“Your Prayer Has Been Heard”

November 30, 2003

John W. Fowler

Luke 1:26-38

One of the greatest gifts that you can give to God in this Advent Season in response to the gift of the Christ Child is the gift of prayer — that you would take time to be quiet and still and that you fight the temptation to be busier than ever — and take time to pray. A great example we have of this is from Zechariah and I want to share with you about the forerunners and you find it in Luke, Chapter 1, beginning with verse 5. It says:

Don’t you love answers to prayer? Not only your own answers to prayer, but hearing of other’s answers to prayer. It keeps me praying. I heard of a story recently of someone from South America who had come to New York City for the first time this past Fall. He was going to visit a Pastor Riviera who had a small forty-member congregation in New York City. When he got there to the city of eight million people, he was at the bus station and Pastor Riviera wasn’t there. In fact, he noticed it was a little bit odd that the stop lights didn’t have lights and it was kind of dark, and the one word he could make out, even though he couldn't speak English was blackout. And so, there he was. The only person he knew wasn’t there. It was a blackout and he was praying, “Lord, what am I going to do?” He began to pray. The first thing he prayed was to get a taxi, which was a miracle in itself, and he hailed a cab. And then, finally, all he had was this card which had Pastor Riviera’s name and the name of the church.

He asked the cab driver if he could speak Spanish, and he could. So that was good. And then he handed him the card and asked, “Do you know where this is?”

The cab driver just turned around and smiled, “Oh, I know exactly where this is. Pastor Riviera is my pastor. This is my church. I’ll be glad to take you.” Imagine, out of eight million people, a cab driver who actually goes to that congregation.

We all love answers to prayer like that and if our prayers were answered like that all the time, we would be “praying without ceasing,” as Paul said. But what about praying when the answer is longer in coming, and we wait, and we wait, and we begin to waver, and begin to wonder if the prayers are getting past the ceiling, or if God is not hearing well. What do we do then? Sometimes we will pray for someone’s healing, and we begin to wonder, “Is this prayer really making any difference. I can’t tell if they are any better — maybe not any worse.” We pray for a job, and we go to interview after interview, and still there are no leads. We pray for someone’s conversion. How we so long to have that loved one to come to Christ. Somehow they keep resisting and we wonder — is it worth it to keep praying and praying? Is it really making a difference?

Zechariah had been praying a prayer a long time and it was answered in a marvelous way. This Advent Season, I want to ask, “Is there a prayer that you have been praying for a long time and you are tempted to give up?” Is this an Advent Season that God may choose to answer that prayer if you will take the time to pray and expect to really believe that He does want to answer your prayer?

What was Zechariah’s prayer? Well, Zechariah’s prayer was simple. He and his wife, Elizabeth, had been praying for a child for years, and they were well along in years. But somehow they never felt led to give up. I think of Abraham and Sarah who were given the promise that he would be the father of a great nation, and after twenty-five years he wasn’t the father of anyone, much less a great nation. Their faith wavered at times and sometimes they would try to take matters into their own hands through a concubine. Whenever we try to speed up God’s timetable and take matters into our own hands, we are usually inviting trouble — and they did. But he had been praying for a child, and he is a priest. He is one of the twenty-four divisions of priests. So they don’t get to lead worship that often, and when they went into the temple to burn incense, that was a special honor to do that, and so it was a very sacred, holy time for Zechariah. But then, he sees an angel. I just warn you: If you ever see an angel, you’ll be afraid. Don’t act like, well, that’s no big deal to me; I see them all the time. You will, because every time in the Bible someone sees an angel, they are scared, and they have to say, “Don’t be afraid.”

It is Gabriel and he says, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. 14He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth,…..

He begins to tell about what this man will be like: This is the forerunner of the Messiah. He has been just praying for a child. Well, maybe he has been praying for a boy, but the prayer is going to be answered, and he is flabbergasted. He is surprised.

It reminds me of Acts, Chapter 12, when the persecution is really starting to step up with the early Christians and James has been beheaded and Herod throws Peter in prison because it makes other people happy, and Peter is being guarded by sixteen men. But that is no problem to God. He sends an angel in the night. The church is fervently praying for Peter’s release and the chains fall off; Peter is led out through this tunnel; he doesn’t know whether he is in the body or out of the body. He doesn’t know whether he is dreaming, but he goes out in the street and the angel leaves. He realizes, This is not a dream. I am really out of prison.”

