Luke 1:11,12 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear.

         

When we first met Zechariah two days ago, we suggested that he was an ordinary man. Now an ordinary man has an angelic encounter, and it scares the life out of him! Why?

 

Perhaps it was because angels had gone out of fashion. Encounters with God had gone out of fashion. For over four hundred years heaven had been silent. That is a long time. Think back to the seventeenth century. The year 1600 sounds a long time ago. We tend to forget this in all that follows. Israel were just ‘ploughing on' with their religion not really expecting anything to happen. They carried out the daily routine in the Temple but they didn't expect anything to happen – because it hadn't for over four hundred years!

 

Then an angel turns up. He wasn't expected and so, yes, Zechariah was startled. Did this priest realise who he was. If the answer was no, then a figure appearing out of the blue is really scary. If he's an angel, then why has he turned up? Am I in trouble? Perhaps these were some of the thoughts going round in Zechariah's head.

 

Do we expect a divinely supernatural dimension to our faith? We ought to, because we live in the era of the Holy Spirit and He says and does things – regularly! The Christmas story is all about the divinely supernatural.