Amen, and please be seated. If you have a Bible, let me invite you to turn with me to the Gospel according to Luke chapter 1, this morning, verses 57 through 80. Some of the most beautiful and meaningful, and theologically rich hymns of the faith are the carols of Christmas. Christmas is a season for singing, and we didn't make that up.
It's right here in Luke 1 and 2. Last week we heard the song of Mary. This morning we hear the song of Zachariah, on Christmas, evil, here, the song of the angels. What's there to sing about?
Well, let's let Luke tell us. Luke chapter 1, beginning at verse 57. Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.
And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they would have called him Zachariah after his father, but his mother answered, no, he shall be called John. And they said to her, none of your relatives is called by this name. And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called, and he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, his name is John. And they all wondered.
And immediately his mouth was opened, and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. And fear came on all their neighbors, and all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea, and all who heard them laid up in their hearts, saying, what then will this child be? For the hand of the Lord was with him. And his father, Zachariah, 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 a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from a vault, that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us. To show the mercy, promise 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.
When the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel. Amen, this is God's word, let's look to him in prayer. Father, we need you, and we pray that by the spirit of God, the word of God, the good news of the gospel of God would bring joy and hope to us. So be our teacher, give us ears to hear, and hearts to believe in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Well, the passage obviously has two sections, the narrative account, of course, of the birth to Elizabeth and Zechariah of their son John, and then the song, the prayer that has been often put to song, the song of Zechariah extolling, the coming of the Messiah and also extolling his own son, the coming of the Messiah's forerunner. And so we're invited this morning to consider what God is doing for the world in giving both John and Jesus. And let me unpack it with you in four parts, in verses 57 to 66. I want you to see the responsiveness of God's people to this effect.
And then the effectiveness of God's discipline on Zechariah in verses 59 to 64, followed by the prophecy of God's redeemer in 67 to 75. And then the purpose, as Zechariah lays it out, the purpose of John's ministry in verses 76 to 80. In the first place, just note in the narrative, the responsiveness of God's people, family it says and friends and neighbors. They have four responses, at least.
They rejoice and to verse 58. They wonder at the end of verse 63, they fear verse 65 and they puzzle. Verse 66, that is all who heard them laid them up in their hearts saying, what then will this child be? And so notice first of all, they rejoice.
They delight in God's gift and they celebrate. Verse 57, now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth to a son to give birth and she bore a son. Now in case we forgot this in their day, they had to alter sounds to prove the sex of the child in the womb. And so this note of course reminds us that the baby was just as the angel Gabriel had promised.
A son. And it reminds us then of God's faithfulness to do what he says he will do. This is a promised child. And now there's fulfillment.
And everybody celebrates. What are they celebrating? On the one hand, notice verse 58, her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her and they rejoiced with her. These are loving neighbors.
These are the kind of neighbors you want to have. Maybe the kind of neighbor we ought to be. The kind who fulfilled the command. Well, that we should on the one hand weep with those who weep but rejoice with those who rejoice.
And here they rejoice that an old woman came safely through labor. That's not to be taken for granted. It's a gift of God's mercy. And they rejoice of course that a baby came safely through delivery.
And as we know, there is no guarantee of that. But again, as a gift of God's mercy, for as Hannah said so long ago when God gave her a child after much fairness in 1 Samuel 2, 6, Yahweh, she says, kills and brings to life. He brings down to shield and raises up. Our lives are in his hands.
And a safe delivery of a boy and his mother through childbearing is a reason for family and neighbors to rejoice with them in God's good providence to them. And so they rejoice. But then they're astonished. What are they astonished at?
Well, notice how the passage reads verse 59 and on the eighth day they came to his circumcised the child. I suppose like with many of you, when you bring your baby for baptism, family and friends, if they're able come to witness it and in support of it. And well, let's be glad of course that baptism, the New Testament counterpart to the Old Testament rite of circumcision is a much more pleasant experience for all, recipient and witnesses. For us, of course, the unbloody sign of baptism is replaced the bloody sign of circumcision.
Why? Because Christ has come and spilled his own blood once and for all. To give us the true spiritual reality, which both circumcision and baptism signify. That is, what is that?
