Text: Luke 1:67-79
When people make promises there is usually a part of us that is skeptical. If a politician promises to lower taxes, we have a tough time believing him. Even when we are promised simple things, like an ice cream sundae for doing household chores, we don’t always believe it until we have the bowl of ice cream in our hand. The reason that we can be skeptical is because there have been times in our lives that we were promised something and it didn’t come true. The promise is just empty words until that promise is fulfilled. Unfortunately, we sometimes take this same approach with God. We are skeptical of his promises. Zechariah was skeptical. However, when it comes to God, we should not be skeptical. We know that God Fulfills His Promises.
Part 1: We unfortunately doubt his clear fulfillment
Zechariah should have known better than to doubt the promise of God. We would certainly expect that a priest who serves in the temple would believe the words that the angel Gabriel spoke to him. But that is not what happened. Zechariah was serving in the temple and Gabriel appeared before him with an important message. Gabriel said, “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… Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. 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” (Luke 1:13, 16, 17).
Zechariah had been given an amazing message. However, rather than fully trusting the message, there is skepticism in his heart. He doubts the message. His uncertainty makes him say something foolish. He says, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years” (Luke 1:18). His point about the ages of his wife and himself is certainly a logical point. However, he has just received an incredible sign. How can he be sure? He is talking face to face with an angel of God. What more proof does he need? Gabriel had even pointed out that this was an answer to their prayer. Zechariah and Elizabeth had prayed for a child and now God was blessing them with a child. It should have been obvious that this message was true.
The reason that Zechariah was punished was because of his doubt. Gabriel told him that was the case. Because of his doubt, Zechariah would be unable to speak until this promise was fulfilled. Zechariah had plenty of time to sit and think about his sin. It would be over 9 months before he spoke again. He didn’t get to speak immediately when John was born. He was able to speak on the 8th day, the day that John was circumcised. When he was able to speak again, he sang the song in Luke chapter 1. In this song, there are some key phrases which help us see the repentance of Zechariah.
As I said, Zechariah should have known better than to doubt. After all, we would expect that a priest would know the scriptures. So you would think that Zechariah would have remembered certain Old Testament accounts and prophecies which would have assured him that Gabriel was telling him the truth. In the song, I think we see that he does remember those accounts and prophecies. Remember that he has had a long time to think about his sin of doubt. He has had time to prepare for his opportunity to speak again. He probably did something that all pastors try to do with the sermon. We first of all want to preach the message to ourselves.
Pastors try to see how the law and gospel message of a certain text applies to our own lives. This helps us to understand the text as we then work to apply the message to you. This song that Zechariah proclaimed is a message that he now understood in a whole new way. Think about verse 70. It says, “As he said through his holy prophets of long ago.” That line could have been left out and it would not have changed the meaning of this song. And yet, those words remind us that this message has been predicted for a long time. Zechariah would have read many of these prophets in his work as a priest. Perhaps he is rebuking himself a little bit for not having remembered those prophecies when Gabriel was speaking to him.
In verse 73 Zechariah points to a specific patriarch. He says, “The oath he swore to our father Abraham.” Zechariah could have had the same message without specifically mentioning Abraham. However, Abraham was similar to Zechariah. Perhaps Zechariah had been thinking about how Abraham and his wife Sarah had not had a child until they were beyond the normal age for having children. That was just like Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth. Again, Bible History knowledge should have assured Zechariah that he could be sure of Gabriel’s message. But he had still sinned by doubting.
Zechariah recognized his sin of doubt and repented of his sin. We too need to recognize the ways that we have doubted God and repent of that sin. This temptation to doubt God can take on all kinds of forms. We sometimes doubt the sure words of the Bible. We fail to spend enough time in God’s Word so we doubt what it says. Or maybe we just don’t speak up for what it does say. When people challenge us about what the Bible says, what is our reaction? Are we unable to speak because we don’t know if the Bible really says that? Or do we just ignore certain teachings of the Bible because we think that they will upset people? We have doubts about what the Bible says and we have doubts that its message will convince people of the truth.
Perhaps we doubt God’s promises to work for our good. We see suffering and the reaction is to doubt that God is truly working for our good and the good of his believers. We fail to recognize that God can even use suffering as a blessing. He can teach us through such suffering to rely more fully on him for help. He can lead us to see that this life is temporary and the eternal home is heaven is much more important than this world. He shows us that forgiveness is the greatest blessing that we could ever be given. Again, he can take us back to his Word to show us examples of times that he used suffering for good. Even Zechariah suffered for a time before he proclaimed the wonderful song that we are meditating on this evening.
Part 2: His mercy endures and conquers our doubts
After Zechariah realized the error of his ways, he focused on the mercy of God. The only cure for his doubt was the certainty that comes through the love and forgiveness of the Lord. He pointed out that John would be preparing the way for God’s merciful plan of salvation. He said, “And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God” (Luke 1:76-78).
Looking at those verses we see that everything that happened was a result of God’s tender mercy. Because of God’s great compassion of us, he sent his son Jesus to be our Savior. He even sent John the Baptist to prepare the way for the Savior. At just the right time, God sent the forerunner of the Christ and Jesus himself. John was to give the people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of sins. It is all about forgiveness. Forgiveness conquers any doubts that we sinful human beings might have. Forgiveness is certain because of Jesus. In no way does it depend on us. Because Jesus accomplished it, it is a fulfilled promise that is 100% certain.
Sometimes we struggle with promises because we don’t always see how they are being fulfilled. God promises to work all things for our good but we have trouble seeing that when we endure all the day to day stress of our difficult lives. We need those reminders to step back and take a look at the bigger picture. God is working for our good just like he promised. In Zechariah’s case, God promised him a child and God delivered on that promise. I think about my wife and I as we were struggling to have children. We certainly wanted children but we had no definite promise from God that we would have children. We prayed for a child but for quite a while, nothing happened.
But then, after more prayer and more struggles, it became obvious that God was leading us down the path toward adoption. After all the paperwork and waiting as we worked through the adoption process, there was the day that we got the e-mail about a little girl named Elizabeth out in California. Shortly after that e-mail we heard that we had been chosen to be her parents. There were certainly many more steps along the way, but the point is that God answered our prayers. When we see times in our lives that God answered our prayers, it reassures us of the fact that God is taking care of us. Many of us can tell stories of times when God was working in our lives.
God has given us so much evidence that he keeps his promises. You can look at all the evidence on the pages of scripture. You can see times in our lives that he has blessed us. He does answer our prayers. He has given us everything we need by forgiving our sins and then he adds even more blessings on top of that. Forgiveness and eternal life are so important. We could not save ourselves so he sent Jesus to save us. Jesus lived perfectly and then died for us. He rose from the grave and therefore we too will rise.
The promise that we are waiting for now is that promise to return as the Judge of the world. We are certain that this will happen because he has fulfilled all his other promises. During Advent we are preparing our hearts for Christmas but we are also preparing our hearts for the time when Christ will return to take us to be with him in heaven. We look forward to that day with eager anticipation. Through faith, we do not doubt but rather we firmly believe the promises of God.
Conclusion
When God makes promises, they are certain. They are not flimsy promises like we sinful human beings sometimes make. We don’t need to be skeptical when it comes to God’s promises. He assures us of this with many examples in Scripture. He assures us by answering our prayers. Most importantly, he assures us by sending Jesus to forgiven our sins. We can be absolutely certain of our salvation. We repent of our doubts and we firmly trust the promises of God.