Scripture: Luke 1:5-25; 39-45
Theme: Be Ready …. To Re-Enlist
Title: Elizabeth – A Woman of Grace
INTRO:
Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
This month we have been looking at God Encounters with the theme of “BE READY …”.
-Be ready for God to do something amazing and unheard of in our life time.
-Be ready to be a part of God’s Plan of Salvation.
-Be ready for God to call people we would never have thought possible.
So far, we have looked at how God encountered Zachariah and Mary. Both were people who were on the outside very normal people. Zachariah of course, was a priest who had faithfully been doing his duty for the past 30+ years or more, Mary was a young lady who was anticipating the day of her wedding. Mary was just another Jewish maiden who was looking forward to a new life with her fiancé in the land of Israel.
Today, our story does not involve an encounter any with angels or dreams or visions. What we do encounter is a woman who had a miracle happen in her life and who allowed the Holy Spirit to move her. In fact, it could be said that the Holy Spirit kicked her. She is of course is the elder cousin of Mary called Elizabeth.
Her story is without a great deal of fanfare. For the past 30+ years she has faithfully been the wife of Zachariah. She has been a wife that he loved dearly. Zachariah and Elizabeth lived at a time when a man could divorce his wife for being barren; for being unable to have a child.
That may be a difficult concept for us to understand this morning. But at the time of our story, it was felt that any woman who could not bear a child must have something wrong with her soul and spirit. And therefore, if a man chooses to divorce her it wasn’t frowned upon. Israel was always in need of new priests and if Elizabeth could not have a child then Zachariah had “Temple permission” to put her to the side and get a younger woman who could bear a child.
Again, it might be hard for us to grasp such ideas but nonetheless that was the prevalent attitude of the day. One of the reasons why over the years this couple has become Bible favorites is the immense love they displayed for one another. Zachariah believed that marriage was a lifelong covenant. He believed that God had brought him and Elizabeth together.
Yes – Elizabeth was barren.
No – Zachariah was not going to divorce Elizabeth.
No – Zachariah was not going to replace Elizabeth.
They both believed in God’s mandate - one man and one woman – married until death do them part.
With that in mind let’s take a few moments to look at Elizabeth’s God encounters and how they reveal to us more about the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY, the Good God of Creation and Our Relationship to the LORD OUR GOD. Let’s look at how the Holy Spirit showed Elizabeth how she had to Be Ready …
I. Be ready … for God To Re-Enlist You
Have you ever had a day you felt useless?
Have you ever had a day or two that you began to feel your age?
Have you ever had a day or two that you felt completely worn out?
Have you ever had a day or two that you felt that you were no good for yourself or for anyone else?
Have you ever wondered why God has kept you around?
Well, we can all have such days whether we are 10, 20, 70 or 80+ years of age.
I am sure Elizabeth felt that way. She felt like a dead old stick. She felt like she was only good for keeping house, washing the clothes and fixing the meals.
While all the other priests’ wives had stories to tell of their children and grandchildren, Elizabeth could only stay quiet. When she went to synagogue and saw all the mothers taking care of their little ones she could only watch or hope that someone would ask her to help them.
And then came the day that Zachariah came home with the strangest of stories. He couldn’t talk so he had to write everything down. He wrote that while he was at the Temple the angel Gabriel had appeared and had told him that he and Elizabeth were going to have a baby.
Hmm… What some men will do to have a little loving time with their wives.
It had to make her laugh. She had never heard that line before – “I need to sleep with you because an angel from the very presence of God commanded it. God wants to give us old people a baby.”
Talk about being desperate. Zachariah could have a least brought some flowers and candy. Then again, maybe the old boy did bring home some candy and flowers.
Maybe the old boy was beginning to lose it. Maybe what he was really going to do was to put her to the side and get a younger woman. After all that was his right. But then again he said that we were going to have a baby. I’ve been with him for 30+ years, but the last time I looked my name was not Sarah, Rebekah or Hannah. I am Elizabeth – righteous –yes. Devoted – yes. But barren none the less.