It's the cleansing we have. That's only in Christ through our union in Him. So both baptism and circumcision are signs and seals of the covenant of grace. And they have come to apply the sign and seal of circumcision, the sign and seal of the covenant of grace to this baby.
In accordance with, of course, God's command to Abraham in Genesis 17 that not only he, the believer, but that those born in his house were bought with his money likewise should be circumcised. The Apostle Paul in Romans 4 tells us of Abraham, he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still on circumcised. So that the sign of circumcision functioned as a seal to assure to Abraham the promise of justification. That were righteous before God, not by our works, but through faith in the promise, faith in the Messiah.
Well, baptism does likewise. I mean, the water doesn't save us, but it signs and seals that true reality of union with Christ and cleansing by his blood through the work of the Holy Spirit's baptism. So then it's not strange that family and friends should come to this witnessing of God's covenant sign being applied, that's not strange, but it does seem strange to us, I suppose, that they would have named the child, end of verse 59. They would have called him Zechariah after his father, but his mother answered, no, he shall be called John.
I mean, Elizabeth knows his name, why? Because the angel Gabriel told her husband Zechariah the child's name. And Zechariah obviously communicated that to her and undoubtedly by using a writing tablet that's spoken of later in the passage. But these people object and they say to her, none of your relatives is called by this name, as if Elizabeth doesn't already know such a thing.
What's in their minds, however, is that, well, this is the firstborn male child, it may be the only, but it's the firstborn male, and firstborn males, often in their day were named for their father, or at least some family member. They not a naturally want to honor his father and call him Zechariah or maybe little Zech, and they've climbed up the family tree and can't find the name John in any of the branches. Scratch their heads. Maybe they think Elizabeth has temporarily lost her mind postpartum or something, and so what do they do?
They make signs for 62 to his father inquiring what he wanted him to be called. Now that's interesting. Surely they're saying, Zechariah, you're not going along with this. And notice by the way, that they made signs to the father.
Why would you make signs to him if he's mute, and can't speak, but not deaf? I mean, just ask him, and then he can write it down. But evidently he is both mute and deaf, which the word that the angel used to describe the discipline he was about to receive for his doubting God and the messenger of God, well that word can mean mute and deaf together. And evidently he was.
And so they made signs to him, you know, maybe something like this, whatever, I don't know. In verse 63, they gave him a writing tablet, and he wrote, and you can imagine I suppose the anticipation of the crowd as they read each word. He wrote in the Greek word order, John. Okay, okay, yeah, yeah, that's what she said.
John is, uh-huh, uh-huh, name. Yes, it's a name, whose name? His. John is his name, not junior.
Whoa, verse 63. They all wondered, that is they were astonished. They were amazed. How unusual, how non-traditional, how uncustomary.
They just don't get it. So they were joy-sing, and now they're astonished, and in a moment they fear. Verse 64, and immediately, that is, immediately upon Zachariah, noting the name is John. His mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke and blessed God.
Verse 65, and fear came on all their neighbors. Now that a man might go from speaking to the inability to speak, from hearing to the inability to hear, would be a rare but not unknown thing, right? Sometimes because of illness or injury that happens, we lose our senses or capacities. They probably known people who had suffered such a thing.
But to have a man who is deaf, suddenly here, and a man who is mute, suddenly speak, and speak not a slurred voice, but with a tongue that's loose and able, they would find that vahiri unusual. In fact, it would be viewed as a miracle of God for nobody, was able to cure deafness and muteness but God. And only in the days of the Messiah, would they expect this kind of thing to happen. It was actually in Isaiah 35, foretold that, well, that when Messiah comes to save, the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped, and then shall the layman leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
And so the spectacle of Zechariah singing for joy, and the wonder of it, caused people to fear God, not of course the cowering fear of one who, say, faces unbearable punishment, but the filial fear, the loving respect of those who are in awe of God. After all, what they just heard Zechariah when he blessed God, are the words of the prophecy given verse 67. I mean, they're told later that the narrative is sort of finished, but how did he bless God? Over 67, tells you the blessing he gave so that he sings his song, and they become in awe of God.
