When God Broke the Silence
Intro: It was a fog-shrouded morning, July 4, 1952, when a young woman named Florence Chadwick waded into the water off Catalina Island. She intended to swim the channel from the island to the California coast. Long-distance swimming was not new to her; she had been the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions.
The water was numbingly cold that day. The fog was so thick she could hardly see the boats in her party. Several times sharks had to be driven away with rifle fire. She swam more than 15 hours before she asked to be taken out of the water. Her trainer tried to encourage her to swim on since they were so close to land, but when Florence looked, all she saw was fog. So she quit. . . only one-mile from her goal.
Later she said, "I’m not excusing myself, but if I could have seen the land I might have made it." It wasn’t the cold or fear or exhaustion that caused Florence Chadwick to fail. It was the fog.
-Maybe you have found yourself in a fog when you weren’t hearing the Lord speak to your heart and mind. Have you ever felt like your prayers weren’t getting through, or that God was not very close to you?
-God has spoken to mankind throughout history, but there was a period of time when God seems to have been silent. The Word of God to Israel had been silent for 400 years. During that time Israel had been largely dominated by foreign powers, except for a brief independence under Judas Maccabeaus. However, the words of prophets were not heard in the land.
-The last word that God gave in the last book of the Jewish Bible is this: (Malachi 4:5) "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. (4:6) 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."
The last Word before prophesy fell silent was a promise to send someone in the power of Elijah who would prepare the way for the Messiah (Sean Lester, sermoncentral.com).
-That time had now come with the words, "In the time of King Herod..." (Read Text)
Luke 1:5-25 5 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. 6 Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commandments and regulations blamelessly. 7 But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well along in years.
8 Once when Zechariah's division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside. 11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear.
13 But the angel said to him: "Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. 16 Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. 17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous-- to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
18 Zechariah asked the angel, "How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years." 19 The angel answered, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. 20 And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their proper time."
21 Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. 22 When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak. 23 When his time of service was completed, he returned home. 24 After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. 25 "The Lord has done this for me," she said. "In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people."
-Sometimes God is silent. Pray anyway! Sometimes you might feel like God is a million miles away. Worship Him anyway! Let Him know you want to hear from Him. Ask Him to break the silence of heaven in your life. Let’s look at some of these verses more closely.
1. The Prayer
Luke 1:13a “Your prayer has been heard.”
-Wouldn’t you like to hear those words every time you prayed? I’m sure God could easily set it up as an app on your phone: “Thank you for praying. Your prayer has been heard.” Of course, we can see in the Bible that we can know that our prayers are heard. Here are a few examples:
1 John 5:14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
1 Peter 3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil."
John 14:14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. (Jesus)
-What prayers have been coming from your heart lately? Maybe you feel like God isn’t listening, but if your heart is right with Him, I am certain that He is listening.
-Now, hopefully we all know that prayer is not about God being like a Genie in a bottle who will grant our latest wish. Could He do that? Sure! But He loves us too much.
-What amazes me about these verses is that God responds to the prayer of a humble, godly man, and while blessing him and his wife, He uses it to bring about His divine plan, fulfilling His word through Malachi. God broke the 400 years of silence from heaven and spoke through the angel words of hope and promise.
-We aren’t told exactly what Zechariah prayed or how often he had prayed it, but we can see from the angel’s words that it would be answered by giving him a son in his old age.
2. The Promise
Luke 1:13b-17 Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. 16 Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. 17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous-- to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
-Look at these words of promise and blessing… joy, delight, rejoice, great in God’s eyes, filled with the Holy Spirit, will bring many back to the Lord, will go before the Lord bringing reconciliation and preparing people for the Lord.
-After living with the disappointment of not being able to have children for decades, this older man of God is being told that his dream will come true.
-Knowing that this was an angel of God who spoke to him, Zechariah did not show much faith. He would have known that what angels spoke came true from knowing the OT thoroughly. But perhaps he had begun to feel that he had been unjustly overlooked, and maybe he was a little bit offended at God b/c He had withheld his blessing of offspring from them. Whatever the case, his response was not a faith-filled response.
