The Presence of Hope
Zechariah
What would happen if one morning, during the middle of your daily routine, an angel appeared and told you that God had a plan that would completely change your life? How would you respond?
Luke’s account of the Christmas story includes two such incidents, Next week we’ll talk about the second story – Mary’s story. This Sunday we’ll look at the first and lesser known story.
This event involved the angel Gabriel who this first appears to an unknown priest named Zechariah in the temple as he conducts his duties.
Let’s read the story together…
Luke 1:5-23
Luke 1:57-80
How Can I know?
18 Zechariah said to the angel, “How can I know that what you say is true? I am an old man, and my wife is old, too.”
Luke 1:18
Zechariah has been confronted with the heavenly glory of God’s messenger, a clearly supernatural interruption of his day. Yet his response to the angel’s astounding news is to try and fit it into his existing assumptions about his life and his future.
"How can I know that what you say is true?"
Gabriel, who was pretty sure he was being clear, is not amused.
There are some people you just don’t joke with. You don’t joke with the security at the airport about a bomb in your luggage.
I was talking with a Pastor friend of mine at a charismatic church and he told me about a conversation with a building inspector who told him that he had to build a wheelchair ramp for the platform in his auditorium. He tried to joke with him and said, oh we don’t need a ramp, we heal everyone in this church. The man looked at him like he was from mars. You just don’t joke with some people.
That apparently included the angel Gabriel… because he said, “I stand in the presence of God, and 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."
When God communicates with us or takes action in our lives, it is rarely with the impact of the angel’s appearance. But I think our reaction is often much like Zechariah’s.
We question whether it is real. "Was that God speaking to me, or a hallucination? Was that a miracle, or just a coincidence? And if that really WAS God, can that really be what He meant?"
While we may relate to Zechariah’s confusion and skepticism, we must be aware that it has its cost. It’s not so much that we might be struck dumb if we doubt God’s authority or interest in us, but that we might miss the blessings and peace God desires to share with us.
Whether they come to us through a heavenly messenger or a passage of Scripture, God’s promises are trustworthy, and our ability to accept them and live them is limited primarily by our ability to believe them. As Zechariah’s story demonstrates, God is never predictable, but is always faithful.
We Need the Presence of Hope
If you read your Bible, you’ll find out
that’s pretty much how it seems to work.
8 But Abram said, “Lord GOD, how can I be sure…?”
Genesis 15:8
Remember Abraham? God appeared to Abraham, who was childless in his old age, and promised that his descendants would be as numberless as the sands on the seashore. And Abraham answered, “O Soveriegn Lord, how can I know?” (Genesis 15:8).
17 Then Gideon said to the LORD, “If you are pleased with me, give me proof that it is really you talking with me.”
Judges 6:17
Remember Gideon? When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon under the oak tree in Ophrah, and promised that God would use him to deliver the Israelites from their Midianite oppressors, Gideon said, “Give me a sign!” (Judges 6:17).
So we shouldn’t be surprised that, when an angel appears to Zechariah and tells him some “wild and crazy things,” that he should ask, “How can I be sure?”
That’s just a reflection of what all of us want.
We want certainty,
we want assurance,
we want to know that there are some things we can know.
And you wanna know something else?
If you read your Bible, you’ll also find out
that time after time after time,
God supplies the certainty his children ask for. . .
Not enough to make faith unnecessary,
but enough to make it more than possible.
Jesus Is the Fulfillment of Many Promises From God
So, How Can I find the Presence of Hope
Can we have any assurance that these things we
read in the Christmas story are really true?
Do we really have grounds to believe that, as the Bible says, God became a man and lived among us?
There is. Because just as he did for Zechariah, God has provided us with an answer to the question, “How can I be sure?”
Meeting
Imagine agreeing over the phone to meet a distant business acquaintance—someone you’ve never met in person—at a large business convention.
“How will I know you?” you might say.
“Well,” your associate might suggest, “I’ll be carrying a briefcase.”
“All right,” you reply, then think better of it. “There will probably be a lot of people carrying briefcases. Not everyone, but a lot. What color is it?”
“Black.”
“That might narrow it down some,” you say, “but not enough.”
“I’m a redhead,” your associate offers.
“That helps,” you answer. Redhead carrying a black briefcase. Still might not be specific enough. “What will you be wearing?”
Your friend says, “A brown blazer. How’s that?”
“Okay,” you say, “But just to be sure, can you wear red tennis shoes?”
“Very funny,” your friend answers. “I’ll just make sure I have a name tag on my blazer with my name in big bold letters.”
“That should do it,” you answer. “I should be able to recognize you from a distance, and your name on the tag will seal it.”
Now imagine God, several millennia ago, devising the plan to send his only Son to earth to be born as a human infant.
If we could have spoken down the corridors of time, we might have asked, “How can we be sure? How will we know him? How will we recognize him as the Eternal, Incarnate Son of God?”
God might have responded,
A descendent…
Of Abraham – Genesis 22:18
“I will cause him to be born as a Jew, a descendant of Abraham” (Genesis 22:18, Galatians 3:16).
“But,” we might have protested, “Abraham’s descendants will be as numerous as the stars!”
Of Isaac – Genesis 21:12
“Then I will narrow it down to only half of Abraham’s lineage, and make him a descendant of Isaac, not Ishmael” (Genesis 21:12; Luke 3:23, 34).
“That will help, but isn’t that still an awful lot of people?”
Of Jacob – Numbers 24:17
“Let him be born from Jacob’s line, then, eliminating half of Isaac’s lineage” (Numbers 24:17, Luke 3:23, 34).
