Elizabeth – A Trusting Mother
Luke 1:60 “And his mother answered and said, Not so; but ohe shall be called John.” [1]
I. Rejecting
A. Popular
B Paternal
II. Rebuking
A. Probable
B. Perfect
III. Relying
A. Positive
B. Purposed
Introduction: Today is Mothers’ Day. If this were a normal year, all the churches would have more people in attendance today than even on Easter Sunday. That is what would be if this was a normal year which 2020 most certainly is not. We are in the midst of seeing what happens when we discard a thing that God holds most dearly. People in this nation have been comfortable with church attendance declining. People get excited about large crowds so some of the mega churches have done OK in this era of populism but the idea of church family has gone the way of the dinosaur. Unfortunately, many so-called pastors have not only allowed this to happen, they have embraced the idea.
What happens when you insist on what you want even though God has something better for you in mind? God allows that which you want and you miss the real blessing that God wanted you to have. You might not ever even know what you missed until you get to heaven where all things will one day be revealed.
I was wondering what the message would be today and for some reason Elizabeth came to mind. Whose was Elizabeth’s child? That is what I asked Rachael one day as we were in the car. John the Baptist right? Rachael thought her preacher husband was testing her. She said, “Is that right?” Truth is, I was having a senior moment when I asked her. Sure I know Elizabeth was Mary’s cousin. I know that John was excited when Mary showed up with Jesus on board before the two boys were born. Yes I knew all that but when I asked Rachael whose son was Elizabeth, all I knew at that point in time was Elizabeth was going to be the mother spoken of in this message today.
Sometimes God gives us messages and we have no idea why or what is going to come from the silent nudge that He gives. This is one of those times for me. Why Elizabeth? Why today?
When God gives a nudge and we ignore it, we might never know what could have come from the blessing that He has in mind. This past Thursday we observed the National Day of Prayer and I thought I had read the right Presidential Proclamation. DJ’s words were concerning that which everybody is talking about just now; Covid-19. I printed off what I thought was the Presidential Proclamation for the National Day of Prayer and read through it before going to read it here in front of church. After I read it here Thursday I realized that the date was wrong. Trump must have messed up bad I thought. The dates mentioned in the thing I read Thursday were May 14th and 15th. Thursday was May 7th.
Maybe the guy is getting senile after all. How could all his aids let this go out so wrong? Well, it’s this guy, me who really must be getting senile. I read the wrong proclamation. When I went back online I learned that the president had written something else to commemorate another day of prayer about this virus. Apparently I’m the one getting senile. Turns out maybe the president is getting convicted to know that unless we pray, God will continue to ignore us. Maybe Donald J is finally getting to an understanding that caving in to the whims of the populous is not the way to be in God’s will.
What I did read Thursday was supposed to be read in March. For those here this past Thursday, I pray that it was uplifting for you as well that the President quoted scripture and instructed us to have faith in God alone as we ask for recovery from this that we are experiencing. His proclamation for the 2020 Natioanl Day of Prayer is also out on the web for anyone who wishes to read. If we turn back to God, He will turn back to us. His light will return as it did on that Friday before the first Easter,
Scripture: The scripture is Luke 1:60. When you have found it please stand for the reading of God’s written word.
Prayer:
Message: Elizabeth was indeed the mother of John the Baptist. His name was John! Elizabeth knew and insisted that his name was John. That is the name God gave him as Gabriel, the angel of God, informed.
Please leave your Bible open to Luke chapter one as we will hear much about this mother called Elizabeth. Vs.. 5-7: Zacharias was a priest during the day of the evil King Herod who was a puppet king of Judah that the Roman Empire allowed to be in charge. Zacharias the priest apparently had the duties assigned to the offspring of Abijah whose family group was number 8 in the Levite priestly assignments.
Though Zacharias was serving under a leader who would later prove to be directly involved with the death of his own son, this did not affect Zacharias in the devotion to His God. His wife Elizabeth though elderly and childless was equally faithful.
Vs.. 8-13: Here we see Zacharias about his duties when the angel Gabriel appears with awesome news. Jump down to verse 19 to find the angel’s name. Read later for yourself all that Gabriel had to report to Zacharias what his son would accomplish. And his name shall be John.
Vs.. 18-20: Gabriel told Zacharias but Zacharias had a hard time believing that what he heard was true. This was a priest who was supposed to hear from God and tell others. He questioned what he heard and was prevented from speaking.