3. The Trust
Luke 1:18-20 18 Zechariah asked the angel, "How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years." 19 The angel answered, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. 20 And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their proper time."
-What do you do with doubts? My advice to people dealing with doubts about God’s existence is to study out what they can and ask questions. Search things out! God is not afraid of what you might find out b/c He is truth and life to those who honestly seek Him, hoping to find Him. And even many of those who have set out on a search to disprove His existence have been found by Him and have begun to follow Him wholeheartedly!
-Zechariah reminds me of the disciple Thomas, who would not just take someone else’s word for it. He had to see for himself before he was willing to really believe. And Jesus was gracious to him, but also said, “Blessed are those who have not seen, yet have believed.”
-Who are you going to trust? The experts? The Discovery Channel? The Scientists who study God’s intricate creation and somehow insist that He does not exist?
-Christian, who are you going to trust? The multi-millionaire celebrity TV evangelist? The careful Bible scholar who keeps all his theological ducks in a row? Are you going to trust pop theology? Are you going to trust your own ideas, thoughts, and opinions?
-God can certainly use some of these things, but the kind of trust that He calls for is a personal trust in Him! When God gives you an unmistakable promise, your best response is not, “How can I be sure of this?” Your best response would be closer to that of Mary. Even though she didn’t know how she would give birth to a son since she had not been with a man, her best response is found in Luke 1:38 "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Later, the Son that she gave birth to uttered similar words to His Father in heaven: “Your will be done.”
-Every time you trust someone there is an element of surrender. When you ride with certain people, at some point you start to realize that no matter how hard you press on the passenger floorboards, the brakes will not come on! I can remember riding with various people and thinking, “Well, this could be my time to go.” That doesn’t mean I stopped praying, but since there was nothing I could do, I gave up trying to control the situation.
-God may take you for some wild rides, but I can tell you this: You can trust Him! He knows what He’s doing, He knows what you’re doing, and He knows how to bring those two activities closer together.
-God can be trusted with your life, your dreams, and your future. His plan for you is so much better than your greatest ambitions! So we pray. God will hear and answer with a promise. Then it is ours to trust Him! Finally, comes the blessing.
4. The Blessing
Luke 1:24-25 24 After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. 25 "The Lord has done this for me," she said. "In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people."
-We don’t know what Zechariah went through during those 9 months of silence. But I am certain that God was working in his heart, and strengthening his faith. What we do know is that what was promised became an ever-increasing reality in their lives. Their son would be born and grow up to set the stage and prepare the way of the Lord. He would be the forerunner of the Messiah, preparing for His arrival.
-And while John was certainly a blessing to his aged parents, the greatest blessing was yet to come when the Messiah, the Savior of the world would be revealed and would save the people from their sins.
-The silence had been broken. God’s plan to save the world was set in motion.
Hebrews 1:1-2 “Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. 2 But now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son.”
-The silent period is over. God is still speaking through His Holy Spirit who affirms that Jesus is everything He claimed to be! God is speaking to you today if you will listen.
-Maybe you’ve been going through what seems like silence from heaven. You haven’t been hearing God’s voice or experiencing His presence in your life. You wonder if it’s just you falling short or if God really has no interest in talkng with you. Maybe God has been there all along. You just couldn’t hear Him and did not notice Him.
-Maybe today is the day God will break the silence in your life! You may not receive a visit from an angel, but maybe you will hear the still, small, but unmistakable voice of God, letting you know that He has seen you & knows you and is calling you to Himself.
-The 1st sermon preached to the first church is found in Acts 2. Peter stands up and preaches from Joel 2. 2 thoughts stand out to me from his sermon in Acts 2:16-21: 1. God promises that people will hear from God and will prophesy and tell others, as He pours out His Spirit on all who will receive. 2. Whoever calls on the Lord will be saved. Are you ready for the silence to end? It’s time to call on the Lord. Prayer, Promise, Trust, and Blessing – all from the God who loves us! Sometimes we’re the silent ones.
