Zacharias' Song

The Shepherd's Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:09

Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon. We pray that as we declare the

00:16

Word of God that you would be encouraged, strengthened in your faith, and that you would catch a greater vision of who

00:22

Christ is. May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you.

00:35

The theme that we've been talking about over the last couple of weeks is that the knowledge of God, true knowledge of God, leads us to love

00:43

Him, truly expressed love for God causes our lips to burst forth with song, and when we sing to Christ, it causes us great joy.

00:55

If you want to have unspeakable joy, which, now who wouldn't, right? If you want to have unspeakable joy, then you must grow in the knowledge of God, and you must grow in right knowledge of God, because that's what's gonna fill your heart with love, that's what's gonna cause you to sing, and those songs that you sing are going to bring great joy.

01:16

That has been the theme of this series so far, and it's repeated itself in the first two weeks. It will repeat itself again this week as well.

01:24

In the first week, we looked at the Psalms, and we looked at all of the various psalmists who were brought into the knowledge of God, and it caused them to love

01:31

Him and sing to His name. In week two, we looked at how the same thing happened to Mary.

01:40

How Mary, as she saw revelation of who God is, she fell deeper and more in love with Him, and it caused her to burst forth in song.

01:47

Well, today, we're gonna look at a man named Zacharias, and how he grows in the knowledge of God, which causes him to grow in love for God, and causes him to sing and have great joy.

02:00

So, if you will, turn with me to Luke chapter 1, verse 68 through 79, as we examine this humble servant of the

02:10

Lord together. That's Luke chapter 1, verse 68 through 69. As an aside, aren't you proud of me?

02:23

I'm giving you time to turn. Old dogs can learn, so...

02:31

Luke 1, 68 through 79. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people.

02:41

And He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David, His servant.

02:47

And He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from old, salvation from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us, to show mercy towards our fathers, and to remember

02:59

His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to Abraham, our father. To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, might serve

03:07

Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the

03:16

Most High, for you will go on before the Lord to prepare His ways, to give His people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins.

03:26

Because of the tender mercy of our God, with which the sunrise from on high will visit us, to shine upon those who sit in darkness in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

03:38

Let's pray. Lord, we confess this morning that there was a time where we were the people who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death.

03:49

We are the people who lived in the kingdom of death and in the kingdom of darkness. And Lord, your light has shined on us.

03:58

Your light has shone through the preaching and teaching and reading of your word so that it has not returned void, but it has shined upon us.

04:07

Regenerating us, bringing us into the faith, awakening our hearts to see the beauty of Jesus Christ.

04:14

Lord, I pray that your word, as I pray each week, that your word today would do the work.

04:23

Lord, I pray that you would bind my words to the word, that you would allow me only to say what the spirit would have me say.

04:29

And Lord, I pray that it would be your word, it would be your text, it would be your scripture that is what we walk away with today.

04:41

So that we would know you better, love you more fully, and sing loudly in the joy of the

04:47

Holy Spirit this Christmas season. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Now before we begin with Zachariah's song,

04:56

I think we need to take a moment just to understand who this man is. He was an elderly man living in Judah.

05:03

So now you contrasted him with Mary, who was a very young woman who was living in Galilee. He had no children, but he was married to a woman named

05:11

Elizabeth, and he was a priest who served in the temple. Now what's interesting to me is these stories,

05:17

Luke puts them side by side in the same way that John puts the woman at the well side by side with Nicodemus.

05:24

There's a contrast and a comparison happening between this man and this woman. And I find it also fascinating that his wife is related to Mary, so you have that connection as well.

05:38

Now, Zacharias is called to serve. He's in the division of Abijah. If you're not familiar with where that's at, that's in 1

05:44

Chronicles 24, where there's 24 different divisions of the priesthood that are laid out there.

05:53

And of those 24 divisions, you would serve if you were a priest. So think about it this way.

06:01

You would have one week that your division would serve, and then you were off duty, kind of like the Army Reserves.

06:08

One weekend on, two weeks out of the, no. And of that time, you would be required to go to Jerusalem.

06:16

Now, the 24 divisions would all have to be there for the Passover and for the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Booths, but you only had to be in Jerusalem to serve in the temple for when your division was on all the rest of the time.

06:29

Abijah was the division that Zacharias was in, and apparently at this particular time that we're talking about was their week that they had to serve.

06:39

Now, it says that he had to be decided by lot, because there was actually quite a bit of people who were priests at this time, and there was enough people there to where people maybe would have argued about who was going to get the privilege and the honor of being able to go into the temple.

06:55

So it says that they decided this by lot, which is a very strange thing to us today.

07:02

But actually, I think we can understand this quite well if we think about things like throwing dice. Drawing straws, flipping a coin, going to random .com,

07:11

and having something randomized for you. All it is is a way to determine something. It's a decision -making thing.

07:19

It was a way that they could determine God's will. Now, in pagan cultures at that time, this was a very religious activity.

07:27

They would actually, as strange as it sounds, they would split open an animal, likely a bird, and they would read the intestines, and they would say, this is the will of the gods.

07:37

In Israel, they never did that, or at least not when they were in being faithful. This was more like just rolling a dice, but there's really no consensus on how they did it.

07:47

There's all different kinds of ways. Throwing lots is just a way of describing the process of using something random to determine the will of God.

