WWUTT 2262 Zechariah Praises the Lord (Luke 1:67-75)

Zechariah, at the birth of his son John, blesses the Lord. It makes all kinds of references from the

Old Testament, seeing that God is fulfilling His promises, not just to the Jewish people, but even to us, when we understand the text.

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In the study of the Gospel of Luke, we are finishing up the chapter between today and tomorrow.

We're up to Zechariah's prophecy, which he makes after the birth of his son, John the Baptist. So I'm going to read it here in Luke 1, 67 to verse 80, hear the word of the

Lord. And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant

David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to show the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father

Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the

Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our

God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

And that is the way that Luke chapter 1 concludes. Been a long chapter, 80 verses in this chapter, and we're still going to split this up between today and tomorrow as we look at Zechariah's prophecy in two parts.

It begins with a blessing to the Lord, acknowledging that he has fulfilled his promises, even though this is being said before the birth of the

Savior. But Zechariah just knows, because of the message that was given by the angel

Gabriel, because of the significance of the birth of his son, John the Baptist, and that John is going to be the forerunner to the

Messiah who is to come. Here is his son, just as the angel had said. And so we know that the

Messiah is close. He is coming. And so this is the role that I know my son is going to play in fulfillment of the promises that God has made.

So that's part one, a blessing unto the Lord. Part two is a blessing to the child.

So Zechariah blesses his son, and you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the

Lord to prepare his ways. And that's how we're going to split this up between today and tomorrow. So first the blessing to the

Lord, and then tomorrow we will read the blessing that Zechariah gives to his child, starting there in verse 56.

So let me come back up to verse 67. This prophecy is bookended by two statements that are not part of the prophecy.

67 says, his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied. And then verse 80, the child grew and became strong in spirit and was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

So the shift happens in the middle of the prophecy, where Zechariah goes from blessing the

Lord to blessing the child. And then the narrative picks up there in saying, here's what happened with John after these events that we've just read about here in chapter one.

Because we're going to skip a lot of time with John the Baptist going into the wilderness and what's he going to do there.

That's kind of foreshadowing what's going to happen with John, because then what do we get to in Luke chapter two?

You know Luke two, right? You hear it read every single Christmas. In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

That's what we're going to read on Monday when we come back to our study in Luke. So at the very conclusion of Luke one, we get a little taste of the future.

Here's where John the Baptist ends up. But then we're going to come back to an event where Luke's going to pull the lens back a little bit.

It's not like he even shifts the perspective into, now here's what was going on in this other part of Israel.

That's not necessarily the view either. We'll talk about that next week. After John's birth,

Zechariah prophesies and the statement of him being filled with the Holy Spirit. It was said that Elizabeth was filled with the

Holy Spirit when she visited with Mary. John the Baptist, it was said, he was going to be filled with the

Holy Spirit from the womb. So goodness, this is a whole family full of the Holy Spirit.

I don't even know that it's said of the Holy family the same way. Is there ever a reference that Joseph is filled with the

Holy Spirit? I'm not saying that he wasn't, I just don't know that there's a reference in the

New Testament to Joseph being filled with the Holy Spirit. But here we have Zechariah and Elizabeth and John all filled with the

Holy Spirit. This is quite a family, quite a blessing upon this family that God has given.

And so Zechariah blesses the Lord, and that's the way we start in verse 68. Now the pattern is not quite the same.

The layout of this prophecy is not the same as the Magnificat, as the song that Mary sang.

But in the way that it's structured, I think it would be fair to conclude that Zechariah's prophecy is itself also a song.

So we have Zechariah's song. In fact, there's quite a bit of music going on in the start of the

Gospel of Luke, because we'll also have Simeon's song that'll come up later when Simeon has the blessed opportunity to see the

Messiah. The Lord having promised to Simeon, you won't die until you get to see the

Savior. And then Simeon sings that song. There was a great Christmas version of that.

I can't remember who it is that sings it. Somebody surely who's listening to me say that has got to know what

I'm talking about. Who was it that wrote Simeon's song? We'll get to that later too. But anyway,

Zechariah's prophecy seems to have a song lyric type of pattern to it, just like Mary's Magnificat, just like the

Psalms. It's not quite like Isaiah's prophecy. And so in Zechariah's response to the birth of his child, to being able to speak and hear again, he prophesies with these lyrics.

