The Promise - When God Interrupts

We're almost at Christmas and it's a time when lots of plans are made. Maybe you do the same thing every year. You know what you'll be eating on Christmas Day because you just got to think back to last year. You always have the same meal or maybe you know some of the presents you're getting because that person always gives you the same thing every year. Which is great if it's something you want and it's a good gift.

If it's not, that's not so good. Maybe you're one of those people that likes to mix it up every year, do something different, have a different theme for Christmas every year. But whatever it is, there's plans made. And most of us, especially if we're responsible for organising presents or organising the meal, we will have made some plans. Even if your plan is simply to go the shops on Christmas Eve and hope for the best.

The problem with our plans is that they can be interrupted or disrupted by someone or something else. I read recently about how an event planner had set up a lovely area for a guy to propose to his girlfriend. Was in the newspapers now. I think there was a thing on one of those breakfast shows. I don't watch them, but there was something on that about this.

She'd set up this beautiful area. It was outdoors up in Cairns. Beautiful area, had the fairy lights everywhere and the signs and looked really lovely. As she was filming the couple walking towards it, she turned around, this is the event planner, and saw there was another couple in that area with the guy kneeling down, proposing to his girlfriend. So she had to quickly go and move this other couple on who weren't meant to be there so that it didn't mess up this proposal for the guy that had arranged and paid and everything for this setup to happen.

That was something she said never happened before. And it was certainly something that disrupted what was happening and which she certainly didn't expect.

You might have planned a wonderful Christmas meal, but then the person who's supposed to be bringing the turkey turns up with a salad, maybe a delicious looking salad, but it's not quite the same as the turkey. Or maybe the person bringing the dessert totally forgets about it. Was that me? Oops.

People can cause interruptions or disruptions on these occasions by what they say or do. A relative gets drunk and comes out with some very inappropriate comments. Or someone comes out with some long held family secret which really upsets other people. I heard this story a long while ago, but it's a true story. This person came from a Dysfunctional family who whenever they got together, there was always arguments and fights.

On one occasion this was happening and another family member turned to this woman who was an adult and said, totally out of the blue, you're adopted. It was true, she was adopted, but she had no idea that was the first thing she heard about it. But it turned out that most of the rest of the family knew. She just hadn't been told herself. Talk about a disruption to her life.

On the other hand, maybe it's joyful news that interrupts the get together. Someone has waited till everyone's together to announce something exciting, tell them something exciting. Maybe it's an engagement, a baby coming, maybe a new job, a new house, something like that, that everyone's happy about that situation. Most people are very willing to have that sort of interruption.

Many times the disruption will be minor. If someone's forgotten to bring the dish, or if they brought the wrong dish, you can generally make do. You usually sort of figure it out, how you can make the meal work. Or if not, the local IGA should be open on Christmas Day. So there's your fallback, just in case.

If that happens to you, just remember that.

Or if it's a relative who makes the inappropriate comments. Often you can hush them up or distract them, get them telling some long story that doesn't make sense, but it's not inappropriate. But if the disruption is major, it can mess up our plans, even our life. Like the story I just told about that woman. What you know, what you rely on can change in an instant.

When this happens, when this happens to us, we react. When you are caught by surprise, your reaction can be unguarded, you don't have time to think, and you tend to say the first thing that comes into your mind. If it's a good reaction, if it's congratulations to someone and you're really excited about something good happening, that's fine. But if not, you've probably been in that situation where later on you go, oh, why did I say that? Why didn't I think?

Why did I react like that?

Today we're going to look at two people whose lives were incredibly disrupted by God. And each of them had different reactions. And I'm sure one of them was thinking afterwards, I shouldn't have reacted like that. I shouldn't have said those things. We're going to be in Luke, chapter one, but before we get there, let's quickly bring to mind the second last verse in the book of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, where God says to his people, behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet.

Before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.

Then there's nothing from God for 400 years. No prophetic word, no visitations, just silence. The Israelite people knew God was to send a Messiah, but they didn't know how or when. And for many over this time, it seemed like God had forgotten about them. Luke starts by taking up where the book of Malachi left off.

He records the announcement of the birth of John the Baptist, the one coming to prepare the way of the Lord. Luke 1, 5:7. 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. And they were both righteous before the Lord, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord.

But they had no child because Elizabeth was barren and both were advanced in years. Although Zechariah was a priest, he wasn't a person of particular significance. He wasn't one of the leading priests based in Jerusalem, one who stood out by his training or place in society. His home was in the hill country of Judea, outside of Jerusalem. But he had come to Jerusalem as it was the turn of his company of priests to serve at the temple.

