IN THE SPIRIT AND POWER OF ELIJAH

Luke 1:1-25

Key Verse 1:17

“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." 

Beginning this Sunday we would like to study the Gospel of Luke. Why are we going to study it? We can find an answer to this question in what the angel said to Zechariah: to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. 

This purpose already indicates that not all people are ready for the Lord. The Lord is ready, but people are not ready. The Lord, the bridegroom, was ready, but the bride was not. Suppose you are a bridegroom. The day of your wedding has come. In fact you have already stepped into the wedding hall and are waiting for the bride to walk in. But the bride is not ready. In fact she is somewhere else dating another guy. What an embarrassing experience would that be to you? 

The situation of the people of our own generation remains more or less the same as that of the people of Luke’s day. At the end of the book entitled History of the World, the author J.M. Roberts says, “Only two general truths emerge from the study of history. One is that things tend to change much more, and more quickly, than one might think. The other is that they tend to change much less, and much more slowly, than one might think.” Here, by the word “things” the author means the things about “people,” that is, the way they think, the way they behave, the way they react to given situations. What the historian says seems self-contradictory, but in my opinion he has made an excellent point in that the problem(s) of people of each generation – the generation of the past, of the present, (and certainly of the future) are and will remain more or less the same. And the problem is that although the Lord is ready, people are not ready. 

So what should we do? We should study the book of Luke and pray hard to ask God for help, that he would use even us in making people (particularly emerging generations) ready for the Lord. Specifically, then, how can we have people ready for the Lord? The passage indicates that seven things are critical in making people ready for the Lord.

First, the knowledge made certain (1-4)

In order to make people ready for the Lord, the first thing we need to do is to make sure that people know the Lord for certain. Let us read verses 1-4 responsively. Here “the things that have been fulfilled,” refers to the things about Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. Jesus Christ represents the ultimate remedy to all problems of all men of all generations. [By “all” we really mean “all”, including the problem of sin and death.] The problem however is that not all people are relying upon this remedy. A lot of people do not know who Jesus really is. Even among those who claim that they know Jesus Christ, their knowledge is so shallow, superficial, and even so incorrect, that their knowledge does not make any difference to the problems they have in their lives. As a result, they remain continually unforgiven, and therefore unforgiving; they remain continuously confused, unstable, insecure and uncool. Their hearts are still filled up with evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. They remain unfruitful. 

How can we help them? Luke, a medical doctor by occupation, knew how to fix their problem, especially the problem of their hearts. That is, to systematically teach about the things that have been fulfilled to know the certainty of the things they are to be taught of Jesus Christ. At this moment, I am also humbled for I admit that I do not know Jesus Christ as properly as I should. So together with me, let us all make a prayerful decision to study Luke’s gospel, and to make each of us and those we love ready for the Lord, that the Lord would work miracle after miracle in our lives, particularly the miracle of changing each of us into the likeness of Jesus Christ. 

Second, a priestly couple (5)

The second thing we need to do to make people ready for the Lord is to establish shepherd families.

Look at verse 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.” This passage points out that Zechariah and Elizabeth were both from priestly families originating from Aaron, the elder brother of Moses. 

The following Bible passage tells us that it is through this priestly couple that the Lord God granted a spiritual man, John the Baptist, who in turn made the people ready for the Lord. We know that John the Baptist was a great man of God. But, we cannot think of John the Baptist without his parents Zechariah and Elizabeth. Every once in a while William and Sarah bring Hannah and Leah. I also see William standing in the grass area lifting Leah up high. Can you, however, think about beautiful Leah without her parents William and Sarah? No.

One thing we need to consider today is the spiritual background of both Zechariah and Elizabeth as a priestly couple. When we study the Bible, especially the book of Exodus, we can understand the duties and responsibilities of priests. Aaron and all the priests descended from Aaron are a type of Jesus Christ, who is the real priest of all priests. A priest is the one who stands between God and men. As a go-between, he works day and night to reconcile the differences between the two, between God and men. God is perfect, man is imperfect. God is holy, man is sinful and unholy. So it is impossible for the two to come together and form a unity. But God found a way for the two to come to terms with one another, and form a unity of love, that is, through Jesus Christ. Jesus died for our sins. He came to make righteous before God those who put trust in him. Speaking of this truth, in yesterday’s daily bread the psalmist says, “Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. The LORD has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations” (Psalm 98:1-2). 

Again without Zechariah and Elizabeth it is impossible to consider John the Baptist. It was thanks to the service of a priestly couple that Luke’s day could see a spiritual man like John the Baptist. 