And so verse 68 says, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant,

David. Now this whole section that goes all the way to the blessing of the child, verses 68 to 75, this is all one sentence.

The way that it's punctuated anyway is all as one sentence. So the beginning of this, and like Mary's song, there's all kinds of Old Testament references to this as well.

So in the beginning, goodness, there's a lot going on here. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel.

First Kings 1 .48, blessed be the Lord God of Israel who has granted someone to sit on my throne this day, my own eyes seeing it.

That's David talking about his son Solomon being able to ascend to the throne. So Zechariah is borrowing the same words of David at the start of his prophecy.

And you'll see the mention of David in verse 69, in the house of his servant, David. So blessed be the

Lord God of Israel for he has visited and redeemed his people. And this is like Exodus language.

This is similar to what we read at the end of Exodus chapter four. The people believed, they believed the words of Moses.

And when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.

So it was said to them that they would be redeemed by God. The people worship the

Lord, at least in the very beginning, we didn't get to the grumbling parts yet. That would certainly happen later, but at least initially when it is said to them that God had spoken to Moses and now

Moses is speaking to the people, the people worship God and are expecting this redemption that is promised.

So here, Zechariah connects the redemption that Jesus is going to give us, all of us who will believe in his name.

Zechariah connects that with the Exodus. So we, when we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, we have been redeemed.

We have been delivered out of our slavery to sin, to the passions of our flesh, to the schemes of the devil.

Christ has broken those bonds of slavery that we were, we were burdened by, and he has rescued us out of that and brought us into his kingdom.

If the son has set you free, you are free indeed, as said in the gospel of John. So we've been set free in Christ, we've been redeemed.

This is what Zechariah proclaims in his prophecy. He's visited and he has redeemed his people.

Psalm 111 .9, he sent redemption to his people. He has commanded his covenant forever.

Holy and awesome is his name. Zechariah likely thinking of the same thing here when he proclaims this.

We see this also in Psalm 130. Oh, Israel, hope in the Lord, for with the

Lord there is steadfast love and with him is plentiful redemption and he will redeem

Israel from all his iniquities. That's a fascinating conclusion to Psalm 130, not

I will redeem Israel from slavery, I will redeem Israel from their exile, but I will redeem them from their iniquities.

We all have a debt so great that we cannot repay it because of the sin that we've committed against God.

And so for God to redeem us, he purchases us by the blood of Jesus Christ because we could not have died and paid for our own sin.

But Jesus, who is perfect and spotless, who kept the law perfectly, who gave his own life to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins, it is by his life we have been redeemed.

The debt has been paid and we are declared innocent now justified before a holy

God. There is no blame against us at all because Christ has completely atoned for our sins.

There is no work that you can do to achieve this. There's nothing else that needs to be done. There's no treasury of merit where you have all these other saints that have this buildup of righteousness that they're now going to share with us.

As the Roman Catholic Church teaches, we don't need that because we have the righteousness of Christ and his grace is sufficient.

So he has visited and redeemed his people, Zechariah proclaims, and he has raised up a horn of salvation for us.

Now this horn of salvation, in Psalm 18, we read, I love you, O Lord, my strength.

The Lord is my rock and my fortress forever. My God, my rock in whom

I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

And so here you have Zechariah making a reference to a horn of salvation being raised up.

A horn of salvation? What's a horn of salvation? You might be tempted to think like a trumpet, right?

This is the proclamation of the gospel. It is the announcement of something that is happening.

Salvation has come to us. Blow the horn, you know, is that what your thought is?

That was mine initially. I thought that very thing, that was the reference to the horn. But no, the reference to the horn is actually talking about like a bull's horn, the horns on a bull or the horns on an ox, which is a symbol of strength.

So he has raised up a horn. He has raised up the strength of salvation for us.

And that's the context of the reference to the horn. Even in Psalm 18, he is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

See, a horn like a trumpet wouldn't really fit there. It would be outside of the picture that's being painted shield, horn, stronghold.

These are symbols of strength. And so that would be the reference then to this horn in Luke 1 69.

It is the strength of the salvation that is given to us. This is a salvation that will not fail.

We will be saved. God will accomplish what he means to do. There were also four corners of the altar, and there were horns that came out of the four corners of the altar.