There were 24 companies of priests and each company would serve at the temple twice a year for a week and carry out the temple duties morning and night. Zechariah and his wife were godly people. They carefully followed the law. Walking blamelessly didn't mean that they didn't sin. It meant that they attempted to do everything that God had said.

And when they did sin, they sought God's forgiveness through sacrifices and the acts God had said to carry out. They had one overwhelming sorrow in their life, and that was the lack of a child. Yet despite this, they continued to faithfully follow and obey God. This time, when Zechariah was serving at the temple, he was chosen to enter the temple and burn the incense. This was a huge honour and responsibility.

The person to do this was chosen not by a vote of the others, but through the drawing of lots, which they saw as God choosing who it was to be a priest was only eligible to be chosen once in his lifetime. And as there were a large number of priests, many were never chosen.

Zechariah would have been conscious of the necessity to carry this out correctly. He knew from stories in the past that God didn't tolerate it being done casually or recklessly. To burn the incense he would be in the holy place by himself, and the only light there was the light of the lampstand. Luke 1:11 13. And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.

And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. 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. It's hard to imagine what Zechariah felt. Here he is trying to carry out this worship of God with reverence and precision and suddenly an angel appears.

It's not surprising. It says he was troubled and fear fell on him. That seemed to be almost an understatement. He was probably expecting to be struck dead any minute, wondering what he'd done to offend God. The prayer the angel was referring to was most likely not a personal prayer that Zechariah prayed, but the prayer Zechariah would have prayed as part of his priestly duties.

He would pray that God would redeem Israel, that the Messiah would come and save his people. This was prayed regularly by the priests and the people. It was this prayer that God was answering by sending first John as the forerunner, and then Jesus the Saviour.

But in answering that prayer, God was also answering the prayers Zechariah and Elizabeth would have prayed over the years for a child. It wasn't in the timing they sought or expected, but it was now going to happen. We need to not give up hope when we pray for something and it doesn't seem to be happening. At times, God does answer us clearly and we need to accept that answer. Other times we can feel that God just hasn't answered, or maybe he hasn't even heard us.

Instead, it's just not the right time for him to give us that answer. If you're like me, there'd be times when you pray God. Can't you just do that now? I'd much rather God fit it into my finite time frame rather than me having to fit into His Eternal One. And that would be how Zechariah and Elizabeth would have felt as years pass without a child.

And how the Israelite people felt during that 400 years of silence from God as they prayed for him to redeem them, to. To send the promised Saviour. Zechariah was carrying out this incredible honour and responsibility, the only time in his life when he would get to do this, conscious that having been chosen by Lot that he was God's choice for this time. He would be very carefully carrying out his duties, making sure everything was done correctly. And then the angel appears.

This was certainly an interruption, a disruption to what he is doing. He's never heard of this happening before from any of the other priests who'd carried out this task. No wonder he was struck with fear. Then he's told that his wife will have a baby and even what to call the child. This is definitely not what he was expecting when he entered the holy place.

The angel continues to tell Zechariah about this child, that he will be great before the Lord and he will go in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the people to the Lord. And it's clear that this child is the fulfillment of the Malachi prophecy. Zechariah responds, not with words of praise or worship of God, but with a question. He asks the angel, how can he know that this is true? He points out that he and his wife are old.

He actually says that he's an old man and his wife is advanced in years. I'm just wondering if that was a more diplomatic way of saying she was old, whether he'd been in trouble in the past from his wife for saying she was old. So he's like, well, I better phrase it a bit differently. It doesn't matter. She's not here.

She might hear about it. But what he says is right. They are past the age of childbearing. It's not humanly possible yet. Zechariah is a priest.

He's learned and studied the scriptures. He's in the temple, the place where God meets with his people. He's carrying out the rituals God prescribed. And an angel appears and tells him that God is answering the prayer. He's just prayed.

He is a righteous person who follows God's decrees. And his response is not so much a question as a statement that it wasn't possible. It shows an incredible lack of faith. He only looks at the human aspect. We're too old to have a child, therefore it can't happen.

It doesn't matter what the angel tells him. He seems to totally forget all the miraculous things God had done throughout Israel's history. This certainly was unexpected happening in Zachary's life. But his response should have been one of faith, not doubt, not almost a dismissal of what the angel had said. The angel isn't too impressed with Zachariah's reply.

Luke 1:19 20. 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.

