YOU HAVE A PLACE IN HISTORY

By Pastor Tayo Adeyemi
 New Wine Church, London

Sunday 11 December 2011

Foundation Scripture: Ecclesiastes 3:11; Luke 1:5-7, 13-17
As you know, we are now just a few days away from Christmas and so today, I want to begin to talk to you about the birth of Jesus. Today, we are going to look at an aspect of the Christmas story that is very easily overlooked. We are going to look at the story of a man whose birth was just as miraculous as the birth of Jesus himself – a man who was sent to be a fore runner to Christ.  I am talking about John the Baptist. Most of the time, when we read the Christmas story or build the nativity scene, you see in the scene, the baby Jesus, his mother Mary, his earthly father Joseph, maybe you see some shepherds, the wise men, and maybe you see some animals. However there were other personalities who were pivotal to the coming of the messiah. These include Zechariah and Elizabeth.
If you have walked with God for a day or two, you will recognise that God is a God of order, a God of specificity, and a God of deliberate intention. He is the God who declares the end from the beginning.  He never does anything haphazardly. With God, nothing happens by chance or by accident.  He is the God who knows everything from eternity past to eternity future. The Bible tells us that he has recorded each of our days in his book.  You must understand that you are not an accident.  You must also understand that your life is not just about now.  You have a connection to eternity past – history and eternity future - destiny. Regardless of what anyone might have told you, you are not an accident and you are not a mistake. God placed you here on time and in time as part of his agenda. The mistake that most of us make is that we define our lives by ‘now’. We define our lives by our current circumstances and our current status. But you must recognise that you are an eternal being. This means that your life is much more than here and now. You have a connection to a glorious past. You have a rich and enviable heritage; and I am not just talking about your physical lineage or biological ancestry. Not only that; you also have a connection to a glorious future. God’s word says, there is hope in your future.  He promised to give you a future and a hope. Again, that is not just talking about your future in this life.
Our opening scripture in Ecclesiastes 3: 11 says ‘He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.’  This says two things clearly about your life.  First, God has a plan to make everything beautiful in your life. But He also has a timetable. The bible says He will make all things beautiful at His own ordained time. Second, He has placed eternity in your heart. So in reality, your life is the manifestation of an unfolding grand plan – an eternal plan orchestrated by God. Your biography did not start the day you were born; neither will it end the day you die. Your life is much bigger than that. Whatever you’re going through today, never interpret it in the limited context of just here and now. Whether it is good or bad, it will become part of God’s grand orchestration to give you a future and a hope.
Now let’s go back to the story we read in Luke 1. It is the story of a man called Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth. There is no way the Christmas story can be complete without the mention of Zechariah and Elizabeth; because through them God brought into the world a prophet who would prepare the way for the Messiah. This ordinary, seemingly insignificant couple became a major piece of the unfolding puzzle of God’s eternal plan for the salvation of mankind. As ordinary and mundane as their lives were, they became a significant part of history.  And I want to submit to you today also, even though you may think that your life is ordinary or insignificant, you have a powerful important part of history.  Today, I want us to examine a few aspects of Zechariah’s life; and draw encouragement for our own journey of faith. I want to share with you 3 things about Zechariah’s life that will encourage you.
1. Zechariah’s Name: Zechariah’s name means ‘God remembers’.  It comes from two Hebrew words. The word 'Yah' which means God; and the word 'Zakar' which means to remember. In fact, 'Zakar' means more than just to call to memory. It is actually a covenant word. It means to mark in order to recognise.  So when we say God remembers, we mean that he remembers His covenant with you. He has marked you and He will never forget you. Our God is a remembering God. Scripture is littered with reference after reference of God remembering. (Genesis 8:1, 19:29, 30:22; Exodus 2:24, I Samuel 1:19) In fact, he never forgets anything or anyone. The only thing that God forget is your sin when you have repented and confessed it.  Three things that God remembers:
First, God remembers His people: Whatever you are going through today, just remember that God has not forgotten you. Remember that God’s delays are not God’s denials. And just because He is quiet does not mean that he has forgotten. The story we read here, in Luke 1 is the first time that God speaks to anyone in the nation of Israel after a period of 400 years of absolute silence. (In most bibles, it is just a page or two pages separating Malachi and the gospel of Matthew)  Think about it; God said nothing – absolutely nothing – for 400 years. No prophesy, no vision, no dream, no angelic visitation, no voice from heaven - nothing.
After speaking to them consistently and incessantly for a minimum of two thousand years, God goes into silence and He keeps absolutely quiet for 400 years. If a child was born in the year that God stopped speaking, he would grow up and have children; and his children will have children; and they too will have children. There would be at least ten generations between Malachi and Zechariah. But guess what, after 400 years, God remembered His people and brought forth a word regarding their deliverance.