07:56

Archaeologists have found jars with with pale stones inside of them with one black stone, and what they realize is that, you know, you reach your hand in the jar, and you grab until the one who grabs the black stone, and you're it.

08:07

That's one way that they did it. Another way that they did it, they found jars in some of the caves that had the names of people written on them.

08:16

So, you know, you throw out one stone, and whoever's name it is, that's the one who was picked. There's others that have numbers written on them.

08:23

There's not really a consensus on how it's done, but what it was trying to accomplish is, what is God's will in this situation?

08:30

At least they got to that point because they didn't want to say, hey, we like so -and -so the best, so we're gonna send him in, or he's most popular.

08:38

No, they wanted to understand the will of God, and they knew that they could arrive at the will of God because God is sovereign over everything.

08:47

He's not only sovereign over the major events of our life, but he's also sovereign over which stone comes out of the jar.

08:53

So when they did this, they really believed that God was so beautifully and powerfully in control of reality that the stone that came out, whoever's name was on it, was the one who was supposed to go in and serve the

09:08

Lord. Now, if that's the way they did it with the names written on it, Zechariah's name was called that day. The lot fell to him for him to go into the temple, and the

09:18

Jews were right. This was God's will that Zechariah would go in there. As we read in the story, we will see why.

09:25

Now, it tells us that he was upright and that he was righteous, which means that he kept the commandments and the regulations.

09:30

He tried to obey the Torah. It says that he was blameless, which doesn't actually mean that he was perfect.

09:38

It doesn't mean that they're even purporting him to be so. It just means that he eagerly followed the law, and you really couldn't attach blame to this guy.

09:45

The rhythm of his life was obedience. He loved God's Word. He repented whenever he sinned.

09:51

He sacrificed when he was supposed to sacrifice. He was a faithful representation of what the law was supposed to be, and in fact, what

10:00

Luke is doing is putting Elizabeth and Zechariah as a model example of what

10:07

Israelites were supposed to be in that time. You see, they grew up and lived in a time when there was legalism, where there was racism among the priesthood that was immoral, the aristocracy of the

10:20

Sadducees that were in bed with Rome, the arrogant and pomposity of the

10:25

Jewish people thinking that they were better than everyone else. They grew up in that time, and they stood out as an example of what you were supposed to look like if you followed

10:34

God, and you loved him. You obeyed his Word. It says that Aaron was married to a daughter of Aaron, or it says that Zacharias was married to a daughter of Aaron.

10:45

That's a really big deal. Because, see, a priest was supposed to be married to an Israelite. That was his only requirement.

10:51

You could not be married to someone who was outside of the country, so you'd have to be married to a native -born Israelite woman who was in one of the twelve tribes of Israel, or, in the case of Ruth, if she came in and was brought into Israel, you could marry someone like her.

11:06

But if you were really, really righteous as a priest, you wouldn't marry someone in the twelve tribes.

11:13

You'd marry someone in one tribe, the tribe of Levi. But if you were more righteous than that, you would go a step further, and you would marry a daughter out of one of the 24 divisions of the priesthood.

11:24

Because Levites could serve in and around the temple complex. The 24 could go in, so you'd marry someone out of that.

11:31

But if you were really blessed, then you married someone who was from the line of Aaron himself.

11:40

Aaron's the brother of Moses, as you will remember. Aaron was the very first high priest installed.

11:46

The sort of prototype or archetype of what a priest is supposed to be. At that time, if you married a daughter of Aaron, that was a big deal, and it would have made you a very respectable priest.

12:00

Now you think about it. This man's old. He served a long time. He's been faithful. He's obedient, and he's married a daughter of Aaron.

12:10

He would have had a lot of street cred in his time. The problem that comes in that Luke introduces is that his beautiful, trophy,

12:20

Aaronic wife was also infertile, and that was also a really big deal at that time.

12:28

At that time, infertility meant unfaithfulness. Because family size dictated how faithful you actually were from a public opinion perspective.

12:38

All pregnancies are miracles from God, and the Bible says that if you're faithful, He will open your womb.

12:44

You'll be fruitful, and you will multiply, so that if you had multiple children, it would look like that you were faithful, and if you struggled to have children, it would look like you were not.

12:52

That's the way that they actually ended up viewing this, that if you were good, if you were faithful to God, if you followed

12:58

Torah, if you were, if you sacrificed, you had a clean heart, you would have lots of children.

13:05

But if you did not have lots of children, the assumption was you are unfaithful.

13:12

No matter what you said, no matter what your life looked like on the exterior, you were unfaithful.

13:20

So if you had eight, nine, and ten kids, your boys were strong and worked hard, your girls kept the house well, and everyone in the community loved you, you'd be the upper echelons of blessings.

13:33

But if you only had a few children, if they were sick, if they died in their infancy, those types of things would make you look like you were hiding secret sin.

13:44

So do you see how the public perception of Zechariah would be very divided? Here's this man, he's faithful.

13:51

On the outside, he's got everything together, but look at that. He can't have children. What is going on with him and Elizabeth?

13:58

Now as a young woman, you know Elizabeth felt this pressure. The pressure and the weight of the societal expectations bearing down upon her.

14:07

She looked out her window, and she saw children playing in their backyard. You better believe that she longed and wanted this blessing for herself.