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. The angel corrects him and points out that he was speaking for God. To disbelieve these words is to doubt God himself. Even though this is a major interruption to Zachariah's duties and going to be a major disruption into his life, he should have responded with faith, not doubt. You would have heard people say sometimes when something outlandish happens to them, that they were struck dumb.

They were lost for words, they couldn't say a thing. Zechariah would have wished that's how he'd been when he first heard the angel speak instead of coming out with his statement. Because now he is completely struck dumb until the baby is born, he's got plenty of time to think about how he should have responded. Let's look now at the second person in this chapter who is confronted with a disruption to their life. Luke 1:26 27 in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary.

Same angel, but coming to a totally different person. Instead of an elderly married man, we have a young unmarried woman. Instead of a priest in the temple in Jerusalem, we have an uneducated girl. In a city in an area scorned by many Jews, it would be hard to find a Greater contrast. Luke 1:28:29 and he came to her and said, greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you.

But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. We see another contrast in that Mary's reaction is different to Zechariah's, although it says both of them were troubled, whereas Zechariah, it says fear fell on him. While Mary is trying to work out what does this mean, she is thinking about what the angel is saying and trying to see the purpose of it. Luke 1:30 33 and the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom, there will be no end. What an interruption to Mary's day. In just a few minutes, the course of her life is completely and totally disrupted. I wonder in that moment how much of the ramifications of what was going to happen occur to her. We see the obvious one did, because she asked the angel, how can it be because she was a virgin?

Mary's question is coming from a totally different attitude to Zechariah's question. It was not a denial of what the angel said, but a genuine request to ask God for clarification isn't wrong if it comes from a heart and mind that is genuinely seeking to know. Gabriel tells her that the child will be conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. He tells her that her relative Elizabeth, that Zechariah's wife is also expecting a child, something that Mary knew was impossible. He ends by telling Mary, for nothing will be impossible with God.

Then Mary makes an absolutely incredible declaration of faith. Luke 1:38. And Mary said, behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me, according to your word, according. And the angel departed from her.

Zechariah's response was one of doubt and unbelief. Mary's is one of faith and acceptance, one of complete submission to the will of God. People having a child by the miraculous power of God when they were barren or elderly had happened before. But a virgin having a child through the power of the Holy Spirit had never happened before or since. It's one of the things that people struggle with, with the truth of Jesus.

They have trouble with that. If anyone should have thought what the angel was saying was impossible, it was Mary. Yet she is the one who responds with incredible faith. When our life gets disrupted, when things happen that will seriously change our plans, even our life, what do we do? Mary tried to discern what was being said to her before she responded, whereas Zechariah just dismissed it.

And even though it was clear that what was said to each of them was from God, even though they didn't fully know or understand what it all meant, they had opposite responses. We need to be like Mary, who saw her whole life and being as within God's hands, that she was his servant, and in seeing herself like that, she was willing for whatever God wanted for and from her, we're not to be like Zechariah, who, despite what he saw, thought, this isn't possible, this can't happen. Even though it was something he really longed for, he reacted with doubt and lack of faith.

At this Christmas time, we Celebrate the fulfilment of God's promise. We celebrate that God kept true to his word, that he would send the Messiah, the Saviour. In doing so, he disrupted lives.

Are we willing to be disrupted by God, despite what it might cost us? Think of Elizabeth, this elderly woman, suddenly having a baby. Think of all the changes happening to her life now. Think of Mary, this young unmarried woman, also having a baby. Think of the gossip, the anger, the scorn, the pity that would have been directed toward her.

Our life is in the overall plan of God and he will interrupt our lives. We may have made our plans, but God intervenes. When that happens, how will you respond to him? After the angel came to Mary, she visited her relative Elizabeth. It says when she saw her, Mary praised God by declaring, my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my Saviour.

Is that how you feel when God interrupts your plans, your life? Whatever happens, God hears, He sees, he acts. Even if it's an interruption to us, it's in God's plans and we need to look to him in faith. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that you interrupted this world by sending Jesus.

We thank you that you kept true to your word, that you would send a Savior. And Lord, we thank you that you interrupt our lives by showing us the truth of Jesus, by showing us the salvation that you have for us. And Lord, even as we follow you, you interrupt our plans, you change and you show us the way we should go. I pray for each of us that we, when we see you working our lives, that we will respond in faith, not in doubt, but in faith. Lord, letting you be God, letting you be the Lord of our lives, letting you show us the way we should go and what you desire for each of us.

We thank you, Lord, that you are such a mighty and amazing God, that like the angel said, that with God nothing is impossible. Thank you, Lord. Amen. Sam.