Who Does God Speak To?
Category: God’s Character & Attributes
Key Passage: Luke 1
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: March 12, 2023
Luke chapter number one. We’re going to do just a four-week series leading up to Christmas: The Four Angels of Christmas Past. Four different times an angel came and spoke at the first Christmas.
We’re going to start here in Luke chapter number one. This time will be an angel coming to Zacharias, then to Mary and Joseph, and then the shepherds. We will cover all of those in the next four weeks. Once you find that, Luke chapter number one, would you look right this way?
This couple we’re going to talk about today, Zacharias and Elizabeth, we’re just a great couple. They are one of the people in the Bible I love; they are not mentioned very much. Some of my favorite people in all the Bible are just a couple. I am just trying to give you a little feel for what’s going on here.
Often between the Old Testament and the New Testament, you’ll hear it said there were 400 silent years. I believe God did speak to individuals, but he did not speak in a great way into nations and things during those 400 years; it was just silent. God broke that silence. We are about to read it when he sends this angel. Angels are just the messengers of God.
You don’t pray to an angel. You don’t bow to an angel. You pray and bow to the Lord Jesus Christ, or Father. The angels are always looking to the Father and they follow his will, so they just do his bidding. They are servants of the Lord. But this angel breaks the silence. God sent him down—Gabriel, one of the high angels—down to speak to Zacharias.
Who was it that God broke the silence to? Just a couple, specifically Zacharias here. He’s a priest, and he would go to the temple certain times of the year. They broke the priests up into 24 groups, and they would come on schedule. He was the eighth on the list, and he and his crew would come and serve in the temple. When he was there serving, that’s when the Lord sends this angel to break the silence and begin to speak to Zacharias.
So, just to give you a little background on what’s going on here: Really, the focus we’re going to go at today is, who does God speak to? When he broke the silence, he chose this man. I want to look at some things about Zacharias and Elizabeth. Who was it that God broke his silence to? Or, who does God speak to today? That will be the title on the internet: Who Does God Speak To?
By the way, he doesn’t speak the same way today. He didn’t come down as an angel and speak to you today. He speaks to you today through his Word. That is his revelation to mankind. And the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, if you are a born-again Christian, he lives inside of you. He speaks to you.
One of the things he does is bear witness with your spirit that you are a child of God, if you are saved. He speaks to us today through His Word and the Spirit of God. By the way, the Word is the sword of the Spirit. You use a sword to hurt somebody, but the Holy Spirit is guiding you to help somebody. That is how God speaks to us. But who does God speak to? I want you to use some characteristics of this man. Who does God speak to this morning?
Luke chapter number one, we’re going to start at verse number 11. If you are able, would you stand just to show the Word of God respect? Luke 1 and verse number 11 of God’s Word:
“And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.” Zacharias was doing his priestly job. He was in there doing his duty, putting incense on the altar. This angel appears on the right side of it.
Verse number 12: “And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.” But the angel said unto him—interesting, the first words he says when God breaks the silence through this angel—he says, “Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard.”
“And thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink either wine nor strong drink. And he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb. Many of the children of Israel shall return unto the Lord their God.” We will just stop there.
Let’s get the next verse, verse number 17: “And he shall go before him, that is, before Jesus, in the spirit and power of Elias, that is Elijah, and shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
This angel comes and says, look, you’re going to have a son, and it’s going to be John the Baptist. John the Baptist is the forerunner of Jesus Christ. I think of it sometimes: if a king is coming in a parade, sometimes they will have a herald out in front of the king, heralding, “Hey, the king is coming! The king is coming!” That is what John the Baptist was. He was the forerunner of Jesus Christ; he was getting the people ready for the Messiah to come.
For just a little bit, who does God speak to? Who was it that God decided to break his silence and send this angel to talk to them and say you’re going to have a son? Let’s just focus on that for a bit.
Who does the Lord speak to? We will look at this example here. I want you to notice the first thing he says in verse number 13: “Fear not.”
Fear not. Now, he told him very clearly—we read it—“You’re going to have a son, and he’s going to be a great child. He’s going to be filled with the Spirit of God from his mother’s womb,” which was very rare. He was going to turn a lot of the children of Israel to the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s amazing what all is going on here. But Zacharias was a fearful man at this moment. He didn’t believe it.