14:17

When other parents were talking about playdates and family meals and getting together, and she could not participate, you better believe that that was on her heart and mind.

14:27

When she saw dads taking their boys to work or moms taking their little ones to synagogue, when she heard other people's blessings, like how

14:35

Simeon and Rachel were having their 11th kid down the street, and she has none.

14:42

You can imagine the funny looks that people gave her. You can imagine her as she looked in the mirror, and as she laid her head down on her pillow.

14:54

She would have had to have thought, she would have had to have struggled. With God, why?

15:00

Why aren't these blessings happening to me? What can I do better? What have

15:06

I done wrong? Am I broken? You can imagine late at night hearing babies crying next door for their mother, and her waking up and hearing it and thinking,

15:20

I wish that were me. When every other mother's complaining, I didn't get any sleep last night, baby was up all night long.

15:26

She's like, I wish that was my problem. Every missed period was a signal of the death of another opportunity.

15:35

Her 20s, her 30s, and her 40s slipped away from her without a son or daughter. And the shame of childlessness came upon her in a very heavy way.

15:45

Luke even tells us that when Elizabeth found out she was pregnant, one of the first things she says is, God, you've taken away my shame.

15:54

Today, it's a shame to have kids. If you have more than 1 .5 children, you get the ugly looks of Greta Thunberg looking like you're an

16:04

Exxon executive getting off of a plane. They valued children back then, and in a lot of ways, their society was so much healthier than ours.

16:19

But one way that they got it really wrong is the shame that they attached to this. You see, they had this view, which was sort of like an extreme reciprocity, where if you're good, you get good things.

16:31

If you're evil, you get evil things. This is the same way that the friends of Job treated Job. Do you remember in the book?

16:38

Job, you say you're a righteous man, but you got all this stuff happening to you. Obviously, you're not righteous.

16:45

That's what they were believing about Elizabeth and Zechariah. Isn't it interesting, though, that the patriarchal family of their nation is

16:56

Abraham and Sarah, the childless ones, who didn't have a child until Abraham was a hundred years old and Sarah was 90.

17:06

They had the example. You can be righteous before God.

17:12

God even says Abraham was counted. It was counted as righteousness to him. You can have righteousness and be infertile.

17:18

They had the example, and yet they ignored it. The same

17:23

Greek word in Luke chapter 1, which is there for childlessness or no children. It's the same word used of Sarah in Genesis 11.

17:31

It's the same word used of Rebecca when her womb was closed in Genesis 25. Same word used of Rachel.

17:37

She says, give me children lest I die. Same word used of her in Genesis 29. Same word used of Samson's mother who struggled to have children, and the same word used of Hannah in 1

17:47

Samuel chapter 1. Look at this list. Six godly women who could not have a baby broke their societal expectation that if you didn't have children you were cursed.

18:04

Elizabeth will be the seventh infertile woman. Isn't that interesting? These examples break the sort of quid pro quo model that they had with God.

18:15

God, if I do these things and you'll bless me. If I don't do these things you will curse me. That broke the mold in this situation.

18:24

Now it says that they were elderly. It says, no, it actually says it's a nicer way to say it. It says they were advanced in years.

18:31

It's always better to use the positive way of describing something. They were really good at having years.

18:37

Which means that they were well beyond the age of bearing children.

18:43

The lesson, it's right there in Luke 1, that we're supposed to learn is what is impossible for man is not only possible with God but it's actual.

18:56

He will accomplish his will even if it's thoroughly impossible in our estimations.

19:03

Now as a first century reader would have been reading this passage knowing a little bit about Abraham and Sarah and knowing what

19:10

God did there which was utterly life -changing for the people of Israel because there wouldn't be a people of Israel if Sarah didn't have a baby.

19:18

So as they're reading this they would have imagined something big is about to happen.

19:25

What I hope is when we read this we slow down a little bit to see that something unbelievable is brewing, the pressure is mounting, and that things are going to explode in a redemptive way in this passage.

19:41

It's so easy to read too fast. In our way of writing books our writers drag things on for hundreds of pages so that you have plenty of time to figure out how important the topic is.

19:53

The Hebrew writers didn't do that. One sentence could be a piece of dynamite that you just go on to the next one and you miss it.

20:04

It says that Zechariah was set apart by God to go into the holy place.

20:10

Not the holy of holies. He wasn't the high priest but the holy place to offer the incense offering before God.

20:18

This would have been one of the rarest privileges of a priest life and it was now becoming a reality for this man after all these years, the advancement of his years.

20:29

Now you can imagine that he would have thought that entering the temple would have been the most incredible thing that had ever happened to him, but a few moments after he gets into the temple he gets an even greater surprise in that an angel sent by God comes to him and speaks to him, which is something that had not happened in 430 years.

20:51

Last week I rounded up. This week I want to brag on God. Israel was in Egypt for 430 years before the

21:01

Deliverer Moses was born and they were set free and taken to the land of promise. The Jews in the

21:08

New Testament. Malachi was the last book of the Bible. It was written in 430 BC.

21:16

430 years they waited until the Deliverer was born. They were set free, taken to the land of promise through the

21:24

Spirit who's still leading us to that land of promise today. Isn't that amazing?

21:30

That the Old Testament begins with the people of God having a 430 year wait. The New Testament begins with the people of God having a 430 year wait for the

21:39

Deliverer to be born to rescue us out of our hopelessness. The readers of this passage would have been like, this is amazing.

