#2005-49
Title: What Does He Want From Me?
Text: Luke 1:5-9, 11-17, 57-60
Truth: God uses faithful people to help achieve His purpose of redemption.
Aim: To encourage availability to God for His purpose of redemption.
Life ?: What does God want from Me?
INTRODUCTION
I suppose the most frequently asked question this season will be, “What do you want for Christmas?” Santa will ask that of children sitting on his lap. One mall Santa asked that of a little girl, and incredulously she asked, “Didn’t you get my e-mail?” Clueless husbands will ask that of their wives or sneak around and ask their children if they know what mother wants for Christmas. Parents ask children what they want for Christmas.
My three year-old grandson Bradley said to his grandmother Vanbebber, “Grandmother, we need to talk.” She sat down and said, “OK, what do we need to talk about?” He said, “I need to give you my Christmas list.” I guess he’s not going to take any chances.
Every Christmas shopping season, we see a version of the same phenomenon; there will be a scarcity of some popular, heavily-advertised toy, and it becomes the mission of many parents to track one down for their child. In 1996, it was the “Tickle-Me Elmo” which reportedly sold on the black market for as much as $2,000. A couple of Christmases later it was the “Furby,” originally priced at $30 but selling during the Christmas rush for as much as $700. One lady told Carol and me that the popular item this Christmas is a video game. Her son stood in line for an hour and half at Wal-Mart to buy it. They were only selling 45 that day. It was limited to one/family. This game cost less than a $100 but within hours of its availability, they were being sold on eBay for over $400.
It’s been said this shortage is engineered by toy manufacturers. They know if parents don’t find the desired toy, they’ll substitute some replacement toy. They also go out in January or February and buy the toy when the shortage is over. January and February happen to be the two lowest months for toy sales. The company has now sold two toys instead of one and lifted their sales during the slump.
Two thousand years ago another rush was about to take place. People were required to return to their hometowns and pay their taxes. If you’d asked people what they most needed or wanted, they’d probably have said money to pay the tax. But that was not what the world most needed. It needed a Savior. For it to receive that gift from God, He used faithful people to help achieve His purpose of redemption.
At the beginning of the Christmas season let’s not ask what we want for Christmas; let’s ask what does God want from us for Christmas?
Luke states that his purpose was to write an orderly account of the coming of the Messiah. He begins his story with God visiting His people in the miraculous birth of the forerunner and the even more miraculous birth of the Messiah. The foretelling and birth of John the Baptist and Jesus the Messiah parallel one another. They have similarities and differences, but the main theme is God is fulfilling His promise to sinners to provide us a Savior. To achieve His purpose of redemption, God used faithful people in the past and He uses faithful people today.
What does God want from me?
I. GOD WANTS ME DOING MY DUTY DESPITE DISAPPOINTMENT (LUKE 1:5-9)
This occurs during the time of Herod the Great. He was great because of his extensive building programs but he was great in his cruelty, too. He is the same ruler that killed all the babies two years and younger in Bethlehem in His attempt to kill baby Jesus.
There were about 18,000 priests in the land that took care of the temple. Zechariah belonged to one of 24 divisions of priests, and each division would serve in the temple and take care of the needs of the temple twice a year. During the major festivals of Passover, Pentecost and Feast of Tabernacles, representitives of all 24 divisions served to meet the needs of the people and the temple. Elizabeth also came from a preacher’s family.
These two people were genuine in their devotion before God (v.6). It wasn’t just for appearances like so many of the priests or Pharisees. God knew it was real.
The outward evidence of their inward love for God was their obedience to the Word of God. Later Jesus said in John 14:15, “If you love Me, you will keep what I command.” This description will come to mean in the N.T. that you believe in and follow God’s Son and by his grace follow God’s will, which is spelled out in the commandments.
When Luke describes Zechariah and Elizabeth as blameless, he didn’t mean they were sinless. That will be revealed later in Zechariah’s questioning of God. It teaches us that their childlessness is not due to sin.
Their childlessness is setting us up to anticipate God’s intervention in a miraculous fashion. That’s what happened in the past with Sarah, the wife of Abraham, and Rebekah, the wife of Issac, and Rachel, the wife of Jacob, and Hanna, the mother of Samuel and Samson’s mother too. Each time the boy fulfilled a unique divine task.
Luke wants us to understand that Zechariah being chosen by lot was not a matter of luck but the providence of God. God was orchestrating these events. He was in control.
This encounter takes place where the priest offers prayers for Israel. I wonder if Zechariah, knowing he’d never have this privilege again, took advantage of the situation to pray one more time for God to give him and Elizabeth a child?