Can you imagine her surprise when in just a few weeks she found out that Zachariah was not crazy?
Is there any wonder that for the first five months she stayed out of sight?
I mean she had a husband that could not talk. And she was a senior citizen who was beginning to show the signs of being pregnant.
We get the idea that they were isolated. Zachariah could not fulfill his duties as a priest. With his muteness it meant that he was unqualified to lead a synagogue worship service or act as a priest. God had in effect retired him. He had to depend on what savings he had already accumulated or depend on the graces of the people of Ein Kerem. Ein Kerem was the little town that tradition says Zachariah and Elizabeth had a home.
I am sure that people were concerned about them. But then again, how many times do older couples seem to merely disappear? You begin to see less and less of them and then it suddenly dawns on you one day that it has been months since you saw them. They have become homebound; going out only to see the doctor or get some groceries.
But none of that had really happened to Zachariah and Elizabeth. What had really happened for the past 5+ months was the fact that God was re-enlisting them into His Kingdom Work. God had enlisted them into the biggest plan of salvation that history was ever going to experience. They were not retired. In fact, the direct opposite was already happening in their lives.
Zachariah had not been crazy or desperate for a night of love. He had seen an angel. Elizabeth felt the effects in her womb. What was once dead was now very much alive. Along with some wrinkles she had a glow – the glow of carrying a baby.
Those extra pounds were not left over pizza and cake. It was a little boy who would be named John that was causing her to have the strangest of food choices. It was a little boy named John that was now beginning to interrupt her sleep and beginning to cause her to walk a little differently. And it was a little baby named John that had caused her to isolate herself. She couldn’t believe it. What would she say to those who saw her?
“Hey, Elizabeth how have you been? What’s new in your world?”
“Wow, I don’t mean to be insensitive but Elizabeth have you gain weight?
“Elizabeth - are you are glowing? High blood pressure? Rosacea?’
“If I didn’t know better I would say that you are pregnant. Wait – Elizabeth are you pregnant? How did that happen? How can that happen?”
Don’t you love it when God steps in and out does Himself?
+When God takes problems and turns them into possibilities
+When God takes obstacles and turns them into opportunities
+When God takes the mediocre and turns it into a miracle
Back on April 17, 1888 a young man by the name of Mordecai Peter Centennial Brown had a horrible farm accident. He lost parts of two fingers on his right hand; almost all of his fore finger and part of his middle finger. The young boy loved baseball and was pretty good at it but this accident looked like it could ruin his chances to ever play.
But Mordecai didn’t give up. He learned how to play with handicap. In fact he learned how play so well that he was good enough to play third base in semi-pro baseball.
One day his coach noticed that when the young man threw the ball to first base it would do some rather strange moving. Suddenly, the coach had an idea. He would try to see if Mordecai could use his damaged hand to be a pitcher.
It took some time but the young man not only learned to pitch but made it all the way to the Major Leagues where he got the nickname – “Three Finger Brown”. He turned his handicap into an advantage as he became one of the greatest curve ball/knuckle ball pitchers in baseball. When he retired he had won 239 games and had been a vital part of two World Series Championships with the Chicago Cubs.
Brown was a lot like Zachariah and Elizabeth. He didn’t allow things, even unfortunate things to stop him from dreaming. God used his handicap as a way for him to make a living and write his name down in Cooperstown.
In the same way, Zachariah was not dead. Elizabeth was not dead. Two old sticks but not dead. In God’s hands nothing is impossible. If God chooses to use us then out of us can happen all kinds of miracles.
God can give all of us a new dream, a new vision and a new purpose. If we are drawing breath, that means that God has something for us to do – something new and exciting. Something that can bring new life into the lives of those around us that will help them experience God in a new way.
None of us are useless. None of us are ready to simply be put on the shelf. We have to get that kind of thinking out of our heads.
Zachariah did. Elizabeth did. And we must as well.
