Advent Devotion || The Angel Gabriel Appears to Zechariah

Luke 1

Hello. Since this year we’re not having midweek Advent services, the elders asked if I would prepare some sort of a devotional thought to share each week, getting our hearts focused on Christmas Advent stuff, since this is such a busy season. And so I thought, what we do is focus our attention on the three times that angels come, leading right up to the time of Jesus. And the first one of those is the aged priest Zechariah. Zechariah was having the one opportunity in his life, most likely, to burn the incense inside the temple. Most priests only got to do it once. And he was aged, so he’d been waiting all of his ministry time for this. This was a huge deal. And there he is, probably nervous, probably excited, inside the tabernacle, burning the incense. And all of a sudden, boom, there’s an angel that’s there. And the angels got this amazing message. You and your wife, Elizabeth, are going to have a son. And that son is going to be the forerunner of the Savior. And Zechariah’s response is skepticism. He says, “How can this be? My wife and I are old. How can I know that this is going to happen?” And so the angel says, “Well, because you didn’t believe, you’re going to be struck dumb and possibly also deaf.” But then the time comes for the baby to be born. And they wanted to know what to name the baby. The angel had told Zechariah you are to give him the name John. And they didn’t want to name the baby John. The rest of the family didn’t. But Elizabeth said, “Yes, his name is John.” And then they finally asked Zechariah what he wanted to say, to call the baby. And Zechariah wrote, “His name is John.” And at that point, God busted Zechariah’s lips open and returned his speech to him. And Zechariah busts out in this really cool song of praise. And it ends with this thought, “And you, my child,” that’s John, “will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go on before the Lord, prepare away for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun that Jesus will come to us from heaven, to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the path of peace.” What a promise from God. In this time, when many people become stressed and worried and hurried, what does God want you and me to have? Peace. And not merely earthly peace, but eternal peace. That’s the message of Zechariah.