Zechariah’s name means, “the Lord has remembered.” Elizabeth’s name means, “God is my oath.” Despite the fact that God had not remembered them to give them a child and He had not fulfilled his oath to make them fruitful, this couple faithfully served God despite their disappointment.
Some of you know that last month Dr. Adrian Rogers, pastor of the historic Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, TN., died. The church held a memorial service in his honor on a Sunday night. It lasted two hours as that congregation sang, prayed, testified and heard some of the leading voices of our day speak of the love this genuine man of God had for his Savior. The theme of his life was “Come to Jesus.”
One of the significant acts of his ministry was in 1989 when he led the church to relocate from its landlocked downtown property to 17 miles away to Cordova, on the edge of Memphis. The church purchased 400 acres from five different owners. It was practically inaccessible. There was one sliver of a road leading to the property, so they spent two million dollars to build roads leading to and from the land.
The worship center accommodates 7,000 people for the two services on Sunday morning. There are 31 acres of asphalt parking, 1285 doors, 65 water fountains, over 200 miles of curb, 50 restrooms, 87 public telephones, and over 22,000 members. It cost $34 million dollars to build and the church at the time had a budget of $8 million. On top of all of that, it is a spiritually vibrant and alive fellowship.
But there is one more part of the story. One of the five men who sold his property to the church told the buyers: “You know where I got my piece of property? I bought it from an old Baptist preacher who used to walk over that plot of ground, praying that someday God would build a Baptist church there.”
That old preacher had a great vision, a vision he never got to see fulfilled. But his failure was not God’s failure. He could never have imagined how God was going to answer his prayer.
What do you do with disappointment? We’ve all experienced the hurt of God not doing what we were convinced was a God-honoring idea. Just because we thought it was a great idea doesn’t mean it was God’s idea. Zechariah and Elizabeth probably thought and prayed that it would be a good idea for God to give them a child in their youth, but that was not God’s idea. His idea was to give them a child when all hope was gone. That would bring more glory to Him and fulfill His purposes of redemption.
By faith they had to remind themselves that their God was not cruel but kind. He is worthy of devotion regardless of life’s disappointments. God uses faithful people like that to accomplish His purposes of redemption.
Don’t quit. Like that nameless preacher, keep walking over your land, and trust God to use you to bring about His greater purposes of redemption. That’s what He wants from you this Christmas.
What does God want from me?
II. GOD WANTS ME TO PRAY IN FAITH (LUKE 1:11-13)
While the other priests remained outside the temple building singing and praying, Zechariah entered the Most Holy Place. The Temple complex was large, but the actual building itself was small. It consisted of only two rooms. Together the rooms were a little over 100 ft. long and 75 ft. wide. The first room was the Most Holy Place. This is where Zechariah was burning incense. The altar where he burned the incense was in front of a curtain that separated the Most Holy Place from the second room, the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies contained the golden box called the Ark of the Covenant. It was entered into once a year, on the Day of Atonement, only by the High Priest. This is as close as Zechariah would ever get to where the Jews believed the glory of God’s presence dwelt. He was just on the other side of that curtain. It was a once in a lifetime privilege for Zechariah.
His job was to burn the incense that day. This was a mixture of spices and materials that created a great amount of sweet, pungent smoke. It served two purposes. First, it represented the prayers of God’s people. Like smoke rising to the heavens, our prayers rise up to God. The smoke would fill the room and billow out of openings around the top of the walls. The priests outside would look for the smoke as a representation of their prayers going before God. A second reason was to provide a veil for the presence of God. When Moses built the first tabernacle in the wilderness, Aaron made the initial sacrifice. God came and consumed the sacrifice with fire and smoke. From that time on the Jews were reminded of God’s presence by the smoke of incense.
Zechariah was going about his business and suddenly an angel appeared. That had not happened for 400 years. God had not sent an angel. He had not sent a prophet with a word from Him. Thousands of priests had done what Zechariah was doing and had not heard a word from God.
The most frequent message of angels in the Bible is, “Don’t be afraid!” It happens to be one of the most frequent messages from God when men encounter Him in worship. David said in Ps. 23:4, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.”
The next thing the angel told Zechariah was that his prayer had been heard. We’re not told the specific prayer this referred to. Zechariah was there praying on behalf of the nation of Israel. They always prayed for God to send them the Messiah. Devout Jews are still praying that prayer. But in the fulfillment of that prayer, God was going to answer their prayer for a son. Notice that the angel referred to his prayer in the past tense. Their son would be the long expected forerunner who prepared people for the coming Messiah. What a God!
The faithfulness of this couple to pray in faith was used by God to accomplish his redemptive purposes.
