So Zechariah is in the holy place in the Temple, not the Holy of Holies but the area right outside of that, and all kinds of people are outside praying at the hour of incense while he puts incense on the coals from the altar that represents the prayers of the people.

11 And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12 And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. 13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.

So this is an amazing event, obviously, it’s been 400 years since anybody heard anything directly from the Lord, no angels, no prophets, nothing!

But what I find most interesting is what the angel says about Zechariah’s prayer: the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son…”

This is strictly speculation but don’t you think that by sixty-ish years old Zechariah would have stopped praying for a son? I know it’s completely possible and probably accurate that he hadn’t yet given up hope and that he continued to pray in this way but it is also completely possible that the Lord was answering a different prayer by blessing him and his wife with a son in their old age. It is completely possible, serving as priest for the people at the altar of incense that he was praying for the consolation and redemption of Israel, that he was praying for Messiah to come and rescue them.

I’m probably over-spiritualizing this but that’s exactly what the Lord was doing, fulfilling prophecy to prepare the way for Messiah to come.

…the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. 14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, 17 and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” 

And since we have read the book we know that that is exactly what John the Baptist would grow up and do. 

He was the fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy, the herald of the Messiah, who preached repentance to the people and called them back to the Lord so that they would be prepared when Jesus arrived on the scene.

And of course since Zechariah was such a devout, faithful guy, we knew he was right on board with the angel’s message right? 

After all, everybody who hears the Word of the Lord goes and does exactly what it says, right?

Zechariah responds instead with doubt.

18 And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” 19 And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 20 And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.”

And that’s exactly what happens. Zechariah is struck dumb, he can’t talk, an argument can be made based on the account of John’s actual birth that he was also made deaf, for nine months he was unable to speak as a punishment for his doubt for sure, but also as the sign that he asked Gabriel for.

24 After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, 25 “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.” 

John would prove to be much more than just the answer to Zechariah and Elizabeth’s prayer for a son, Jesus Himself said that no man born of woman was greater than John the Baptist.

I also don’t think it’s coincidental the meanings of the names of Zechariah, Elizabeth, and John.

Zechariah means, “The Lord remembers.” Though Israel was living in a time of deep spiritual darkness, the Lord remembered His promise 

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.

Elizabeth means, “God’s oath,” His oath was to establish David’s throne forever.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. 

John means, “Yaweh shows grace.”

It was John’s mission to prepare the way for the embodiment of God’s grace: Jesus the Messiah.

4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, 6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”

Amen.