21:48

God's not only gonna give Sarah or Elizabeth, the Sarah -like woman, he's not gonna give her a baby, but this baby's gonna be important.

21:57

He's probably gonna be a part of the deliverance of the people of God. Verses 13 through 17 of Luke 1, we read these earlier, says this,

22:06

But the angel said to Zechariah, Do not be afraid. I love every time that God shows up.

22:14

The angel or the angel of the Lord always says, don't be afraid. We should know, that's why the

22:21

Bible says so many times, fear the Lord, because when you're in his presence, it is a holy, fearful thing.

22:28

Says, do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife

22:34

Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John, and you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the

22:45

Lord, and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, yet while in his mother's womb.

22:52

And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God, and it is he who will go as a forerunner before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of righteousness, so as to make ready a people prepared for the

23:10

Lord. There's a lot of emotions that Zacharias is probably thinking right now. Number one, he's probably thinking shock and confusion, because for 430 years, no one had heard anything from God.

23:23

Every moment of Zacharias's life, there was no new revelation that had been given. 430 years is a hundred and fifty years longer than we've been a country.

23:32

That's how long it had been since they had heard revelation from God. Zacharias would have never imagined that on this day, he would be the one to hear this message.

23:45

So he's probably shocked. He's probably confused. If you scare easy like my wife does, he probably threw his hands up really quickly.

23:57

And also, I would imagine if you read the descriptions of angels in the Bible, depending on how this angel appeared, they're pretty terrifying creatures.

24:06

So he would have been afraid. He would have been in terror. But you also have to imagine, as old as he was, his wife, whose womb now had been dead basically for many years, there had to have been doubt and disbelief that was rising up even above the fear, and above the uncertainty, and above the shock, and above the confusion.

24:30

He asked questions because he could not possibly believe that something like this could happen.

24:37

This is how he responded to the angel. How will I know for certain? For I'm an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.

24:46

Now, if you remember last week, we saw that Mary also asked questions. It says that she was perplexed, and she says, how can this be?

24:54

So what's the difference between her and Zacharias? Mary was asking questions that would help her believe.

25:03

Zacharias was asking questions to help him remain in his doubt. He was asking things to entrench him in disbelief, to reinforce his doubts, to confirm his suspicions.

25:14

This was a self -protection mechanism. You think about it.

25:20

A heart that has hope is the hardest, or is the easiest heart to disappoint, is it not?

25:27

If you believe that something could happen, and it doesn't happen, it hurts way worse than it did if you just remain in that moment where I'm like, no, no, no,

25:34

I can't believe that. How many times do you think Zacharias was coming home hopeful that they were pregnant, and yet again, and again, and again, and again, he found out, no, not this time.

25:48

Over time, he probably learned the discipline of hardening his own heart so that it wouldn't hurt so much, because a hopeful heart really is the one that's hurt the worst.

25:59

He dared not believe that this was true because he was afraid of what would happen if it wasn't. Now, I want you to think about that fact juxtaposed against where he was and who he is.

26:12

He's a priest. He's a priest of God, the same God who parted the waters of the

26:18

Red Sea, the same God who has smote armies while his people played instruments, and he's in the temple of all places, which is the concentrated power of God on earth.

26:33

So here you have a man who's got a lot of life experience that says this can't be, and yet he's a priest.

26:39

He teaches other people that this kind of thing can be. He's in the temple where this kind of thing could happen.

26:47

This is the last place that Zacharias would want to showcase his doubts, and as a result, he's given a punishment for his doubt.

26:58

Now, we see this punishment is not to harm him. This punishment is to heal him, like a father who punishes a son for doing something that he told him not to do.

27:10

This being mute would allow this man to sit and listen for a little while and to ponder in his heart, because maybe he was spending too much time with his mouth.

27:21

I've been in those situations. It would've been a blessing if God made me mute. Think about when you're arguing with your spouse.

27:28

Wouldn't that be a blessing? For the rest of the week, he was unable to speak.

27:36

And then, as he went home, he was unable to speak. And then, as he went through the nine months of pregnancy with Elizabeth, he was unable to speak.

27:47

Unable to tell her exactly what happened to him in that temple on that day. We do know that he learned really quickly to keep a pad and paper nearby, because he used that to tell everybody who his son's name was going to be.

27:59

But he waited from the moment that he was at the temple until the baby was born eight days later, when he was circumcised, close to ten months of not being able to speak.

28:12

As his wife's belly grew bigger, though, I think in all that silence, I believe that his faith began to swell as well.

28:20

Because while he wasn't speaking, he was watching, and he was seeing God move. He saw this old woman pregnant.

28:28

When they were sitting in the synagogue, and the baby's feet would flutter and kick, and he was sitting right beside her, and the baby was like nudging him.

28:36

As they were listening to the priest in the synagogue share the Word of God, you have to imagine that even though he could not speak, his heart was beaming with joy when

28:47

Zacharias saw the baby, the baby from his elderly wife.

28:53

You have to imagine that his heart must have exploded with passionate, voiceless worship.

29:02

And it wasn't until his family and his friends came over that God unleashed his tongue, and he praised.

29:11

That ten months of expectation, that ten months of pressure -building burst out of his mouth, and one of the most beautiful songs ever written.

