Skip to main content

Celebrating Advent - December 5

By

Sing: One or two songs of your choice

Reading: Luke 1:8-10
Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense.

Summary: The focus on this passage is the sovereignty of God in choosing Zechariah by lots. The Israelites believed that casting lots allowed God to reveal his will, as opposed to leaving weightier decisions to the wisdom of man who is sinful. What seems like gambling to us was actually faith to them. Amazingly, the odds of Zechariah being chosen was about 1 in 10,000. The fact that he was chosen to go into the temple tells us that God is in control of all things and that nothing can stop his purposes. God was going to bless Zechariah and answer a prayer that he and his wife had been praying all of their lives.

Teaching Tip: To make this lesson fun you can place one piece of brown rice in a giant Costco bag of rice. Imagine you were blindfolded and you had to reach in and pinch one piece of rice and then bring it out of the bag. That piece of brown rice represents Zechariah in the midst of all the other priests who could have been chosen. 

Questions/Responses:

What is a priest? A priest is someone who is set apart by God, to represent God's people to God. 

 What does it mean that Zechariah was able to enter the temple and burn incense? It means he was able to go into the presence of God and offer the prayers of all the people. 

Note: Consider this quote from Dr. Ralph Wilson

"As the officiating priest, it was Zechariah's job to place incense on the heated altar and then prostrate himself in prayer.[7] The incense represented the prayers of the people. Outside, the people were reciting this prayer during the incense offering: "May the merciful God enter the Holy Place and accept with favor the offering of his people."[8]"

Why is it special that Zechariah was chosen? Because there were so many priests to be chosen to go into the temple. It was also special that he was chosen so close to Jesus being born. Since Zechariah was going to be father of John the Baptist we know that it wasn't luck that he was going to enter the temple but it was God's will. 

 Is anything too hard for God? No, nothing is too hard for God.

 How does God show us that he is in control of all things? God shows us that he is in control of all things by selecting Zechariah to go into the temple. (Consider Proverbs 16:33).

What can we take from learning that God is in control of all things? We can take comfort in knowing that we can always trust God with our lives.

 Prayer and Ending

Suggested Prayer: Father in heaven, we are thankful for demonstrating your power in the life of Zechariah, by choosing him to go into the temple right before Jesus was going to be born. Nothing is too hard for you and we can trust you in everything. Please give us the strength to put our faith in you and trust you for everything. In Jesus name, AMEN.

 Sources Quoted:
Jesus Walk Luke's Gospel by Dr. Ralph Wilson. http://www.jesuswalk.com/lessons/1_5-25.htm

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

To Have My Soul Happy in the Lord, by George Muller

By Anonymous
To Have My Soul Happy in the Lord By George Muller “It has pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, the benefit of which I have not lost for more than fourteen years. The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or how I might glorify the Lord, but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. “I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God—not prayer, but the Word of God. And here again, not the simple reading of the Word of God so that it only passes through my mind just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what I read, pondering over it, and applying it to my heart. To meditate on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed. And that thus,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Billy Graham, Holiness, and Leadership

By
A few years ago, I was listening to a radio program on which Marshall Shelley was being interviewed about his new book, The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham (Zondervan, 2005). They were giving away a few copies of the book to those who called in, and something inside me felt compelled to call. But I didn’t have a good question to ask, so I prayed to the Lord and said, “If you want me to have a copy of this book, please give me a good question to ask and I’ll call.” I’m not sure if the Lord gave me this question or if it just popped into my head, but one way or the other, I thought to ask about the connection in Billy’s life between his private pursuit of holiness and integrity, and his public effectiveness and longevity. So, I made the call and was given the last copy of the book they had to give. A couple of years earlier, I had breakfast with some friends and the subject of Billy Graham’s life and ministry came up. We talked mostly about his commitment to integrity in the area...
Post a Comment
Read more

Catechisms: Building a Heritage of Sound Faith - By Pastor Kevin Feder

By
This is an article I (Pastor Kevin) wrote in 2005 and updated in 2017. It is featured in a new resource available through Children’s Desiring God called Discipleship through Doctrinal Teaching and Catechism by Sally Michael.  It is our desire to encourage parents to use a children’s catechism as a tool in building and strengthening faith in children. A simple definition of a catechism is “organized teaching.” Catechisms are not the only things that can or should be used to instruct the next generation, yet they have useful purposes. Listed here are ten specific benefits a catechism can uniquely offer. Hopefully these ten points will help parents understand how a catechism can be effectively used in their families. 1.  A catechism is a very clear and complete gospel message. A catechism is, among other things, a very clear and concise gospel message to children. Everything a child needs to know for salvation is embodied within a catechism. The gospel is truly ama...
Post a Comment
Read more