Episode 335: Does the Cat Have Your Tongue? | +Quigg Lawrence

Introduction

So for like six and a half weeks, this is all you got. Right? I had heart surgery, UVA, seven hours, 140,000, blah, blah, blah. And in the middle of that process, they squashed my vocal cords. Really, really. And that was no fun. I couldn't do my job. I couldn't preach. I couldn't talk very well. And I figured, well, maybe God only gives people so many millions of words and I've already burned through mine. You know, that's probably what happened, honestly. Stop talking.

And then after that, so we had the heart, we had the vocal cords. And just for fun, we flew to Israel because everybody wants to go to where God, Jesus walked, you know? And we landed there October 7 at ten something in the morning. And as we landed, our phones blew up as we learned about Hamas doing the most outrageous, awful things. I won't spare you the details. We were, when we landed at the airport, we were about 32 miles. No. Sorry. Maybe 30 miles from the killings. And at our hotel, the only other thing we saw in all of Israel was our hotel. We were about 42 miles. And so we came back, burned up that money. That trip was dead on arrival. We came back and just for fun, I got COVID.

Now, I thought I was impervious to COVID. I read about O negative blood, and I just felt like I had a force field around me. Y'all got COVID. I didn't. I got it and it was no fun. Anybody say amen to that. It really is terrible and the net had to put up with all my wine and complaining. I was the worst patient. But anyway, eventually we got through COVID. And just to add misery to misery, two days after I got COVID, I got the flu. It's everything more humbling than the flu. I mean, you'll grab to the toilet bowl with all your life when you have the flu. And so we went through that. And then two days, two or three days later, I was fine. And I was really happy. I'm like, thank you, Jesus. It's all over. And then the flu came back again. Cough, cough, cough. So I just want you to know now I'm the healthiest guy at the church. I'm on every antibiotic. I'm great.

The Setting and the Importance of Luke's Gospel

Today, we're going to be in Luke's gospel. What's interesting is some of you guys are really smart. Like you guys on your PSATs, like you were at the top of the list. You were national merit finalist. And then when you took the real SATs or ACTs, your ACTs were like 35, 36. Your SATs were like fourteen, fifty, 15, some of you even 1,600. Some of you went to like these engineering schools, medical schools, law school, whatever. And God just gave you a really good set of gears.

And what happens when you have this set of gears, you can either use them for the Lord and for his glory, or you can just think, I'm God, and I'll use it for my glory. We're so thankful we have smart people amongst us. But I want you to know today, one of the lessons we're going to learn from Luke is that Luke was a doctor. And if you've ever thought of these scriptures, Oh, they're just—I mean, there's truth in them, but they're kind of fairy tales that people put together. I want you to know Luke's gospel was written for smart people who are academics, who are scientists.

And this man who was a doctor took upon himself, in his busy life, to compile all the things about Jesus accurately and in an orderly account, so that you could believe. And not only did he do that for you, he actually did it for a man named Theophilus. See, if God gives you this incredible brain that some of you have, it's not just so you can be smart and score well on your test. He's given you that so that you can communicate the gospel to other people that are brainiacs. And that's exactly what Luke did.

So if you want to turn in your Bible, actually, the setup verse is in Malachi. Does anybody have a clue where Malachi is? Right. I'm not going to tell a terrible joke because it's not funny. It's like, the last Italian prophet, Melachi. It's not funny, so I won't tell it. Malachi is like, go to the New Testament, turn left, and you'll be there in a hurry.

The Prophecy of Malachi

Now, this is four twenty years before Christ was born. But four twenty years before Jesus was born, a prophecy was given through the prophet Malachi about the end times and the coming of the Messiah. And he says this:

For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and the evildoers will be stubble. That day is coming and shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts. So it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you, those who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You guys, my beloved, you're going to go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, and they will be ashes, etcetera, etcetera.

Verse four. Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and the rules that I commanded him at Horeb or Sinai for all of Israel. And this is the verse you want to grab:

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord.

And he will turn, God through the prophet, will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the lamb with a decree of utter destruction.

In other words, before Messiah comes, there's going to be a forerunner. They called him Elijah, but we all know Elijah's dead. And so there will be someone, in the spirit of Elijah. You're going to know him as John the Baptist. This is four twenty, four and twenty years before Jesus.

