Pathway to Victory

Speaker 1

Hey podcast listeners, thanks for streaming today's podcast from Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress.

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Now here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.

Speaker 2

Hi, this is Robert Jeffress and I'm glad to study Word with you every.

Speaker 3

Day on this Bible teaching program on today's edition of Pathway to Victory.

Speaker 2

And verse five tells us the story of a miraculous birth of a baby that's not the baby you're thinking about, the baby Jesus.

But did you know there was another miraculous birth that preceded the birth of Jesus? It was the birth of a baby whose name would be John.

Speaker 1

Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress. When it comes to Christmas, most people think about Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus born in a manger, but they often forget about the other child that was born right around the same time.

Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress looks at the story of Zacharias and Elizabeth and the miraculous birth of their son John. But first, let's take a minute to hear some important ministry updates.

Speaker 3

Thanks, David, and welcome to Pathway to Victory. Picture this idea for a moment. Can you imagine what it would be like if Jesus walked the earth today? And if he used Instagram and Facebook to keep his followers up to speed, we'd be checking our cell phones all day long to see the pictures and to watch his miracles in real time. Well, in a real sense, the New Testament Gospels serve that very purpose. And beginning today, we're venturing into the Gospel of Luke to catch real-life glimpses of Jesus. I titled this series "Celebrate the Savior."

Before we begin, I have a very exciting announcement to share with you. Pathway to Victory is thrilled to kick off a season of generosity through a record-breaking matching challenge. Generous friends of Pathway to Victory have banded together to establish a whopping $1.7 million amount with the express purpose of doubling any gift you give today and December 31st. We're calling this the "Now is the Time Matching Challenge."

I know you feel the mounting tension in our culture. For that reason, now is the time to share the Gospel. So would you join me in this special season of doubling our resources? When you give a generous year-end gift, every dollar is automatically multiplied times two, thanks to this matching challenge. I'll say more later in the program, but right now it's time to begin our study in Luke, chapter one, verse five. Today we're looking at the miraculous birth of a baby named John. I titled this message "Touched by an Angel."

Speaker 2

Chuck Swindoll tells a great story about a father who asked his 10-year-old son what he had learned in Sunday school that morning. The 10-year-old said that his Sunday school teacher had talked about the parting of the Red Sea. So the dad said, "Well, can you tell me the story?" He wanted to check and see if the son was really listening to the story. He said, "Well, sure, Dad. Moses was this really cool guy, but Pharaoh was a really bad dude who wouldn't let the Israelites leave Egypt until Moses performed some miracles. But Pharaoh decided he didn't want to let them go. So he chased them until they got to the Red Sea. The Israelites didn't know what they were going to do until suddenly they looked up and saw some helicopters carrying a large pontoon bridge. Once the bridge was lowered into place, Moses reached inside his coat and pulled out an electronic megaphone and said, 'Now everybody follow me across the bridge.' As soon as they made it across the bridge, the Egyptians started chasing them. And then some jet airplanes swooped down and bombed the bridge while the Egyptians were still on it, and they all drowned."

The father said, "Is that what your Sunday school teacher told you?" He said, "Well, not exactly, but if I told it the way she told it, you'd never believe it." You know, all of us from time to time face impossible situations, don't we? Our back is up against the wall. There seems to be no way of escape. And even if we believe these stories of the Bible, like the parting of the Red Sea, we tend to think, "Well, that was then, but this is now. God just doesn't do the same things today as he did thousands of years ago." But the Bible I read says God has not changed. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Aren't you glad of that? And the same God who is able to part the Red Sea, the same God who collapsed the walls of Jericho, the same God who miraculously fed Elijah for three and a half years in the wilderness, that same God is ready. He is able to work miraculously on your behalf. And that's the story that we're going to see illustrated today.

Usually, God—have you found this out?—God usually waits until the very last moment, when our backs are up against the wall, to intervene on our behalf. Because when he does, then there's no doubt who really performed the miracle. That was the experience of the couple we're going to talk about today. If you have your Bibles, I want you to turn to Luke 1 as we discover one couple who was truly touched by an angel. Now, last time we began our study of the Gospel of Luke. It's the most detailed of all of the accounts of Jesus' life, which is the reason we're studying this particular gospel. Not only is it the most detailed, it was written to people like most of us here today, who are Gentiles, non-Jews.