Second, God remembers His promises:  Our God is a covenant keeping God. Our God is a promise keeping God. If He has made a promise to you, don’t let the passage of time faze you. No matter how long it takes, God will remember His promise to you and He will fulfil it. The powerful thing about God’s word is that it never fails, fades, grows old, and never gets weak. God’s word is still as fresh and still as powerful today as the day He first spoke it. Jeremiah 1:12 says he watches over his word to perform it. If God has given you a word, you hold on to that word, because God is watching over that word. And if you don’t let go of that word, it will eventually come to past in your life. The trouble with most of us, is that we hold on for a little while – a few months or at best, a few years. And we don’t see the manifestation of the word, we assume that God has forgotten; and we jettison the word to go after other ‘realities’. The promise that God brought to pass through Zechariah was a 400 year promise which he had made through Malachi. The fulfilment of this promise is recorded in Luke 1:16-17.
Third, God remembers your prayers: Some of you have prayed prayers since the beginning of this year. You are now at the end of the year and you have not seen the answer to your prayers.  So you have concluded that God has forgotten your prayers; or that He has no intention to answer them. You could not be further from the truth.  Every prayer that you have ever prayed stands before God as a memorial. And if you prayed according to His will, you can rest assured that He has heard you and that He will answer in due season. Don’t forget that to everything there is a season; and a time for every purpose under heaven. Don’t forget that God makes everything beautiful in its time. In God’s agenda and eternal plan, there is an appointed time for the answering of your prayers. Let’s take a closer look at the life of Zechariah and Elizabeth. This passage in Luke 1 opens by telling us two things about them - they were childless and they were very old. How old do you think Zechariah and Elizabeth were at this time? Well advanced in years, in my opinion, means in their seventies or older. Surely, they did not start to pray for children at seventy. Let’s assume they got married in their twenties, which is typical for that time. This means that they started to pray for children shortly after they got married – about 50 years before this angelic visitation. From Zechariah’s response, you can tell that they had stopped praying about this matter a long time ago. They must have concluded that God had no intention of giving them a child.  But fifty years later; maybe even sixty, God came to them and told them that He remembered their prayers. God heard and answered a fifty year old prayer. For how long have you been praying?
2. Zechariah’s Faithfulness: In spite of the fact that God had not yet answered Zechariah’s prayer, he remained steadfast and faithful in serving God. He did not allow his personal problems to become an obstacle to his commitment to God.  And God honoured his faithfulness. Lo and behold, his miracle came to him while he was serving God. Friend, God wants to bless you and meet your needs. But don’t let your needs become the biggest thing in your life. You were created for something bigger – something much bigger.  When the devil wants to sabotage your God given assignment, he makes you forget your heritage; which is rooted in eternity past and your destiny; which is rooted in eternity future. He makes you focus on the limitations of your current reality. Don’t ever forget that you are much bigger than your current reality.
Let me tell you a little bit about Zechariah.  He is introduced to us as a certain priest. In fact, Zechariah was just one of more than 18,000 priests in Israel at that time. Because there were so many priests, they had to select those who would serve in the Temple by ballot. If a priest did not put himself forward he was not included in the ballot.  Zechariah could have said, “I can’t be bothered. After all, God has not answered my prayer. In any case, I am too old for this stuff – let the younger priests do the work.” But no, he made himself available. (Luke 1:6) Whatever you are going through, let me encourage you to remain steadfast and faithful in your service to God. Your reward will come in due season.
3. Zechariah’s Destiny: Remember I said to you earlier that you have a place in history. That nothing about your life is by chance or accident or happenstance. That everything about your life is a significant part of God’s eternal purpose. Think about it, Zechariah was just one out of 18,000 priests. They cast lots every day to determine who would serve in the Temple. Usually, 4 priests were allotted to serve in the morning and 1 priest to serve in the evening.  The 4 priests in the morning had specific duties. The first was assigned to the burnt offering, the second was assigned to the meal offering; the third was assigned to tend the candlestick and the fourth was assigned to burn the incense. Of the four duties, burning the incense was considered the most significant; so much so that no priest was assigned to that duty twice – at least, not until all the other priests had done it once. In the evening, there was only one duty – burning incense. So you can imagine that when this ballot fell on Zechariah to do it, he knew that he was about to have an encounter with destiny. This was the opportunity of a lifetime. I wonder how many years he had to wait on the queue to even qualify for ballot. When the ballot fell on him, there was no doubt in his mind how significant this was.  And when he walked into the Temple on that day, little did he know that he was about to plug in, right into the centre of history and destiny.  You see, two thousand years before this, there was another couple that the bible described as childless and very old – Abraham and Sarah. In fact these were the only two couples in scripture that were described this way.  Through Abraham and Sarah, God initiated a covenant relationship with His chosen people, Israel. Now 2000 years later, through Zechariah and Elizabeth, God was about to bring forth a fore runner for the new covenant.
This was Zechariah’s place in history – his connection to eternity past and eternity future. You too have a place in history. You have a connection to eternity past and eternity future. So don’t ever despise where you are in life today – It is part of God’s grand plan. Like Zechariah, you may be carrying in your loins – physical, spiritual or even mental the next John the Baptist. Just keep your eyes on Jesus and keep serving God faithfully, the best you know how. And watch Him amaze the world with the story of your life.