Would you look down in verse number 18? Zacharias said to the angel, “Whereby shall I know this?” You know this because God already sent one of the high angels, Gabriel, down here to tell you that. That’s how you know this. But he doubted. He was fearful.
“Whereby shall I know this?” Verse number 18, middle part of it: “For I am an old man, and my wife well-stricken in years.” I don’t know how long he had been praying for this child, but he said, “It’s pretty old, Lord. I don’t know about me and my wife having…”
Look at verse number 19: “And the angel answering said unto him, ‘I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God, and am sent to speak to thee and to show these glad tidings. And behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.’”
God chastised him; he couldn’t speak for about nine months. Elizabeth had those glad tidings. He couldn’t say anything, and he was chastised for this. It was lack of faith; it was fearful. But here’s the thing we are focusing on today: Who does God speak to? First of all, God spoke to a fearful individual.
Anybody out there ever have feelings of inadequacy? You might be a good candidate for God to speak to. Anybody out there say, “You know, I get fearful when God puts me in financial crunches”? God often uses money; it’s not about the money, it’s about your heart. God will often use financial situations to grow us, to grow our faith. If you didn’t raise your hand, you probably need to come to the altar a little bit later on here.
Fearful situations. Anybody ever watch the news? If you watch it for longer than five minutes, you’re tempted to get fearful. It is so easy to be fearful about everything going on in our day and time. I think of a family that said, “We don’t know if we want to have kids because we don’t want to bring kids into this day and time.” It is easy to be fearful about everything in our day and time. But can I give you some hope? God speaks to fearful people.
Zacharias was a great godly man—one of the greatest unknown heroes in all the Bible, him and his wife. But they were fearful, and he had fear. Even when the angel Gabriel spoke to him, he still did not believe it to the point that God had to chastise him. But I am saying God still spoke to fearful people.
If you have fear about some situations—about my marriage, about my finances, about my grandkids, about where I’m going to end up one day—can I give you some reassurance? God speaks to fearful people. “No, well, he’s not going to speak to me; I got some fear.” This guy had fear for sure. First thing God said to him: “Fear not.”
God speaks to fearful people. I am not bragging, saying, “Hey, be as fearful as you want to be.” I am not saying that, but I am saying if you’ve got some fear, God knows it, and God still speaks to fearful people.
I was always amazed when God sent his angel down to Gideon over there in the book of Judges. God used Gideon in a great way to deliver the children of Israel from the Midianites. Do you remember that? God sent this angel down there, and he said, “Hail, thou mighty man of valor,” in Judges chapter six. Do you know where Gideon was? He was hiding behind the winepress, threshing wheat. He was back there hiding. God used him in a great way with the 300 men and the sword of the Lord and of Gideon for a great victory. But can I say Gideon was fearful? When God went to him, he was in fear; he was hiding.
You know what is amazing? Saul was the first king of Israel. He backslid fairly quick, but Saul at the beginning was a great king. You know the first man God chose to be king? You know where he was when the day of his anointing? He was hiding. “Where’s Saul go?” He was over there hiding among the stuff.
If you say, “Boy, I have fear. I have fear of my children turning out right. I have fear if things are going to work out in my life,” you say, “Well, God can’t use me.” Oh, God speaks to a lot of fearful people in the Bible. Often he did that. Elijah, that big old bold man who called down fire from the Lord on Mount Carmel—a little while later on, when Jezebel said he would be killed, you know what Elijah did? He turned around and ran. He was out there in the wilderness hiding under a juniper tree, having a pity party, saying, “Lord, just take me home. I’m not better than anybody else.” Yet God came and spoke to him, sent an angel to him, fed him, and told him to get some rest. He did it twice, and he went on the strength of that for 40 days.
I am simply saying, God—the beginning of the Christmas story really starts with this couple, the forerunner of Jesus Christ. Before baby Jesus, there was a herald saying the kingdom of Isaiah is coming. It all started when this angel comes, and he comes to someone that is fearful.
I was just a 12-year-old boy, and the Lord spoke to my little 12-year-old boy heart that he wanted me to be a preacher one day. I was scared to death. I was always very shy, very timid, scared of my own shadow. I didn’t want to get in front of anybody and speak, but God calls and speaks to fearful people. I said, “I can never just pass out a gospel tract; it makes me shake all over.” God calls fearful people. I am supposed to be the leader, the head of the wife, and I am supposed to lead in my home. I can’t do that. God uses fearful people.
