Have you ever read some of the promises in the Bible and thought, 'God must have promised this for other people, because it's sure not meant for me,' because the facts of your situation look nothing like the peace, joy, love and prosperity that the Bible often talk about...

Today we're going to take a deeper look at the back-to-back in Luke 1, of Zechariah and Mary, and take courage that God is a God of promises.

Show Notes

• [01.48] A three year journey through the Bible

• [02.41] Luke

• [03.35] The Prosperity Gospel

• [06.07] God's promises

• [07.06] Approaching God's promises

• [07.56] The stories of Luke and Mary

• [11.25] The first place to start when it comes to your money

• [12.21] Impossible situations

• [20.08] Fear and faith

Quotes

"God makes promises in the Bible to spoil his children abundantly." - Lisa Linfield

"When it comes to studying the Bible, context is everything." - Lisa Linfield

"The challenges of promises in the Bible, is that they are always attached to following God's commands." - Lisa Linfield

"For God, nothing, absolutely nothing, is impossible." - Lisa Linfield

Related posts and episodes

• God's bigger picture

• Why God isn’t answering your prayers

• The Humbling Discovery that’s shifting my focus

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TRANSCRIPT

Have you ever read some of the promises in the bible and thought “God must have promised this for other people, and not me” because the facts of your situation look nothing like the peace, joy, love and prosperity that the bible talks about for others, and that people at church think we would have if we just “claimed and prayed” them? 

Well today we’re going to take a look a little deeper at the back-to-back stories in Luke chapter one of Zechariah and Mary – and take courage that God is a God of promises.

So today starts us on a 3 year journey through the bible as you join me searching every page of the bible and seeing how it relates to our wealth, and God’s purpose for our life.  A wonderful mentor and accountability partner, Caro, bought me the book Search the Scriptures by Alan Stibbs – so as I read, we’ll journey together.

We start this journey in Luke – the good doctor, and author of the books of Luke and Acts – an early disciple, alive at the time of Jesus, and a close follower of Paul.  Luke is my favourite of the gospel writers.

One of the big concepts in the modern church I battle with is what’s known as the prosperity gospel.  The references to the many verses of the bible that speaks of God’s material blessings of his children… and leads many to think that if they just follow God, they’ll end up wealthy.

Let me say at the outset that whilst I absolutely believe that God is the provider of all wealth and does greatly bless his children, I do not believe that if you just follow God and be a good girl and “claim” these verses, you will become wealthy.  Just look at Paul and Steven and the monks and nuns - people throughout history who have followed God and been imprisoned, killed, martyred, persecuted, beaten and all their worldly possessions trashed.

But I can’t deny God makes promises in the bible to spoil his children abundantly.  One I love so much is Deuteronomy 7:12 The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands.  

And that’s the problem, right?  There are these amazing promises, that we’re told to “claim and pray”, but it sometimes feels like they must be made for others, and not for you? Right? And we’re called to trust and hope in God’s Goodness, and having him open the heaven’s and storehouses to bless the work of our hands sounds absolutely amazing… but it hasn’t “worked” yet, right?

Which leads us to ask -  

How do we approach God’s promises so that we’re not always disappointed? 

Well, Luke 1 is a good place to start because it contrasts two different people’s responses to the direct, personal promises of God.  Zechariah and Mary, the mother of Jesus.  Let’s dive in.

So both Zechariah and Mary are going about their lives when out of the blue, the Angel Gabriel visits them both, sent by God.

I love Luke’s clarity on why God was so kind enough to choose Mary and Elizabeth, Zechariah’s wife, to be blessed.

Luke says of Zechariah and Elizabeth (v9) that “both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly.”

When it comes to Mary, Gabriel in verse 28 tells her ‘Greetings, you who are highly favoured!  The Lord is with you’… and later in v 30 “You have found favour with God”.

And like our previous episode, it’s always, always the challenge of the promises in the bible – that they are ALWAYS attached to following God’s commands… which Jesus summarised as Loving the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind…. And your neighbour as yourself- Mathew 22:37

So whilst the honour of being the parents of John the Baptist and the mother of Jesus fell on two completely unsuspecting and low profile families, what they did have in common – apart from being related – is that they loved the Lord their God with all their heart.

So, as we begin to look at the promises of God when it comes to his great and many blessings, I want you to ask yourself… if you were God’s Chief Operations Director, and were choosing someone to bless, someone who followed God’s command to love him with ALL his heart, and love our neighbours as much as we love and prioritise our family and ourselves… if you were handing out blessings… would you choose you? 

So here’s the thing.  The first place to start when it comes to your money is not with the money itself, but by loving God.  Getting your relationship with God back on track.  Spending just 5 minutes a day in the morning and the evening thanking him for the blessings you have already

The second thing that is amazing about this encounter between Gabriel and Zechariah and Mary is their

Impossible situations. 

What Gabriel promised would happen was COMPLETELY impossible by human standards.

Now I know all of us often look at the hard cold facts of our situation – not relying on emotion or drama – and we know for a fact that our situation is impossible to get out of.  The debt is too much.  You’ve lost your job and there’s no income.  The bank has reclaimed your house.  And amidst all of these impossibilities, and all you have to deal with on a minute by minute basis, the well meaning encouragement – even of fellow believers – makes you want to scream, right?  Because the facts… the facts show completely that it won’t be alright.  That you’re in an impossible-to-fix situation.

