Song of Zechariah

[00:00:06] Amen. Let's pray and ask for God's illumination of our hearts that we might understand and trust him as we hear his word read and preached. [00:00:18] Let's pray. [00:00:20] Our Heavenly Father, apart from your light shining into the darkness of our lives, there's no seeing, there's no walking, there's no moving, there's just being stuck. [00:00:33] And we feel this in many ways, all kinds of variations on this theme in our lives. [00:00:42] But you have shined in the darkness. You have brought the revelation of the gospel, the good news that we are saved and that we no longer need to be stuck in our sin and misery, but can find new life and freedom in Christ. [00:01:00] Lord, we thank you for the salvation that we have in him and for all of the things that came before he came, that prepared the way. [00:01:11] And we thank you also for preparing our hearts that we might hear and receive this message. For apart from you working in us, we would have no hope. But you have worked, and you are working in the hearts of man, opening and changing, moving our minds and our wills, conforming our consciences to your word, all of this. Lord, we ask that you would do that today as well. That you would bring comfort where comfort is needed, that you would bring conviction where conviction is needed. That you would bring encouragement and boldness, that you would bring understanding and and grace. [00:01:48] Bring forth the fruits of your Holy Spirit in our lives according to your Word and the promises that we have in Christ. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. [00:02:03] Well, this morning we are going to read and then sing after we finish, after I finish preaching the song of Zechariah. So let's turn to Luke chapter one and hear this beautiful passage of Scripture. [00:02:22] Please remain standing if you're able. We're in Luke chapter one, and I will read verses 67 through 80. [00:02:40] Now, in this passage, the person who's speaking is Zechariah, and he is the father of this son that is about to be born. Not Jesus, but John, a cousin of Jesus, who had a similarly surprising birth, born of a woman, Zechariah's spouse, Elizabeth, who was barren and all of a sudden she has a child similar in some ways to Mary. And let's hear God's word this morning as Zechariah's mouth is opened and he speaks. [00:03:17] 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. He 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 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. [00:04:33] And the child grew and became strong in the spirit. And he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel. [00:04:42] You may be seated. [00:05:16] Before the Lord came, many things happened. In fact, you can look here. I'm open to Luke. Here's the after Luke, and here's before Luke. You can see a few things happened. [00:05:31] Lots of things happened. The world was made, the world was filled. Man fell in all kinds of ways and all kinds of times. God keeps breaking into the world over and over and over again, breaking apart our hearts of sin, breaking apart our rebellion, calming us, giving us peace, showing us the way. All kinds of things, all to prepare the way for Jesus in the fullness of time. I always think about pregnancy here. In the fullness of time, Jesus came. [00:06:08] Time was pregnant. And at the right moment, the exact moment destined my God, promised by God, set by God, and the Savior was born. [00:06:25] One of the things that gives us confidence in our Savior is all the things that came before, including John. [00:06:33] John. This relative of Jesus, John. Similarly, a miraculous birth. John, who was prophesied about himself, the Old Testament. And here Zechariah opens his mouth and he speaks this. This prophecy, this beautiful prose, which Christians have sung for a long, long time. And we'll get to sing as well today, hopefully with greater understanding and with an opportunity to reflect on the things that are that are said there. [00:07:09] He speaks this song, this poem. [00:07:13] He prophesies these words of the Lord. They're not merely a reflection of his own heart. They are from the Holy Spirit, we are told. And they tell us something about how we should understand John. [00:07:27] This one who's coming, this one who is coming and preparing the way of Jesus. And in particular, he gives us several reasons why we should listen To John. [00:07:38] John, like Zechariah is doing here, is a prophet. He speaks the word of the Lord. Why should we listen to him? Why should we pay attention to this child that is born, a child that goes out into the wilderness and eats locusts. Later we read and wears camel clothes made from camels and is calling people to repentance. Why should people listen to him? Why should we pay attention to what he says? [00:08:10] That's what we'll focus on this morning. The answer that I want to have us meditate on, why we should listen to John, is because of the One who sent him. [00:08:21] Not His Father, but his God. [00:08:26] There are things that we see about God, as Zechariah prophesies here, that help us to understand both who God is, who John is, who Jesus is, who we are. [00:08:40] So let's take a look at our passage this morning. [00:08:44] The first thing we see, the first reason we have to listen to John, is because the one who sent him, our God, is a promise keeper. [00:08:54] Notice what Zechariah says and how he starts. He