UNEXPECTED BLESSINGS

Religion

This sermon is from the series theme THAT WE MAY KNOW HIM on the Life of Christ. It was preached at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Cherry Log, Georgia on October 12, 2014 by Pastor Paul Mims. You can hear this sermon at www.csbccl.org
Luke 1:5-25Have you ever been surprised by God?

It had been four hundred years between the last prophet in the Old Testament, Malachi, and the first book in the New Testament, Matthew. Israel is now back in the promised-land after the Babylonian Captivity that lasted from 597 BC to 536 BC. God used this time as a judgment upon Israel because of their idolatry and rebellion against Him. In Jerusalem, the Temple had been restored. God had been silent for a long time. The priests in the line of Aaron were carrying on the Temple rites. There were three times during the day when the people could come to the Temple for prayer: 9:00 in the Morning; 12:00 Noon; and 3:00 in the afternoon. There were synagogues all over the land in the small towns and villages. There were 18,000 priests at this time arranged in various divisions. Under the leadership of Priest Abijah, there was a country priest named “Zachariah” in Hebrew, and “Zacharias” in Greek. Abijah’s division was scheduled to serve in the Temple twice a year. Then, they chose by lot one of their priests to offer the prayer incense in the Holy Place. This year, the lot fell upon Zacharias. Usually, this only happened to a priest once in a lifetime.

Picture the scene there at the Temple in Jerusalem. The people are gathered in the Temple courtyard at one of the hours of prayer. Two priests accompany Zacharias as they ascend up the steps of the great brazen altar as the people watch. One of the priests carries a bowl into which the other priest places live coals from the altar. They then walk down the ramp and begin to ascend the steps to enter the Temple and go behind the great doors into the area just outside the Holy Place.

Zacharias had always wondered what it looked like inside. He was now to leave the two fellow priests and enter the Holy Place by himself.

It was an awesome experience. As he walks inside the Holy Place he takes the censer with the burning coals from the brazen altar outside. He sees the room lit by the great golden lampstand. There he approaches the Golden Altar on which he places the burning coals. He then pours incense over the coals and smoke arises to God symbolizing the prayers of the people who are waiting outside. He looks around the room and sees the veil that separates the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies into which only the High Priest can enter once a year on the Day of Atonement. He is in the presence of God like he has never known at his village synagogue. The light from the great Menorah causes the room that is covered in pure gold to cast the shadows of the golden altar and the table of showbread. This is a moment that he wants to last forever.

Then suddenly, there materializes the form of an angel on the right side of the golden altar. Zacharias is immediately gripped by fear for in all of his instructions and preparations for this once in a lifetime experience for a country priest, nobody had ever told of an angelic appearance. He had served in the Temple twice a year, but never before had he been allowed into the Holy of Holies. The angel, Gabriel, had come from the throne room of heaven to make an announcement that would change his life and prepare for the coming of the Messiah. The message was for Zacharias and his wife, Elizabeth, and for us.

I. YOUR PRAYERS WILL BE ANSWERED.
(V.13) “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife, Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name, John.”

There was a deficiency in the home of this priest and his wife and they had lived with it all of their marriage. It was what they believed that held them in bondage. They were now well advanced in years and they did not have a child. The belief was that God was against them because He had not blessed them with a child. Others looked upon them and wondered if they were harboring some secret sin because they were not blessed with a child.

Is there something that your heart longs for and is yet unrealized in your experience? Our human reasoning ties us to the pain of un-fulfillment. We wonder why God has not answered our prayers. Is it because our lives do not please Him in some way? We thought that we prayed in faith and in accordance with scripture. Why are we different than others who are getting the desires of their hearts? Do we harbor a belief about prayer or about God that is incorrect? Do we have a sin in our lives that causes God not to hear us?

None of this was true for Zacharias and Elizabeth that had caused God not to answer their prayer until the present time. And it may not be true of you and your prayers. It was in the sovereign providence of God not to act in their lives until He was ready to break into history and use them to accomplish His Divine purposes. The Divine purpose God had in mind for Zacharias and Elizabeth was that they would be the parents of the one who would prepare the way for the Messiah, the Son of God. No other couple in all of the history of Israel could have been so honored by God.

