WHEN GOD BREAKS HIS SILENCE

Introduction

-If you have ever been married, you know that one of the biggest struggles between man and wife is communication. To be somewhat humorous, the wife doesn’t think that the husband talks enough, and the husband thinks that the wife talks too much.

-My marriage is no different, in that I even have to admit that I do not talk to Trish as much as I could, and the silence bothers her. Now, I try to make a joke of it and say that God gives men only so many words to say per week, and I preach 3x a week, so I use all my words up before I get home. She doesn’t buy that.

-But as much as silence is bothersome for the marriage relationship, what bothers us even more is the silence that sometimes comes from our relationship with God.

-And I am not talking today about the silence that comes from our end when we don’t pray (although that is problematic), but I am talking about the silence that seemingly comes from God’s end—the seasons of life that we go through where it just seems God isn’t listening or responding to us. We call out to Him, and all we get in return seems to be nothing—and we could say that the silence is deafening.

-What we seemingly go through in our personal walks with God is something that the nation of Israel experienced as a community. For hundreds of years God had communicated to His people through His prophets.

-Starting with Moses and on downward, God inspired these men to communicate His will and plan to His people. Even when God punished them for their disobedience by sending them into exile He still communicated to them through His chosen vessels. And then when they returned to the land, God used prophets to again give His will for them as they put the pieces back together.

-This all culminated in God speaking through the prophet Malachi (whose name means MY MESSENGER). He wrote during or soon after the ministries of Nehemiah and Ezra, about 100 years after the decree to return to the land.

-God gave instructions and warnings to His people, concluding with a grand promise:

READ MALACHI 4:5-6

Malachi 4:5–6 ESV

5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

-But then, after these words, came absolutely nothing. In fact, there was over 400 years of nothing. God was completely silent. No inspiration. No visions. No dreams. No word.

-But God did not stay silent forever. We pick up in the gospel of Luke, and we find that God broke His silence, and reached out again to declare the next part of His plan for redeeming a special people unto Himself from the world.

-And what that means for us on a more personal level (beyond the fact that His plan of redemption is meant for us), is that when God’s voice seems muted, or He seems distant, or His plans seem to be thwarted, God will always in His timing break the silence to show His people that He is still working in the world and in our lives.

-I hope to lead you to trust God when He seems silent, but when He breaks the silence to listen and obey.

-There are five lessons that I want you to take with you today when you consider God’s silence in your own life:

Luke 1:1–25 ESV

1 Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, 2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, 3 it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. 5 In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6 And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. 7 But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years. 8 Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, 9 according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. 11 And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12 And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. 13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and 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 before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will 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 and he will 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 for the Lord a people prepared.” 18 And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” 19 And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 20 And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” 21 And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple. 22 And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. 23 And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home. 24 After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, 25 “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”

I) Do not mistake silence for inactivity

-Before I get into the text of Luke 1, I want us to consider what occurred during those 400+ years of silence.

-When Malachi wrote, Israel was getting back on its feet from the captivity, but was still under the rule of foreigners. From the Babylonians and then the Medo-Persian Empire, control of the area would successively fall under the next ruling empire that would conquer the known world.

-The Greco-Macedonian Empire overtook the Medes & Persians, eventually leading to the iron fist of the Roman Empire. From the perspective of the Israelites, they had been abandoned because they no longer ruled themselves and had not heard from God in a very long time.

-And yet God was sovereignly controlling the political environment of the area, making the world ripe for the gospel message of Jesus Christ to come.

-When Alexander the Great led the Greeks to conquer the world, it began what is known as the Hellenization of the world—the spreading of Greek culture, but even more importantly, the spreading of the Greek language.

-Even though every people and tribe had their own language, through the Grecian Empire, Greek was the language of commerce and was held in common by most folks.

-This was followed by the Roman Empire with their Pax Romana—the peace of Rome that brought a system of safe passage throughout the known area.

-So while from a human standpoint it was just one conquering empire after another, God was working behind the scenes, creating a time and place where the people could be reached with a soul-saving message through their common language, with the ability to safely travel from one area to another to share that message.

-Even though it seemed God was silent, He was not inactive but He was preparing the world for the salvation purchased by Jesus, and then the ability for the message to go far and wide.

-And in our lives, when God seems silent, especially during circumstances that are trying, that does not mean God has forgotten or does not care. God may be working behind the scenes in your life, working toward the next part of His plan that He has for you. Just like the plan that He had for Israel, which would start with the Messiah’s predecessor.

II) God’s speech and actions are tangible and historical

-As we get in to the text, we find that when God breaks His silence, and He speaks and acts, His voice is heard (spiritually, not audibly) and His actions are seen as they are spiritually discerned. God’s speech and acts can be apprehended and comprehended because He does them in the world for all eyes to see. Look at:

-READ LUKE 1:1-4

-Luke, the companion of Paul, did some investigative reporting, and found the facts of God’s steps in the fulfillment of His redemptive plan. And Luke found that God did break the silence as He brought forth His Messiah and the Messiah’s predecessor.

-When God breaks the silence and speaks and acts, sometimes He may use symbolism, but He speaks and acts in the realm of reality—in the realm of truth and fact such that there can be eyewitnesses (as Luke says there were).

-God does not speak fables or act in fiction, but He works in real life. Sometimes God’s words and actions may be mysterious, but they are not mythical. What He says and does may be spiritual, but they are not mystical.