29:20

Luke tells us now the time had come for Elizabeth to give birth, and she gave birth to a son.

29:26

And her neighbors and her relatives heard that the Lord had displayed his great mercy towards her, and they were rejoicing with her.

29:33

That word they also includes Zacharias, who was there rejoicing.

29:40

Now let's recap for a moment before we continue. Knowledge of God produces love for God. Love for God produces songs to God, and the songs we sing give us joy.

29:53

We see this with Zacharias. This whole time, this ten months, he's in a master class on believing

29:58

God, trusting God. He was seeing that God is the one who keeps his promises, and that God is the one who can do the impossible.

30:07

Nothing is too big for God. That knowledge intersected with him where he was in his doubts, and it caused him to believe in a way that he had never believed before.

30:18

The Bible has already called him righteous, so he was faithful. But now, his faith had gone even deeper than he imagined that it could ever go.

30:29

And it fueled his heart. It caused him to sing. This is how it began in verses 59 through 66.

30:40

And it happened that on the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child. And they were going to call him

30:46

Zacharias after his father, but his mother answered and said, no, indeed, his name shall be called John. And they said to her, there's no one among your relatives who was called by that name.

30:57

And they made signs to his father, who he wanted him to be called, and he asked for a tablet and wrote as follows, his name is

31:04

John. And they were all astonished. And at once, his mouth was open and his tongue loose, and he began to speak in praises to God.

31:15

Now, everyone agrees that this is actually a song. He's not just speaking praises. He's actually breaking out in song.

31:22

And this song is divided into four parts. The first part is that he's going to sing blessings to God.

31:29

The second part is he's going to sing blessings to the nation of Israel, and then we will continue on with the third and the fourth part.

31:38

But let us begin by looking at how Zechariah used this song to bless God. He begins, blessed be the

31:45

Lord God of Israel. He doesn't begin with his situation, which is how most of our prayers end up looking.

31:53

God, thank you for doing this for me. God, thank you for doing that for me. He begins with God. He doesn't say thank you for giving me my voice back.

32:02

He doesn't say thank you for giving me a newborn son. He doesn't say thank you for restoring my situation and taking away my shame.

32:09

He says, praise be to God. And the reason that's so important is because that's the heart of all biblical singing.

32:18

Singing doesn't start with us. When you sing songs that are all about you and your feelings, those aren't biblical songs.

32:26

Now, they might be on Christian radio, but they're not the heart of what it means to sing hymns and songs to God, because songs are

32:35

God -word. God is the author of our song. God is the subject of our song.

32:43

God is the object of our song, and God is the recipient of our song. Every aspect of our singing is

32:50

God -word. And he blessed God with his song.

32:55

Praise be to God. Before he could say anything about his situation, anything about anything, he had to say,

33:02

God, thank you, because you are so good. And our singing ought to look like that.

33:11

Amen. The second thing is he did. He used his song to bless the people of Israel.

33:17

It says, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited us and has accomplished redemption for his people.

33:25

He now moves from the who of what his praise is about, which is God, to the what, the content of his praise, which is,

33:32

God, thank you for the blessings that you've given to my people. Again, he's not even focused on himself.

33:38

He's not even at the point where he says, thank you for what you've done to me. It's God first.

33:44

It's us next. That's the way his song is laid out. He thanks

33:51

God that this is a physical visitation of God in the flesh incarnate.

34:00

If you have trouble remembering what the word incarnate means, this is a helpful little way that I remember it. In Spanish, meat is the word carne.

34:07

So he came in the meat. He came in the flesh. He came incarnate.

34:15

This is not a spiritual visitation. This is a visitation that had been prophesied for a thousand years at this point.

34:21

The hopes and dreams of the Jewish people were resting upon the fact that God would visit his people, just like it says in Malachi, that the

34:28

God whom you love will suddenly appear in his temple. This is the

34:33

God they were waiting for, for 430 years of silence. It was a physical visitation, a baby that was going to be wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.

34:47

Jesus Christ, the Lord, was the fulfillment of every hope and every expectation that the people of Israel had.

34:57

God was going to bless Israel not only in giving this son, but this son was going to be the fulfillment of every covenant promise.

35:02

You think about the covenant with David, where you're going to have a man to rule on the throne.

35:08

You think about the covenant with Abraham, which is specifically called out in verse 72 and 73. The blessings of Abraham are going to come to this people because of this son.

35:18

That is a massive thing that God is saying, because we have to remember that God doesn't forget his covenants.

35:26

There's two parties in a covenant. There's God making promises and there's human beings coming into relationship with him.

35:32

Out of both parties, who's the covenant breaker? Who's the one who forgets the terms?

35:39

Who's the one who didn't read the fine print? God remembers because he cannot forget the promises of his covenant, which means that if this text is telling us that the

35:54

Abrahamic covenant is going to come to fulfillment in Christ, then all the promises God gave to Abraham are going to come true in Jesus.

36:03

All of the promises. So now the question is, what are the promises that God gave to Abraham?

36:10

He said that Abraham was going to have offspring so numerous that you couldn't count them.

36:15

It would be like sand in the seashore and all the seashores and all the deserts.

36:21

And it would be like trying to look up at the stars and count them with the web telescope. You can't do it.