Gabriel proceeds to tell Zacharias of the special son that he is to have who will bring him joy and gladness. The child will be named by God and his name will be “John” which means “God is gracious.” Not only is He gracious in meeting the desires of this couple, He is meeting the desire of the nation for the fulfillment of the prophecies of a Messiah who would come to bring redemption to all nations. John is to be the announcer that the time has come! He will be strong in character, filled with the Holy Spirit, and will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God. He will have the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

II. IT’S TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE.
(v.18) “Zacharias said to the angel, “How will I know this for certain? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years.”

Not only was Zacharias overwhelmed by his once in a lifetime experience of being chosen to serve in the Holy Place at the hour of prayer, but to see an angel and have a direct message from God that would directly affect his life was more than he could comprehend. I think that many of us would say in essence what he said to the angel, “It is just too good to be true.”

We know that idiom today and the better part of wisdom tells us, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

But there are times when God surprises us with unexpected blessings. God can break into the course of our lives and do anything that He wants to do. And in retrospect we that it was in His plan all the time and we just did not know it.

Gabriel then pronounces a judgment upon Zacharias because he did not believe his words. He said, “You will be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time.”

Unbelief is a powerful force in our lives even as Christians. When we do not believe that God can do certain things in our situation we limit Him and as a result we lose the blessing.

Alexander McLaren said, “Important lessons are given by this alternation of the two ideas of faith and unbelief, obedience and disobedience. Disobedience is the root of unbelief. Unbelief is the mother of further disobedience. Faith is voluntary submission within a person’s own power. If faith is not exercised, the true cause lies deeper than all intellectual reasons. It lies in the moral aversion of human will and in the pride of independence, which says, “who is Lord over us? Why should we have to depend on Jesus Christ?” As faith is obedience and submission, so faith breeds obedience, but unbelief leads on to higher-handed rebellion. With dreadful reciprocity of influence, the less one trusts, the more he disobeys; the more he disobeys, the less he trusts.”

Zacharias was afflicted with muteness which would last for almost a year until John would be born. For a preacher not to be able to speak for a year is a terrible judgment. Years ago, I had blisters on my vocal chords and the doctor told me not to speak for a month. This is while we were at First Baptist Church in Norfolk, Virginia. So I went to church and sat as a mute for about a month. I don’t remember what my sin of unbelief was, but I can sympathize with Zacharias who could not speak for about a year.
This is an example of a truth: Unbelief has nothing to say. “The smart new science professor at the college scarcely bothered to conceal the fact that he was an agnostic, if not an atheist. “Unless you shake off old-fashioned views and act for yourself,” he kept telling his classes, “the world will leave you behind. Putting your faith in God may be all right, but you can’t stop there. Take rain-making. When the farmers prayed for rain, what did they get? The Dust Bowl. Now all they do is to send up a plane, drop some chemicals on a cloud, and it rains. No question about that, is there?” To the professor’s surprise, a drawling farm boy spoke up. “Sure, there’s a question. Who furnishes the cloud?” (Encyclopedia of 15,000 Illustrations – 13834).

“Unbelief puts our circumstance between us and God, but faith puts God between us and our circumstances.” (F.B. Meyer).

III. GOD’S FAVOR UPON YOU.
The people were waiting outside the Temple for Zacharias to come out and pronounce the benediction and conclude the hour of prayer. The benediction that they were expecting most likely was the Aaronic blessing from Numbers 6:24-26;

“The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance on you, and give you peace.”

But when he comes out – he can’t say a word. And he starts making signs trying to tell the people what has happened. Have you played the game of “charades?” You can imagine the contortions that he went through describing the appearance of the angel in the Holy Place. Finally, the people realize that he has seen a vision in the Temple and had an encounter with God.

After his days of service were over in the Temple, he went home to Elizabeth and must have had a difficult time trying to explain to her all that had happened. And it all came true. They were going to have a son.
(v.25) “This is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when He looked with favor upon me, to take away my disgrace among men.”

That is what Elizabeth said when she became pregnant and went into seclusion for five months.
I like what Max Lucado said about God’s favor: “There are many reasons God saves you: to bring glory to himself, to appease his justice, to demonstrate his sovereignty. But one of the sweetest reasons God saved you is because he is fond of you. He likes having you around. He thinks you are the best thing to come down the pike in quite a while. If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If he had a wallet, your photo would be in it. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning. Whenever you want to talk, he’ll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe, and he chose your heart. And the Christmas gift he sent you in Bethlehem? Face it, friend. He’s crazy about you!” Max Lucado, A Gentle Thunder (Word, 1995)

PRAISE BE TO HIS NAME!

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