Years ago I was talking to the Minister of Music from the church that commissioned me to attend formal Bible training. Leonard Harris shared his experience of attending Campbell University. Leonard said that he knew he would serve in church but never really felt a call to be a preacher, let alone a pastor. I told him that I really was torn about the thing of pastoring because my years of leadership and management positions. That is what I was wishing God would take me away from.
Preaching was another thing though. I told Leonard that sometimes I felt when God gave me a word that I would bust if I couldn’t preach it. Months later Leonard called me while I was up in the mountains. Baptist Men’s day was coming up. The church had just called their new pastor and he was preoccupied with a family that was about to lose their patriarch.
Leonard said they wanted me to come and fill in that day and preach. He said, we sure don’t want you to bust. Truthfully, I never thought I would be invited to speak there. I never thought I would be invited to speak here either for that matter. I still don’t know why I am called to speak but I can imagine how Zacharias might have felt when Gabriel told him that he couldn’t.
Did Zacharias have the opportunity to tell Elizabeth that their son would be named John? The narrative here surely makes me understand that if he communicated it to her, it was not verbally. He might have written it on something that she read but he couldn’t speak!
We will skip the part where Mary comes to see Elizabeth when John jumps in her belly at the presence of Jesus in Mary’s belly. We won’t take time today to speak about this massive truth that babies are indeed human being with understanding way before they see daylight. We won’t go there today. Ya’ll know that anyway right? Well if we know that and the ones in charge are insisting otherwise, why are we trusting them with anything concerning life?
As we look through the outline, there are so many lessons that we can learn from Elizabeth and this Bible truth. Let’s jump past this that we already know about the encounter with Mary and look at Vs.. 57-59: So the baby came and all the cousins and friends were there having baby showers and making googoo eyes at the baby. Eight days old and everybody knew that he was going to be Zacharias Junior. That was the popular idea. He was going to serve in the temple too. Follow in his dad’s footsteps. Everybody had his life planned out. That was the popular thing, Following his paternal pattern, that was the logical thing.
Zacharias knew better but remember; he couldn’t speak. Do you think he was there having a fit wanting to say something? I expect he was about to bust too. So now we are back at the focal verse. Zacharias didn’t have to speak. Husband and wife were of one accord. They were together following God’s plan. Elizabeth rebuked the probable and accepted the prefect plan for her son. He would straighten the path for the Savior.
She did not rely on the set idea of others. Did Gabriel appear to her too? I can’t find in the Bible where he did. Did Zacharias write the truth on something that Elizabeth read? I can’t say how she knew? It doesn’t matter. What really matters is Elizabeth knew that their son had a purpose and that she was positive that nothing was going to change that.
This is Mothers’ Day. In this uncertain time one thing is certain, God loves you so much that He gave His Only Begotten Son that whosoever receives Him will have eternal life. If your momma told you that, she gave you the best truth that this life can offer and she is always going to be your momma.
Elizabeth knew that John was going to be very special because God had something different for her son to do. The truth is though, no mother cannot say that. If God decided to make a person a parent, He has a specific plan for every mother’s child. Elizabeth had the privilege of knowing what her son’s name was going to be and she was determined to see that was it. She did not have control over his decisions. Only John could decide to honor his parents by being obedient to God.
We all relied on our mother’s when we were newborn. It is for them we are here to give honor today. Zacharias was able to speak again after Elizabeth vowed that the parental couple were together in their devotion to God even in the name they gave to their son. And speak He did.
Vs.. 67-80
Prayer:
Invitation: There is much to be said today in society about the rights of women and their decisions. Nobody should take away a person’s rights. Otherwise the person with no rights is a slave. Today we have heard about a woman who was not a slave to a man. She was the mother of a man and she was the wife of a man but she made her own decision to be totally obedient to God.
Mothers today are forced to make the decision to allow their child not to be murdered and should be praised maybe even more now than ever before. Elizabeth faced scorn for naming her child what God wanted him to be named. Women are facing scorn in society now for making the decision to carry their child to be born into this world.
The invitation today is for us all to encourage young women to honor God and know that the greatest gift that God can bless us with is to bring life. Fathers need to be encouraged to love their help meets, their wives, so much that when the time comes for them to speak, let them speak. Otherwise God might do to us men what He did to Zacharias when He closed Zacharias mouth until his wife spoke. I’m sure glad that Momma spoke to me…
Think about it while we sing…
o ver. 13, 63.
[1] The Holy Bible: King James Version. (2009). (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Lk 1:60). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