36:29

That's the first thing. You'll have a numerous, numerous offspring. The second thing is that he would have a great name,

36:36

Abraham, and his people would be a blessed people. The third thing is that all the nations of the earth and all the families of the earth were going to be blessed through him.

36:50

Now, if you think about that one, Abraham was told that every family on earth at some point was going to be blessed through his family.

37:00

That is a massive promise that God is saying right now in Luke 1 is going to come to fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

37:08

Which means that he's the long awaited child of Abraham, the seed of Abraham that's going to bring his people and multiply them to where they're more numerous than the stars.

37:18

Do you know that applies to you, dear Christian, who by your faith have been made children of Abraham?

37:24

As Paul says in Galatians 3, we around the throne of God in heaven will be more numerous than the stars, be more numerous than the sands of the sea.

37:34

That's promise is for us. Luke 1 tells us it is. Then we're going to have a great name and we're going to be blessed because we've been brought into Jesus, the one who will fulfill the promises of Abraham.

37:44

You and I will have a great name. What are you called by? Christian.

37:50

You know, that name was given to us in the earliest chapters of our history in the book of Acts as a slanderous title, you

38:00

Christians. And what a badge of honor it is that you and I could be known by that name.

38:08

The promises of Abraham are coming true in Christ for us. And what about all the families of the world that'll be blessed through him?

38:16

Well, dear ones, I tell you, you're living in the empire of Jesus Christ, the 2000 year kingdom at this point that is going to continue to advance to every tribe, tongue, and nation where the gospel is going to continue to have effect and win.

38:30

It may seem like all the isms are winning. The secularists, the humanists, the globanists, the globalists, the climate changers, the liberalists, the hyper -sexualists, the hedonistic immoralists that could keep going may seem like they're winning.

38:43

But keep your eye on the prize. It is promised that all the families of the earth will be blessed in Jesus Christ.

38:50

That has not happened yet. And God will fulfill it because he never forgets his promises. The kingdoms of this world will be crushed like an infant sandcastle under a giant's foot.

39:05

If Zacharias could see that before the resurrection happened, if Zacharias could sing that out before the very first person was called

39:14

Christian, if Zacharias could see that before there was any evidence that the kingdom of God was there in power, if he could sing that, then how much more can we?

39:25

How much more can we, who now, I don't know the exact number, only God knows that, but roughly two billion people in the world are

39:32

Christians, where the gospel has gone into every single nation at this point.

39:38

There's not a single nation on earth that doesn't have at least one Christian. That's astounding.

39:46

There's not a single line of latitude or longitude where there's not thousands of churches.

39:52

Did you know that there are about 40 million churches on earth?

39:59

And we know that not all of them are as faithful as they could be. 40 million churches.

40:09

How much more do we have evidence to sing than Zacharias, who hadn't seen any of it come to pass yet?

40:20

You know, the Bible has this interesting parable about the leaven of a lump of bread.

40:26

Now, normally when the Bible talks about leaven, it talks about leaven in a bad way. Leaven is like sin, right? You get a little bit of sin into you and it corrupts the whole thing.

40:34

Jesus also uses leaven, yeast, in a positive way. In Matthew, he talks about the church as the heaven -sent speck of yeast that will eventually leaven the entire lump.

40:50

What do you think he's talking about? That one little tiny piece of yeast who died and who rose again is causing the entire world to be turned upside down for his glory, and it will continue to work its way through the dough until it has conquered everything.

41:10

Do we believe that? That's why we don't have fear. That's why we don't get upset when certain politicians win or certain politicians lose.

41:21

Okay, I'm a citizen of heaven and so are you, and Christ our King is continually spreading his kingdom slower than you and I hope for because we're temporal finite beings who live in a microwave generation.

41:37

Can you even remember when it used to take five minutes to sign on AOL instant messenger? When's the last time you thought about a floppy disk?

41:49

We're a people who are obsessed with speed, but yet the best things that have ever been done are worked out over time, over generations and generations and generations.

42:02

The next blessing that's coming to Israel is redemption is going to come to this people. Not only the covenant promises, not only the incarnate

42:10

Son of God, but redemption is going to come to them because of these things. Verse 68 said, Blessed be the

42:15

Lord God of Israel, for he has visited us and accomplished redemption for his people. Verse 71,

42:21

Salvation from our enemies and from the hands of all who hate us. Verse 74 through 75,

42:27

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

42:38

When God visited, redemption was the purpose for which he came.

42:44

He purchased his people out of slavery to sin, out of the tyranny of the devil and out of the triunity of enemies that we all face.

42:53

There's two trinities in the Bible. There's the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. And there's the world, the flesh and the devil.

42:59

You're either going to be in the kingdom of one or the other. And he delivered us out of the kingdom of Satan, sin and death, the world, the flesh and the devil.

43:09

And he tells us now, I really want you to grab hold of this. This passage is one of the clearest passages in the

43:16

Bible. It tells us what the purpose of our salvation is. What is the purpose of your salvation?

43:21

Many people say, go to heaven. No, that's the destination of your redemption.

43:27

That's not the purpose of your redemption. What's the purpose? Why were you saved? Why did

43:33

God give you new creation life? Why does he expect you to live for him? What does he expect you to do for him?

43:39

Now that you are regenerate, what is the purpose of your salvation? If someone asked you that question, what would you say?