In our own generation as well we need to establish a lot of priestly couples like Zechariah and Elizabeth. Characteristically, a priestly couple is a couple who shepherds over the flock of God, inviting people to their home and teaching them the Bible. One way to serve this purpose is to establish a lot of house churches. In the day of the Apostle Paul, it was a believing couple like Priscilla and Aquilla who opened their homes, and invited people to study the Bible and worship the Lord. We need to pray for this prayer topic knowing that one of the great problems this generation suffers from is the problem of broken families. 

Third, steadfast faith (6-7; 13)

The third thing we need to do is for each of us to fight the good fight of faith, that each of us would be a man or woman of steadfast faith. 

The foundation of a relationship is faith. In Genesis 3 we see the Devil tempting Eve to doubt the love of God, causing the first couple to no longer trust in the total goodness of the Lord and thereby disobeying the Lord and losing their relationship with God the Father. This indicates that when you lose faith in someone you lose the relationship with that someone. Similarly, when you remove the foundation of a house, the house crumbles down. 

In the days of Zechariah and Elizabeth, people lost faith in the Lord. As a result, the parents lost their relationship with their children, for verse 17 includes a very interesting expression, “to turn the hearts of their fathers to their children…” In Exodus 25 the Lord commanded that a breast-piece be mounted on the breast of the high priest. Mounted on the breast-piece are twelve gem stones. On each gem stone is carved the name of each of the twelve tribes of the Israelites. This is a symbolic way to teach how a father should carry his children. A father must carry his children in his heart. But in the day of Zechariah and Elizabeth, the hearts of the fathers were somewhere else. They lost their hearts to someone or to something else, like to their jobs or to internet chatting. The same is true in our own generation. A lot of fathers no longer carry their children in their hearts. They are so busy with their own things that they do not care about their children. And most of them cast their children out of their hearts. As a result their children grow rebellious. (17b) Another interesting point that deserves our attention in verse 17 is that it describes the problem of fathers first and then the problem of their children. Like father like child. Or, like shepherd like sheep. 

Again, in the days of Zechariah and Elizabeth, people, especially fathers lost faith in the Lord. As a result, the parents particularly lost their relationship with their children. This is consistent with what the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:3, for it says, “Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.” Let us stop and think about it. If a father loses faith in the Lord, he is like a man without a head. He is literally a “headless” man. Imagine a wife living with a headless man. Also imagine children living with a headless father under the same roof. What a spooky idea! Certainly a household led by a headless man will turn out to be a haunted house – a house haunted by all kinds of demons. And in this nation America there are so many families led by headless men. 

The Lord God knows the origin of the problem: lack of faith. 

Knowing the problem, what did the Lord do? I would encourage everyone to read verses 6-7 and then verse 13. Here we see that the Lord God preserved a faithful man, a man not of fake faith but of genuine faith—faith that believes in God’s total goodness, the faith that believes in God’s Almighty Power, the faith which is steadfast, the faith that is durable, the faith that endures and persists despite all kinds of trials, temptations, ordeals, conflicts, and all other difficulties. 

Verses 6-7 point out that although this couple lived righteously, still the Lord did not grant them a child. In those days they regarded barrenness as a sign of God’s curse. We do not know when they married. Most likely they married early, maybe even in their early twenties. Then they grew old. Both of them were well along in years. So it is quite possible that both of them were in their sixties if not in their seventies. Most likely they desired to have lots of children, even a dozen of them, six daughters and six sons. But the Lord did not give then even one. But they did not give up. They continued to believe that the Lord would grant them children. They prayed and prayed. One year passed, but no baby. Two years, and still no baby. A year became a decade, and a decade became two, two then three. In this way even half a century passed, but still no pregnancy. Finally, they passed the age bracket where it was biologically possible for them to produce children. But even still they did not lose faith. They kept praying. 

It has been said that prayer is a manifestation of faith. And in verse 13, the angel declared, “Your prayer has been heard!” The angel’s declaration indicates that the Lord God preserved in a faithless generation a faithful couple who proved that their faith was “genuine”. (1Pe 1:7) Their faith became the foundation stone for the Lord to fix the problems of the people of their generation and beyond. It was thanks to their faith that their generation saw a powerful man, John the Baptist. Let us pray then to build from among the growing generation men and women of steadfast faith, as steadfast as the faith of Zechariah and Elizabeth. 

Fourth, people worshiping and praying (8-10)

Look at verses 8-10. Here the historian Luke turns his camera away from Herod’s royal court to the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem where worshipers were gathered and offering prayers regularly. 

The Lord God established the temple system in order to establish the relationship between God the Father and his people. In order to have intimate fellowship between God and men, the Lord God commanded Moses to build a tabernacle which later became the temple. In the Lord’s temple, the Lord God set up a priest system. He also ordered a high priest to burn incense regularly. {Burning incense is symbolic of offering prayers to the Lord.} According to the commands and regulations set by Moses, and according to God’s divine providence, Zechariah was chosen to stand before the Lord and burn incense. It was when he was standing in the holy place of the Lord’s temple that he met the angel and received the news about the birth of John the Baptist. 