starts with praise to God, blessed be the Lord God of Israel. And then he describes the things that he's done. Notice these verbs. Visited, redeemed, raised. There are more that come after this. But then there's two key words in verse 70 that ground these things that God is doing, this light that he's bringing. [00:09:21] What are they? It said the words are as he, as he in verse 70 as he. These things he did as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old. [00:09:36] In other words, these things don't just come out of nowhere, although that would be certainly fine enough if they did, I suppose. But they do come from somewhere. [00:09:46] Something has been said before about these events. God had previous prophets who spoke of these things. [00:09:54] There's more as you continue down. We read in verse 72 that he hears more verbs of things that God's doing to show mercy. That was promised to our fathers. It was spoke by the prophets. It was promised to the fathers. And then he describes that more when he says to remember his holy covenant. A covenant is a promise. It's a really serious promise. It might be described as Zechariah does here in verse 33, as an oath. [00:10:28] He describes this covenant, these promises, as an oath that he swore to our Father Abraham. [00:10:36] All this language is of course, really amazing if you reflect on it even for just a moment, that God, God would swear anything, would promise make an oath about anything to anyone. What does God owe any person? What does God owe Abraham, who as we know from the scriptures in the Old Testament belonged to a family and a people that were worshiping moon gods and others. [00:11:05] God didn't know anything to Abraham. [00:11:08] And yet God makes this oath. He swears by his own life, which is eternal, to make him a father of many nations, an exalted father through whom God would bless all the earth. He promises to Abraham a son that would be born, that would be our Savior and would fulfill even the promise previous promises he made to Adam and Eve about one who would come and crush the head of the serpent and undo the curse and bring blessing into the world. [00:11:42] These are the things that God has spoken. He's promised them. He promised them to Abraham, he promised them to Isaac and to Jacob. He made promises to Israel and to and to David. He made promises to Israel. He made to individuals. He made promise to the people, to the people of that family. [00:12:04] He made oaths and he swore and he prophesied through his prophets these things. [00:12:11] And now they're happening. [00:12:14] Why should we believe? Why should we listen to John? Because the one who sent this prophet is a promise keeper. [00:12:24] These promises run throughout all the pages of the Bible. [00:12:29] If you were to spread out all the pages of the Bible, you know, flat and highlight all the promises of God, it would be similar to looking up at the stars and just seeing the vast heavens. They're all over the place. On all sorts of all the pages of Scripture. You find these promises reiterated and you find them in prose, you find them in poetry, you find them in songs, you find them in all kinds of forms, God speaking over and over and over again, these promises. Because God is a promise keeper and John's own life is testament to that. [00:13:13] If you turn to Mark, which talks about the coming of John as well, I'm going the wrong direction. There we go. Luke. Mark is the gospel right before Mark, at the beginning of the Gospel. [00:13:25] In Mark, chapter one, this is how Mark opens. [00:13:29] He says the beginning of the gospel. Gospel means good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah, the prophet. This is Isaiah 40. [00:13:41] Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way. The voice of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight. [00:13:55] John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. [00:14:03] You see what Mark is saying? He says the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Where Mark starts the story is with John, with this prophecy in Isaiah 40 about one who would precede the Messiah. Who would come and say, prepare the way of the Lord would make this grand big awesome announcement that would tell everybody, it's coming, it's getting, get ready. And of course, the Lord did more than that, more than just John. There were angels in the sky proclaiming these things. There was the star of Bethlehem all. It was like the world was shaking, things were happening, everything was rumbling. And the Messiah was about to come. [00:14:48] So John's own life is a testament to God's promise keeping. John himself, his body, his soul, his words are the fulfillment of promises that were made many, many years before. [00:15:04] Now, there's two reasons this is worth meditating on. [00:15:09] One is it teaches us that God is reliable, He's a reliable, or he is reliable. [00:15:18] John, as Zechariah says, is a prophet of the most high. Our God keeps his promises. Lots of people, including you and me, don't keep our promises. Like God keeps his promises perfectly and in every way. [00:15:36] When somebody keeps their promises to you, everything that they do or everything that they say they do, what do you think of them? [00:15:45] We call these people people with integrity, people with character. There's something that you, can you put your trust in them. The more that we trust them, the more