Two ladies prayed for their husbands to come to salvation in Jesus Christ. They decided they would pray together. For seven years they prayed faithfully for God to save their husbands. Their husbands showed no interest in spiritual matters. Discouraged, they nearly gave up. But they knew their Bibles and that Jesus told us to keep on praying. Be persistent. The two wives decided they would keep on praying for their husbands for the rest of their lives, even if they never came to know the Lord. They decided they would die praying for their husbands to be saved. Three years later—a total of ten years—both of those men gave their lives to Christ on the same day.
In Luke 18, Jesus told about a widow that wore out an unjust judge until she got justice from him. Jesus is not comparing God to the unjust, reluctant judge; He is contrasting God to this judge. God wants to answer our prayers, but Jesus drives that point home in verse eight when He asks if He will find this kind of enduring faith when He returns. The word faith in the original language has “the” attached to it. It is a certain kind of faith, a faith that refuses to lose heart.
God has not answered some of my biggest prayers. Frankly, I’ve been surprised. To the best of my understanding, they are in God’s will and it is what I understand God wants for my life. I’ve persevered in prayer, fasted for these prayers, confessed any wrong motives, thanked God in advance for His answer. God has answered many prayers when I’ve done this in the past. But it has not worked with some of my biggest prayers.
I can identify with C.S. Lewis when he said sometimes you go to God with a desperate prayer and what you experience is the door slammed in your face and it being double bolted from the inside. After that, silence. (A Grief Observed, p.4,5)
Like Zechariah, we are to learn that our expectations don’t bind God. Our wish is not His command. We are so slow to learn this. We get this image of how God will answer our prayer. He will do it this way, in this time frame and with these people. I have a question for you. How many times has God answered your prayer exactly as you expected? It seems to me that He always does it differently, and better, than I could have imagined. There is always a mystery about God’s answer to our prayers. And that’s the way it should be. Who wants to worship a God you can understand?
God granted Zechariah’s prayer for a child immediately, but He answered it later. He could have given this couple a son ten years earlier, but it would not have resulted in God getting the glory and it would not have fit into God’s plan of redemption.
There is a way to know that we are praying according to His will. Pray for God to answer your prayer for His glory and to accomplish His plan of redemption. What God wants from you this Christmas is to pray in faith.
What does God want from me?
III. HE WANTS ME TO DO MY PART EVEN IF IT IS SECONDARY (LUKE 1:14-17)
There are three outcomes to this promised son. The first is that the parents were promised joy. He would also bring joy to the nation because he would bring the long anticipated news that the hope of Israel would soon arrive.
Joy is a major word in the Christian life. It always keeps company with obedience and doing the will of God. Zac and Liz would have joy because they were fulfilling their part in God’s redemptive plans.
A second outcome was with God. The scripture says in v. 15 that in God’s estimation John would be a great man. There are two qualifications that contributed to God’s opinion of John. First, he didn’t drink alcoholic beverages. What that meant to the people of that day was that John would be totally dedicated to God. He served God in a special way. The second qualification was that John would be controlled by the Holy Spirit.
A third outcome was in the life of Israel (v.16-17). The phrase “bring back” is a technical term for conversion. He would plow the field and get it ready for the sowing of the gospel by the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of John’s ministry, the Holy Spirit would bring repentance to the hearts of the disobedient and cause them to be willing to receive the Messiah--like disinterested fathers turning from their neglect to respond with sensitivity and care for their children.
Zechariah’s and Elizabeth’s parts were be to parent the forerunner of Israel. At sometime we will be in a supporting role to help someone else achieve a greater good. It happens all the time in church. A children’s choir will sing. They are the center of photographs. They are the ones that family and friends have come to see. Down front, out of sight, is the children’s choir director. Usually the most joyful person over the performance is the one who spent hours with them preparing them for their time in the spotlight.
Do you know A.M. Poindexter or John Rough or Edward Kimball? If you are familiar with church history, you have heard of John Knox. He was the dedicated reformer of Scotland. It is said that the Queen of England feared John Knox’s prayers more than armies. But very few people know that it was John Rough that persuaded John Knox to give up teaching and to enter the ministry. At the end of one of his sermons, John Rough looked squarely at Knox and publicly charged him to take up the work.
One of the most famous Southern Baptist preachers is John Broadus. His textbook On the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons for over a 100 years has been used to teach preaching in seminaries. John Broadus wanted to be a doctor. One day he heard A.M. Poindexter preach a sermon on the parable of the talents, and he heard God’s call to the ministry. No one knows the name of A.M. Poindexter, but many have heard and been influenced by John Broadus.
Edward Kimball was a Sunday School teacher in Chicago. He was burdened for an uneducated shoe salesmen in his class named D.L. Moody. As many of you know, D.L. Moody was the Billy Graham of his day. Though Moody died in December 1899, he is still influencing people for Christ through the many ministries he started.