Friend, when you think about the Christmas story this year, I want you to think about it: It all started with God sending an angel down to a fearful man.
Now, who does God speak to? Help me out. Number one, we learn God speaks to what kind of people? Fearful people. I hope that gives you some hope.
Let’s look at something else. Look in verse number seven. “And they had no child because that Elizabeth was barren. And they both were now well-stricken in years.” Look down, if you would please, at verse number 25: “Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked upon me to take away my reproach among men.”
This couple, by the way, they were not bad Christians. They were probably the best Christians around. They married right. It looked like they served the Lord from the time they were little ones. They both had married in a priestly tribe, like they were supposed to. They had spent their lives serving the Lord, and he was faithful to fulfill his role as a priest. He was not disqualified. These are godly Christians. They were Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night Christians—just great, involved, and serving Christians. And yet they had a burden.
For a couple in that day and time, even in our day and time, it can be painful, a burden, and hurtful. But in that day and time, it was kind of like a disgrace: Zacharias and Elizabeth can’t have babies. In fact, in verse number 25, there was reproach among men. People were talking about them, and they were praying about this thing. They were burdened about this. They had a burden.
Can I just say this from that? Sometimes we think, “If I live for the Lord Jesus Christ, everything’s going to be wonderful.” No, you will still have burdens. By the way, you are going to have burdens whether you are living for the Lord or not. I would rather have a burden that comes along with living for the Lord than have a burden from a hangover or from drugs they can’t get off of. But you are going to have burdens either way, friend. This couple had been serving the Lord Jesus Christ with their life, and yet they had a major wound—just a burden. I imagine how many talks they have had about it. I don’t know how many years Zacharias had been praying. I wonder how many tears have been shed. I wonder how many times they just took walks saying, “God, why? Why? Why?”
This was a good, godly Christian couple, the best of Christians, that yet had burdens. Can I say this? God speaks to fearful people, and he speaks to people that have burdens.
Sometimes we think, “Well, if God gets all these things straightened out in my life, then he can use me.” No, God uses people that don’t have everything straight now. God uses people that have burdens. Don’t fall for that; you will probably never serve him because you are going to have burdens. And yet these burdened, heartbroken people—God spoke to them. Were they perfect? No, but they were burdened, good, godly people. God speaks to burdened people.
I think about Jesus. Jesus singled out some people when he said, “Come to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden.” He said, “I want that crowd that’s got burdens to come to me.” God broke the silence; he was looking for a couple to speak to, and he says, “I’m going to come to a couple that’s burdened.”
Sometimes he takes a burden away—he did; he gave them a child, John the Baptist. Apostle Paul, this great Christian, comes to God and says, “Hey Lord, would you take this thorn in the flesh away as a burden?” God came to him and spoke to him. He didn’t take the burden away, but he spoke to him. The Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” Remember what he said next? “For my strength is made perfect in weakness.” God changed the heart of Paul. There is a great lesson there: You pray until either God answers your prayer or he changes your heart.
Paul, God said, “No, my grace is sufficient. I want you to have that why that the power of Christ may rest upon you.” Then Paul says, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities.” God spoke to him. God speaks. You say, “I got a burden. I got such problems. I’m just weighted down. My heart is hurting so much. I got so many issues going on.” Hey, you are a good candidate for God to speak to. He speaks to fearful people; he speaks to burdened people.
I thought about Johnny Erickson Tattum on the radio. Years ago, a swimming accident—she broke her neck, paralyzed from her neck down. Yet God spoke to her, and God has used her so greatly over the years. I am saying, if you have burdens, you say, “Well, I’ll get all my burdens straight, and then I’ll seek God; I’ll hear his voice.” No, no. Right while you have the burden, seek him. He speaks to people that are fearful; he speaks to people that are burdened.
Point number three: God speaks to praying people. Look at verse number 13: “Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard.”
It is amazing what you get just for the asking. Can I read for you or quote for you Matthew 7:7: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. That’s pretty amazing. God speaks to praying people.
Matthew 7:11: “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” Psalm 86:5: “For thou, Lord, art good and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.” Psalm 145:18: “The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon thee in truth.” Shocking what you can get for just asking.
