Marvelous Faith
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Introduction
Introduction
Perpetua was a young Christian woman who had also just become a mother. The emperor of Rome believed that Christians were weakening the empire and ordered that they deny the faith, make a sacrifice on behalf of himself or die. It was not long before Perpetua and some of her friends were imprisoned. Initially, she was kept from her newborn baby, but after a few days was allowed to nurse him. When her father brought her son to her, he begged her to recant her faith first for himself and then for her baby. He would die without her to nurse him. She refused to recant. Later her brother came making much the same plea. Finally, at her hearing before the governor, the governor himself, feeling compassion for her and her baby, asked her to recant and offer the sacrifice. She refused and so she was ordered to die. She and her friends were taken to a coliseum in which initially wild animals were set loose on them. When the crowd became dissatisfied at the length of time it was taking to kill these young believers, they were lined up and slain with the sword.
These kinds of stories often strengthen a Christian’s resolve to stand for Jesus and die for their faith. They certainly can give pause to non-believers as to the sacrifice that becoming a believer can entail. But most Christians won’t be asked to die for their faith. Most Christians are simply asked to live according to their faith. I remember a comment my brother made, almost in passing: “Sometimes I think it is easier to die for Jesus than to live for him.”
This morning, we are looking at marvelous faith. But in this case, we aren’t looking at someone who died for their faith, but two people who lived according to their faith. It is more often than not that people with marvelous faith live, not die. As we look at Zechariah and Elizabeth, we see a faith that brings people to marvel. But what kind of faith is marvelous faith? I see three qualities of marvelous faith. The first quality is that it is emphatically confident. The second quality is that it is explicitly clear. And finally, marvelous faith is extremely concerning.
Emphatically Confident
Explicitly Clear
Extremely Concerning
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.
Emphatically Confident
Emphatically Confident
The first quality of marvelous faith is that it is emphatically confident.
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.”
Nine months has passed since Zechariah was told by the angel Gabriel that he and Elizabeth would have a son. An older, life-long barren woman had become pregnant and carried that baby to term. And the time had come to give birth. It was around this time that Mary had returned to Nazareth, leaving the birth to Elizabeth and other family and friends.
Luke tells us that the neighbors and relatives had heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her. And he truly had shown her mercy. She knew it. Zechariah knew it. The neighbors and relatives knew it. Everyone was well aware of what God had done for her. “And they rejoiced with her.
And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth,
Predicted son. Check. Predicted joy from the masses. Check. God was doing exactly as he had promised. He had given great mercy to Elizabeth. In spite of the discomfort that comes with pregnancy and in spite of the discomfort that comes with growing old, and in spite of the pain that comes in child-birth, everyone understood that the Lord had been merciful to Elizabeth and everyone rejoiced.
Can I ask you a question? Do you see God’s great mercy in spite of your discomforts and pain? I mean, I know we all have our moments of weakness, where the discomfort and pain can be overwhelming. But overall, would you say that you look and remind yourself of God’s great mercy upon your life? I would venture to say that it is easier to live a marvelous faith when we do than when we don’t.
Polycarp, one of the Apostle John’s disciples, famously said, when he was asked to recant his faith or die, “Eighty and six years have I served Christ, nor has he done me any harm. How then could I blaspheme my King who saved me?” It was not as though he lived without pain or discomfort those 86 years. It was that he chose to see God’s mercy through them all. Do we see God’s great mercy in spite of discomfort and pain?
But let us notice how experiencing this great mercy affected Elizabeth and Zechariah. In Elizabeth’s case, it caused her to have an emphatic confidence. According to law, a baby boy was to be circumcised on the eighth day and according to tradition, that was when he was named. So John was in his home with his parents, everyone rejoicing, and was circumcised. And the way the text reads, the family was discussing baby names. It sounds like the consensus was to name him after Zechariah. But look at verse 60 one more time.
but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.”
Now this may not sound like much as we read it, but that’s because the emphasis cannot be seen in the English. But in Greek, the word “No” is an emphatic “no.” There is your normal “No” ouk in Greek. It just means “no.” But then there is your emphatic “No” ouxi. Which indicates that whatever it is in response to, is totally dismissed. “No way!” his mother answered, “He shall be called John.” It is an emphatic response to those who wanted to sway her away from God’s will. And it was a lone response. The family and friends were on one side of the issue; Elizabeth on the other. Zechariah is not even in the picture at this point in time.