So according to The Mandaean Gospel of John, Elizabeth was 88 years old and Zechariah 99.  Other sources suggest over 60.  But regardless of the exact age, the fact was Elizabeth had not only been barren her whole life – suffering years and years of unanswered prayers for a child, and was way past child-bearing age.  Their friends who were still living were on to grandchildren and great grand children. 

So according to worldly facts (and not opinion), it would have been impossible to conceive.

Mary was on the opposite side of the spectrum, there’s agreement that Mary was between 12 and 16 years old when Gabriel visited her.  Again, the circumstances meant that it was a fact that it was impossible to bear the child Gabriel was talking about because she was a virgin and therefore unable to have children.

It’s no coincidence that Luke puts these two stories side by side (the story of John the Baptist’s birth are only found in Luke) and follows the same formula’s.  He’s wanting to stress the point that all of us need to know deep in our hearts…

The facts may tell you that a different outcome is impossible.  But for God, nothing, absolutely nothing, is impossible.

1. 88 and through menopause to old age – no problem for Him.

2. 15 and never had sex – no problem for God.

So here’s the question… when it comes to your own personal circumstances… do you deeply believe that NOTHING is impossible for God.  Despite what the facts are telling you?

So when we bring it back to your money, I want you to know that NOTHING is impossible for God.  You may think your circumstances are impossible – but for God, the creator of the world, absolutely nothing is impossible.  God is able to order a million different, seemingly unrelated events to turn what feels like a desert or even a burning cauldron of debt into a fertile forest of blessing.

You just have to start by following the first commandment – love the lord your god with all your heart, mind and soul.

Which brings me to my final thought on this passage.

We have these two amazing, God loving and God fearing servants of the Lord, with whom God is well pleased, the favoured ones.

And both of them are visited by Gabriel – God’s top angel, His trusted messenger.

And to both of them, Gabriel tells them they have been chosen.

• To Zechariah he says “Do not be afraid; your prayer has been heard” (I love that… I don’t think there can be any more intimate acknowledgment of God’s love – that he hears your prayers, and is personally reassuring you that he’s got you).  Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John.

• To Mary he says “You have found favour with God.  You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.”

Now here’s the thing.  All of us like to sit, with the gift of hindsight, and think… oh my goodness…. If I was in the exact same position, I would have absolutely bowed down and worshiped – visited by an angel out of no where, who spoke to me wide awake.  Of course that’s easy to believe – far easier than sensing something in your spirit like we need to do nowadays.

But what’s interesting about these two visits is both their commonality and their differences.

In common, both Mary and Zechariah’s initial reaction is FEAR.

·         Verse 12 tells us that When Zechariah saw him, he was startled (now that’s an underestimation… I would have been a whole lot more than just startled), and was gripped with fear….

·         Verse 29 says Mary was greatly troubled… and to both of them Gabriel says “Do not be afraid, Zechariah”… and do not be afraid, Mary.

But what’s striking is their different response to the news that they will be having a child.

·         Despite knowing this was an angel of God, and correctly feeling startled and great fear…Zechariah leans on his human instinct that the facts made this impossible– Elizabeth and He are too old to have children, it’s impossible.  In fact, he comes close to telling Gabriel, God’s closest angel, that he’s lying, saying “How can I be sure of that?” or the Message version says “Do you expect me to believe this”.  And his lack of faith was punished by Gabriel who condemned him to not being able to speak until John was born.

·         Mary’s response is interesting.  If you don’t read the whole passage, you think she responded similarly when she asked Gabriel, “How will that be since I am a virgin?”  But a few verses down in verse 45 Elizabeth’s speech to Mary shed’s great context- “Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfil his promises to her!”

·         Mary was asking a process question, not a faith question – how exactly is this going to happen – to which Gabriel takes her through the steps.

• The Holy Spirit will come on you

• The power of the Most High will overshadow you

• SO THAT there will be no doubt that this will be actual Son of God

As I look at Zechariah’s response, with the gift of hindsight, I think he’s bonkers.  I mean if an angel of God visited me and told me something, I would believe him right?  None of this trying to decipher what’s going to happen next… clear, audible and visual word’s from God’s message… how hard can that be?

But if I take the time to look at my own life, I see how often I allow FACTS to hold greater weight then FAITH.  To allow what I see and know to hold more sway on my thoughts and especially my feelings, rather than holding onto the word of God’s message

But what encourages me the most about Zechariah’s story (because I know that at heart I’m probably WAY closer to Zechariah than Mary in my responses)… is that God’s promise comes to be… DESPITE Zecharia’s unbelief.  Yes, it’s a harder route, but God is bigger than our doubting and small field of vision, and he forgives us, and blesses us DESPITE our faith smaller than a mustard seed.

And I wonder if you’re the same as me… when you look at a situation, be it your marriage, your child’s drug addiction, your finances, your work situation… do you also look at the facts and think there’s NO WAY, absolutely no way that it can possibly change?  I know me.  I know the situation.  There is no saving this.

And this is exactly where the magic starts.  When we can look at a situation and realise that we are putting facts, what we know, above faith.  Above God’s amazing love and grace and power to change a situation.

So today I want you to claim and speak Mary’s amazing words in verse 38.  “I am the Lord’s servant… May your word to me be fulfilled.”

And as I always say… Remember that our job as Micah 6:8 says is three things

1.      Act Justly

2.      Love Mercy

3.      And walk humbly with your God

May your week be great, and may you grow each day in your peace that underneath you are the everlasting arms of God.

I’m Lisa Linfield, and this is The Lisa Linfield Show