Luke's Historical Context

Now turn to Luke chapter one. And this is now about sixty-seven years AD, sixty-seven AD. So if my math is right, '67, about thirty-seven, thirty-eight years after Jesus was put to death, buried, and rose from the dead. In other words, about two generations after Jesus ascended back to the Father.

And Israel is still waiting. They're still waiting for Messiah that had Solomon's beautiful temple, and that was destroyed when the Assyrians came. And then they built what I call kind of a single-wide temple. Herod gave them some money for that, even though he hated the Jews. And they built a kind of a third-rate temple. And they no longer had the Ark of the Covenant, but they were still waiting, waiting, waiting for Messiah.

And so if you go to Luke, we're going to pick it up. Luke chapter one, starting verse one. It says:

Inasmuch as I have undertaken to compile a narrative of these things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me, Doctor Luke, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things that you've been taught.

First thing I want you to know is this. If you're an academic type, I want you to know that God wants you to hear the gospel in your own language. Our God is a God who communicates to people in their own language. He's not trying to hide. He's not trying to keep the message a secret. But wherever you are, he will communicate the gospel to you in a way you can hear it.

And so many people were writing stories about Jesus, his life, his ministry, his cruel death, his burial, and his resurrection. But Doctor Luke said, you know what? A lot of those guys did good stuff, but a lot of them are kind of shooting from the hips. I want to really give thought to this. I want to take my background in science and critical thinking, and I want to share with you all that I have found out from eyewitnesses.

Most scholars say Luke never, ever met Jesus. Luke never saw Jesus, but he did apply himself to learning about Jesus and all that Jesus did. He's writing this orderly account. Some of you need high order. You got it in Luke. He's writing an orderly account about Jesus and his life, ministry, death, and resurrection.

Who's he writing it to? Well, I get a drink of water. You're going to tell me. Most excellent Theophilus. If you look Theophilus up, there's no picture of him. We don't know much about him. We know his name, Theophilus. Theo means God. Philus means lover of. A lover of God. But apparently, scholars aren't sure had he become a believer yet. Most say not yet. He was in progress. Some of you today are in progress. Good news. You're not the only one.

And so Luke, the one with all the DNA, the gray matter, the smart guy, the doctor, not only had smartness in and of itself in his head, he wanted to use it for the Lord's glory because he knew there would be some folks who were thinkers, who are critical thinkers, who are men and women of science. And he wanted them to hear the gospel.

And so Doctor Luke used his gifts for the Lord for Theophilus, somebody who was seeking God, but maybe had not been taught the gospel fully. And so if you're one of those people that are incredibly bright, you know who you are. You are always number one in your class. I want to encourage you to be like Luke. God did not give you these amazing gears and abilities you have just to score well and test. No.

Luke sets a pattern here of using his gifts to be able to share the gospel for those who can only hear from people like him. Who's your Theophilus? I can tell you this. If you have these gifts and graces up here, and you're not using them, you're going to be really, really bored and you're going to miss so many blessings the Lord wants you to experience.

But anyway, so Luke, Doctor Luke, is writing to Theophilus so that he can have certainty in the gospel. Pick up in verse five. It says:

In the days of Herod, king of Judah, there was a priest named Zechariah. And Zechariah's name literally means God remembers. Hold on to that because it's important. His name is God remembers. This is a man we'll find out in just a second, who had waited thirty years to have a child, but there was no child.

So in the days of Herod, there was a priest named Zechariah. He's from the division of Abijah. That helps a lot. And he and his wife, from the daughters—his wife was from the daughters of Aaron. Another we're talking about royalty. We're talking about spiritual royalty here. Not only was he a priest, like in the line of Aaron, but his wife also. So they were kind of a very spiritual, godly couple, and not just spiritual because of lineage, but we find out they were spiritual because they love God, and they had a heart for God.

What does the Bible say about them? Look at verse six. It says, they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and the statutes of the Lord. Does that cause any wake turbulence for you? I mean, can you imagine standing before the Lord and thinking I'm blameless? If I were God, I'd ask one question. I'd make a statement and ask one question. Thou shall have no other gods before me. Have you ever put anything before me? Boom, we're all dead. And yet the Bible says what it says. It says this couple, Zechariah and Elizabeth, they were righteous before God, walking blamelessly, in all the commandments and statutes.