we think of their character. [00:15:57] There's a kind of. [00:16:01] There's a difficulty that we have when, when people don't keep their promises, right? When they struggle and, or when we struggle to trust them because there's this inconsistency between what they say and what they do. [00:16:16] God is one we can trust. He can lead us through everything. Even though we can't see him, even though we struggle to know exactly what he's doing, we know that he is reliable. [00:16:32] We also, it's important to note his reliability covers. [00:16:38] Covers something that's very. [00:16:40] A period of time that's very long. We could say this, put it in this way. God is not just reliable, but he's a reliable miracle worker. If my wife asks me to pick up some milk on the way home from Walmart and I do that, you know, and I'm given 30 minutes to accomplish this thing, no one's going to, you know, give me an award, right? This is a basic thing that one should be able to do, or at least I should be able to do right now. If I was asked to, to cause someone to be born hundreds and hundreds of years later after saying that, that I would do that, right? Maybe I should win an award, right? This would be a very impressive thing. God. This is what God does. And we don't think about this because of course, like, well, he's God. That's what God does. He can do things because he's outside of time, because he rules time and space, because he can move molecules and create things out of nothing. Of course he can. But that's not something we should take for granted. [00:17:54] God is reliable, a reliable miracle worker. Reliable in his power, in his great might. In the birth of John, born of a woman who was barren, and then his cousin Jesus, who was born of a woman who was a virgin, we can see that the one who sent God is one, or the one whom God sent is worth listening to. He is a prophet of the Most High. He's a messenger of the one who is reliable, trustworthy, and can do it in ways that no one could ever do except him. [00:18:34] So we should listen to John, because his master is a promise keeper. The one who sent him keeps his promises. He's a reliable miracle worker. And so if John, as his messenger, says some extraordinary things, we ought to believe it, because the one who sent him is extraordinary. [00:18:55] Well, that leads us to number two. Then. What is. What are the things that God says? What are the things that are promised? Well, we see that God is not just a promise keeper, but also a hope bringer. He brings us hope. I pointed you earlier where I'm in Mark. Let's get back to Luke. I pointed you earlier to the verbs, some of these verbs of God's actions, right in Zechariah's prophecy here. Notice them. Let your eyes kind of scan down the passage, or you could hear them. God visits, he redeems. He raises up a horn of hope. He saves from enemies. He shows mercy, he gives light, he causes us, he guides us, which we'll come to in the last point. [00:19:48] These are amazing things for God to visit us, to redeem us, which is to. To pay a debt so that we might be rescued out of slavery. [00:20:01] Slavery to what? [00:20:02] Slavery to sin, slavery to corruption, slavery to fear of death, which we'll touch on in a moment as well. [00:20:10] He raises up a horn of salvation. [00:20:13] This is like. [00:20:16] This is an announcement, right? A promise of hope. And that is coming. [00:20:22] He saves us from our enemies. He does all these things. And again, as he keeps his promises, one of the last things that he promises here is a very strong image, and I'd like to meditate on it with you for a moment. [00:20:40] The things that John promises that come to us in Jesus are described in verse 79, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. [00:20:54] As you think about this, think for a moment about a time when you've been in the dark and have been scared. [00:21:03] I don't think there's anyone in this room who hasn't been scared at some time or another of the dark. [00:21:11] Perhaps it was as a child, perhaps as an adult, perhaps as both. When we get into unfamiliar places and find ourselves in an environment where we can't see, where we don't know the things around us, what's going on, where it's difficult to perceive, that's a scary thing. It can be get out of control. I'll give you some adult examples. So kids, you know that this happens to all of us. Perhaps you adults have been like me, where you've been in the garage and a cord gets pulled, whatever your light source is, and all of a sudden it's totally dark, right? And somehow you have to find this cord or find the light and get it plugged back into the thing, right? Or maybe you've been in a new place where you weren't expecting to be. The darkness can be. It doesn't have to be, but the darkness can be a difficult place to be because it cuts off our senses. It makes us feel out of control. [00:22:11] But notice the kind of darkness that is described here to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. [00:22:21] This is not the light just going off. [00:22:26] This is the great shadow of an object, of a thing blocking the light. [00:22:37] Perhaps you've. I feel like I can't think of any particular example, but I've seen movies, perhaps you have too, where there's some character. And then all of a sudden everything kind of goes dark around them, a great shadow surrounding them. And they kind of look up behind them and it's a