And so just note how responsive they are to the events and folding around them, responsive to the extraordinary provinces of God in their midst. The barren woman gives birth. A mother in old age delivers a baby boy safely, and they rejoice. An unusual name out of left field is it were a name, meaning God is gracious, given of course by the angel, is given to the boy, and they're amazed, and then a deaf, mute hears and speaks, and praise of God by the power of the Holy Spirit, and their hearts burn with reverence for God.
And so as it happens in communities, words spread far and wide, verse 65, and all these things were talked about throughout all the hill country of Judea, and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, what then will this child be? For the hand of the Lord was with him. The rejoicing and amazement and respectful awe of the people of God blessed the whole community with good news of great joy that will be for all the people. All who heard the words laid them up in their hearts are puzzling over things, such as the effect of God's word of hope, inspired by God's spirit, spoken by God's joyful, amazed, awestruck people.
Shall we then not ask God to loosen, as it were, our tongues among our family and neighbors and community, for their peace and hope and joy in the fulfillment of God's promise in the coming of, well, John and Jesus. Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks, made the Lord grant that peace and hope and joy that will overwhelm our hearts, and we'd speak a word of the Savior. So we see the responsiveness of God's people, then we see the effectiveness of God's discipline. We shouldn't overlook it.
Let's get past it in the story, but you remember what had happened. Well, earlier in Luke, Zachariah had been visited by the angel Gabriel, while Zachariah was serving in the temple, and the angel had told him that his prayer was answered. He'd have a boy named John, and John would be great before the Lord, filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb, and would come in order to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord. But Zachariah, hearing that, doubted the word of the angel, doubted the messenger as well as the message of God himself, and for that he was disciplined.
Gabriel said to him, chapter one, verse 20, "'Behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day "'that these things take place, because you did not "'believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time." I don't know if you can imagine what suddenly going death and mute would be like. I don't know if I can. Some of you in God's providence know loss of sight, or loss of hearing, perhaps difficulty of speaking, or some other significant bodily ailment, or illness, or injury. Certainly we all face misery in this world, maybe some mental or emotional or relational difficulties, painful trials, not necessarily for sin.
Like Zachariah, it was sin, and he was disciplined for sin. But we all face trouble of many kinds, not always on account of particular sin, certainly not. But in God's providence, nonetheless, what effect does that have on you? Notice here the effect on Zachariah?
Well, the discipline was effective for the softening of the heart that he might believe and obey, the message of the Lord. I mean, for nine months, imagine it. He can't talk, he can't hear. All he has ringing in his ear is the voice of the angel about John, and then the discipline, and that it will end only when these events are fulfilled.
But you can imagine the difficulty and trial of the nine months. You can imagine someone's heart growing bitter, and resentful. Why does it have to be for nine months? Why not just a month?
Why not just a week? He might have, well, let's just say grown, so to speak, an evil, unbelieving heart that would lead him to fall away from the living God, which he resounds us about ourselves. But Zachariah shows that he endured his hardship as discipline, for God was treating him as a son, a beloved son. For the moment, the writer of Hebrews 12 says, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness for those who have been trained by it.
And Zachariah was so trained. He bore the fruit, the fruit of faith, the fruit of righteousness. He called the boy John. He agrees with the angel.
He obeys the angel, and upon his faith and obedience at the proper time, the discipline imposed is taken away. And having believed, he blesses God. He doesn't open his mouth and curse, his word they're gracious, not bitter, for he has come to understand that the Lord meant him good, and had had mercy on him, and had done great things for him. All of them deserved in the face of what he really does deserve.
And so God, then by the use of hardship, disciplined him for his good, and demonstrated that Zachariah was, by God's grace, God's true son, for the Lord disciplines, those he loves, says Hebrews 12. Shall we, not then also endure hardship as discipline. Amidst God's fatherly loving discipline of ourselves, submit ourselves to him, and bear the peaceful fruit of righteousness in our own lives. What we see God's discipline was effective.
What effect is God's discipline having on you? And there's a third thing in the passage, the prophecy of God's redeemer. This, of course, is Zachariah's song, verse 67, his father, Zachariah, filled with Holy Spirit, prophesied, saying, blessed be the Lord God of Israel. This is sometimes called, Zachariah's Benedictus, from the word for blessing in the Latin translation.