So what does that mean? Help me out. Were they sinless? And you know how we know that? Really, really how we know that? In just a couple of verses, you're going to see Zechariah sin like a champ. So clearly, you have to interpret scripture with scripture. And and there are a lot of times in the Bible where they say somebody was blameless or righteous. Noah was a righteous man in his generation. Right? Paul said, as to the law, I'm blameless. Well, I am really sure about that. So what do they mean? What they mean is not that they're sinless, but that they legitimately had a heart for God. You know some people like this, don't you? Maybe it was your grandmother. Maybe it was Stoney Rutherford. Maybe it was some—I don't know who that is for you, but you know that person. They don't draw attention to themselves. They serve the Lord humbly. They love the Lord. They trust the Lord. You get around them, the air is just fresher. And so that's the kind of people Zechariah and Elizabeth were.

But look at verse seven. There's always a but. So they were godly people, but they had an earthly problem. What was their problem? Somebody help me. I'm the one who's been sick. Y'all need to talk up. It said they had no child. Let me say this plainly. There's some folks who don't want children. I don't condemn you if you don't. I don't. We do know the Bible says children are a blessing and a heritage from the Lord. But people have different calls from the Lord. There are many people in our church that want to have children, and they've been praying. They've been on their knees. They've been weeping. They're willing to spend every dollar they have to have a baby.

And in the old days, it's much like it is in India now. It's not God, but it's the people of God who will look at somebody who's barren and say, you send, it's your fault. I find it more than ironic, ladies, listen to me, you'll like this. I find it more than ironic in the Bible, they always say, the woman was barren, it's her fault. Well, we know from modern science that a lot of times it's a guy that's barren. It's the guy that shooting blanks. Excuse my French. But the reality is, I mean, they were sad. And they were sad because they wanted children. They wanted the blessing of children. There's also a practical matter. There was no social security in that day. There's no a, there's no retirement funds, 403, 401. So if you're old, guess what your retirement is? Guess how you're going to live? Especially ladies, if they're widows, their husband dies. Guess how you're going to live? Your children are going to take care of you.

And so this godly couple, not only did not have a child, only did not have security coming, but the people said, there's something wrong with them. They must have sinned. That's why God has withheld the blessing of children. That's messed up, but that's the environment they lived in. And the Bible accounts that they were old. How old were they? Well, the scholars say that they were mid-fifties or older. I'm 64. And if you can forget my dark hair, could you imagine at age 60 or 65 having a baby? What if you'd been waiting all those years? Maybe they got married at 22, and they've waited all these years for a baby, and they've been praying and praying and praying, and it just did not happen.

And so they were sad. But you know what? Zechariah, though he had the right to divorce Elizabeth, he didn't. He's a godly man. And they serve the Lord and they kept praying and they kept trusting God. And it says, so now it was time for Zechariah. What was his job? His spiritual job? His calling? He was a priest. Two weeks a year, you got to go up with 750 to 800 other priests in your division, and you would go to the temple. And that was like the most exciting thing of the year. And then they would cast lots. I don't know if they were stones or sticks, but they would cast them and one fellow, one fellow, would be allowed to burn incense in the court of the priest. It is the biggest high, the most spiritual experience that a man on Earth could have. And it just so happens, it just so happens that on this day, of the 800 men present, they cast the lots, and guess who was chosen? Zechariah.

Do you think that's just by accident? No, man. The Lord tilted the table. He wanted Zechariah in that place because he had a plan. And so they cast lots, and Zechariah went up to offer incense to the Lord. And then the first thing that happens is an angel appears. Now, I don't know how that would be, but I'm guessing an angel, having been in the presence of the Lord, is radiating much like Moses's face. And all of a sudden, that beauty and the holiness of the Lord radiated through a creature, the angel. You're undone. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw this. He was troubled in his spirit, and fear fell upon him.

In verse 13, it says, But the angel said to Zechariah, don't be afraid. I don't know how many times it's in the Bible. It's in a lot. Don't be afraid. If you're God's child, whatever's going on in your life, he speaks the same to you. Don't be afraid. Put your eyes on me, not on your situation. Don't be afraid. And that's what he said to Zechariah. But there was more to the message than don't be afraid. He says, your prayer has been heard.