If you were going to do an overview of the Gospel of Luke, I've put it on your outline there. You can pull out your outline and see how Luke is divided into three major parts. And really, the theme verse of Luke is found in Luke 19:10, when Jesus said about himself, "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." That was Jesus' reason for coming. And you see how that theme verse is divided out over the Gospel of Luke. The first section is about Christ's birth, about his coming. He has come. The second portion is about his ministry on earth. He came to seek. And then the final portion of Luke deals with his death and resurrection. He came to save.

So after the first four verses, which are the prologue of the Gospel of Luke, we're ready to get into the story in verse five. And verse five tells us the story of a miraculous birth of a baby. It's not the baby you're thinking about; we're going to get to that next time, the baby Jesus. But did you know there was another miraculous birth that preceded the birth of Jesus? It was the birth of a baby whose name would be John, someone who would be pivotal in the life of Jesus Christ. Look at verse five with me. "In the days of Herod, King of Judea." Now, it's easy to skip past that and not understand what's going on. In the days of Herod, who was Herod? He was the puppet king that Rome had put in place to rule over Judea, to rule over Palestine. It was Herod who later, as we'll see, instigated that genocide or infanticide against babies two years of age and younger when he found out another king was threatening his rule. These were dark days in Israel.

To say "in the days of" would be like an Iraqi citizen today saying "in the days of Saddam Hussein." That's what it was like for the Israelites in the days of Herod. And yet it's against this dark backdrop of distress and bleakness that God was ready to answer the prayer not only of one couple but of an entire nation. It was in these dark days. Look at verse five. "That there was a certain priest named Zacharias of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth." I want you to look at verse six. "And they were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord." Zacharias and Elizabeth were declared righteous.

Now folks, this is important to understand what the word righteous means. The word righteous is actually used two different ways in the Bible. Sometimes the word righteous refers to imputed righteousness. This is the righteousness we receive when we trust in Christ as our Savior. We are immediately declared righteous. But there's a second kind of righteousness in the Bible, and that's ethical righteousness. That is how we live after we're saved. It is the way we conduct our lives. Imputed righteousness is our standing; we've been declared forgiven, our right standing. But ethical righteousness is our right acting before God. And this is the kind of righteousness that is being used to describe this couple. They were righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord.

Does that mean they were perfect? Of course not. We'll see that in just a moment. They weren't perfect, but walking blamelessly. The word "walking" refers to the way you conduct your life. Listen to this: the general direction of their life was moving toward God rather than away from God. That's what it means to walk blamelessly. It means your heart's desire is that you obey God. It doesn't mean you never make a mistake. Think about it. Noah found favor in the eyes of God, and yet he got drunk. David committed adultery. Abraham, the friend of God—remember what he did to save his own skin? He allowed his wife to... well, he didn't allow; he made his wife sleep in the harem of the king in order to protect himself. He was hardly blameless before God. We'll even see Zacharias; he had his moments of doubt as well. It's not that these people were perfect, but the general direction of their life was moving toward God rather than away from God.

Aren't you glad God doesn't judge the totality of our lives by one or two episodes in our life? Instead, he looks at the general direction of our life. He looks into our motivation and says, "Is that a person who really wants to follow me?" What about your life? Is the general direction of your life moving you toward God or away from God? This couple was moving toward God. And yet, even though they walked toward God, that didn't exempt them from problems. In fact, you'll find usually when you're trying to walk with God, it guarantees you're going to have problems. Look at verse seven. "And they had no child because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both advanced in years."

Now, in Jewish culture, this didn't come from the Bible, but in Jewish culture, if you were a female and married and had no child, it was thought to be a curse from God. And so they were ashamed of the fact that even though they had tried to have a child, they had no child. And the fact that they were both advanced in years means that they had no prospects of having a child as well. They were in a hopeless situation, or so they thought. But notice how God intervened. Look at verse eight. "Now, it came about while Zacharias was performing his priestly service before God in the appointed order of his division." According to the custom of the priestly office, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and to burn incense.

Now, let me explain what's going on here. Nine hundred years before this, King David had a problem. And the problem was they had too many priests in Israel and not enough work to do. Back then, priests were kind of like Baptist preachers; they were a dime a dozen. I mean, they were everywhere. There just wasn't enough for them to do. So according to God's instruction, 1 Chronicles 24, David says, "Okay, we're going to take all of these priests and we're going to divide them into 24 groups. And then what we're going to do is, according to each group in each division, every priest will go to the temple in Jerusalem for one week, twice a year to do his duties." Kind of like the National Guard of priests. Okay, you go to Jerusalem and you perform your service one week a year, twice a year.