And like Mary's Magnificat, it's full of biblical references. We don't have time to follow all the rabbit trails. What follows, though, is also a Holy Spirit inspired, prophetic word. This priest has become a prophet by the work of the Spirit.
And what is the blessing of God of which Zachariah spoke? It begins with a focus on the Messiah. It will turn then to his own child, John. But then it will come back around to the Messiah.
Notice where it begins. Verse 68, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people. He speaks frankly of the incarnation. God visits his people.
The word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory, glorious of the only son from the Father, full of grace and truth. And he's praising God that the forerunner has been birthed, and he knows the Lord is coming, is in the womb of Mary, about to be birthed. And he thinks of that child.
Blessed is God for visiting us, redeeming salvation. Doesn't come, you understand, from inside us, but from outside of us, not by human invention, but by divine intervention, even visitation. And notice that Zachariah says he has redeemed his people. Now that appears to suggest, doesn't it, that it's already done.
But this can't be in a sense because the baby is still in the womb of the Virgin Mary, not yet on the cross, certainly not yet raised from the tomb. But this is a prophetic, and the prophets often spoke this way. It's a prophetic way of saying what is future is so certain, because God guarantees it, that we can speak of it, is having already been done. The Messiah he knows has come, he's in the womb.
God is in the flesh to redeem his people, and of course, he will finish the work. To redeem means to purchase by payment of a price. Jesus will purchase a people for God from among every tribe and tongue and language and nation. By paying the price, we cannot pay for ourselves.
A price to be paid, to satisfy divine justice, and to free us from the prison of depravity, the bondage to sin and death and hell, and to purchase us for God. That's what Jesus will do when he celebrates it. Then notice as well the strength by which God will do this, verse 69, 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 the hold. That horn language, it's odd for us, and unless you work with certain kinds of animals, we don't think about this at all, but a horn was a symbol of power and strength as with the horn of a bull.
So a horn of salvation is a mighty salvation, or there's a mighty Savior who will exert himself on behalf of his people with power. And notice also the reason God does this, verse 72. Why does he do it? To show the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to Abraham.
Because God never forgets what he's promised. He keeps his covenant of grace that he established with Adam and Eve in the garden after their sin when in Genesis 3.15, he promised Adam and Eve and all their posterity. That means he promised it to you and me that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the servant. And he also promised to Abraham in Genesis 22, on oath that he would surely bless him and multiply him in that in his offspring singular, all the nations of the earth would be blessed.
That offspring is Jesus, and all who believe in him, all who trust in him, are then heirs of the covenant of grace being co-heirs with Christ. And Zechariah hears, he is glorying in this, that God rescues his people and accomplishes salvation. And so it's not a song about how God helps those who help themselves. It's about God sovereignly coming in answer to his own word, his own promises, his own oath, his own covenant, and redeeming and rescuing people by Jesus.
And notice the purpose of that. Verse 71, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of those who hate us. That is all the people of God who trust in Jesus, our promise will be rescued and delivered from all of our enemies. End of verse 73, to grant us, verse 74, that we being delivered from the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear.
This is the purpose, that we might serve God without any fear whatsoever. And in a state of holiness and righteousness before him all our days. What's he looking at? He's looking ahead to the glory which is to come in the new heaven, the new earth, the perfect world of perfect love, the home of righteousness where all who dwell there will dwell together in peace with one another.
Having no fear of persecution, no experience of being hated or rejected by others, and enjoying serving God as his sons and daughters without the anxious dread of being punished for our sins. There is no condemnation for them to be in Christ Jesus. And so we will all be transformed after the likeness of Christ in true moral holiness and righteousness, serving him all our days without fear. He's thinking of glory, and Jesus brings it.
Now, I was reading, and you stumble across these things, but a man wrote years ago, there was a Bible college in Providence here, Uganda, filled with students who lived through the murderous regime of Edie Amine, one of the most brutal parents in world history. Many of the students bore in their bodies reminders of his brutality. Some were missing their hands, others lacked an arm, or an eye. Several students had cherry red scars on their backs, shoulders, and faces from old machete wounds.