When I was a boy my Sunday School teacher was Eldon Damron. Four of the boys he taught in Sunday School became preachers. He told me I am the “black sheep”--three became AOG preachers while I became a Baptist. They are involved in thriving ministries on the east coast.
We have no idea what God will do with our words and ministries. The important thing is to be faithful and do our job—God will do the rest. Every believer is important. You might never be the door that everybody sees. You might be the hinge on which that door swings. Friends, strengthen yourselves with the knowledge that God is doing far more with your service to Him than you could imagine. Your labor is not in vain. Sometimes we are the hinge that helps the door to move for the sake of Christ. This Christmas, God wants you to do your part even if it is secondary.
What does God want from me?
IV. HE WANTS ME TO BE FAITHFUL TO HIS WILL (LUKE 1:57-60)
Typically, they named their babies on the day they were born. Occasionally, they waited on the eighth day when the Jewish boy babies were circumcised. It wasn’t that they thought the baby would be named Zach, Jr. but it was unusual to not name him after someone in the family. Because of that practice, they attempted to talk Elizabeth out of naming the baby, John.
The people tried to talk this couple out of doing what they were told to do by God. Their friends meant well, but they were wrong. Sometimes you will receive the same counsel. They mean well, but they are wrong. We’ve seen this when couples in our church made a decision to become international missionaries. There families gave them legitimate reasons for postponing going overseas. “Wait until the children are grown.” “Wait a few years, then you can retire and you will have a secure income.” I remember asking George McDow why he didn’t wait a few years until he could retire. He told me that in those years God could do some significant work in East Asia. God’s will was for them to go.
Greek scholar A.T. Robertson said, “None are more formidable instruments of temptation than the well-meaning friend, who cares more for a person’s comfort than his character.”
There’s a story of a fine young Christian man who entered the military service. As a child he had formed the habit of studying his Bible in his bedroom each evening and then kneeling by his bed to pray. He faced a real test the first night as he was surrounded by rough soldiers who were preparing to go to bed. Many of them were joking and cursing loudly so he considered lying down on his bunk, concealing his Bible under the blanket, and reading so no one would notice. But then he told himself, “I am a Christian. I am a man. I must take my stand with the Lord. I refuse to hide my faith and I’ll do just as I did at home.” This courageous, faithful young man took his Bible and after quietly reading a chapter, he knelt and offered a silent prayer. When the men noticed his actions a few sneered, but in several minutes the building became quiet as some who respected the new recruit asked the other men to be quiet.
He felt like a goldfish in a glass bowl. After a while, the talk began, but the cursing stopped. The next night when he opened his Bible, several of the other men took out their Bibles and commenced to have their own devotions. Within a month, everyone in the barracks respected this young Christian soldier so much that they would defend him against anyone who would criticize him. Because of that man’s determination, he influenced many, many soldiers for Jesus Christ.
One of the most popular forms of books is biographies. I checked the N.Y. Times bestsellers list for non-fiction books and there was a book about Abraham Lincoln, a mob boss, a NFL football coach, Pope John Paul and others. We like biographies because these people have faced the same hardships and questions in life that we do, and they survived or even succeeded. The conclusion of the writer of Hebrews in chapter 12, after telling us about many of the heroes of our faith in chapter 11, was to remind us we have this cloud of witnesses of the faithful. In light of that, we are to throw off any hindrance that would prevent us from finishing our race. In that cloud of observers is a couple named Zechariah and Elizabeth. They teach us that God uses faithful people to achieve His purposes of redemption.
God uses faithful people to achieve His purposes of redemption when they do their duty despite their disappointments in life. He uses faithful people to accomplish His purposes of redemption when they pray in faith. He accomplishes His purposes of redemption when they are willing to do their part even if it is secondary, and He uses people who are faithful to do His will. “What do you want for Christmas?” I think God’s answer would be faithful people who help Me accomplish My redemption.
PRAYER
INVITATION
It’s been said that every Sunday is a celebration of Easter. We celebrate a risen, living Savior. But every Sunday can also be Christmas. Right now all of us are offered the gift of salvation. It’s already been purchased by the crucified Christ. We receive it by turning away from sin and yielding authority over our life to our God, Jesus Christ. It’s like no gift you’ll ever receive at Christmas. This gift will reconcile you to God…forgive your sin and declare you not guilty…restore your relationship to the point you are a child of God…you gain heaven and escape hell. I can’t imagine celebrating Christmas without receiving this gift.
Christian, I know you’ve made your Christmas list of people and gifts. Is Jesus on that list? Have you thought about what gift you will give to Jesus this year? Why not a commitment to be faithful to do your part to help Him achieve the most important thing on God’s heart, the redemption of the lost.