And those horns were even thought of as a place of safety. A person could go to the altar and grab the horns, and no one would be able to touch them.

And so there's that sort of imagery going on here as well. And this, the horn of salvation, is in the house of his servant

David, indicating that this is the fulfillment of the covenant that God had made with his father

David. We had previously in Luke 1 32, the announcement of the angel.

He will be great talking about, of course, the angel speaking to Mary and talking about the child she is going to give birth to.

He will be great and will be called the son of the most high, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father

David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom. There will be no end.

And that being a reference back to Isaiah. So this comes into Zechariah's prophecy also.

The horn of salvation will be in the house of his servant David. And surely Zechariah knew about that because remember,

Mary had come to Elizabeth and Elizabeth knew whose presence she was in.

She knew that Mary was the mother of the Lord. And so Mary, no doubt, had shared with Elizabeth everything that had happened.

Zechariah was there, though we wouldn't have been able to hear it because he was deaf and mute, as we have considered.

But these things eventually spoken to him in some way. So Zechariah knows about this, and he's putting the two prophecies together, the one that was made by the angel to him and the one that was made by the angel to Mary.

It could also be the leading of the Holy Spirit, too, that would cause him to say this the way that he does.

Because of course, as this prophecy began, Zechariah is filled with the Holy Spirit. So he goes on in verse 70 to say, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets of old, as we have in Jeremiah 23, 5 and 6, behold, the days are coming, declares the

Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

In his days, Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called.

The Lord is our righteousness. Zechariah is acknowledging that's the prophecy that was made.

That's the prophecy that's being fulfilled. And so in Luke 1, 71, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, a reference to Psalm 106 .10.

So we saved them from the hand of the foe and redeemed them from the power of the enemy.

Now, of course, in the context of Psalm 106, that would be the nations that were around Israel.

That's in reference to God delivering his people from the hands of the pagans.

But what would the implication be concerning this prophecy that Zechariah is making?

Who is the enemy that we really need to be delivered from? It's Satan. It is his minions, of course, but most especially it is death.

We are delivered even from the hand of death itself by faith in Jesus Christ.

He will conquer death and in him, we also will be promised the resurrection of the grave.

And so we are saved from our enemies, plural, Satan and thus the spiritual forces of darkness, but also from death.

We are saved from the hand of all who hate us. Verse 72, to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant.

In Micah 7, verse 20, we read, you will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.

God remembers his holy covenant and is fulfilling it through his son, Jesus Christ.

The oath that he swore to our father Abraham to grant us, verse 74, that we being delivered from the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear.

That's in Zephaniah 3, 15, the Lord has taken away the judgments against you. He has cleared away your enemies.

The King of Israel, the Lord is in your midst. You shall never again fear evil.

We will serve him without fear. As the apostle Paul will put it in Romans chapter eight, if God is for us, then who can be against us?

And as we also read from the apostle John, perfect love casts out fear. And so in verse 75, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days, we have received the holiness and righteousness of Christ by faith in him.

As Paul talks about in Philippians chapter three, as we also read in Ephesians 4, 24, we put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

We are clothed in the righteousness of Christ that we may be righteous before him.

Let me go ahead and read that section that Paul mentioned this in Philippians 3, beginning in verse eight.

For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain

Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible,

I may attain the resurrection from the dead. And it's that very thing that Zechariah prophesies about as well, when he says that in this child that the

Lord is promising, we will receive holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

And that is how the first section of this prophecy concludes. The next part, after Zechariah has blessed

God, we read his blessing to his son, John the Baptist, and that's where we will pick up tomorrow.

We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord, that our sins would be forgiven, they would be wiped clean, and we would be made righteous and clothed in his righteousness before him.

And so let us walk in that righteousness. If you have the righteousness of Christ, pursue holiness and grow in it, that you may become more

Christ -like as we are being made in the image of our creator.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for giving your son, that we might be set free from our bonds of slavery, that we might walk in righteousness before you all our days.

Forgive us our sins. Draw our eyes to you. Let us not be tempted by the things in this world, knowing that Christ has conquered this world.

This world is coming into judgment. Let us seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers, and offering commentary on the church and social issues.

You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com. Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's Word, when we understand the text.