They were forced to live through one of the darkest periods of African history. However, at this college, these students gathered together to study the Bible and to bring the light of Jesus to their villages. During a lecture on the return of Jesus Christ, a professor quoted from Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians, quote, for the Lord himself, will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with a voice of the archangel, and with a trumpet call of God. One student asked, what will the Lord shout?
And the question stumped the professor. He'd never thought about the content of what Jesus would shout. But Paul did write that Jesus would give a cry of command at his return. So the professor finally admitted that he didn't know.
Then he solicited thoughts from the other students in the class while he accumulated suffering that those students had endured bagged for an answer. What will the Lord say when he returns? One student suggested, I think he will shout, enough. Don't you think, at this very moment, there are brothers and sisters in both Korea, Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan, India, Syria, Saudi Arabia, China, and other places who just long to hear Jesus shout, enough.
Do you long for that? That day is coming. And Zechariah celebrates it. Then he turns from Jesus to John, over 76 to 80.
And you, child, you see that? He shifted from Jesus to John. And you, child, we call the prophet of the most high. For you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways.
So John's going to be a prophet speaking the word of God. There hadn't been a prophet in Israel for 400 years. And then there's Zechariah prophesying, and now here's John going to be the prophet preceding the coming of the Lord. The voice of the woman is crying out.
A messenger, as we read in Malachi 3. And he'll speak of what? Verse 77, God's salvation, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins. If you boil it down, what is salvation?
If you boil it down, what was John's message? Well, I know we think of John as the New Testament portrays out in the wilderness, calling people a brood of viper, commanding repentance, seeking to humble the proud, self-righteous religious leaders and cut them off at the knees. Who told you to flee the coming wrath? We think of John like that.
But if you boil the message of John down, or if you boil the gospel down, what is it? It's the forgiveness of sins. Well, why was John like that? Not because he was mean or crotchety, but for the sake of mercy.
So people would know the forgiveness of the God who pardons in equity, transgression, and sin. We can say more about what we have in Jesus, but we ought never say less than that. By his death, he takes away our sin. Why?
Verse 78, because of the tender mercy of God. Mercy, but more than that, tender. He's combined two words, the word for mercy and the word for which we get compassion, that gut feeling that moves a person. That's how God feels in his mercy, taking no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but the lighting when sinners repent and turn to him, that they might be pardoned, as Ezekiel put it.
And because of that tender mercy, he says, the sunrise shall visit us from on high. That is, the sunrise is often translated in others, day spring. We sang here of day spring in O'Kumma, coming manual, O'Kum thou day spring from on high. That's right out of this passage.
And cheer us by thy drawing nigh, disperse the gloomy clouds of night and death, dark shadow, put to flight. He's come to be light and darkness. Jesus has come to be truth and a world of lies and deceit. He's come to give hope for each of us, who suffer the shadow of death, and to give peace, to lead us in the way of peace.
You see how quickly Zechariah turned from Jesus to John, you child, and then he's talking about John, and he's talking about Jesus again. He just can't escape the priority, the greater glory, and honor, the more fundamental blessing that is Jesus. And so, the close, Anglican Bishop, J.C. Ryle, and his meditations on the gospel of Luke says, we should notice what a clear views of doctrine Zechariah has enjoyed.
He ends his hymn of praise by addressing his infants on John the Baptist. He tells him that he shall go before the face of the Messiah, give the knowledge of salvation, that he's about to bring a salvation which is of grace and mercy, a salvation leading to the privileges of forgiveness, of sins, light and peace. Now let us end the chapter by examining what we know of these glorious privileges. Do we know anything of the pardon of forgiveness?
Have we turned from darkness to light? Have we tasted peace with God? These after all are the realities of Christianity. These are the things without which church membership and sacraments save no one's soul, says Ryle.
Let us then never rest until we are experientially acquainted with them. Mercy and grace have provided them. Mercy and grace will give them to all who call on God's name. Let us never rest until the spirit witnesses with our spirit, that our sins are forgiven, that we have passed from darkness to light, and that we are actually walking in the narrow way the way of peace.
And so this Christmas has you and I contemplate Christ. May we all enjoy that forgiveness and that light and that peace. Let's pray. Father, grant it to be so, for we ask it in Jesus name.
Amen. Amen. Let's say.