So, he goes to the local prayer meeting at John Mark’s mother’s house. They are praying for Peter’s release and he knocks on the door and Rhoda goes, and Peter wants to come in. She goes back and says, “It’s Peter.” They say, “It can’t be. It must be his ghost.” They had been praying for his release, and they can’t believe, though, that it is actually him. So, she goes back again and finally he convinces her to let him in and Peter says, “Here I am. Here is your answer to prayer.” They are amazed; this praying really works! They didn’t really — well, they hoped he would be released, but Wow!

Is there something this Advent Season that would really surprise you if God answered it? But maybe you have been tempted to hold back on it. Maybe it’s just too good to be true. Well, Zechariah’s prayer was to have a child. Gabriel tells him, “The child’s coming.” So, what was Zechariah’s response? Did Zechariah go shopping on Friday after Thanksgiving and get the baby clothes? No, he doesn’t. He doesn’t believe it. Zechariah says to the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man, and my wife is well along in years,” which means she’s old too. And it is an announcement of disbelief. It’s unbelief. This is like the children of Israel in the promised land, murmuring. This is Moses when he is called to the burning bush and he begins to offer all theses excuses: “I don’t speak well. ....Well, who shall I say sent me?” And here is the staff; it’s going to turn into a snake. It will really impress them. But then he finally says, “Lord, please send someone else.” And God gets mad. He says, “Well, your brother Aaron can talk. I’ll let him talk for you.” But it is the voice of unbelief.

Sometimes I have thought, “Well, it seems unfair. Over here, Gabriel appears to Mary, and Mary is not quite sure about how this is going to be. Gabriel appears to her and says, ‘You’re going to be the Mother of the Messiah.’— not just the forerunner of the Messiah, but the Messiah.”

But you have to admit: she is not married yet; she has not had any sexual relations, so, “Lord, how am I supposed to have a child.”

And He tells her, “It will be a special child. It will be a child of the Holy Spirit.” And it is the voice of faith coming from her, questioning how this is going to come about.

Zechariah’s voice is one of disbelief. I don’t know if you want to call it a sense of humor, but God knows that a good remedy for unbelief is to shut somebody’s mouth, so that’s what God does if your mouth gets you in trouble. It’s also a good cure for gossip, all kinds of things. Sometimes your mouth gets you into trouble. Nevertheless, for those nine months, he is quiet.

He comes out. He is supposed to say to them: “May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you.” We call that the MYF benediction, but that is Aaron’s benediction, the blessing. But he doesn't do that. In fact, he has been in there a long time and they realize he can’t speak and he is not giving them the blessing; something has happened.

Apparently, he conveyed it to them as he begins to write: He has seen an angel. He is going to be a father. Elizabeth is going to be a mother.

Sometimes, when we pray for a long time, our problem is not just unbelief. We just feel like God is just not hearing this at all. I mean, I would rather get a ‘no’ than just, “I don’t know what he is doing.”

Bill Hybels in his great book, Too Busy Not to Pray, has a chapter called “The Hurt of Unanswered Prayer,” and in that he talks about people whose faith is struggling because they have prayed prayers, and seemingly God doesn’t answer them. They pray for someone who has a drinking problem and their husband comes home drunk again. They are praying for a healing in the family between a son and a father, and the son still won’t speak to the father.

Those unanswered prayers hurt, and what do we do? He talks about one of the reasons for that is inappropriate requests, and he uses the example of those three who were closest to Jesus, Peter, James, and John. They went up on Mount of Transfiguration in Matthew, Chapter 17, had a great, glorious, holy experience; Moses and Elijah appear. It is a mountaintop experience, to say the least.

Peter says, “Lord, let us make three booths — one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” And this cloud comes in and says, “This is my son, my beloved. Listen to Him.” That request is denied because Jesus has no intention of just staying on the mountain. It is time to go back down to the valley and minister to the people. He just simple said no because it was inappropriate.