Of particular importance and for our own purpose here today is the significance of the people gathered in the Lord’s temple worshiping and praying. 

From a human point of view, these people do not seem to be making any difference to the fallen condition of man. But from a spiritual standpoint, they are the ones who make differences in God’s redemptive history. Luke points out that it was in the days when Herod was king of Judea. After making a passing remark on a politician, Herod, he focuses on people worshiping and praying in the Lord’s temple. Why? As a historian he knows that God uses not mere politicians but people who worship the Lord and offer prayers to the Lord. One Jewish saying says, “One is politic, two are politics, and three are lies.” This saying suggests that real truth rarely comes out of Washington D.C. And God cannot use and does not use a bunch of liars. God uses those who admit that they are sinners and are incapable of saving themselves from their sins. God then uses those who are humble enough to come to the Lord, struggle to seek his forgiveness, discern his will, and ask God for help with all kinds of problems they have. Their example then exhorts us to stop being mere talkers, but rather grow as true worshipers, worshipping the Lord in spirit and in truth, a people bringing all problems, small and big, private and public, to the Lord, asking the Lord for help.  

Fifth, a man filled with the Holy Spirit (11-17)

The next thing we need to do is produce men and women of God who are filled with the Holy Spirit, so they would go before the Lord and make people ready for the Lord. Look at verses 11-17. 

“¹¹Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. ¹²When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. ¹³But the angel said to him: ‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. ¹⁴He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, ¹⁵for 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. ¹⁶Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. ¹⁷And 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.’” This passage says that the Lord God prepared a powerful shepherd named John. As a shepherd, John would make sorrowful people joyful again. He would help people shout for joy. Specifically, though, how would he help people restore to themselves the joy of life? 

Two things: (1) he himself will live a holy life, filled with the Holy Spirit, even from birth; and (2) in the spirit and power of Elijah, he will lead people to repentance and turn to the Lord, so they would open their hearts to the Lord and receive the joy of salvation. 

In preparing for the young missionaries’ weekend conference, I heard people a number of times saying, “You can lead a cow to the side of water, but you cannot force the cow to drink the water.” This made me think a lot, especially about the condition of people. Man is more sophisticated than a cow (although in a number of cases, some are a lot stupider than a cow). This indicates that it is impossible for even God to “force” a man to repent and turn his heart to the Lord. So God does not force anyone. 

Does this then mean that we should not try to do anything to help out so many people who are disobedient? No. Why not? The answer is clear: just as the Lord worked for the people of the day of Zechariah and Elizabeth, so also we need to pray to establish shepherds like John the Baptist, men and women who will go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah! 

From this example, I learn that I myself must struggle to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I learn that I must struggle to live a holy life, as a man dedicated to serving the Lord’s will to bring people back to the Lord.

Sixth, spiritual discipline (18-22)

Practically however, living a dedicated life filled with the Spirit of God is not as easy as it seems. The bottom line however is this: without discipline no one will grow as a spirit filled man! 

One good example is Zechariah. To see what I mean let us read verses 18-22. There the Lord God put Zechariah on a strict training program – mute training. During the entirety of Elizabeth’s pregnancy this holy man Zechariah remained mute. From his example, we learn that each of us also should not fantasize about ourselves. This generation is wicked. We are also a bunch of sitting ducks. So we need to train ourselves to overcome this generation and our sinful nature. In order to train ourselves, I would encourage everyone to do the Daily Bread, and go through other training programs such as testimony writing. 

Seventh, a spiritual mother (23-25)

Lastly, all sisters please read verses 23-25. This passage shows us the importance of a spiritual mother like Elizabeth. She was a believing woman. Let us remember that John the Baptist grew first inside the womb of a prayerful mother Elizabeth. Does this click in your mind about anything? Yes, the importance of prayerful mothers. May the Lord bless American with many spiritual mothers, as spiritual as Elizabeth! Amen. 

In conclusion, we thank and praise God for sending Jesus, and before introducing him to us, establishing a man like John the Baptist, going before the Lord. And John served the people of his generation in the spirit and power of Elijah. In the day of Elijah, people suffered so much because of the bad influence of the evil queen Jezebel. Under her evil influence people adopted a flesh-oriented lifestyle. But the Lord God has mercy on their generation. He established a spiritual man, Elijah, who prompted people to repent and turn to the worship of the Lord. Like the day of Jezebel, people of our own generation also suffer from a flesh-oriented lifestyle which is prevalent even among teenagers. In this wicked generation, may the Lord bless us to commit ourselves to studying the book of Luke and establishing many spiritual families and then spiritual shepherds like John the Baptist.  

One word: in the spirit and power of Elijah

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