Zacharias: Your Own Doubt Could Rob You
Notes
Transcript
Background
The OT ended with a promise. The promise of a Messiah that would come to his people.
2 But to you who fear My name The Sun of Righteousness shall arise With healing in His wings; And you shall go out And grow fat like stall-fed calves.
The promise would be fulfilled only after the return of a prophet, Elijah.
5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
6 And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
Malachi had written these words around 420 B.C.
It had been 400 years since a prophet, any prophet spoke any words on behalf of the Lord.
For 400 years Israel had heard nothing from God. There had been pretenders, but they all ended the same way. Their prophecies and claims coming to nothing.
What had once been a living, powerful relationship with the One True God who dwelt among His people with signs, miracles and doing wonders had become empty religion of tradition.
No different than the pagan religions that surrounded them, tradition of sacrificing to a silent god.
The faithful, determined believer still showed up to the temple for sacrifices. But there was little expectation that something amazing could happen. It was just tradition.
The people who waited outside the temple were the true, believing remnant of Israel. They prayed anticipating that at any moment their priest would emerge from the inner place where he had been carrying out his service. These true believers were spiritually thirsty, parched at the silence of a routine of worship with little return over their lifetime.
Would their priest step out from behind the veil with a message after fourteen generations of nothing?
Zacharias and Elizabeth
Zacharias and Elizabeth
This particular day the lot of burning incense on the altar inside the temple fell on the shoulders of Zacharias. He was a priest in the course of Abia. A righteous man blessed above many others. It was and continues to be a blessing to be a priest.
Peter said we are a royal priesthood…you are blessed today.
Not only was he a priest, he had married the daughter of a priest descended from the first high priest Aaron.
Luke’s gospel tells us “they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of God” Luke 1:6.
Their lives were peaceful and quiet. Filled with simplicity and service to God and to His people.
This was a first and last in the life of Zacharias. He was over eighty years old. Never before in his life had he been so close to God in service.
Every week on the Sabbath the course of who ministered before God would change. There were 24 courses of priests who ministered. It was the month of the year when the course of Abia had the service of the sanctuary. Zacharias was to go into the Holy Place of the temple and to burn incense on the golden altar.
Some priests ministered their whole life without being given such a gift. It is a gift to be able to go into the presence of God!
Zacharias chose two friends to be his helpers. Through the great door of the temple, they went to find themselves surrounded by the golden splendor of the sanctuary and the brilliant colors of the veil.
One of his friends removed the remnants of the previous day’s offering and reverently backed out of the Holy Place.
His other friend approached the golden altar and carefully covered its grid with burning coals taken from the great brazen altar where the sacrificial animals burned. He too retired out of the Holy Place.
Zacharias was left alone. He knew well what was on the other side of the veil. The sacred ark of the covenant with its mercy seat where God had sat enthroned between the cherubim in past happier times. What a temptation to look in...
The moment had come. Zacharias advanced and put incense on the fiery coals. Clouds of pungent perfume rose. Its fragrance would cling to him the rest of the day advertising to everyone that he had been very near to God.
Outside the multitudes of the people were praying, anticipating at any moment the return of Zacharias.
In the Holy Place, his duties discharged the old man prepared to leave the sanctuary. Then he saw him! An angel. The priest was suddenly afraid. He had been brought face to face with a messenger from another realm.
“Do not be afraid!” was the angels first words. Calming Zacharias from his mounting terror.
“Your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son”
Zacharias standing with mouth open now. A silent prayer that he and Elizabeth had prayed together but had never shared with anyone. That persistent problem and source of shame for his wife, they had no children. That prayer had been heard.
“You shall call his name John.”
14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth.
15 For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.
16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.
17 He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
The OT ended with a promise, a coming Messiah preceded by Elijah. The NT begins with a promise, the Messiah is coming, your son whom you will name John will go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah.
What wonderful, glorious, good news after 400 years of nothing. Zacharias your prayer has been heard, and the Lord is giving to your wife a son.
It happened fast, possibly without thought. A little doubt.
18 And Zacharias said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.”
Give me a sign...
19 And the angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings.
The thought of doubting the Lord’s word had never occured to Gabriel. This angel dispatched with messages from the most high was used to his word being received. But doubt is a devious thing.
20 But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own time.”
21 And the people waited for Zacharias, and marveled that he lingered so long in the temple.
22 But when he came out, he could not speak to them; and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple, for he beckoned to them and remained speechless.
Your doubts can rob you.
Zacharias could have come out proclaiming a message of hope for the people. Doubt robbed him.
Zacharias could have been saying how God heard and is answering a prayer he and Elizabeth had prayed for a long time. Doubt robbed him.
Zacharias asked a question in unbelief. He was protesting and giving voice to his doubts.
The sign he was given is that he would be mute until the promise was fulfilled. He would not be able to voice his doubts anymore. He would not be able to speak.
His voice amplified his words and conveyed what was in his heart, and had the power to sabotage his promise.
Jesus said;
34 Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Doubt when given a voice grows. You can hinder your faith by words of doubt.
“It is better to say nothing at all than to give voice to your doubts.” - Donovan Hill
Each of us wrestle doubt at various points in our life.
Devil can’t steal your promise but he can get you to doubt God’s answer.
Faith can silence your fears, but your doubt can silence your faith.
People are robbed by doubt… Thomas robbed of the joyous report that Jesus was risen.
Doubt at receiving the Holy Spirit speaking in tongues.
Doubt at God loving them in spite of their sin.
Doubt at God healing, providing, answering, protecting.
Mary
Mary
The same angel, Gabriel delivered another message six months later to the city of Nazareth.
26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,
27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.
28 And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”
29 But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.
30 Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus.
32 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.
33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
34 Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”
35 And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.
36 Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren.
37 For with God nothing will be impossible.”
38 Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
Can you see it? Unlike Zacharias, Mary did not let doubt overcome her.
She ask a logical question… How she as a virgin could have a child? She ask from a heart of faith and not from doubt.
Her final response reveals her faith.
38 Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
Let it be to me… I don’t understand how it is all going to work. But let it happen to me.
Thanksgiving ending
Thanksgiving ending
Majority of us will take time this Thursday to show some thankfulness to God for something he has done in the past. What if you thanked Him for something that has not happened yet, but you know He is going to do in your life.