Luke The Orderly Account of Truth - How Can I Be Sure - Luke 1:18-25

Father God, we love you, we thank you, and we give all

of this time to you. We just asked that as we open up your

word, that you are preparing and have been preparing our hearts to receive from

you what you have for us today or got that today we wouldn't leave the

same, Lord God, that we would look more and more like you every

passing Sunday, every passing day, Lord God. And so we just asked

that your word would come alive, your presence would be here among us,

and that you would get all the glory from it in Jesus name. Everyone

said amen. All right, So today is the third week in our new

series. You guys been chatting. Yeah, third week in our new series

going through the Gospel of Luke, and we titled it the Orderly Account of

Truth. The reason that we titled our series this is because of the stated

purpose for writing this gospel found at the beginning of Luke. Let's look at

it, Luke one one through four. If you'd open there with me,

we're going to be writing in here anyways, a couple of verses down.

But if you open there with me now, just kind of a head start,

he says, many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things

that have been fulfilled among us, just as there were, just as they

were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants

of the Word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated

everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you,

most excellent Theophilis, so that you may know the certainty of the things

you have been taught. So this is the purpose of this gospel account that

this guy Theophilis. But not only him who's going to benefit, but we

benefit from this gospel account, where not only he would have certainty about the

things that he's been taught, the truth that he's been taught, but we

also are going to get to benefit from these two truths that have been taught.

So I know we've only been in really two weeks, but do we

feel like we're already starting to learn a little bit. Yeah? Yeah.

Last week was a lot of information just for the context before we ever got

to the message, and today we get to kind of pick up back where

we left off. And so we're going to read that whole section of scripture

that we'll be going over today and then we're going to break it down verse

by verse. You ready, let's read it. Starting in verse eighteen,

Zechariah asked the angel, how can I be sure of this? I am

an old man and my wife is well along in years. The angel said

to him, I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God,

and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good

news. And now 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 appointed time. Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and

wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. When he came out,

he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in

the temple, for he kept making signs to them, but remained unable to

speak. When his time of service was completed, he returned home. When

his time of service or whoa others are repeated? Okay, all right,

so I'm not the only one right. When his time of service was completed,

he returned home. After this, his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for

five months remained in seclusion. The Lord has done this for me, she

said, in these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace

among the people. So, if you're taking notes today the title of today's

messages, how can I be sure? How can I be sure? So

to recap if you remember from last week, Luke opens his account with John

the Baptist's parents. Before John the Baptist is ever on the scene, we

start with John the Baptist's parents. We learned about Zechariah and his wife,

who were both righteous in the sight of God and blameless as it regarded the

law. But even though they were blameless, they had no children. For

Zechariah's wife, Elizabeth, was unable to have children, and on top of

that, they were very old. At this point where Luke picks up,

they were very old. But last week we saw that everything changed for Zechariah.

He was serving at the temple because he was a priest and was chosen

to go into the temple and burn incense before the Lord. While he was

doing that, an angel of the Lord shows up with incredible news. The

angel tells Zechariah that the Lord has heard their prayer and that they're going to

have a son, and that this son is not only going to be great

in the sight of the people, but also of the Lord, and that

they would be a joy to Zechariah and Elizabeth, and that the purpose of

this child would be to prepare the people for the coming Lord. Now,

all of this is amazing, incredible news that after all the years of praying

and hoping, God was now answering their prayer in the most unlikely of circumstances.

Once again they were barren, and now they were old. And today

we're going to look at and break down how Zacharia responds to this wonderful,

incredible news. So we ready, all right, let's start verse eighteen.

The angel said to him, Oh, there we go. Zechariah asked the

angel, how can I be sure of this? I am an old man,

and my wife as well along in years. My wife is well along

in years. Zechariah hears this good news proclaimed to him by the angel,

and his response is, how can I be sure? How do I know

this is true? How do I know that what you just said will come

to pass? In one sense, I think that this might seem like a

reasonable response, But we're gonna look at it a little bit closer, Zechari

and his wife have prayed for this very thing to happen, that they would

be able to have a child, and not only do they have their prayers

answered, but before it ever happens, God sends an angel to tell them,

Hey, by the way, your prayer was heard and it's going to

be answered in due time. God sends an angel to deliver this message to

Zechariah face to face, and Zachariah responds with are you sure? You sure

about that? And then he points to his circumstances says, because we're old,

how can I even know that this would happen? Look at our circumstance.

He uses his circumstances as the basis for his unbelief, because that is

what we're talking about. That is what we're seeing here. This is just

straight up unbelief on Zachariah's part, And we need to think about this for

a second. Zachariah was a Jew, and not only was he a Jew,

but he was a priest of the Lord of the Israelites, meaning Zachariah

would have known all of the stories of the Old Testament that included the stories

of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Rachel, the prophet,

Samuel's mother, and Samson's parents, all people who were barren or old

or both, and God moved miraculously in their life to enable them to conceive

and bear children. Zecharida would have known these stories, and Zecharia would have

believed these stories, and yet when God delivers the same news to him,

it's met with unbelief, which kind of brings me to a point that I

want to make. It's not on the screen, but this isn't uncommon.

It's kind of silly because we're looking at a man who would know the scriptures.

He's read the scriptures, he knows the amazing ways that God has moved

and moved throughout history and his commanded history, and is in control of history

and all the little events in little impossible, humanly impossible situations, how God

has provided a way for his people. And then God shows up and says

we're changing things up, and he goes, I don't know about that.

How can I be sure? How do I know that that's true? And

how often do we know and believe the stories of who God is and what

God has done? But when it comes to our own life, we live

like it isn't the same God whom we look to depend on and serve.

And that's because one of the most fundamental problems with every human being, even

us as believers we're humans too, is our struggle and wrestle with unbl in

God and his word. This is a fun message already, right, Yeah,

So as silly as we may think, this response is from Zechariah,

it's an all too common problem then as it is now then we gonna see

the angels response to Zecharia's question. The angel said to him, I am

Gabriel. Okay, we gotta stop there. Gabriel. Who's Gabriel? Well,

what's incredible about the angel even saying his name is that this is extremely

rare in scripture. This like never happens. There's only a couple of angels

whoever, like, yo, my name is whatever, right, and that's

Angel and Michael. Their names are not whatever, just to be clear.

So what's also incredible about this is that Zechari most likely didn't know, like

he was like, oh, yeah, this is obviously Gabriel, but he's

now being told that this is Gabriel. And Zachariah knows his scriptures. He

knows that this is the same exact angel that appeared to Daniel in the Old

Testament two times. You can find that in Daniel eight or chapter eight and

chapter nine. He came to Daniel and delivered good news and it was this

angel by name, And so Zecharia is standing in there and he's like,

I am Gabriel, and he's the media, like, okay, I'm tracking

with who this is. And if you don't know what Daniel I'm talking about,

that's Daniel in the lions Den. Also, we'll see next week.

I believe that Gabriel is also the one who gets to deliver the news to

marry the mother of Jesus. So I can imagine that this would be incredible

for Zachari to go like, okay, so this is Gabriel talking to me.

But the angel goes on. He says, I stand in the presence

of God and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you

this good news. So what does that tell us about Gabriel. Well,

if he's a messenger, he didn't have his own news to tell. He

was sent to deliver this good news, he says, And now 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 appointed time. The

Inja says that now Zachariah would be mute, and some actually believe that this

isn't only just mute and unable to speak, but also might be mute as

in death as well. And the reason for this is because he didn't believe

the angel's words, which were most sure to come true. Now. I

wanted to be understood that Gabriel doesn't punish Zachariah like this because zach Gabriel takes

himself so seriously. At first glance, it might seem like that I'm Gabriel,

I stand in God's presence and I've come to deliver this news to you,

and you would defy me, you would ask me questions. That's not

what we're seeing here. Gabriel doesn't take Gabriel seriously. Gabriel takes God seriously,

and he takes God's word seriously. Gabriel says, I stand in the

presence of God and was sent to deliver this good news. He's literally the

messenger, he says, But you did not believe this word from God,

and because of that, you will be silent until this word comes to pass.

Kind of you wanted a sign, here's a sign you'll be able to

speak again when when when what I told you, which is most sure to

come true, comes true. The Angel gives him the sign of silence.

And I do see some slight irony in this right that because he didn't believe

the word spoken to him, now he doesn't get to speak until they happen.

And maybe this is just a good example for us to be quick to

listen and slow to speak. Although we may think so, the Angel's response

here is not over the top. The angel takes God's word so seriously that

when someone would question God's word to his face, this must have just been

crazy. Gabriel stands in the presence of God, most Holy, pure,

righteous truth God. This angel knows God stands in his presence, is perfectly

submitted to serving God. And now he comes to this human that he's been

sent to right And we already saw the description of him right in the sight

of God, righteous and blameless as a regard to the law. So this

angel's rolling up to this human being going like, all right, buddy,

I got this great news. You're on the same page. And then he's

met with unbelief because again Zechariah asked him, how can I be sure after

an angel from God delivered this message? Okay, can we put this into

perspective? How much more sure can you be? This is what we all

hope for. I think this is a lot of what a lot of us

wish would happen when we prayed to God, right, kind of like a

message received via angel that he shows up and he's like, all right,

just so you know it's been delivered. We're not leaving you on red all

good. God has heard you, and he's going to answer it accordingly.

When it comes to our prayers. Most of us wish that we had this

experience. But I think what we need to be careful of here is that

I'm sure that that's exactly what Zechariah thought he would do too, and face

with the situation, right, we like to kind of, Oh, if

an angel showed up to me, bro, I'm on board, because that's

an angel. Who's gonna question an angel? But our sin and our unbelief

show up not in our ideas of what we would do in these situations,

but what we actually do when we're faced with the situations. Does that make

sense. So the way we can know what we would do when encountered with

God's word is what do we do with it? Now? What do you

do with God's word? Now you may say, well, I haven't been

sent a message from an angel, but you do have God's word that has

been delivered via the scriptures, some of which have been delivered by angels.

Okay, on a technicality, okay, what do you do when faced with

a message from the Lord from his word? How do you respond to that?

Are you quick to believe and obey or find a reason for unbelief because

of your circumstances. Because Zecharai would have believed God's word and put it into

practice. That's why he was righteous and blameless as it regarded the law.

But what we also see here is that nobody's perfect in their walk with God.

He's been living righteously before God, obviously an old man, but he's

continued to live according to how God would want him. And now he gets

this miraculous event happening, and it's met with unbelief. One can feel like

they're believing in God and walking alongside him and what he has called us and

wants us to do. And then the next thing that we know is that

we're hit upside with a revelation from God and who he is and who He's

called us to be. And then all of a sudden we slow down.

We're like, hold on, I don't know if I'm really on this train.

We don't know if we're ready for it. We don't know if he

could really believe it. God, can you really do that for me?

Even though it's the same Lord and the same God who's gotten us out of

every situation in the past, who's been with us, it's through and led

us through every situation in the past. So the angels kind of beside himself.

He knows and knows that Zachariah should have known that whatever the Lord decrees

will come to pass, and not because of any special sign, but because

God said it. That's what the angel is trying to say. Here,

can we go back on the side and now you will be silent and not

able to speak until the day this happens. Gabriel doesn't have any doubt that

this event is going to happen. Why because God has said it. So

the Angel's response here is maybe not so much of a gentle rebuke, but

it is a rebuke. Can Zechariah be sure because God has said it.

Because God has said, Now, how do we know that this is unbelief

other than the fact that it stated that he didn't believe the words that were

given to him. Well, what I want us to look at and explore

for just a minute is that it's the exact opposite of the example that we're

given in scripture for what our faith is to look like, for what belief

is to look like. So we're going to go look at the forefather of

our faith in Genesis fifteen, and then we're gonna see it broken down by

the apostle Paul in Romans four. So let's go there Genesis fifteen one through

six. We're gonna go look at Abraham. It says after this the word

of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. Do not be afraid,

Abram, I am or shield your very great reward. But Abram said,

Sovereign Lord, what can you give me? Since I remain childless? And

the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus. So Abraham is

a very very, very wealthy man at this point. He's everything he could

want, and God shows up and says, what's up, my dude.

You're great. I'm gonna bless you. And he's like, what more can

you give me? I'm already very wealthy, I'm i already have what I

could have. But all of this is just going to go to someone who

isn't my own flesh and blood, is just going to go to one of

my servants in my house because you've not given me a child. Abram said,

you have given me no children, so a servant in my household will

be my heir. Then the word of the Lord came to him. This

man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh

and blood will be your heir. He took him outside and said, look

up it the sky and count the stars. If indeed you can count them,

then he said to him, so shall your offspring be? For context,

Abram is an old man, he has no children, and he's told

to look at the stars and told that will be the number of your offspring.

And what's Abram's response. Abram believed the Lord, and he credited to

him or credited it to him as righteousness. Now, if you'll turn with

me to Romans in your new Testament, Paul breaks us down and actually puts

into perspective this event here Romans four eighteen through twenty five. Like I said,

looking at the opposite of the example, Zecharai's unbelief in Abraham's belief.

It says, against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the

father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, so

shall your offspring be without weakening in his faith. He faced the fact that

his body was what as good as dead since he was about one hundred years

old, and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver

through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and

gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what

he had promised. This is why it was credited to him as righteousness.

The words it was credited to him were written not for him alone, but

also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness, for us who believe

in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over

to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. So

what Paul points out here is that Abraham was fully convinced, in spite of

his age and circumstances, in spite of Sarah's age and barrenness, he believed

and was fully convinced that what God said would come to pass would come to

pass, because God's word never fails to bring to pass what he has decreed.

And Abraham believed this, This conviction in who God is and was this

conviction in who God is and what he has declared in what he has promised

in Jesus Christ is the same faith that saves us and makes us right before

God. Abraham believed this in the belief. That conviction that he had is

what we share with him, is the belief in that we believe in God,

and we believe his promises, and we believe and hope in what he

has said that he will do and what he said will come to pass,

and what he has said for our benefit. Ultimately, that we believe that

God will do what he has promised to do, and we take him at

his word. And I don't think that with the parallels here, I don't

think that that's saying that Zachariah wasn't a believer because he clearly was, but

here he sinned and failed to believe God's word. In this moment, here

we see unbelief being Zechariah failing to believe God's word because of his circumstances.

Yet just as we saw Abraham believes God in spite of those same circumstances,

Abraham understood that God was bigger than the circumstance that he was in that God

in his promise, He's like, I don't know how he's gonna do it,

but he will. The story goes on Luke one tent one. Meanwhile,

the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in

the temple. And this is it's kind of funny because if we remember from

last week, Zechariah went into the temple to burn the incense before the Lord,

and this normally didn't take very long. And now everyone's wondering why he

is taking so long. Then he finally comes out, and it's very clear

that something has happened to Zechariah says when he came out, he could not

speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple,

for he kept making signs to them, but remained unable to speak. I'm

sure that this was a sight to see. Zacharai goes into the temple.

They're waiting for him. He comes out of the temple. Who knows what

that looks like. They realized that he cannot speak. Potentially is death.

But now zachari is going to come out having seen this vision, had this

encounter with an angel, been rebuked, told he can't speak, but given

this incredible news, and now he's supposed to come out, and everyone's like,

what took you so long? What's he supposed to do? You can

imagine the sight of him being deaf, trying to explain. An angel showed

up and promised that I'm going to have a child in my old age who

would be a forerunner for the Messiah. How do you do that? In

sign language? Says When his time of service was completed, he returned home,

and now we get to the last two verses, and if I could

get the band to come up the last two verses for the day, says.

After this, his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in

seclusion. The Lord has done this for me, she said. In these

days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.

So Elizabeth Zechariah's wife becomes pregnant, just like God's word said would happen.

It says she remained in some seclusion for some time. The reason for this,

they're actually not sure why, but we do know that Luke was just

writing down an order of events, the order of the truth, the order

of the things that happened. So he's like and so she stayed home.

But then we see Elizabeth's response to this good news. Elizabeth praises God and

recognizes his grace and favor shown towards their family. And I think that this

is a very fitting response, a response for her to have after the Lord

has shown his grace in their old age, in their waiting, in their

longing, and he's shown their grace and mercy on this family. And what

we're starting to see here, even at the beginning of Luke, is that

God has to simultaneously answer the individual prayer in desire of this couple while also

working out his plan to fulfill a greater purpose. She says, the Lord

has done this for me, she said, in these days, he has

shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people. And if we

if we remember from last week, there was a stigma around this being childless.

But there's something amazing here about her response. She thanks God for answering

her prayers. God just straight up answers her prayers, and she gives thanks

to God for giving her this child, showing her grace and kindness and taking

away her shame among the people. But if you remember from last week,

the purpose of this very child was to be the forerunner of the Messiah.

The favor shown in the shame taken away from Elizabeth was only the beginning of

God's work. Because what we've seen here, Luke starts at the beginning with

this foretelling of John the Baptist being born, Elizabeth gets pregnant, and this

is going to, as we're going to see in the coming weeks, this

is ultimately going to lead to Christ and his death on the cross, paying

for our sins and making the only way for mankind to be made right with

God. That through Christ, God would show us favor and remove our shame

for anyone who would believe this good news and call on Jesus's name. So

now this is our chance, and this is our time to respond to God.

What I mean by this is we've heard God. We've heard God's word

today. How will we respond with belief or unbelief? I don't know what

situation you're in your life, but there's promises in scripture. There's a call

in scripture to anyone who has called on the name of our great God for

what it looks like to live and follow him, to be submitted to him,

to glorify Him with our lives and with our purpose. But when God

calls on us to do the things that he has called us to do,

that he has prepared the way for. How do we meet that? God?

I know all the time in scriptures you've used people in big ways to

draw people to yourself, to share the gospel, to love and care for

those people around me. But how can I be sure that you want me

to do that? How can I be sure that that's what you've put on

my life? I know you've done that for other people, but do I

really believe that you would work in my life that way? God has given

us his word, But how do we respond to it? And God tells

us how we are to live what we're called to as believers? Do we

make excuses because of our circumstances or to His grace in his word that always

holds true and believe it with obedience. Now, as we go into this

time of response, well, I want us to consider today, as we're

looking at the story of an answered prayer. This could have gone a completely

different way. Zechariah could have been like, yep, thank you God,

sounds good. Just let us know when that's gonna happen. But instead we're

giving this moment where he's faced with God answering his prayer with a high call.

You're going to be the parents of this child who will be great.

Here's your instructions for him, And be like, well, I don't are

you sure about that? How can I be sure about that? No one's

going to get it right. Even if you're righteous and blameless. If you

try and do all the things, there's going to be times where you mess

up. Sometimes that time is going to shut you up for a little while.

Think about the day after day after day after day that Zachariah had to

contemplate his response at least nine months, right, it was at least nine

months that he had to sit there and go like, man if I would

have just thought about my response before just not believing God? What more does

he need? What more does Zachariah need? God had already sent an angel

and said, God says he heard your prayer and he's going to answer your

prayer. I'm an angel from him letting you know that he said this is

going to happen. So is he had to think day after day after day

in silence about his mistake, about his unbelief. I think now we have

the opportunity to reflect on our own lives and look at the unbelief in our

life. What areas in our life do we act like we don't believe God?

God calls us to something and we put it off because we're like,

I'm not sure if that's really what you want me to be doing. How

can I be sure of that? How can I be sure that that's what

you have for me? How can I be sure that that's what you want

me to do? How can I how can I be sure that it's actually

going to work out if I do what you've told me to do. So,

as we go into this time of response, what area of your life

do you need to repent of for your unbelief? For at God's word?

What area in your life do you need to grow in your faith of taking

God at his word? So as you sing a song, we're gonna do

just that. So if you please stand to your feet, We're going to

have the elders on the side of the room and we want to pray with

you. I'm going to pray for you. We also have these connect cards

and on the back of them says need a prayer, have a question?

So on the back here, if you would write your prayer, we would

love to be praying with you. We send these out to the community groups

and have them pray over them. Our elders pray over them because we want

to be praying with you. If you don't want your prayer request to be

sent out to everyone, and you just wanted to be sent to the leaders,

go ahead and just mark private on there. Also, if you have

any questions after today's message, if you have any questions just in general,

the only question you're not allowed to ask is are you sure about that?

That's the only thing you can ask there. Okay, if you have any

questions, we want to walk this out with you. Now, what I

want us to get from today, Let me say that again. What I

don't want us to hear today is we can't ask questions. That's not what

we're saying. What we're saying is when you ask questions, especially here our

church, we're going to point you to scripture for whatever situation you're going through,

for whatever belief that you are believing, for for whatever wisdom or guidance,

We're going to point you to God's word that will be the answer to

your question. Because of what God has said, we believe it and we

know that it holds true and it will always be true and it's sufficient.

And we praise God that he has given us a word that never fails and

never fades. So you have questions, we will answer the questions with scripture.

That's what's going to happen. So we want to walk this life out

with you, and as brothers and sisters here at the church, we have

that responsibility for each other as well, where we see others maybe waning in

their belief in what God has commanded us and told us is true. But

we're here to encourage each other to go, even if we're going through a

season of trial or perseverance, to know that God's word will hold true even

through that circumstance. So we're gonna pray for each other. We're gonna worship

our great God right after we pray. Let's do that, Lord Jesus,

we submit this time. We submit ourselves to you, Lord God, as

we have seen today. We ask that the unbelief in our heart, that

you would deal with it, you would expose, that you would bring it

to light or God, so that we would take you at your word,

Lord God, that the way that we live life, that we can be

sure of the things that we believe and be sure of the ways that we

are to walk out are because of what you have said in your word.

And so Lord, we asked that you give us a hunger and a desire

to know what you have said, a hunger and a desire to come to

you with our prayers knowing that you can answer them, or God, that

no matter our circumstance, that you can answer our prayer. Lor God,

even if we think it's too late, it's never too late, because you

are great and you are above it all. And so, Lord God,

we submit ourselves to you. We just asked, as we sing this song,

as we open up our hearts and bear our lives before you, that

you would start to work on us and refine us or God, that we

would repent of our unbelief and turn to you, dependent on your promises and

on your word that does not fail. So we thank you, we love

you, and we give you all glory in Jesus name. Everyone said Amen,