They did a study years ago—it is a little bit old, but probably still true today—of middle-class families with one-year-old little ones. They asked the dad, “How much time do you think you spend interacting with your little child?” The common answer was around 15 to 20 minutes. Then they put a very small microphone on the child to gauge it. The end result they came up with was that their total time spent interacting with the child daily, which they thought was 15 to 20 minutes, was 37 seconds of interaction. It was 2.7 encounters daily that lasted 10 to 15 seconds each.
I wonder if somehow God could put a microphone on our heart and our mind. How much do we really pray? I like to take walks in the morning time, spending a little time with the Lord, and I have a fear sometimes that I am just walking out in the woods with my dog, enjoying creation and contemplating my problems instead of praying. I wonder how much time we really believe God is up in heaven and he is listening. How much do we really believe that God Almighty hears and answers prayers?
If I would say, “Do you believe God answers prayers?” I imagine pretty much everybody would say, “I believe God answers prayers.” Well, here is the thing: Do I show that in my prayer life? If someone were able to listen in on my prayer life, would they really believe that God hears and answers prayers? God speaks to praying people.
When is the last time you just got alone and poured your heart out before the Lord? Good, bad, or ugly, fearful or mad—if you just poured everything out to God, “Lord, this is what’s going on. I want to tell you everything about my life.” God speaks. He sent his angel to speak to someone that was praying.
Sometimes people think, “Well, I’m going to get everything right in my life, and then I’ll start praying.” That is like saying, “I’m going to get everything right, and then I’ll go to the hospital.” When is the last time you turned your cell phone off? You turned the radio off? I have a 15-minute trip, and the whole trip, you just spent the whole time talking to your Heavenly Father. I have a fear that we have a cell phone, and we are never alone in our life. We are just always connected to everybody else. I am fearful that we will never truly be alone with our Heavenly Father. Matthew 6 says, “Enter into thy closet and shut thy door.” Get away from everybody and everything and pray. God sends his messenger to people that are praying.
I think we all intend to pray, but how much do we really pray? Satan fights prayers, as you see in Daniel. If you just say, “I’m going to pray,” you are not going to pray much. You still might have some crisis praying, and that is better than none. There will be prayer in school as long as there are tests in schools. But beyond that, if you do not say, “I am just going to work at my prayer life,” you are not going to be a great prayer warrior. You have an almighty God with all the power in the universe that can do anything. He can do exceeding abundantly above all that you ask or think, and he never gets asked. He said he gives good things to them that ask.
When is the last time you said, “I’ve been asking about this”? If we could interview Zacharias and Elizabeth, “How was it that you were the ones that God decided to break the silence of 400 years and speak? How was it that you got to parent John the Baptist—the man later on that Jesus said was the greatest man born among women?” I think maybe they would say, “We just asked.” They had been praying about it. If they got married typically young in Bible times—say at 16—and now they are 46, how many years have they been praying? Thirty-something years. And God answered their prayers.
Help me out. God speaks to what kind of people? First, God speaks to what kind of people? Then God speaks to what kind of people? Yeah, and then God speaks to praying people. Oh, I hope you are in that category.
Don’t worry about sounding real good and using all the big names. Just talk to him; he is your Dad. You call the Lord saying, “I need my Dad a little bit.” The church of Jesus Christ travels the fastest on its knees. I want to be the right kind of dad, right kind of mom—learn to pray.
I went to a man in our church, a medical doctor, who adopted several children. I asked him for advice about raising kids for the Lord. He said, “Learn to pray.” The greatest parents, the greatest spouses, the greatest Sunday school teachers, the greatest co-workers are people that learn to pray. We are not tapping into this almighty power that God has available to those that ask. Prayer. I guarantee you, we have victories around here because some little widow or widower somewhere is praying. That is the key: God speaks to those that pray. We’ve got to move on.
Point number four: God speaks to serving people. Look at verse number eight. “And it came to pass that while he executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his course, according to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.”
God speaks to fearful people, burdened people, praying people. God speaks to serving people. Zacharias was busy; he was doing something for the Lord. God calls working people, serving people. Samuel was in the temple serving when God began to speak to Samuel. Gideon was working—threshing wheat—when God called him.