So Zacharias, being one of those priests, was simply fulfilling his duty. He was in Jerusalem the week that he was supposed to be there to perform his service. Now, here are hundreds of priests who happened to be in Jerusalem on this particular week. They would cast lots—that's like throwing dice—to decide which priest got the right that week to go inside of the holy place. Not the holy of holies; that was only for the high priest once a year. But the holy place outside is where there was an altar, and there was a priest who was chosen by chance to be the one who got to go in and light incense on the altar and to say a prayer. This was such an honor to be the one chosen to do this that you only got to do that one time in your lifetime.

And so notice what Luke is saying here. Zacharias just happened to be in Jerusalem on this particular day, and by chance, he was the one chosen to burn the incense on the altar. By chance, my foot. Nothing happens by chance in God's will. Proverbs 16:33 says, "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord." The Lord is the one who determines the result of the throwing of the dice or the casting of the lot, or the winning of the lottery. No, we're not supposed to talk about that. But God is in control of things that seem by chance.

Now here is Zacharias. He's the one chosen. He's feeling so great; he goes into the holy place to burn the incense. Now, may I stop here and point out something that I think will be a great encouragement to you? When is it that God chose to answer Zacharias' prayers? We'll see in a moment. It wasn't when he was cloistered in some monastery somewhere, you know, meditating, you know, chanting all by himself. No, it wasn't when he was all by himself cloistered in a monastery. It was when he was performing his everyday responsibility that God chose to speak to him. His everyday responsibility happened to be to be in Jerusalem and in the holy place. But the point is, that is when God intervened in his situation.

And you see that all throughout the Bible. It's when people are doing their everyday chores that God seems to answer and give direction. Think about Moses and David. Where were they when God spoke to them? They were taking care of the sheep; that's what they were supposed to be doing. Or think about Peter, the apostle Peter. Where was he when Jesus called him into service? He was out doing his day job. He was mending nets when Jesus said, "Come and follow me." Warren Wiersbe says it is difficult to steer a car when the engine is not running. When we get busy, God starts to direct us. That is a great principle. When we are doing what we're supposed to be doing, we're not stationary; we're moving. That's when God can direct us.

I know today I'm speaking to some of you who are students, maybe you're young adults. You're at that stage in your life when you're seeking God's direction about some specific decisions, maybe about where to go to school, or maybe what vocation to choose, or maybe what mate to choose. I point out three principles about how to find God's will in your life. Whenever you're seeking God's direction—maybe you're a middle-aged adult or senior adult and you're in one of those intermissions we talked about a few weeks ago, and you're sensing God's direction for the second act of your life—whenever you're seeking God's direction, notice these three principles.

Number one: Walk blamelessly before the Lord. That's what Zacharias and Elizabeth did. That is, they knew to do what they were supposed to do. They were obedient to God in every way they possibly could be. If you want God's direction in your life, you cannot be disobeying God blatantly and asking him for direction. He just won't give it to you. First Peter 3 says God attends his ear to the prayers of the righteous, those who are right acting before Him. But he turns away his ear from those who practice evil. If you want God's direction, do what you know you're supposed to do. Walk blamelessly before the Lord.

Number two: When seeking God's direction, persist in prayer. That's what Zacharias did. He never quit praying for a child, even though God didn't immediately answer his request. When we come to Luke 18, we're going to see a story Jesus told about how we ought to persist in prayer at all times. We're not to pray just when the answer seems obvious; we're to pray when the answer seems impossible.

And then thirdly, be faithful in your everyday responsibilities. If you want God's direction, be sure you're not only obeying God, but you're fulfilling your everyday responsibilities to your family, to your workplace. That's when God is most likely to speak. Now, it's while Zacharias is inside the temple that the angel appears. Look at verse 11. "And an angel of the Lord appeared to Zacharias, standing to the right of the altar of incense. And Zacharias was troubled when he saw him, and fear gripped him."

Now, there are only two angels in the Bible who have names attached to them. One angel was Michael, Michael the Archangel. He seems to be the angel in charge of defending Israel. Michael the Archangel. The other angel that is named, as we'll see in this passage, is Gabriel. Gabriel is the messenger angel. He's the one we'll see next time that would appear to a teenage peasant girl named Mary to announce the coming of the Messiah. But Zacharias, when he saw this appearance of Gabriel, was gripped with fear. Why is that?

