AN ANGEL SPEAKS: JOHN THE BAPTIST AND OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.

Why did the angel of the Lord appear to Zechariah and stand on the right side of the altar of incense? (Luke 1)  How did the angel from the throne decide that fear gripped this gentleman who was troubled? How did he know Zechariah’s prayer was answered, and that his wife Elisabeth will bear him a son and his name be John?  This angel had one criterion, for he spoke from the throne.

The mysterious angel continued: ‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer is heard; and your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name, ‘John.’(v13)
How could this angel understand fear, having come from the untrammeled peace of the Father’s throne? How did he know of this priest’s prayer to the Father in heaven: how could an unmarried angel prophesy that Zechariah’s wife would bear a son?  Did he know of their broken-heartedness? Did he appreciate the medical changes for resumption of former sexual activities; the release of the hormones, the change in organs and replacing Elisabeth’s osteoporosis with normal calcium?
No: the angel obeyed his God.  How much more should we!   

How could this messenger from heaven state, ‘You will have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at this birth, when he has never witnessed a human birth?  How could the angel foresee ‘He will be great in the sight of the Lord’ unless the Lord had commissioned him with this truth?  Where did the angel learn the Aramaic language to speak these invaluable truths?   How could the angel foretell that ‘He would drink neither wine nor strong drink?’ Had he seen from heaven the degeneration that followed substance abuse?  Every nation experiences the detrimental effect of alcohol on men and women.  God told him and equipped him.

Then the angel made known that the revered third Person of the Trinity would fill John even from his mother’s womb. (v15)  This mystery was unraveled a generation later when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, after the Lord’s sacrificial death and impressive resurrection.  How did the angel know that John the Baptist would be a capable soul-winner, in that 'He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God?’ He could not have anticipated the crowds pressing on John at his Jordan baptism, and his pointing to the Christ as the Lamb of God, who takes way the sin of the world ‘A mighty utterance.’
This angelic visit shows how heaven and earth are closely twined.          

When Zechariah protested his age and the frail nature of his wife, the angel gave his CV. ‘I am Gabriel, who stood in the presence of the Lord and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings. ‘He foretold his silence, muteness and inability to speak until the day these things took place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their own time.’ The angel proudly occupied a place near the throne of his Lord.  He prophesied that Zechariah would be speechless. The angel saw unbelief in his Lord as the great sin, disabling God’s servant. He expected prophecy to be fulfilled. May God give us angelic conviction?      
 The angel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, when Elisabeth was six months pregnant.  He was directed to a Virgin, betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David.  The virgin’s name was Mary.(1:27)  ‘Having come in, (into her presence or home) the angel said to her, Rejoice, highly favoured one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women.’  The Father authorized the angel; for the girl was betrothed to Joseph, a descendant of King David, so fulfilling Scripture: he assured her of the presence of the Holy One; and that she was unique among women.  Mary was not approved for worship- only to be blessed among women. As a young woman she was shaken by the angel visit and message.

The angel said, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God’. Then amazingly, ‘Behold, you shall conceive in your womb (the first in vitro fertilization with Creator God as the physician) - not naturally from Joseph’s seed and your egg cell, where fertilization occurs in the ovarian tube, He kept on, ‘You shall bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus’, meaning Jehovah is salvation.  That‘s why this Name is so precious to every believer. Heaven’s message grew, ‘He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.’   ‘And he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end.’ The angel passed on heaven’s message.

Mary questioned the angel, ‘How can this be seeing I know not a man?’ The angel probably had no knowledge of human conception, for he carried the divine word. Mary must be privileged to discuss the angel’s visitation.  Few have had such a visit.
The following angelic message illuminates the Word of God. ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, that holy One who is to be born of you will be called the Son of God.’ The miraculous conception was exclusively from the Lord Himself. God created His eternal life in the womb of this young woman, so that His blood would be pure, and not tainted with any stain of sin.  The One who will be born is the perfect Son of God and the true son of Mary.  He could not inherit any family weaknesses through chromosomal interchange of man and woman, for he would give His body on the altar ‘without blemish or spot’ before God as our substitute.   He died for our sins.

Equally important is the pure blood stream of the Babe, conceived in the womb, yet distinct from the mother’s blood, which conveys nutrition, oxygen and immunity, while gathering the carbon dioxide and waste products for elimination.  The placenta, or after-birth- was the filter barrier between the two blood streams. Following this, the babes of mothers HIV +-ve may be protected from the virus of the mother at birth.  With a pure blood stream, the shedding of the blood of the Lamb of God would make a perfect atonement for the sin of the world.  In God’s eyes, the blood of the Lord Jesus shed on Calvary ‘cleanses us from all sin.’ That’s why the Holy Spirit imparted the life of the eternal God to Mary to bear through the nine months of gestation, as our mothers, wives, daughters courageously endured. 

Paul spoke that ‘The Holy Spirit made us overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.’ (Acts 20:28) The angel Gabriel had spoken of ‘that holy One’ whose life-blood was God’s own blood. Precious truth!

Gabriel returned to glory.  Thank God he faithfully told heaven’s message. 
We too must jealously guard the truth of redemption by the blood of God’s Lamb.