giant, whatever monster, robot cloud, starship, right? This giant. [00:23:01] This giant thing that is. That foretells your doom. [00:23:07] And that's what's described here. [00:23:10] It's not just darkness as in sort of general confusion, although that's part of it. This darkness has a particular cause. [00:23:17] The light is being blocked out by a particular thing. [00:23:23] This person. These people sit in darkness because they don't know where to go, because they're afraid, because there is the shadow of death that is covering them. [00:23:39] This describes life in our world so well. [00:23:46] We live in a world that is full of darkness. [00:23:50] A world that is constantly dying. [00:23:54] People dying, friends dying, our own bodies. We feel them sort of struggling often to stay alive. [00:24:04] From one cold to the next, from one bone breaking to the next, from one memory slip to the next. We feel ourselves over time, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, slipping away. And we see it all around us, and we do everything we can to stop it, to slow it down, to manage it, but it still keeps coming. [00:24:26] It keeps coming. [00:24:28] And the corruption and the misery that's all tied to that is on display not only in this very physical way, but spiritually as well. [00:24:40] Many, many people sitting in spiritual darkness alone, separated from God, not knowing what to do, not wanting to go. Lives consumed by fear, a sense of guilt, of course, for the things that we've done, the ways that we've sinned, the regrets that we have, these things that we've done against our neighbor and against our God. [00:25:04] You've not loved kindness like we ought to. [00:25:09] We've not done justly walked humbly with our God. [00:25:17] So much of our lives, as we reflect to them, are filled with pride and arrogance, grabbing our own ways, doing our own things. These things weigh us down. We know them to be true. [00:25:28] We know the consequences they deserve. And many, many people sit in that place. They're held in that place as this shadow of death looms over them. Hebrews tells us that when Jesus sets us free, he sets us free from the slavery that we have, that the devil himself has over us as he uses this fear of death to hold us in bondage. [00:25:55] You're guilty and you deserve to die is essentially the message in all kinds of various forms. And. And it's true. That's the hard part about the accusations, is you can't just brush them off and say, well, I didn't really do it when you did. [00:26:11] I didn't really feel that way. I didn't really slip up. I didn't really hurt those people when we did. [00:26:18] It's not to say that everything is as bad as it could be, or there aren't good things that are going on in our lives. But how do we account for the things that are there that we can't push under the rug or just ignore stuff down? [00:26:35] What do we do about them? [00:26:38] Well, there is nothing that we can do on our own, but God does something. And that's what Zechariah is saying. That's what John's announcing, and that's what Jesus comes to do. [00:26:49] He's bringing hope, friends. He. He's bringing hope. He's visiting. He's redeeming, and he's shining light in this place of darkness to those who sit in darkness. And in the shadow of death, he shines his light. [00:27:07] The light of God. [00:27:10] Now, if anything could ever overcome death and slavery to sin, it's this. It's him. It's our God, the light of God who shines in the darkness and the darkness does not overcome it. [00:27:27] These are words I'm quoting from John, from the Gospel of John, that talk about Jesus. [00:27:35] John is preparing the way for Jesus. He's like an alarm going off. He's saying, it's coming, it's coming, it's time, it's time. [00:27:44] Perhaps some of you on your phones have alarms set that tell you when something is about to happen, right? You have 20 minutes until you need to be at your destination. [00:27:55] These kinds of things. John is like that. [00:27:59] He's saying that the time has come, Jesus is here. And it's a message of hope. [00:28:06] Hope, hope, joy to the world. [00:28:11] This is why we sing these things, because it is joy to all the world. We can trust God and we can trust his messenger because God is a hope bringer and John is a hope bringer as his messenger. [00:28:28] So we've seen that God is a promise bringer and a promise keeper and a hope bringer. We'll mention once more, he is a way finder. He's our guide, as that last verse says. He gives light for a purpose. [00:28:43] He gives light for a purpose. What is it? To guide our feet into the way of peace. [00:28:50] Or as he puts it earlier in another way, in verse 74, we are delivered from the hand of our enemies, including death, that we might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. [00:29:09] This, excuse me, God, John. [00:29:15] God uses John as. And he is another example of God breaking into this world, as I mentioned before, doing something here and now that anticipates the things that he will do in, in a consummate way in the future. [00:29:33] Mouths are opening up, forgiveness is happening, repentance is happening. Life is happening. John is born out of a barren womb. Jesus is born out of a virgin womb. [00:29:48] The law, the light and the kingdom of God. That it will be consummated when Jesus returns on the last day is already coming into the world. [00:30:00] What's my point? The