43:48

There's too many, I didn't hear them. Zacharias tells us that the purpose of our salvation is so that we may serve

43:57

God without fear. That we may serve God without fear. We were forgiven of our sins, transferred out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light.

44:07

We were redeemed. We were saved. We were adopted. We were brought in all of that for the purpose so that we might serve

44:12

God. That we might serve him without fear and in holiness and righteousness.

44:18

And in his presence, all the days of his life, dear and loved ones. If your faith is not producing service to God, then may

44:28

I suggest that it's out of alignment with what Zacharias is singing. If your faith is not leading you to serve

44:36

God without fear, then repentance is in order. I'm not saying you're not a

44:43

Christian because all of us, all of us go through periods of time where we struggle and where we sit on the sidelines.

44:55

Where we're maybe even in the bleachers. We're not even on the bench. All of us go through that.

45:04

But Zacharias is telling us that the purpose of our salvation, the reason Jesus came in flesh, the reason that he went three years of ministry which ended in his brutal murder.

45:16

The reason that he was put in a grave. The reason that he rose from the dead and ascended to heaven and sent his

45:22

Holy Spirit upon you. Forgave you of all your sins and so you will serve

45:28

God without fear. We live in an era of the church where that's really not accepted anymore.

45:38

If you say the purpose of your salvation is to serve God, someone will look at you and say, you're being a legalist.

45:45

How dare you tell me that the purpose of my salvation is to obey God. I don't have to do anything. I don't obey, it's

45:50

God who obeys. Yes, but what a confusion that is. We don't obey

45:56

God to be saved but because God, Jesus Christ, obeyed perfectly to save us, now he's brought us in to obey.

46:08

Obedience is not the root of our salvation. Obedience is the fruit. It's the purpose for which he saved you.

46:19

He saved us out of selfishness. You know, the root of the fallen man's issue is that he would rather serve himself than anyone else.

46:27

He saved us out of that. He saved us out of our flesh, our career, our friends, our egos, our desires, so that his ways now would become our ways.

46:37

So his thoughts would become our thoughts so that he's the one driving the ship.

46:45

In the same way that we did not have the free will to choose him. Controversial statement.

46:52

But it says we were dead and dead people don't choose anything. So in the same way we did not choose him, he did not die to give us libertine freedom where we can do whatever we want.

47:05

He transferred us out of slavery to sin and into the service of him. And that's where true freedom is.

47:11

If you think about a fish, where does a fish experience true freedom? In the water.

47:17

But that's so restrictive. I think a fish should be able to go anywhere that they want.

47:22

They should be able to go out in the air and enjoy time in the city. They should be able to go and shop and do everything.

47:29

But it would strangle them and kill them. You see, a fish is freest when it's bound in the condition called water.

47:37

You and I are freest when we're bound to Christ. We're now free to serve him.

47:45

That means that all of our life can be about him. Do you think about the gift that that is? Before you were saved, you would struggle.

47:56

Some of us have had stories where we've actually tried to save ourselves unsuccessfully. Martin Luther is a good example where he's confessing his sins over and over and over to the priest who's in charge of him, says, stop, come back when you've got something real to confess,

48:12

Martin. Some of us have beat our head against the wall trying to please a

48:19

God who we thought was angry with us. When I was a kid, my dad was a very, he was a hardworking man, but he would come home dog tired and he had almost no time for me.

48:32

And when he did, he was frustrated and upset. My dad and I are great today. The Lord has brought so much and I love my dad so much.

48:39

But back then, the idea that I had of my dad was he didn't have time for me and that he was angry at me.

48:46

And that's the way that I thought of God for about 15 years of my life. And I would try so hard to please him.

48:53

Hey God, look at me. They voted me as the president of the youth. Look at me.

49:01

I went to Christian school, look at me. I didn't finish Christian school, look at me.

49:11

And yet what a gift it is that after all that striving and after all that effort where I couldn't do anything at all, the gift that he gave me, the gift that he gave you is that now you can serve him.

49:22

Without fear. We think of serving God as a labor. The Bible thinks about serving

49:29

God as a gift. You've been given a gift that you can serve him with joy and with an all -consuming passion.

49:37

You've been given a gift that no mortal man deserves that you could make your entire life about him by the power of the

49:46

Holy Spirit. He's the reason we live. He's the reason we move. His love and affection is the only reason that we have being.

49:54

His love on you is a gift so that you can love him back. You think about we're in the

50:03

Christmas season and you give a gift to your loved one. Imagine if they open it and say, thank you so much.

50:11

They turn their back and they walk out of the room and they say, well, now that I've got this gift, I don't need you. How often, so many believers treated

50:21

God that way. The natural thing is when we get a gift, we thank, we praise.

50:27

If the gift is incredible, the best gift we've ever received, maybe we would overwhelmingly show affection to that person and that would change our life.

50:37

The greatest gift that's ever been given has been given to us. And the blessing of it is that we would serve him without fear.

50:46

Those are the three first things that this song is about. Blessing God, first and foremost. Blessing Israel.

50:53

And now the third thing is that he's going to use this to bless his son. He still hasn't even got to himself.

51:02

I think about my prayers. I'm starting with me a lot of times.

51:08

This guy just went through 10 months of being quiet. I don't talk a lot unless it's

51:15

Sunday. I'm kind of an introvert. But when I wanna talk, can you imagine how frustrating it'd be if I couldn't do it or you couldn't do it?