Now, it's uncertain here what prayer had been heard. Was he in there praying in the holy of holies about having a baby? I don't think so, because this was a priestly duty and his focus was on the Lord and on the Messiah to come. We know that Israel would be destroyed in just three years. Three years later, Jerusalem would be destroyed. The temple, the Cremier Temple, would be destroyed. I'm guessing that he was praying for Messiah to come. But I also guess in this passage that he's saying, you know how you and Elizabeth have been praying for thirty years for a child, and now you're old as Methuselah and everything hurts in your body? I got news for you. You're going to have a son.

That would be like somebody telling me, I'm going to win the Boston Marathon. It doesn't even enter your mind. Or saying, you're going to play in the NFL next week. That ain't going to happen. And so Zechariah gets this message that you're going to bear a son. And he's like, no way. And it wasn't simply like, no way. That's amazing. It's no way I don't believe that. So we learn right there that Zechariah is not sinless. He is a man who disbelieved God, disbelieved the angel of the Lord.

Now, the angel goes on and says, you're going to have a son. His name will be John, which means God is gracious to his people. God is gracious. And he says, basically, the angel comes with a message of joy. He says, you're going to have joy and you're going to have gladness, and many will rejoice at the birth of your son. Not only are we going to have a son, he's going to be a special boy. People are going to rejoice that he's born.

And he goes, quoting from Malachi, he says, he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He'll go—he's going to go before them in the spirit and power of Elijah, Malachi, Elijah. He's going 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 Zechariah, when he was given this information, he just disbelieved. He just disbelieved. And so God, who is a righteous God, disciplines his kids, right? I mean, I shouldn't discipline your kids, but we discipline our own kids. Why? Because we love them. Andy Stanley, formerly one of my most favorite preachers, said in the most amazing sermon called Sinai Code, he said, You know what? I don't discipline my neighbor's dog because I don't love my neighbor's dog. It'd be kind of creepy if you went over to your neighbor's dog and kissed him on the lips. No. You love your dog. And because you love your dog, you discipline him, not to squish him, but so that they may experience the blessings that you have for them.

And so Zechariah says, how shall I know? For I'm an old man. That's true. My wife is advancing years. That's true. Verse 19, it says, the angel Gabriel—the angel said, I'm Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you, Zechariah, and to bring you good news. And behold, you're going to be silent and unable to speak.

You guys, when I got this passage, I was still talking like this. And it's a sign. It's a signed reading. It's in the lectionary. And I'm like, Lord, don't know if I'll be able to talk by then, but how ironic. I sound like Tony Campolo now. How ironic that the passage picked for the day is a man who couldn't speak. I'm like, God, that's funny. That's funny.

The reason is God wanted to teach Zechariah about his holiness. Oh, Zechariah, I love you. I brought incredible news to you. You're not only going to have a son, but he's going to be special. The world—the Messiah—is going to be known because of your son. And not just Israel, but also for the Gentiles. People like us. You're going to know the Savior because of John the Baptist. How's it end up? So he was silent, and he finally comes out of doing his priestly duties and burning incense, and the people come out. And he was like me for six weeks doing this.

Conclusion

Friends, this is an amazing story of God's faithfulness. He promised it in Malachi. We see it finished in this day. A lot of you guys really legitimately are incredibly smart. Let me just encourage you. That's a gift of the Lord. What are you doing with it? What are you doing with your IQ? What are you doing with your gifts and your graces? Did you ever think that the Lord maybe gave that to you? Not so you could win an award or be Phi Beta Kappa, but he gave that to you because he knew there would be other people who would not hear the gospel from Bubba on the mountain.

Who's your Theophilus? See, the Lord's call and joy for you is that you would know him as God Almighty. He's a holy God, a holy God that invites you in and invites you to the party. We're going to invite you to the rails now. If you don't want anybody to bother you, you just come here and be with the Lord alone. But if you'd like people to pray for you, I do this all the time. We have people that are trained. They want to pray for you.

This song was written by a Messianic Jew named Joshua Aaron. He's led worship at our church. He was actually in Roanoke when we were in Israel. His daughter is fighting with IDF. Listen to the words he sings about Messiah.