point is this, this hope that we've just been talking about, the visiting, the redeeming, the light shining, the saving, all of that is not purely future. God is guiding us here and now in the way of peace. [00:30:19] And this is the heartbeat of the message that God gives to John. [00:30:24] This message about the coming kingdom that is now here. [00:30:30] So we should listen to John. [00:30:33] We should pay attention to where he's Leading and where he goes and where does he send us? Well, when Jesus appears on the scene, he points at him and he says, this is the Lamb of God who came into the world. [00:30:48] This is the one who saves sinners from their sins. John, this amazing prophet, this holy man, this one who himself was prophesied about, came about in this miraculous way. This man says he's not even worthy to untie the sandals of Jesus. [00:31:11] John himself is one of the most amazing people that have ever lived. And when it comes to Jesus, he bends the knee instantly. [00:31:23] Jesus says to him, baptize me. He's like, no, you should be baptizing me. [00:31:31] John understands his place. He's not the Messiah. He tells people that they come to him, they think he's so great. They go, are you the Messiah? He's like, I'm not the Messiah, but I come to bear witness about him. [00:31:49] Here's the good news for us. [00:31:51] The one who sent John is also the one who came. [00:31:57] The one who speaks through John is also the word of God who became incarnate. [00:32:04] The Lord who sent is also the Lord who was sent. [00:32:10] And this is who John testifies to. [00:32:14] I'm going to tell you something sad, but it has a very happy ending. [00:32:21] The sad thing is that this little baby who was born, that Zechariah is prophesying about right now, and he does these great things at the end of his life is he's beheaded. [00:32:34] He's beheaded in this moment where this man and a king and his court and all these people are filled with pride, self deception, lust, greed. It's awful. [00:32:51] And John is willing to talk about it. John is willing and not only willing, but called by God to talk about the kingdom of God that is coming in the righteousness that we need and the Savior that has come. And they hate it. [00:33:12] These people who are bound in darkness, they hate it. Instead of hearing the light and listening to the light, they want to cut off his head. And they do. [00:33:24] John wouldn't be the last Christian who would be beheaded before and after him. [00:33:32] Beheaded for standing up for the light, for bearing witness to the light, for sharing of the light. [00:33:38] He wouldn't be the last person who would lose his life because other people clung to their own power and their lusts and turned away from God. [00:33:50] But John didn't die hopeless. [00:33:55] The message that he preached was still true. [00:34:00] And John and everyone who lives and dies in the Lord who lives and dies in the way of peace, who lives and dies, shine abiding in the light of God will one day receive a crown of righteousness upon their head in a body that is made whole, in a body that is incorruptible, that is glorious and wonderful. [00:34:29] Because the same Holy Spirit that filled Zechariah to speak, the same Holy Spirit that caused John to speak, is the same Spirit of God that caused Jesus to rise from the dead. And the Scriptures promises the same spirit that dwells in us that will raise our mortal bodies to immortality. [00:34:54] Life out of death, light shining in darkness. This is what John testifies to. This is of whom he speaks. And this is our Savior, Jesus, our Lord. [00:35:11] So we ought to listen to John. We ought to pay attention to him. And when we do, we will do like Zechariah did. In verse 68, we will say, blessed be the God of Israel. [00:35:26] Let's pray and bless God, our heavenly Father. We lift our hearts and our hands up to you and we pray to you with thankfulness for all that you have done in our lives. Thank you for rescuing us out of the dominion of darkness. Thank you for shining your light in the world. Thank you for opening us up to this kind of freedom and peace that we did not know before when we sat in the sin and misery and guilt of our old lives. [00:35:58] We ask, Lord, that to those who do not yet know you, you would shine your light brightly and you would give them and help them to hear and believe that message of hope, that they and all of us together might no longer be dismayed, that we would no longer despair of the things of this world, of the brokenness in this world, but that we would see that you are active in repairing, in healing, and that one day all things will be made right. [00:36:31] Bring us out from under the shadow of death. Cause us like your little lambs, to walk through the valley of the shadow of darkness. And let us fear no evil. For you are with us. You feed us, you guard us, you protect us, you prepare a table for us in the presence of our enemies. And all because of your tender mercy. [00:36:55] How awesome you are to be so powerful and yet so tender. [00:37:01] All in one. [00:37:04] We give all glory to you, our great God and King. We put our faith in Jesus Christ, this one whom who John prophesied about, this one who lived and died for us so that we might live in him forever. Help us to trust him with everything in our lives, from the tiniest things to the great big things. [00:37:26] And we pray this all in Jesus name. Amen.