II. Be ready … to Rejoice and Bless Others
Somehow Mary’s parents contacted Zachariah and Elizabeth and told them that Mary was coming for a visit. Maybe the family was so worried about them that they thought Mary could help out. Maybe Mary was becoming so anxious about her own upcoming wedding that the family thought visiting Zachariah and Elizabeth would be a good distraction.
We don’t know. All we know is that after her Gabriel encounter she traveled to the home of Zachariah and Elizabeth.
I wonder how anxiety ridden Elizabeth was in waiting for Mary. I am sure she knew that Mary would spill the beans about her pregnancy. It would be just too much to ask a young lady to not run out and tell everyone that instead of this older couple running out of steam that they were having a baby. That the reason you haven’t seen them or heard from them was that they had been busy building a baby’s room and getting things ready for the biggest change that they would ever face in their lives.
Did you notice how Elizabeth greeted Mary?
It is an amazing greeting. Elizabeth rejoices in Mary’s pregnancy which had to be less than a month perhaps even just a couple of weeks pregnant.
Her she was – advanced in years – soon to be the shock of all those in her home town and I am sure in Jerusalem because Ein Kerem was only a few miles outside of Jerusalem and instead of showing herself off she rejoices and praises Mary.
It takes a special kind of person to be able to do that. To rejoice over someone else’s miracle more than you do your own. To give praise to someone a great deal younger. To give praise to someone who in your heart you just realize will have a greater miracle than you are experiencing.
For Elizabeth is in line with Sarah, Rebekah and Hannah. But there is no line with Mary – God has visited other older women and given them a child but this time God has given a child to a virgin. Mary’s miracle would be a one of a kind miracle.
Do you know how special you have to be to not want people to look at you and instead focus on a teenager?
Elizabeth did not get caught up in comparison or competition. There was no my diamond is bigger and brighter than your diamond. There was no the clothes in my closet are better than the close in your closet. There was no I am smarter than you or just remember God chose me first.
Elizabeth did not try to compete, compare, undermine or undercut Mary. Instead, she praised her – she acknowledged the blessing that God had given her and praised God on how He was going to use the both of them.
Elizabeth chose JOY over JEALOUSY.
Elizabeth chose PRAISE over a PUT DOWN.
And in doing all of that Elizabeth became a vessel of blessing.
How did she know Mary was pregnant?
It had only been a few weeks at the most since Gabriel’s visit. Mary, no doubt, had been too afraid to tell anyone.
Who could she tell?
Mary’s mom, Anna would have thought she was crazy. Maybe that is the real reason Mary was sent to visit Elizabeth. Perhaps Mary did tell her mother Anna and Anna decided that her little girl needed to talk to Elizabeth. She thought that if anyone could reason with Mary it would be her cousin Elizabeth.
But then Anna didn’t know about Elizabeth’s miracle. And so in the background God was working a way for both women to be a blessing to one another. Elizabeth could help Mary and Mary could help Elizabeth.
We serve an amazing God! We serve an amazing God who is always working for our good!
We serve the God who can so transform us that when someone shares good news we don’t feel like we need to compare, compete, undermine, undercut or be jealous. We can join in and rejoice with them. We can rejoice and even elevate them above us. We can bask in their glow and not worry about our own.
III. Be ready … for the Movement of the Holy Spirit
At this time, John the Baptist weighed around 1.75 pounds and was 13 inches long. He can just barely open and close his eyes. His brain was just developing and was beginning to create wrinkles.
And yet, this 1.75 pound little bundle of joy jumped when he sensed Mary and Jesus walking into the room.
Think about that for a moment or two. Even at 1.75 pounds John the Baptist was doing his best to testify of the presence of Jesus. Even inside his mother’s womb John the Baptist was already taking up the mantle of being the forerunner of the Messiah.
Any woman can tell you that when they are carrying a child that they no longer have full control of their emotions, their appetites, their balance, their sleep, their minds or their bodies. There is someone else that they have to work with and at times that someone else can seem like they take control.