-When God has something to say to you and has something to do for you, in you, and through you, it is always done in the here & now, in the realm of real history

-Just like with Christ, who was born, killed, and raised in real history, God will speak and act in the reality of your life. And just as we can be certain of what God did through John the Baptist and then through Jesus Christ, we can be certain that God will speak and act in our lives—but to notice this we must be paying attention, having hearts that are spiritually attuned to His.

III) God’s speech and actions are purposeful, not coincidental

-What is so funny about us humans is that we complain about God not answering prayers or God not working in our lives or speaking to us, and then when He finally does, we think it is mere coincidence that it happened. But God sovereignly moves things in His way and in His timing for specific purposes only He may know.

-READ LUKE 1:5-9

-There were 24 priestly divisions who took care of temple duties twice a year. The priest to do the actual duties was chosen by lot, kind of like a rolling of the dice, so it seemed like everything was left up to chance. But, when it comes to God, is there ever really anything left up to chance?

-Do you think that Zechariah just by chance was chosen to burn the incense at that time? Or do you think that God was waiting on just whoever was chosen by chance to be the ones to bring forth His Messiah’s predecessor, and it just happened to be Zechariah and Elizabeth (who just happened to be related to Mary)?

-No, when God says what He says and does what He does, it is not mere chance—God has timed everything according to His purposes, and acted in ways of His own choosing. Those 400 years of silence were specifically working toward Zechariah and Elizabeth. God made the lots fall on Zechariah for this was the chosen family to bring forth John the Baptist.

-After breaking the silence in your life, the circumstances through which God speaks and acts are not by accident, but were specifically chosen for whatever God’s plan is for you.

-God sovereignly may have kept silent for a period, but God sovereignly breaks that silence to speak and act in ways that are keeping with His specific purposes in your life.

IV) God keeps His promises, and often adds extra blessings

-Just because God is silent for a time doesn’t mean that He has forgotten His Word or has gone back on His promises. God will do things when He thinks the time is right; and when He fulfills His Word and the promise it contains, often times He even adds more blessings to them.

-READ LUKE 1:10-17

-Zechariah goes into the Holy Place within the temple to burn incense at the incense altar that sits before the curtain leading into the Holy of Holies. In the morning and evening every day a priest goes in to ensure that there is constant incense going up before the Lord.

-But this is not merely a time to keep the fire burning, it is also a time for prayer. So Zechariah goes in to pray before the Lord. The normal prayer for the priest was to pray for the good of the nation=that God would move amongst His people and do them some good.

-But Zechariah had another prayer that he lifted up thousands of times before—for a child. He and Elizabeth were old, but God gave children to older people since the days of Abraham and Sarah. So there is a possibility that during this time He prayed for a child as well.

-An angel appears and declares to Zechariah that his prayer is answered. The question for us who read the Scripture is WHAT PRAYER IS ANSWERED.

-As a priest, Zechariah prayed that God would move among His people and finish the redemption of the people that He promised. But deep inside he desired a child. Little did he know that the answer to one prayer would be the answer to the other prayer. God would move again amongst His people, and it would begin with the child that He would bless Zechariah with.

-The boy that God would give would usher in a time of blessing for the nation, and really the whole world. Notice, that the boy is an answer to Malachi 4:5-6 that we read earlier, because vv. 16-17 are a recap of those verses. That means God picked up right where He left off.

-So God was going to fulfill the promise in Malachi, and added the blessing of a child to a childless couple. When God gives, He gives abundantly. When God breaks the silence and gives to His children, it is given in Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over. (Lk. 6:38 ESV)

V) Do not let doubt steal the joy of God’s work

-Scripture warns against the detrimental effects of doubt in the Christian life. Like James warns in his epistle:

for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;

(Jas. 1:6-7 ESV)

-After periods of silence from God, if we doubt God will ever use us again, or we doubt God will ever speak to us again or work in our lives, the very joy of being a Christian is drawn out of us, and we live less victoriously than we could have.

-READ LUKE 1:18-25

-Zechariah doubted that God could actually do what the angel had said, with the consequence that his speech was taken from him. That then resulted in the fact that he would not be able to tell anyone what happened or what God was doing.

-Doubt can cause us to miss the still small voice that breaks the silence. Doubt can cause us to miss the joy and blessing of what God says and does in our midst.

-You may be travelling through the valley, and have not real communion with God in ages, and now you doubt that you ever will. Let me ask you: IS THERE ANYTHING THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD?

-No matter what you are experiencing, trust that God can still speak to you by His Holy Spirit through His Scriptures as well as through life’s circumstances, or even by godly counsel—and throughout the times of silence, believe that someday God can and will break through that silence.

Conclusion

-God may be silent for a time, but He never remains so.

-If you are a Christian, but it seems God is silent in your life, come to the altar and pray: SPEAK LORD, FOR YOUR SERVANT IS LISTENING

----A very real possibility is that sin is blocking up your spiritual ears from hearing, and you need to come to the altar and repent of your sin today.

-But maybe you have never heard from God because you have never trusted in His Son, Who is the ultimate revelation from God. Before you hear from God, you have to turn from the sin of living your own life your way, and trust that Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose from the grave to forgive you of sin. Without trusting in Christ, you will never hear from God.

-Maybe you are looking for a church home where you can commune with God while communing with a loving body of Christ. Come and join yourself with Harvest.