Another time, James and John wanted the two top seats in the kingdom because they are very ambitious and because they are thinking of themselves. They get Momma in on the act and Jesus simply denies that request saying, “You don’t know what you are asking.”

Have you ever done that? Have you ever thanked God for not giving you what you asked Him for because we realize, in hindsight, we didn’t know what we were asking for; that would have ruined us if God had given it to us. Sometimes the request is inappropriate.

But how was Zechariah’s prayer answered? Well, we find it in Verse 57. The boy has been born. They are gathering together for the circumcision. It is time to name him. Everyone knows it’s got to be Zechariah, Jr. I mean, that’s what you name your first born son, but, no, His name is supposed to be John. They don’t believe Elizabeth. They think that she must be trying to slip in a name, and they ask Zechariah. Zechariah is shaking his head, and as soon as he writes John his tongue is loosed. If you hadn’t talked in nine months, what would you say? Well, this is what he says. He starts singing. 67His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:

68"Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,

because he has come and has redeemed his people.

69He has raised up a horn of salvation for us

in the house of his servant David.

And he begins to speak of the child:

Zechariah has had time to pray. He has had time to be quiet. He has been praying for this child. I love this. We are to pray for our children, not only to come to Christ, but we are praying that they will hear God’s call in their life and God will use them in a great and mighty way. Why settle for them to just sneaking, inching into Heaven. Let’s pray God will really use them, and no one can pray for them quite like their parents can.

Does his prayer come to pass? Oh, yes it does. You look at Chapter 3. Here comes John the Baptist preaching with great power and fire. Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Locusts and wild honey, camel suit. I mean, this is a prophet of prophets.

Jesus said, “There is no one born of women who is greater than John the Baptist.” He was a great man of God.

How do we put this into practice? Richard Foster in his excellent book on prayer says that we still need look no further than The Lord’s Prayer as a great guide to praying. And I offer that as a guide for prayer at Advent.

Certainly it is a time of adoration: Our Father, which art in Heaven, hallowed by Thy name. Whether it is the beauty of a Chrismon tree, or the wreaths, or the beauty of the Christmas music, we praise our Lord.

We also pray for God’s will: Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, as it is in Heaven. When we make our requests to God, there is a freeing thing when we finally get to the point: God, I want your will to be done. Remember Jesus struggling in the Garden of Gethsemane: Not My will, but Thy will be done.

The three words he especially lifts up, I share with you. The first word is give, that is, when we pray: Give us this day our daily bread, it is fine to pray for your daily needs. God likes to be asked. It doesn’t mean that when we ask for our needs that we are going to become selfish, but that we are honest with Him. Whether it is a very simple thing or a big thing, we get in the habit of coming to Him with our needs. But also, we not only pray for those things we need — whether it’s finances, whether it is comfort for grief — but especially in this time, we pray again for the gift of the Holy Spirit. We pray to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to live the Christian life. This is one of the greatest times of harvest the Church has for Christians. We especially need to be different. We need to love in the way that will impress people, and I mean for the right reasons, that Christ lives in us and our light will shine, that people will see our good works and glorify our Father in Heaven.

The second word is forgive. Jesus said we are to pray: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Advent is a great time to remember that the Savior came into the world because our greatest need is forgiveness of sins. And he comes in love and invites us in his power to let go of that which enslaves us. We remember Him on the cross: Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And what a great opportunity for a witness, especially in your family, to be a forgiving person. This may be the season that you let go of that grudge, that bitterness that has come into your life.

The third word is deliver. Jesus and his family had to flee to Egypt because King Herod was after them. When we pray, deliver us from evil, we are praying that God will deliver us during this Advent Season from the Devil’s means of blinding us to the real reason for the season. It is so easy to become so busy and doing good things that we miss, most of all, the time to worship the gift of Christ’s coming to the world to be our Savior. And we pray that he will lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Is there something you have been praying for, for a long time? Do you want to believe that God would hear your prayer? Let me close by saying that some shepherds heard an answer to prayer that people had been praying for hundreds of years. They had been praying for the Messiah to come. Isaiah had seen it: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace, Everlasting Father.

And then, on the hillside, suddenly an angel appeared to the shepherd and said,

"Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Good news, Zechariah. Your prayer has been heard. Let us pray.