If the baby wants to kick around while the mother wants to go to sleep there are many women that can testify that it is hard to over ride their baby to get some sleep. It seems like the baby wants the strangest of meals and suddenly the mother to be is eating things that normal human beings would never want to eat:
+Ice cream on toast + Hot Cheetos dipped in yogurt
+Charcoal + Hot sauce and peanut butter
+Straight lemon juice + Fruit cocktail over tilapia and rice
+ Sauerkraut on pizza +Dill Pickles stuffed with Grape Jelly
It is not common for some people to want to eat dirt, sand or even lick concrete. One woman had her husband stop the car each time it went by an asphalt company putting down a new road so that she could soak up the smell of tar.
And we are all aware that at times a person’s emotions go all over the place – sad, mad, full of fear, full of anxiety, hot flashes, cold flashes, want to be held, don’t want anyone else to be alive in the world, tired, full of energy, want to get away, nesting – etc….
When you are sharing your body, soul and mind with another human being there can be all kinds of physical, emotional, social and spiritual changes going on. But they all led to the ability to bring new life into the world.
The Book of Acts records some rather strange things that happened when people were filled with God’s Holy Spirit –
+People began to be able to speak in other languages
+People sold property and brought the proceeds and laid them at the Apostles’ feet so they could use it for evangelism and helping hands projects.
+People began to share with one another so that no one went without – it was a time when people cheerfully gave what they had for one another.
+Sick people – lepers and others were not turned away but cared for and loved.
+Jews began to be friends with Gentiles even to the point where Gentiles were given leadership over Jews
+Men started worshipping with women (single and married) – even to the point where men would attend worship that happened in a woman’s house
+Slave owners began to forgive runaway slaves
+Rich people began to associate with poor people and the poor began to be friends with the rich
+No one cared about someone’s title or education – but only about their life in the Holy Spirit
+People were healed in all kinds of ways – many were healed through Peter’s shadow while others were healed or freed from demonic possession through the handkerchiefs and aprons the Apostle Paul had touched.
When the Holy Spirit is in control then like a woman with a child there is some rather unusual behavior – behavior that the world may not understand but that God does and is pleased to see.
But that has been the way it has always been – we see that throughout both the Old Testament and New Testament when the Holy Spirit has been in control:
+Egyptian slave owners send out their workforce of slaves and bless them
+Manna falls from Heaven to feed people for 40 years
+300 men are more than a match for 120,000 enemy soldiers
+A giant is no match for a little shepherd boy
+850 false prophets are no match for an old prophet of God
+Water is turned into wine
+A small boy’s lunch feeds thousands
+Demons are cast out, people are healed and even the dead are raised
+Prison doors are open
+The Church does not wither into nothingness but explodes as God’s Spirit moves and people are added to the Church daily
That has to be our prayer, our heart’s desire and our passion this Advent Season – that we allow the moving of the Holy Spirit in our lives, in our hearts, in our minds and in our worship services.
We have to be ready for God to re-enlist us into His Kingdom Work. Not acting like old dead sticks but passionately praying, studying, living, sharing and being led by His Holy Spirit.
We have to be ready to not worry about our own little kingdoms but be ready to praise wherever and whoever God is blessing. We have to pray and discover the wave that God is moving and then surf that wave.
We live in an amazing time. We can touch thousands of people through a text, an email or a facebook page. We can touch hundreds of people with our smiles each week and we can touch tens of people by inviting them, praying for them and do all we can to meet their needs.
This morning – are we ready to have a baby – a new ministry – a new beginning?
This morning – are we ready to have something to praise God about and rejoice with others who are praising God – investing not only in our own ministries but wherever and whoever God is using?
This morning – are we ready to have the Holy Spirit rock our worlds – controlling our emotions, changing our appetites and creating new life in and through Us?
If we are then we will line up with Elizabeth and we will bring forth a new age of Revival and Redemption.
If we are then we will be amazed at just how God can use old sticks and bring forth new life.
Closing song/Prayer/Open Altar/Benediction