51:25

I don't know that I have the character that Zacharias has here. To give it all to God first, then to his people, then to his own son.

51:34

This is what he says in verse 76 through 77. And you child will be called prophet of the most high for you will go on before the

51:44

Lord to prepare his way to give his people the knowledge of salvation. Now, I just imagine the scene when

51:51

Zacharias is singing this. I imagine Elizabeth is smiling over in the corner that his family members are confused, wondering what has just happened.

51:58

Zacharias singing again, the guests who there are puzzled. You've got Zacharias whose voice is a little rusty, maybe singing out of tune, but yet he's probably singing a very common

52:07

Israelite hymn with using the tune of this to carry his words. You've got him belting out.

52:14

You've got probably someone in the back grabbing a tambourine. You've got loud music starting to swell in this house.

52:20

You've got the neighbors probably saying, what is going on at Zach and Lizzie's house? You've got the whole neighborhood worked up over this, coming over to see the miracle of God.

52:31

And they would have heard him say, praise be the

52:36

God of Israel because he has done this great thing for us and he's done this great thing for my son.

52:43

They would have heard when he said the spirit and the power of Elijah, they would have heard Malachi chapter four.

52:49

And they would have said the long -awaited forerunner of the Messiah had come.

52:58

You can imagine the pride of a father when our boys get really anything right when they're boys.

53:05

How much pride that swells in our heart. You can imagine this old man in the twilight years of his life knowing that his boy is gonna be the forerunner of the

53:16

Messiah. He's gonna be the one who teaches God's people the knowledge of Christ.

53:24

And from the moment his ministry began until the moment that his head was delivered on a platter, he delivered the knowledge of salvation through Jesus Christ to his people.

53:35

And that knowledge continued even on after his death because if you'll look at the apostles, they look a lot like John the

53:41

Baptist, don't they? Heralding the gospel of Christ in that first generation. You look at the second generation who saw the temple destroyed and they saw the kingdom of God coming with unrivaled power.

53:53

And you see the third generation of the fourth and you see these lion -hearted believers who were fed the lions and these lion -hearted believers who saw the

54:01

Roman empire eventually crumble but the kingdom of Christ still stands. You see it transforming

54:06

Europe. You see the reformation now sending missionaries out to the ends of the earth to where we get to today where the gospel, even in our society that's in the twilight years of its life, the gospel is still winning.

54:20

The message of John the Baptist that Zacharias was singing about was a message now that's been echoing through the halls of church history for 2 ,000 glorious years.

54:34

He's saying the blessings of God, the blessings of Israel, the blessings of his son, and then the final thing that he's saying is the blessing of the church.

54:44

He doesn't even sing about himself. None of it is about him. Look at what he says.

54:50

He, that's his son, will give to his people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins because of the tender mercy of our

55:00

God with which the sunrise from on high will visit us to shine upon those who sit in darkness in the shadow of death and to guide their feet in the way of peace.

55:11

Do you hear the gospel message that now applies to us that Zacharias was singing 2 ,000 years ago?

55:18

That God in human flesh came 2 ,000 years ago and he lived among his people and on purpose he marched up the hill of Calvary and as he was hanging on that cross, you and I, if you are in Christ, was his purpose so that he could redeem you out of your brokenness and out of your sin and out of your shame.

55:45

You think about Elizabeth crying out to God, you've brought me out of shame. We sing the same song as her.

55:52

All of the sins and all of the brokenness and all of the failure and all of the pain that we brought to this relationship has been forgiven in Jesus Christ so that now we have no more shame.

56:03

We have no more guilt. The greatest affliction that is afflicting

56:10

Christians today is shame that they ought not carry because Christ has already died for it.

56:17

You've sinned in your life. I've sinned in my life. Is Jesus Christ or not?

56:25

Because if he truly is the Christ that Zacharias was singing about, you have forgiveness of your sins.

56:32

If he really is the Christ that Zacharias is singing about, your shame is no more.

56:38

If he really is the Christ that Zacharias was singing about, you're not guilty. You've been made free in Jesus Christ and you've been given the knowledge of salvation which brings us to our conclusion.

56:56

The knowledge of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ will fill your hearts full.

57:03

Meditate on it. Meditate on what Jesus has done for you and it will fill your heart full of laughter and joy.

57:11

And as it fills your heart, let it open your mouth like the psalmist, like Mary, like Elizabeth, like Zachariah and let it call you to sing.

57:20

And my prayer for all of us is that we get to know this Christ who has done this great gospel for us that it would give us great joy.

57:28

Let us pray. Lord Jesus, the gospel comes so clearly through this passage and you were not even conceived yet.

57:43

Through the Holy Spirit, we are taught of what John the

57:49

Baptist's birth was going to look like and what your birth was going to look like for your people. Lord, let us praise you this morning that we no longer walk in darkness, but we are walking in the light if we are in Christ.

58:05

Lord, let us remember this morning that our sins have been forgiven, our shame been erased, our guilt been redeemed.

58:14

And Lord, if there's anyone here today who does not have that hope, then

58:22

Holy Spirit, I pray that you would flood their darkened heart with the light of Jesus Christ, that their eyes would be open and that they would cry out, how must

58:31

I be saved? And that there would be a saint here who would point them to the cross. It's in Jesus name we pray.