Now, remember, it had been 400 years since God had spoken a word since the Old Testament, the ending of Malachi. God had not spoken for 400 years. And that means there was nobody alive in Zacharias' day who had even seen an angel. They hadn't seen an angel, but they knew about angels from the Old Testament. And they knew whenever an angel appeared, it usually wasn't good news. Whenever an angel appeared, it was usually an angel of judgment. And so Zacharias, when he saw this angel suddenly appear before him, thought, "This is it. My life is over."

But notice how the angel greeted Zacharias. He said, "Do not be afraid," verse 13. Whereas the King James says, "Fear not." Now, apparently, Gabriel had to say that every time he appeared to somebody: "Fear not. Fear not." To the shepherds, "Fear not." It was a way of keeping his audience from going into cardiac arrest whenever they appeared. So I'm sure he got tired of having to say that all the time. "Fear not. Fear not. I'm not here to kill you." He goes on to say, "For your petition has been heard."

Now, what petition? Well, the obvious one is your petition for a son. He and Elizabeth had been praying for years that God would give them a child. But I think it's more than that. It was not only their petition for a child, but it was the nation's petition for a Savior. For hundreds of years, the Jewish people had been waiting for the Messiah to come. And they were especially anxious right now because time seemed to be running out. Let me explain what I mean by that. This angel Gabriel, 500 years before this, had appeared to another godly man named Daniel. And we find in Daniel chapter nine that the angel Gabriel gave Daniel a vision of what was going to come, including the coming of the Messiah.

And remember, in what I call the most amazing prophecy in all of the Bible, Daniel 9:24-27, Gabriel said to Daniel, "Now know this. You're in Babylon in exile right now, but from the moment the decree is issued by the king for you to leave Babylon and go back to Jerusalem, from the moment that decree is issued until Messiah is presented as Messiah, there will be 69 weeks of years, or 483 years." Well, we know when that happened. Every Israelite had it circled on his calendar, kind of like July 4, 1776. That date happened to be March 14, 445 B.C. when the order came from Artaxerxes for Nehemiah to go back and to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem.

Now, 450 years had already passed since that 445 B.C. date when Gabriel appears to Zacharias. So all of Israel, at least those who knew the Old Testament, knew, "Okay, it's 483 years until everybody's supposed to see Messiah. 450 years have already elapsed. Time is running out." So when Gabriel says, "Your petition has been heard," it's not just the petition for a son; it's the petition for a Savior. But the Bible also said, before Messiah comes, there will be one who announces his coming, a messenger.

Speaker 3

These Bible prophecies were all fulfilled in the arrival of Christ, the long awaited Messiah. And this amazing prophecy only amplified our celebration of Jesus. Well, at Pathway to Victory, we've found that our listeners are very focused on discovering more about Jesus and learning to walk with Him.

Along those lines, I've written a brand new daily devotional for you. In fact, I've written a devotional for every weekday in 2026. This is a favorite and most popular tradition among our listening family, and the tan leather bound devotional for 2026 is available right now. It comes with my profound thanks when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory.

Plus, there's never been a better time to step forward with a generous year-end gift. Because Pathway to Victory is the recipient of a record-setting matching challenge in the amount of $1.7 million. As a result, every dollar you give before December 31st will be automatically doubled in impact for God's glory.

With me, I'm sure you're sensing the urgency of our times. The return of our Savior appears to be soon. Paul said to the Romans, "The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed."

Now is the time to advance against the darkness. Now is the time for us to do more, to spread more hope. Now is the time to impact more lives for Jesus Christ. Maybe it's been a while since you've given a generous gift to Pathway to Victory. Perhaps you've never done so. Well, now's the time.

Together, let's boldly proclaim God's word to bring healing and hope to our nation and world before Christ returns. Here's David to tell you more.

Speaker 1

Today when you give a generous year-end gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, we'll say thanks by sending you a copy of the brand new 2026 Pathway to Victory Daily Devotional. To request your copy, call 866-999-2965 or visit our website at ptv.org. When your gift is $100 or more, we'll also include the teaching series Celebrate the Savior on DVD, video, and MP3 format audio discs.

And right now, because of our Now Is the Time Matching Challenge, any gift you give will be doubled in impact. Call us toll-free at 866-999-2965 or go online to ptv.org. A lot of folks prefer to write in. Here's that mailing address: P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222. That's P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222.

I'm David J. Mullins. Join us again next time for the conclusion of this message titled Touched by an Angel. That's Tuesday here on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas.

You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. And right now, your special year-end gift will be matched and therefore doubled in impact thanks to the Now Is the Time Matching Challenge.

Take advantage of this opportunity to double your impact before the deadline on December 31st. To give toward the matching challenge, go to ptv.org/donate or follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.