Zacharias

A Food for Thought Sermon
Written by Carl A Davenport
Inspired by God

HOW SUBTLY SATAN WORKS…
Luke 1:5-13;57-80

     Satan is very sneaky and just loves to cause changes to the outcome of any decision made by God. Satan, himself, can’t make any change to anything. He cannot change anything by presenting his changes to God and getting God to make his changes because God knows better. So Satan uses his subtle methods of deception to influence God’s creation into making the changes he wants for himself.

To those being used by Satan, it always seems like it’s their own idea to make something better. So, its usually a very little change that doesn't seem like it would matter, or maybe Satan presents it as just a small personal preference that will make it more the persons way who is going to make the change, or, this way is easier.  There’s always a thousand reasons why a change is needed. Satan leads man by man's own lusts.

One thing is common to any change Satan arranges to be made, is they are always man's changes to God's plan. They are man’s changes, not God’s. God needs no help from man. God knows what He is doing before He does it. He knows the outcome.

In most cases, when the changes are made, they look great. Great to man that is. They will work fine, for a season. Only one thing is wrong with them, they are not of God, they are of Satan. They are always done by man thinking it is for man. What works for man will work in man’s world, but will not work in God’s.  What works in man's world leads man away from God, or perverts God's plan.

     When the change's season ends, the true purpose of the change gets revealed, and by then much has been perverted, and nothing good has come from the change.

In this example, something as small as changing a name, to honour the father of the child, seemed harmless, but if was allowed, the change would have caused a huge perversion in the present and future of John the Baptist and the prophecies of Christ. This passage is a very good example of how Satan uses a small unimportant change to cause a big perversion in the Word of God.

An Archangel has given Zacharias God’s command to name his baby John. Zacharias, who didn't believe at first, agrees, and is made unable to talk for not believing what the Archangel told him.

     In the meantime, Satan begins influencing those around Zacharias to try to pervert the command of God to name baby John, to Zacharias. Satan knew that if this was allowed, the naming of the baby would have been moved away from God’s wishes and toward Satan’s. The prophesies of the scriptures would have been perverted. What would have happened? If the baby's name of John the Baptist was changed to Zacharias, the prophesy of forerunner for Christ would have been removed and the scriptures would have not been fulfilled. John the Baptist was the forerunner for Christ. Zacharias was not. So to full fill the scriptures, the baby had to be named John.  Luke 1:13

      The Message of promise From Gabriel, the Archangel

Luk 1:5  There was in the days of Herod the King of Judea, a certain Priest, named Zacharias, of the course of Abia, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.

Luk 1:6  And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the Commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless.

Luk 1:7  And they had no child, because that Elizabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years.

Luk 1:8  And it came to pass, that while he executed the Priests office before God in the order of his course,

Luk 1:9  According to the custom of the Priests office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the Temple of the Lord.

Luk 1:10  And the whole multitude of the people were praying without, at the time of incense.

Luk 1:11  And there appeared unto him an Angel of the Lord, standing on the right side of the Altar of incense.

Luk 1:12  And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.

Luk 1:13  But the Angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.

The Blessing

Luk 1:57  Now Elizabeth’s full time came, that she should be delivered, and she brought forth a son.

Luk 1:58  And her neighbors and her cousins heard how the Lord had showed great mercy upon her, and they rejoiced with her.

All her neighbors were happy for Elizabeth. They were rejoicing for her because she had a baby at her age. They had no idea who the baby was. They were just happy.

     Meanwhile, in the background, Satan was stirring. He knew who the baby was. He knew the baby’s purpose. So, he devised a plan to use the neighbors to make a small change to the Archangel's order to Zacharias. If Satan would have been successful, we have no concept of what effect this would have caused.  It surely would have corrupted salvation as we know it today. The scene Satan was subtly trying to change was the naming of John the Baptist. John the Baptist was prophesied throughout the scriptures of the Old Testament. What would have happened to Christ's forerunner if He was named Zacharias rather than John?

Satan was subtly trying to use the neighbors to pervert God’s will

Luk 1:59  And it came to pass that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father.

Luk 1:60  And his mother answered, and said, Not so, but he shall be called John.

Luk 1:61  And they said unto her, There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name.

Luk 1:62  And they made signs to his father, how he would have him called.

