While You Were Sleeping: Part 1
Pastor Rollan Fisher
Focus: God is working even when we don’t see it, for his glory and our good.
A Time of Wonder
There will always be a time of wonder where we ponder if and how God is going to bring about his promises.
Luke 1:1-25 ESV
“Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. 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 God, 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. Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. 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. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” 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.” And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple. And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home. After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.””
How many times would it have been that Zechariah and Elizabeth, a blameless couple, prayed to God over the years for the blessing of a child?
Sometimes it can feel like God is sleeping or slow in keeping his promises.
Yet Yahweh is the God who neither slumbers nor sleeps (Psalm 121:4) and is not slow in keeping his promises as some consider slowness (II Peter 3:9).
God has a perfect time and procedure for everything, with his Kingdom and metanarrative of world history always in view (Ecclesiastes 8:6,7).
“All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.”
-Jaques, Act 2 Scene 7 in Shakespeare’s As You Like It
We can get discouraged when we forget that our story is a small part of God’s larger story being played out in the world.
*The goal is to find your God-given role in his story to help you contextualize and embrace life’s circumstances with joy.
*The fulfillment of God’s promises will always look different than you expect.
Silver Chair example with Aslan
“And the signs which you have learned here will not look at all as you expect them to look, when you meet them there. That is why it is so important to know them by heart and pay no attention to appearances. Remember the signs and believe the signs. Nothing else matters.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair
The signs of the Messiah’s appearing were the more than 300 prophecies fulfilled in Jesus’ virgin birth, sinless life, miracle ministry, betrayal, sacrificial death, burial and resurrection.
*Don’t forsake God’s provision because you had in your mind how he would fulfill his promise.
How do I know if it’s God’s provision?
Is it in alignment with his written Word?
Does it continue to spur you on for the purposes of God?
Does it challenge you to be more godly or less?
Waiting on God can come with a stigma.
Mary and Elizabeth experienced the stigmas of their virgin and delayed pregnancies - all while God was moving in the right way, to posture them at the right time, for his purposes to be fulfilled.
What stigma has been attached to you as you’ve waited not only on God’s promise, but his timing?
Always remember, that which was a stigma turns to lasting honor in the end (thing of how Mary and Elizabeth are venerated today).
The timing of John’s birth allowed John the Baptist to be the perfect prophesied forerunner of Jesus.
The manner of Mary’s pregnancy was the prophesied miracle that would point to the Messiah (Isaiah 7:14) and came at a time, because of the interconnectivity of the Roman Empire, to allow the good news of Jesus’ miraculous birth, life, ministry, substitutionary death at the cross and resurrection from the dead to be spread around the world.
Luke 1:26-45 ESV
“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. 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. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor 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.” And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.””
There is a desire to control the narrative in all of us.
Zechariah was blameless in his conduct, but not necessarily his ideas on how things should be done - how his story should unfold.
Zechariah would lose his speech and hearing, and as a result, would have months of reflecting on nothing but the message which the angel had delivered to him from the Lord.
This period of waiting gave Zechariah time to come into alignment with not only what God was going to do, but how God had chosen to do it.
How often do we have things taken away from us, whether health, friendships or opportunities as an act of God’s mercy to help us finally submit to his will - which is always best?
This would be reiterated with Mary and Elizabeth, yet with a different response to God’s narrative.
Luke 1:46-56 ESV
“And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.” And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.”
The great reversal to take place in the world is a key theme in Jesus’ ministry and Luke’s gospel.
Jesus was continually speaking of his intention to have the last be made first and the first last; the proud brought low and the humble exalted.
Jesus placed great emphasis on God’s love for the poor, tax collectors, outcasts, sinners, women, Samaritans, Gentiles and the like.
He would cause the seemingly foolish to shame the wise of this world, the weak to shame the strong in their sin (I Corinthians 1).
Do you believe that God knows what he is doing and trust that how he is arranging things is for the best (Galatians 4:1-7)?
What’s in a Name?
God allows our time of waiting to clarify and define our purpose while we sleep in hope, waiting for his promises to be fulfilled.
Luke 1:57-66 ESV
“Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.” And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.” And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called. And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all wondered. And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea, and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him.”
There is a normal way that the world works and does things, defining the different seasons, events and milestones in our lives.
Where would you have been without your time of waiting?
Without the time of waiting, we could have been defined by and pursued anything other than the purposes of God.
God uses the time of waiting to clarify our purpose and crystallize our call as he did for John the Baptist.
John would be no ordinary child, doing what ordinary Hebrew children did, becoming what ordinary Hebrew children become.
John’s name and mission were brought about through extraordinary circumstances, after years of longing and emotional trial on the part of his parents.
By the time John showed up on the scene, his parents were quite ready to consecrate him out of a heart of humility and gratitude.
Through their time of waiting, John’s parents came to recognize that their child was not just their own, but his life was for the Lord’s purposes.
Have you come to such a realization in your love life? In your marriage? With your children? WIth your career?
Our time of waiting should crystallize the purposes of God for us.
Saltine Toffee Bark - a holiday family favorite not perfected until chilled!
A Savior Better than We Hoped For
Jesus comes to bring light to the darkness.
Luke 1:67-80 ESV
“And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.”
You are able to hear from God clearly and find your voice when you, like Zechariah, finally come into the peace of not only what God says, but how he has chosen to do things.
All the while, Jesus is bringing light to our darkness.
Jesus brings light to the darkness by saving us from our sins.
Jesus brings light to the darkness by contextualizing our seasons of emotionally gratifying slumber.
Jesus brings light to the darkness by illuminating the purpose of our pain.
Jesus brings light to the darkness by giving us hope and joy eternal!
As we turn from our sin today, may we become strong in spirit by putting our trust in not only Jesus’ saving work at the cross, but God’s perfect timing for his perfect redemptive plan.
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher
