Surprise

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. Some of you have been disciplined, some of you are being disciplined right now and what I want you to know is that he is doing it in love. He is doing it because he wants you to learn to love and trust him. I know that it feels painful. I know that sometimes you feel like God is trying to destroy you but his intentions are not your destruction, his intentions are your healing. Welcome back to Summit Life, the Bible teaching ministry of pastor, author and theologian J.D.

Greer. As always, I'm your host Molly Vidovich and we are so glad that you're back with us this week. Let me ask you something. Do you have pain, disappointment or unanswered questions in your life?

I know I do. Well, today we're kicking off a new teaching series called Kingdom Come with a message about understanding real faith in spite of the challenges that life throws at us. As a reminder, if you'd like to study the complete unedited transcripts that go along with this message, you can always view them free of charge when you visit us at jdgreer.com. Pastor J.D.

titled today's message, Surprise. So grab your Bible and turn with us to Luke chapter 1. We're going to see right off the bat Luke present the gospel to two different kinds of skeptics. The first kind that we're going to look at is the person whose skepticism arises from the fact that they've been really disappointed in life. Life has damaged them in a way that they don't know how they could believe in the idea of a good God who has unwavering intentions for good in their life in light of how their life has turned out. Ideal as a pastor all the time with people like this. In fact, I would say that of the different kinds of doubt, this is the greater kind.

This is the kind more people struggle with. It's not like they read a book by Richard Dawkins and that made them question their faith. It's that they're just looking at their life and they're like, how could I believe in a God whose intentions are good for me all the time?

At least you say they are. And how could life have turned out like this for me? Because I get these things that I don't understand if there is a God and he really cares about me, why my life would look like this? The very first story in Luke, very first one, is about a couple of people who are brokenhearted because they have always wanted to have kids.

That's all they've wanted and they've never been able to do it. And now they're old, really old, and it looks like they've totally missed out on this blessing. And you're gonna see how the birth of Jesus speaks into that pain.

So let's jump right into it. If you've got your Bible, and I hope that you do, I want you to take it out and I want you to open it to Luke chapter one. Luke chapter one verse five, here we go. In the days of Herod, the king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah of the division of Abijah. And he, Zechariah, 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. Verse seven, but they had no child because Elizabeth was barren and both of them were advanced in years.

Barrenness. They had no kids. It was hardly anything worse for a couple or for a family in Israel during that time. Because see, to have kids meant that you had someone to take care of you in the future. I understand that it's really bad today when a couple wants to have kids and I don't want to minimize that at all, but in those days there were some other ramifications to being childless because you didn't have somebody to take care of you in your old age. They didn't have 401ks and retirement plans the way that we did. Their retirement plan was to have lots of kids.

One of them would get wealthy and take care of you. So when you don't have kids that means when you get old there's nobody that's going to look after you. In addition to that, the way that Israel understood the promises of God is that God had given them an inheritance in Israel and that the way that their family would keep part in that inheritance was you'd have kids and the inheritance would be handed down to the generations of your family.

And if you don't have kids then you're losing your inheritance stake in God's kingdom. And so this is more than just they're lonely. This is their hopes for the future are gone. For years they'd hope for a son. But year after year they'd cycle through hope and disappointment.

And I know that many of you have gone through the same thing, this cycle that I'm talking about. By this point though, a kind of permanent disappointment has set in on them. The one thing that they wanted in life was not going to be theirs. Plus they had all these questions that people asked about them. You know, because in that day the surest sign they thought of God's blessing was that you would have kids. So people were like, oh yeah, Zechariah and Elizabeth. I wonder what's wrong with them. I wonder why God is displeased with them.

I wonder what it is that we don't know about Zechariah and Elizabeth. Let me ask you this. You have something in your life like this? Something that you can't understand why God hasn't given it to you? Maybe it's this issue.

You're like, God, why? Why don't I have kids? Why don't we have kids? But what do we do wrong? Why is it that other people seem to be able to have no problem with this?

Why not us? God, why am I not married? I mean, God, what's wrong with me? How come I'm watching other people that I grew up with get married? And how come I'm not married? God, why have I been overlooked for promotion? Why are people who have lesser abilities than me? Why have they gone a lot farther than I have? God, how come my family and I never can seem to round the corner financially?

I mean, looking at other people that I graduated with from college and look how they're going way beyond where I am. God, why? Why haven't we been able to do that? What's wrong with us? God, why are my kids not normal?

Right? I'm not saying this personally. I'm just saying, I mean, some of you, I'm not trying to minimize your pain if this is you. Why are my kids not? How come my kids are the one in trouble? How come my kids are walking away from the faith? What do we do wrong?

God? And do you feel the sting of what other people say about you sometimes or what you think they're saying? I have a friend who was single for a long time and he told me that as he got older he was aware that people would ask.

Sometimes they would do it directly. So what's wrong with you? Why can't you get married? He knew that for every one person that said that to his face were 10 people saying it behind his back.

Oh, he's not single for a season, he's single for a reason. You know, I mean, statements like that. Another one of my friends said he got so sick of the patronizing statements that people would make to him. He said he'd be at weddings at his church and little old ladies would come up to him and say so condescendingly, oh bless your heart, which is southern for you poor little idiot, right? Bless your heart. Don't worry honey, you're next. He said he got so tired of it that he would go to those same little old ladies at funerals and say, don't worry honey, you're next, you're next. Totally kidding about that but you understand the point is, is all these questions that were going around. But you see the Bible is very careful to know this, this was not a curse.

You see that? They were righteous, they walked blamelessly before the Lord. That didn't mean that they were sinless, just that they had not done anything that singled them out for God's judgments. But I'm sure there were still a lot of times that Zachariah and Elizabeth asked themselves, God, what did we do wrong? God, what did we do wrong?

What's wrong with us? Verse 8, now while he was serving as a 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 to burn incense. Let me explain this real quick, there were thousands of priests in Israel and so they had different divisions of them that would cycle through and they would take care of the stuff going on in the temple for a month or so. And during that time there was one of them that would be selected to go in into the very holy of holies and offer incense before God, only one. And so they would choose that by the casting of dice. Well this die cast falls on Zachariah, he's the one that's chosen out of his division.

Y'all this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Verse 11, and there appeared to him while he was in the holy of holies an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. Now I can't resist here, real quick, all right just give me a second on this. One thing I want you to notice in Luke's storytelling is the amount of random details that he just throws in. Like the fact that the angel is standing on the right side of the altar of incense, that has nothing to do with the plot. The reason that's in there is because Luke is writing eyewitness accounts.

He either talked to Zachariah and got this from him directly or talked to somebody who had heard it from Zachariah, okay. Verse 12, and Zachariah was troubled when he saw that angel and fear fell upon him and the angel said to him don't be afraid Zachariah. I love little scenes like this one where it shows you what angels are really like. 70 percent of Americans say they believe in angels and 32 percent, a third of you say that you have experienced one. A third of this audience will say in some way they've experienced an angel. The common picture of angel sightings is pretty tame.

My kids books usually have them something like little fat Pillsbury doughboys with wings on them. Life magazine a few years ago did this big survey to find out what the 32 percent who say they saw an angel what it was like and the answers in this article range from the spooky to the bizarre. You've got of course the standard messages from the underworld but then you've got people who claim angels show up to give them directions when they're lost. Several who say that angels help them find a parking space which if that's true that's got to be the worst possible assignment for an angel. One lady in the article that claimed that an angel helped her make a chicken casserole and another lady who said an angel helped her lose weight she even wrote a book about it called the angel's little diet book I kid you not. Now I won't comment on whether those things are true all right probably not but I won't comment on that but just know this that when somebody sees an angel in the bible the response is always to be absolutely terrified. The angel's first response is always no no no it's okay don't die don't die it's not usually I think you need a dash of cumin in that casserole that's not normally what's said okay. Verse 13 the angel says your prayer has been heard and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you will call his name John and he will you will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth for he will be great before the Lord he must not drink wine or strong drink and he will 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 their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready for the Lord a people prepared people prepare for what the birth of another baby this guy's going to lead to a national repentance and he's going to prepare the way for the birth of an even greater child the Messiah. Verse 18 and Zechariah said to the angels said to the angel excuse me how shall I do this because I'm an old man and my wife is advanced in years I love his phrasing here he says that he's old but his wife is advanced in years in Hebrew advanced in years is a much stronger phrase than simply old Zechariah is like I'm old but my wife is old I mean she is old her birth certificate says expired on it you know when she sneezes dust comes out if you told her to act her age she'd die okay I mean my wife is old she's old okay I mean folks when the Bible says you're old you're old you're old the point is she's not fertile myrtle anymore so Zechariah is like I don't believe you and that you got to hear the tone in his words I don't believe you I don't believe you because year after year we prayed and asked God for this and there was no answer and now you're telling me that when I'm old and about to die that me and my geriatric wife are gonna have a baby where were you when we were 30 where were you when we were 40 50 now we're 80 and you're telling me that we're gonna have a baby and the angel answered in verse 19 I am Gabriel oh that's a bad statement right there that's like the I am Jason Bourne line like times a thousand right there I am Gabriel and I stand in the presence of God and I was sent to speak you to bring you this good news the angel's like really Zechariah really just a minute ago you were in the corner wetting your pants and now you're all like are you sure this can happen you're listening to Summit Life with Pastor JD Greer today we begin a new teaching series called Kingdom Come walking us through the Gospel of Luke and I've got some exciting news just for you we're also offering a brand new featured resource written by Pastor JD to go along with it right now we are offering our faithful supporters a copy of Kingdom Come 20 devotions from Luke so that you can dive even deeper into the teachings of this important book and like most of our resources we've designed this to be helpful to you in growing your own personal faith but it's also a valuable tool that you could pass along to a friend or a loved one once you're finished reading through it or even better maybe do the study with someone else as a way to help them grow we're all about making disciples here at Summit Life so to get a hold of your copy just give us a call with your gift you can reach us at 866-335-5220 or give online at jdgreer.com now let's get back to today's teaching once again here's Pastor JD so verse 20 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 this was the first massive time out in the bible okay the angel's like go to your room no tv no cell phones I just want you to sit and think about what you've done for nine months he cannot hear he cannot speak now real quick you might be like well how do you know he can't hear because I see where it says he can't speak all right well if you jump down to verse 62 it says that whenever they wanted to talk to Zachariah they made motions to him with their hands you don't do that for people that can hear because if you do it's really annoying you know you're like do you want to eat you know they're like I can hear right so they're making motions to him which means that he cannot hear and he cannot speak right now the angel says nine months you're gonna go to your room which is gonna be everywhere that you go from now on you're gonna be in your room quiet and can't talk and think about how dumb you are no pun intended okay now before you write off Zachariah as a stubborn old fool I want you to try to relate to him for a minute Zachariah has a deep deep wound the angel did not simply show up and say tomorrow it's gonna rain Zachariah uh-uh that's that's not what's being said here the angel speaks to him about hope in an area where Zachariah and his wife had only experienced pain and disappointment Zachariah's refusal to believe is arising out of a deep and bitter past hurt he's got a heart full of doubt that God is capable or able because of his disappointment in the past Zachariah thinks his bitter past trumps the promises and the power of the sovereign God you ever do that do you ever do that God there's no way that you could be in control of the situation I know what your word says but there is no way you could really be in control of the situation and it'd be turning out the way that it is God you've forgotten about me God there's no way that you could have a plan of goodness and blessing for me because you know I've done this and this is my past and I know what you're talking about using me for good but I've just got way too much baggage to be able to ever be used for good God I don't have the capability to do what I feel like you're telling me to do God this has been a habit for so long that there's no way that I can shake it I know that you'll say we'll be more than conquerors and I know that you say that we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength but I can't there's no way I give up and the pain of your past trumps for you the promises of God God shut up Zachariah and time out to teach him to trust his love and his character what God did to Zachariah was discipline yes but it was love you see because there's a difference a big difference and this is really important there's a difference between punishment and discipline punishment is when God pays you back for your sin discipline is when God gets out a surgical knife and corrects things in you for