That is not to say that the relatives and neighbors were purposefully going against God’s will. They weren’t in the temple. They hadn’t heard about the name Gabriel said the baby was to be called. They were doing what had always been done. They were just living life as always. But marvelous faith doesn’t just live life as always.
When Jesus told his disciples he’d be betrayed. Peter responded:
And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.”
Peter wasn’t purposefully going against what God had said or planned. It just seemed inconceivable that what Jesus said could or would happen. But look at Jesus’s response.
But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
“Get behind me, Satan!” Talk about emphatic confidence. This was the way he was to go and no one would stop him. Peter didn’t know he was being used as a tool from Satan; He didn’t even think that his plans and God’s plans were at odds. Nor did the friends and relatives of Elizabeth realize that they were trying to turn her from doing as God had instructed. But Elizabeth saw it for what it was, and in emphatic confidence, did as was commanded.
So how about us? How do we express ourselves in faith? Is it with emphatic confidence? Or is it closer to an apology? “I’m sorry, but” or a “No way.” Notice how the people responded to Elizabeth’s confidence:
And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.”
They didn’t get it. Why would she be so adamant about the name John? No one was named John. But it didn’t matter if they understood why, so long as she did. God had shown great mercy to her. She would not blaspheme his name now. Beloved, let us be emphatically confident in doing what God has called us to do. No need to apologize for living according to our faith.
Explicitly Clear
Explicitly Clear
So the first quality that we see in this passage of marvelous faith is the quality of emphatic confidence. The second is that marvelous faith is explicitly clear.
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.
Traditionally, the naming of the child lay at the mother’s feet. Family and friends would give opinions, but the decision was typically the mother’s decision. But Elizabeth’s emphatic confidence in naming this baby John made no sense, so they turned to the one person who could override her decision—her husband. They turned to Zechariah.
People who love and care about us will many times seek to manipulate us into doing what they think is best. Most of the time it isn’t out of evil intent that they do so. It’s out of love and concern that they do it. Sometimes, it’s out of confusion. Again, the path that we are on as faithful followers of Christ makes no sense to them. So they seek to intervene in any way that they can. Like Perpetua’s father, who came into her first asking her to deny the faith for him, he then brought her baby in and asked her to think of her child. Her remaining faithful to this Jesus whom he did not know and she had never seen, seemed unconscionable. All he knew was that he wanted his daughter to live; and he would do whatever it took.
Why would Elizabeth go against tradition and name her son not according to some family name? Why would she dishonor her own husband by not naming him Zechariah? Surely she wasn’t thinking straight. Maybe the pregnancy was too much for her. Maybe she was dehydrated or already overstressed by having a newborn baby. Whatever it was, she wasn’t living according to their standards and their rationale, so they looked to Zechariah to take their side and convince her.
I told you a few weeks ago that it appears that Zechariah was not only mute, but also deaf. Verse 62 is why I say that. It wasn’t only that Zechariah was making signs when he came out of the temple, but now we see that the people are making signs to him so he can understand what’s going on. What does Zechariah want to name him? And there’s no indication that he knew what his wife had said. Nothing in the text that tells us that he knew Elizabeth said “John.”
When Zechariah who finally figured out how to communicate better, asked for a tablet on which to write, his answer blew them out of the water. Zechariah was explicitly clear: “John is his name.” In the Greek, John’s name comes first in the reply. “John is his name.” There was no wiggle room in his answer. No wink or a nod. No implicit hesitation. There was no look or writing, “Just give her time; she’ll come around.” There was no middle ground. “John is his name.” There was no question about it, for either the crowd or for Zechariah.
Zechariah’s questions were gone. His lack of faith left before he left the temple nine months prior. The discipline of the Lord had given birth to the fruit of righteousness. No equivocation. No hesitation. No questions. Just and explicitly clear answer to the friends and family: “John is his name.”
How often do we hem and haw when it comes to our faith. Again, rather than making an apology, a defense, of our faith, Christians will more often apologize for their faith. We will even say “I’m sorry, but I believe. . .” We’re sorry? We’re sorry that we believe God? We’re sorry that we have put our confidence in the only one who can save us? We’re sorry that we are living according to the Holy Spirit within us? Let us not be sorry. Let us be explicitly clear about what we know to be true.