“But—”
From the tribe of Judah – Genesis 49:10
“I will be more specific. Jacob will have twelve sons; I will bring forth the Messiah from the tribe of Judah” (Genesis 49:10, Luke 3:23, 33).
From the family of Jesse – Isaiah 11:1
“Won’t that still be a lot of people? We still may not recognize him when he comes.”
“Okay. Look for him in the family line of Jesse” (Isaiah 11:1, Luke 3:23, 32).
“All right, that’s helpful, but—”
From the house of David – Jeremiah 23:5
“And from the house and lineage of Jesse’s youngest son, David” (Jeremiah 23:5, Luke 3:23, 31).
“Still, that could amount to quite a few people,” we might have objected.
Born in Bethlehem – Micah 5:2
And God could have answered, “Then I will tell you where he will be born: Bethlehem, a tiny town in the area called Judah” (Micah 5:2, Matthew 2:1).
“Can you tell us when?”
During a time of bitter weeping at the slaughter of innocent children – Jeremiah 31:15
“During a time of great and bitter weeping, when mothers are crying over the slaughter of their innocent children” (Jeremiah 31:15, Matthew 2:16).
“Wouldn’t it just be easier to have someone announce his coming?”
Preceeded by a messenger – Isaiah 40:3
“He will be preceded by a messenger, who will prepare the way and announce his advent” (Isaiah 40:3, Matthew 3:1, 2).
“Still, Lord, there might be many people who claim to be the Messiah from time to time. How will we know which one is ‘the Lord’s Messiah?’” (Luke 2:26, NLT).
He will begin his ministry in Galilee – Isaiah 9:1
“He will begin his ministry in Galilee (Isaiah 9:1, Matthew 4:12-17);
He will teach in parables – Psalm 78:2
Matthew 13:34-35),
He will perform many miracles – Isaiah 35:5-6
Matthew 9:35).”
“Okay. . .”
He will ride into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey – Zechariah 9:9
“Oh,” God might say, “I’m just getting warmed up. He will ride into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9, Luke 19:35-37),
He will appear forcefully at the temple courts and clean house – Malachi 3:1, Psalms 69:9
and will appear suddenly and forcefully at the temple courts (Malachi 3:1, Matthew 21:2) and zealously ‘clean house’ (Psalm 69:9, John 2:15, 16).”
“Wow! That should make it easier—”
“In one day I will fulfill no less than twenty-nine specific prophecies spoken at least four hundred years earlier about him!
“Even after all that,” God could say, “I will show him to be my Holy One by raising him from the dead (Psalm 16:10, Acts 2:31), causing him to ascend on high (Psalm 68:18, Acts 1:9), and seating him at my right hand in full majesty and authority (Psalm 110:1, Hebrews 1:3).”
That should do it, wouldn’t you think? The fulfillment of more than sixty major promises in the Old Testament that were fulfilled in one person, Jesus Christ, all of which were made over four hundred years prior to his birth, goes a long way toward answering
Zechariah’s question, “How can I be sure?,” don’t you think?
The fulfillment of one messianic prophecy after another in the birth,
life,
ministry,
death, and
resurrection of Jesus Christ
ought to fill us with awe and wonder, and convince even the most skeptical among us that Jesus of Nazareth was—and is—God Incarnate, the One who was and is and is to come.
God Wants to Give You the Presence of Hope
His miracles, his compassion, his love are powerfully displayed in his life and ultimately in his death.
I heard a story on the radio a week ago Saturday about a young man who was searching for the presence of hope. In his college years he traveled to Jerusalem to try and sort out the truth about Jesus.
He stayed in a youth hostel and lived on very little as he walked about the old city. One evening the youth hostel was full and he lost his place. He wondered about the streets until he came to a church that had been built on Golgotha – the hill where Jesus had been crucified. There he laid down on a marble slab marking the place of the cross and he fell asleep.
In the morning he awoke to the sounds of tourists visiting the place and he got up and joined them in their viewing of the various sites commemorating the major events surrounding the last week of Jesus in Jerusalem.
At the end of the day he suddenly realized that he believed. He said that nothing miraculous had happened but that he suddenly realized that he believed that Jesus had been born, that he lived, and died, and was raised from the dead. He was sure. He knew. He had the presence of hope in his life and it changed him.
He went back to the Youth Hostel and laid down to reflect on his journey and to try to sort out what this newly discovered faith meant. He now believed but he didn’t know what it meant to his life. In the midst of his reflections a thought came to him. A simple thought – whether from God or not – he could not know. He thought, “What if you have only six months to live?”
Now the young man didn’t know if he had only six months to live or not. He might or might not – people die all the time. He could die in six months. What if he did? So he decided to act as if he had only six months to live… and he decided to his surprise that he should go home and spend time with his parents.
The Presence of Hope changes you in surprising ways.
It may lead you to reflect on the fleeting and tender nature of this life.
What if I had just six months to live?
Live with hope
it’s possible to leave here with your question answered . . .
not by me, but by God himself, as revealed in his Word, the Bible, AND as revealed by His Spirit to your individual heart.
So, in the closing moments of this celebration, we’re going to worship together with the help of the worship team, and as we do so, I want to invite each of us prayerfully to consider the claims of Christ on our lives.
If you came here this morning seeking certainty about Jesus the Messiah, he can come to your heart and meet your need, if you’ll just reach out to him in prayer, and there will be counselors up here at the front to help you do that.
If you’re experiencing any struggle,
any uncertainty,
any fear,
in your life right now, we’d love to talk and pray with you about that, too.
But whatever your need,
as we approach God in worship,
feel free to join any one of us in prayer,
or to pray with someone else at your table,
or to seek out a friend,
or to respond in any way that God’s Spirit leads you . . .