Elijah said, “Lord, I’m worn out and tired.” God spoke to him with a still, small voice and told him to find his successor. When Elijah found that man, Elisha, he was working with twelve yoke of oxen. Elisha was a worker. I am simply saying, God calls serving people, working people. Someone said, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.” By the way, it still says in the Bible, if a man does not work, you ought not to eat.
James and John were mending their nets when Jesus said, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Paul was working on the road to Damascus; he was busy doing something. God calls people that are serving.
It does not have to be a title in church. It may be you go to the nursing home and make cookies for people nobody knows about. Start a little neighborhood Bible club and influence those boys and girls for the Lord Jesus Christ. Get involved somewhere in the work of God. Start a Bible study at work. Do something. It does not matter if anybody knows about it; the point is to serve the Lord Jesus in some form or fashion.
There is a battle going on between the forces of the Lord and the forces of hell, and somebody has got to say, “I want to enlist in God’s army.” God said, “Go talk to that man down there. He is fearful, I know. He is burdened, I know it. But he is praying, and he is serving.” It would be a shame for us to stand before the Lord and say, “Thank you for saving me,” but I sat on the sideline the rest of my life. We won’t be judged for our sins—Jesus took care of that on the cross—but I will be judged for my works. Serve him.
How about our Loving Action Ministry? That is a wonderful ministry. They make meals for people who have had surgery, a funeral, or been in the hospital. Work in the nursery. Cut the grass in the summertime. That is a great place to serve, but just serve the Lord somehow. You will not regret serving the Lord. I grew up serving: riding a bus to church because my mom was leading the program on the bus, and my dad was driving. They told me to go to the back of the bus and make those kids behave.
When I was 12, God called me to preach. Our little church was doing an addition. They had things called shovels back then. They asked men to come out and dig the footer. I was a 12-year-old boy, and I probably made more of a mess than I did work. But I know here: God speaks to someone that is serving—serving Christians.
Let’s move on. Just one more thing. We’re done. Help me out. God speaks to what kind of people? Fearful people. Good, good. God speaks to what kind of people? Burdened people. God speaks to people that are what? Praying. Good. God speaks to what kind of people? Serving people. Last thing. Look in verse number six. Luke 1, verse number six: “And they were both righteous before God.” Notice he says both—mom and dad both. They were righteous before God.
You say, “How does that work, Pastor? Over there in Isaiah, didn’t it say our righteousness is as filthy rags in the sight of God?” Yes, it does. How was it that they were right? The only way you will be righteous before God—a God that sees and knows every single thing, he even knows the motives of your heart—how in the world can I be righteous before God?
Look over, if you will, in Romans chapter 5. We are going to be done. Romans chapter 5. So much we could say here; we could go to 2 Corinthians 5:21 or other passages. We will just look quickly here in Romans 5 and look at verse number 19.
He says there, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners…” He is talking about Adam. We are all born of that Adamic or sin nature. You do not have to teach a little one how to lie; they are born with that. You have to teach them how to be grateful. That comes from Adam. “So by the obedience of one [Jesus Christ, the second Adam], shall many be made righteous.” We mentioned this verse last week: “For he hath made him [Jesus] to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
Now picture yourself like this—we are done. Picture yourself entering heaven, and God is there. He is going to ask you, “Paul, why should I let you into heaven?” When I come on my own, carrying all the works I have done, all my righteousness, I am coming carrying that. Picture there is a long table titled “The Righteousness of Jesus.” When I come up to this table, I can either say, “Here is my righteousness; this is why I want to enter into heaven.” I can do that. Or I can look at the table and find right there, “Wow, Paul’s name.”
Here is the thing: You cannot go in there holding two different things. If you try to hold both, God says, “No, no, no.” If it is by works, there is no more grace (Romans 11:6). Jesus is not part of the way; he is the way. You cannot have both. But I can come here and say, “You know what? I am going to put down my righteousness. I know it will never make it. Jesus, I want to believe on your righteousness. I want to trust in what you did on the cross.” I go before God and say, “God, the only reason why I think I ought to enter in here is because of Jesus.” And God says, “Welcome home. Come on home.”
God speaks to saved people. He will speak to a sinner, but you know what he speaks to him? “Get saved. Get saved. Get saved.” It reproves the world of sin because they have not believed in Jesus. But when I have the righteousness of Jesus on my account, God speaks to saved people.
Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar - Who does God speak to today - Sunday AM 12032023