your good would you want a man with a knife sticking it into your chest it depends on what his intentions are if this is a guy that's trying to murder you then no you don't want the knife in your chest but if this is a doctor who is skilled who is performing life-saving open heart surgery on you then yes you want that knife going into your chest when God disciplines you if you are a believer in Jesus he is not doing so with a knife of judgment you want to know why because every bit of the judgment for your sin was poured out upon Jesus Christ and because Jesus took your full penalty in your place there's not a drop of that penalty that's reserved for you and if God paid you back at all for your sin then he would be exacting two punishments for the same sin and that would be unjust and God is not unjust so now because God has poured out on Jesus the punishment for your sin when he works on you he does so with discipline Jesus took the knife of judgment so you could get the scalpel of healing okay that's why there's a big difference in punishment and discipline and what's going on here is love it is discipline as God is going to correct something in Zechariah you're going to see how that plays out here in a minute verse 24 after these days his wife Elizabeth conceived and for five months she kept herself hidden right but during these five months Elizabeth keeps saying over and over again to herself and anybody that'll listen thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked upon me to take away my reproach among people that word reproach is really important then we'll come back to it in a minute but this is what Elizabeth was saying during her pregnancy what Zechariah was saying was of course nothing okay jump down to verse 57 verse 57 now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth and she bore a son and her neighbors and her 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 right 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 but none of your relatives are 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 he wrote his name is John looks like our old boys learned something in nine months hadn't we yeah he's not like ah yeah call him John I like John John's a strong name he's like no call him John quick before God kills me call him John and they all wondered see that verse 63 they all wondered and immediately verse 64 his mouth was opened and his tongue was loose and he spoke blessing God pent-up worship explodes out of Zechariah's mouth for nine months he has sat there and he has watched in silence all the while getting excited all the while learning to believe the gospel and when John is born this old man sings and dances and spins around and starts freestyle rapping and you can read it right there he can read his rhyme in verses 68 through 79 and you can read that later all right here's the point I'm trying to make to you listen the purpose of God's discipline in your life is that you overflow with joy and happiness in God in a way that makes you burst out in praise some of you've never really been able to worship at least you've never been able to really worship with your heart and God puts you through discipline because he wants you to be able to have joy in him some of you have been disciplined some of you are being disciplined right now and what I want you to know is that he is doing it in love he is doing it because he wants you to learn to love and trust him I know that it feels painful I know that sometimes you feel like God is trying to destroy you but his intentions are not your destruction his intentions are your healing y'all the older I get the more I believe in this in the depths of my soul God's love and tenderness is seen in his discipline of us the wrath of God the wrath of God is when God does nothing about your sin and allows you to keep walking in it the love of God pours itself out in your life when God says no no more you are not going to harden your heart to me any longer you are not going to walk in selfishness you are not going to give away your soul to idols in place of me and experience the despair and the anxiety and the loneliness that results from walking apart from me so I'm going to put you through surgery and surgery hurts but I do it because I care about you God's love is demonstrated in his discipline in your life and some of you need to understand that that what you're going through right now is his love towards you and not resistance but to learn from it I was talking about this with our campus pastors every week I always walk through the message with the campus pastors and they give me feedback and one of our campus pastors he played football in college he said you know this reminds me when I was you know in athletics in high school and college that whenever the coach was yelling at you that's actually a really good sign he said because if the coach sees potential in you those are the players he yells at if the coach is totally ignoring you that means he sees no potential in you and doesn't care about you at all so the harder the coach is on you the more that he cares about you when he said that another one of our campus pastors said that explains so much of my athletic career right there because I would say coach how am I doing you know and coaches be like fine franks is that your name good coach what do I do in this play go long just go long go stand out there for a while and then come back and we'll give you a snow cone you know you're doing you're doing fine right if God if God cares about you if God has something for you that he puts you through discipline discipline is not God taking your joy away in fact it's God taking away from you the things that ultimately will kill you and will keep you from real joy understanding joy from God's perspective is so important I'm thankful for a God who loves me enough to discipline me you're listening to pastor JD Greer on Summit Life if you've joined us late you can listen to this entire message free of charge when you visit us online at jdgrier.com pastor JD challenged his own church the summit church in Raleigh Durham North Carolina to be reading their bibles along with this study because if there's one thing that'll transform your walk with the Lord it's spending one on one time in God's word if you'd like to take that challenge and read through the book of luke as we move through this study we have a tool to help you to help you do that as our way of saying thanks when you donate to support this ministry we'll send you a copy of kingdom come 20 devotions from luke you know summit life is funded by listeners like you so when you give you're actually giving to another listener and helping them experience the gospel in a deep and meaningful way join that mission by giving today and remember to ask for this collection of devotionals you can also ask about becoming a monthly supporter we call a gospel partner when you call 866-335-5220 that's 866-335-5220 or give online at jdgrier.com that's jd g r e e a r.com i'm molly vinovich and we'll see you again tuesday when pastor jd asks the pivotal question will God's plan triumph over all of life's hurts and disappointments discover the answer tuesday right here on summit life with jd greer today's program was produced and sponsored by jd greer ministries you