Christmas Feels - Doubt

Last week we started a brief series that I entitled “Christmas Feels” in which we are looking at some of the emotions of Christmas

As you know, we are people that are often affected by our emotions

I am so glad that God made us as emotional beings!

Can you imagine a life without emotions? Not being able to love, or grieve, or feel happiness and even sadness

Honestly that’s not a life that I would be interested in at all!

I am grateful that God made us with the capacity to feel emotion, yet at the same time I think all of you will agree with me when I say that I’ve learned the hard way that I cannot always trust my emotions

Our emotions often lie to us or mislead us, yet even though we know that we often times allow our emotions to influence us way more than they should

The Christmas season is often one filled with emotions, and we are taking a look at some of the emotions surrounding the birth of Jesus

Today I want to take a look at an often confusing emotion - Doubt

All of us, from time to time, experience this emotion

It’s an emotion that I believe is often misunderstood, especially in the church as a whole

In fact, I’m going to come right out and say at the beginning of my message that I believe that doubt can often be a very healthy emotion

What do I mean by that?

Have you ever met someone who is incredibly gullible?

The kind of person that believes everything you tell them?

That’s not a good way to live

A healthy dose of doubt can keep you from all kinds of problems and embarrassments

Today I want to take a look at the emotion of doubt in light of two characters in the Christmas story

The first person is Zechariah, father of John the Baptist

Although his story is not traditionally part of the Christmas narrative it is a precursor to the Christmas story and I think it fits quite well

We read his story in Luke chapter 1

Zechariah was married to Elizabeth, who was a cousin to Mary, the mother of Jesus

Luke 1:6 tells us

6  Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commandments and regulations blamelessly. 7  But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well along in years.

So, here we have an old, childless couple that love God and are doing their best to serve Him!

Zechariah was a Levite - a priest - and was serving at the temple when something amazing happened

Luke 1:8-25 Once when Zechariah's division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, 9  he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10  And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside. 11  Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12  When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. 13  But the angel said to him: "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. 14  He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15  for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. 16  Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. 17  And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous--to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." 18  Zechariah asked the angel, "How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years."

Can you imagine experiencing what Zechariah did at that moment?

He is doing his duty in the temple, burning incense before the Lord, and suddenly an angel appears before him and gives him some amazing news - he and Elizabeth are going to have a baby!

I’m sure he was completely shocked at this news

They had been praying for a baby for many years, and by this time had probably given up because of their age

Then Zechariah expresses some doubt - “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years”

Which is a polite way of saying “are you sure you know what you’re talking about? We’re pretty old!”

I can’t blame Zechariah for doubting, after all, logically it made no sense

Although, it was not without precedence

What other couple had a baby in their old age? Abraham and Sarah!

Abraham was the father of the Jewish people and his story was well known by every Israelite

Yet Zechariah doubted

In addition to the fact that he and Elizabeth were old there was something else that I am sure added to Zechariah’s doubt

The words of the angel, although somewhat confusing to us, would not have been confusing to Zechariah - he would had immediately recognized them as referring to the prophet that was promised to come and prepare the way for the Messiah!

19  The angel answered, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. 20  And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their proper time." 21  Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. 22  When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak. 23  When his time of service was completed, he returned home. 24  After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. 25  "The Lord has done this for me," she said. "In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people."  

The second person I want to talk about at in our look at doubt is Joseph, father of Jesus

Almost nothing is known about Joseph

His name is only briefly mentioned in Matthew 1 & 2, then again in Luke 2, but other than that he is not spoken of again

Matthew 13 refers to Joseph indirectly by stating that Jesus is the carpenter’s son, but his name is not mentioned

BTW - the Greek word for carpenter (tech-tone) can also mean stone mason and even day laborer

Matthew 1:18-25 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. 19  Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. 20  But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21  She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." 22  All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23  "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"--which means, "God with us." 24  When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25  But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.  

Put yourself in Joseph’s shoes for a moment

You had found the woman you wanted to spend the rest of your life with, and she said yes!

Now it’s possible that Mary and Joseph had an arranged marriage – that they didn’t really have any choice in the matter

But even if that were the case I still do not think that would take away a whole lot from the excitement

Arranged or not, Joseph was getting married and I am sure he was greatly looking forward to it

Not long after their engagement Mary starts acting a little funny

It’s like she’s got a lot on her mind, but she has not said anything to Joseph about it

She then goes off to help her cousin Elizabeth with her pregnancy and delivery

I’m sure this did not take Joseph by surprise at all as this was a common occurrence at that time

We do not know how long Mary stayed with Elizabeth, but it was probably 2 to 3 months, or even longer

There was no real way for Mary and Joseph to communicate during her stay with Elizabeth

It’s possible that they could have written letters, but that’s assuming that they both knew how to read and write

So most likely there was little to no communication between Mary and Joseph

Because of this I am sure that Joseph was really looking forward to Mary’s return

But when she returned there was a problem

It was probably obvious to everyone that Mary was pregnant

Put yourself in Joseph's shoes for a moment

His fiancé, the woman he was to spend the rest of his life with, returns from a 3 month stay with her cousin and is pregnant

Joseph must have been crushed

He knew that he was not the father

I'm certain that Mary must have told him her story

"No really Joseph, an angel appeared to me and said God would make me pregnant"

Would you believe a story like that?

If I were Joseph I would have doubted too

Scripture tells us:

19  Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

Wait a minute – what does it mean “divorce her quietly” they weren't married yet!

In this Jewish culture engaged people were basically considered married except for the ceremony and final consummation.

To break the engagement took a divorce like proceeding

Had God not intervened this story would have ended like so many other stories over the years that deal with broken engagements and children born out of wedlock

But God did intervene!

God sent an angel to appear to Joseph in a dream to let him know that Mary was telling the truth - it really was God that made her pregnant

She really was going to give birth to the Messiah!

So, what’s the difference between Zechariah’s doubt and Joseph’s doubt?

God resolved both of their doubt, but there was a difference in the source of the doubt

Zechariah doubted a direct message from God

Joseph doubted an indirect message from God

An angel appeared directly to Zechariah so there should have been no question that the message was directly from God

However with Joseph the message came from Mary

It was Mary that had the angel appear to her and she passed the message along to Joseph

I’m sure Joseph wanted to believe her, but it was a pretty off the wall story!

Doubt is healthy

Doubt is normal

The truth is never afraid of questions

Lord I believe, help my unbelief

God will prove himself to you