Here is where Satan used the neighbors to try and change the name of the baby, thus eliminating the name, John the Baptist. The neighbors were strongly influenced and were stubbornly trying to make this change. They would not back off. They refused to agree on the baby's name with Elizabeth. This was also a test of Zacharias to see if he would obey the command of the Archangel, Gabriel. If he did not obey, the course of History would not be what it is today. The prophesy of John the Baptist would have been eliminated from the scriptures. It was left up to Zacharias to continue in God’s will, or to allow the change to be made to history.

 
Zecharias’ Stand for God’s Will…

 Luk 1:63  And he (Zacharias) asked for a writing table, and wrote, saying, His name is John: and they marvelled all.

     What did they marvel at? The fact that Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and they were not? The Holy Spirit was on this special mission from God. Were they marveled at the swiftness and commitment of Zacharias? They did not know about the Archangel and God’s plan. Nor did they know Satan's plan. But they were subtly and unknowingly influenced by Satan to force the change of the baby’s name to Zacharias. Like we said in the introduction. They thought it was a good idea. It didn't seem like such a big thing to call the baby after the father rather than call him John. They also thought it was their own idea to change the name. Neither did they see what big effect this small change would have had when its harvest time came.

     Although the neighbors and Satan had other plans, and their plans were strong, God’s plan would prevail here. The neighbors were marveled at the spiritual power they witnessed in this incident. They became afraid because they witnessed the power of the Spirit first hand. When Zacharias spoke, it was heard all over the hill country of Judea. When when he praised God and told the neighbors of the capacity his son John would serve they then realized that they were involved in something bigger than this world.

 The Blessing of Zacharias and the Prophecy
of John the Baptist to all of Judea

Luk 1:64  And his (Zacharias’) mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, and praised God.

    Luk 1:65  And fear came on all that dwelt round about them, and all these sayings were noised abroad through out all the hill country of Judea.

    Luk 1:66  And all they that had heard them, laid them up in their hearts, saying, What manner of child shall this be? And the hand of the Lord was with him.

    Luk 1:67  And his father Zacharias was filled with the holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying,

    Luk 1:68  Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people,

    Luk 1:69  And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us, in the house of his servant David,

    Luk 1:70  As he spoke by the mouth of his holy Prophets, which have been since the world began:

    Luk 1:71  That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us,

    Luk 1:72  To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy Covenant,

    Luk 1:73  The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,

    Luk 1:74  That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies Should serve him without fear,

    Luk 1:75  In holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

    Luk 1:76  Yea and thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Most High: For thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to make ready his ways;

    Luk 1:77  To give knowledge of salvation unto his people In the remission of their sins,

    Luk 1:78  Because of the tender mercy of our God, Whereby the dayspring from on high shall visit us,

    Luk 1:79  To shine upon them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death; To guide our feet into the way of peace.

    Luk 1:80  And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the     deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel.

So, you see this was about a lot more than naming a baby. It was about the fulfilling of a prophecy precluding to the Messiah and the salvation of the people. It was about bringing souls to God. It was about repentance and the coming of the Christ to defeat Satan.  It was about saving the lost, removing demons, and the new church. Satan did not want that and tried his best to pervert it.

What do you think would have been the course of history if God had allowed Satan to use Zacharias’ neighbors to change John the Baptist’s name? What would have happened to Salvation? To the body of Christ? To repentance? And healing and demon removal?

We provide referrals to and links to other World Wide Web sites from our site. Such a link should not be seen as an endorsement, approval or agreement with any information or resources offered at sites you can access through our site. If in doubt, always check the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) address provided in your WWW browser to see if you are still on the Spiritual Forces Ministry website or have moved to another site. Spiritual Forces Ministry is not responsible for the content or practices of third party sites that may be linked to our site. When Spiritual Forces Ministry provides links or references to other Web sites, no inference or assumption should be made and no representation should be inferred that Spiritual Forces Ministry is connected with, supports, endorses, operates or controls these Web sites. Any approved link from the Spiritual Forces Ministry website to any website, or any link from any site to the Spiritual Forces Ministry website must not represent in any way, either explicitly or by implication, that the site has received the endorsement, sponsorship or support of the Spiritual Forces Ministry website or endorsement, sponsorship or support of the ministry of Spiritual Forces Ministry, including its respective agents or directors.