1 Corinthians 15:3–7 (ESV)
that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
When the governor, seeking her to deny her faith, said to Perpetua, “Have pity on your father's grey head; have pity on your infant son. Offer the sacrifice for the welfare of the emperors,” she responded, “I will not.” So he asked her plainly, “Are you a Christian?" To which she, with explicit clarity, replied, “Yes, I am.”
Brothers and sisters, would that we would be so clear! It is not enough to live life morally. It is not enough to live life quietly. We must live life explicitly—explicitly clear as to who we are, who Jesus is, and what we know to be true.
Extremely Concerning
Extremely Concerning
Which leads us to the third quality of marvelous faith. It is first emphatically confident. It is then explicitly clear. Finally marvelous faith is extremely concerning.
Luke 1:63–66 (ESV)
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.
Notice the response of the people. They all wondered. They marveled. They were amazed. None of this made any sense. And then, when Zechariah was so explicitly clear about what he knew was to be, his mouth and tongue were opened. He could speak again and rather than start explaining himself or Elizabeth’s actions, he praised God! He broke out in worship. And fear came upon everyone present. Notice how quickly their joy turned to fear.
Phobos, where we get the word phobia from, is what Luke said came upon everyone. Living by faith can be extremely concerning, as we’ve seen throughout this passage, to people who aren’t living by faith (incidentally, it can be a scary thing for people who are living by faith as well). For nine months, Zechariah hasn’t said a thing. He hasn’t heard a thing. Elizabeth somehow by God’s great mercy ended up pregnant, and now wants to name him John—no one’s namesake. Zechariah’s backing her up on this even though he couldn’t hear her name him and now suddenly he can hear and speak again. What in the world is going on!?
God was on the move, using people of faith. That’s what was going on.
The whole hill country of Judea was buzzing. The grapevine is in full swing. Everyone is hearing about these things, but no one knows really what it all means. Whatever it was, it could not be denied that God was up to something. “What then will this child be?” It would take decades to see what God was really doing. This baby boy would grow up and be the last of the Old Testament prophets, ushering in the coming Messiah. For decades the people would hold these events in their hearts. For decades God allowed them to remember and marvel and fear. If we were Theophilus reading this for the first time, we’d be wondering the same thing! It would be incredible! We know this story and it has become ho-hum to us; it’s old hat. But if we could read it as for the first time, we’d see the foreshadowing. We’d feel the growing suspense. What in the world is God going to do with this John baby?
Understand church family, that God works in real space and in real time. He did not send John or Jesus on this earth as fully grown men. He set the stage decades before and grew them into the men that they’d become. He let the people marvel and fear for decades as he worked in real space and time. He was in no hurry and no amount of outside pressure would make him work faster. His plans would not be thwarted. Neither what he would do, nor when he would do it.
Marvelous faith—faith that causes others to marvel—accepts that as so. It leads us to do our part—the part that God has called on us to do, doing it by his power and strength—and lets God do the rest. We live out our faith in emphatic confidence and explicit clarity even if it causes extreme concern for those who do not understand—even if they are near and dear to us.
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we conclude this text this morning, may we resolve within ourselves to live with emphatic confidence in what God has said and the part that he has called us to play. Let our yeses be yes and our nos be no. No need to apologize. No need to equivocate. Let our confidence that God will do as he has promised shine through.
Let our faith be expressed with explicit clarity. No hemming and hawing about what we believe. Let us give no wiggle room for people to make assumptions. Let us not pretend like what someone is saying is valid when it is not. Let us be explicitly clear.
Let us be prepared for extreme concern from those who know us. They’ll say we’ve gone off the deep end. They’ll try and manipulate us out of love and concern. Rumors will start and gossip mills will run 24/7. That’s okay.
2 Timothy 1:12 (ESV)
But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.
If you are not a Christian, you’ve never put your trust in Jesus to do what only he could—save your soul and body from the wrath of God, I would call on you to do so today. It sounds strange to put your entire being into the hands of someone you’ve never met—someone who doesn’t live on the planet. I don’t ask you to trust him blindly. The Christian faith is rational. What we believe is happening and will happen is based on historical evidence and fact. And I would love to talk with you more about it. So I give you my number: 636-212-0699. Call me or text me; I would love to sit and talk with you.