"Zechariah's Song" Sermon: Luke 1:68-79

“Zechariah’s Song”
[Luke 1:68-79]
December 13, 2009 Second Reformed Church

Zechariah was one of the temple priests in the days of Jesus. He was married to Elizabeth, who was the cousin of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Elizabeth was barren – she had never born a child. And now, she and her husband were very old.

Do you pray for difficult things? Do you believe that God is Sovereign and can do anything that we ask Him that is according to His Will? If we believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, why should we not believe that God will give us everything we ask for in Jesus’ Name that is according to His Will? If we believe that God caused a virgin to be with Child, why should we not believe that God will give us everything we ask for in Jesus’ Name that is according to His Will?

I pray for health – even healing – of a disease the doctors don’t know how to cure. I pray that God will continue to use us and this church for many years to come. I pray for family members with mental illness that God would control them and stabilize them and provide for them. I pray for the salvation of those who have heard the Gospel again and again and again yet seem no closer to believing. We pray for those on our prayer list with long and enduring illnesses.

James wrote, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave on the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:5-8, ESV).

Zechariah was a priest. He knew his theology. He knew what God had revealed about Himself to humanity. But Zechariah also knew biology – just like Mary, the mother of Jesus did. But unlike Mary, Zechariah reacted differently to the message he received.

Zechariah was serving in the temple when the angel, Gabriel, appeared to him and told him that his wife, Elizabeth, would bear a son and that they were to name their son, John. Gabriel said that the child would be great, he would be filled with God the Holy Spirit while he was yet in the womb, he would come in the power of Elijah – that prophet of the Old Testament that so exhibited the power and holiness of God, he would encourage repentance across all strati of society, and he would make the people ready for the coming of God the Savior.

This was extraordinary news – praiseworthy news – news that Zechariah would have been looking for and praying for and preaching as a priest in the temple. But how did he respond? “Right. No, I am old, and my wife is advanced in years.”

And Gabriel answered him, “Do you know who you are talking to? I am the angel, Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God. I was sent to you by God to give you good news. But since you didn’t believe my message, you will be mute until the day that the child is born and you see that everything I have said will be fulfilled.”

Zechariah came out of the temple, and he was mute. He went home and wrote what had happened on a tablet and showed it to Elizabeth, and she believed, saying, “‘Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people’” (Luke 1:25, ESV).

Now, when the time came and Elizabeth gave birth to a son, all the neighbors and friends gathered around her and rejoiced. On the eighth day, they brought the boy to the temple to be circumcised. And Elizabeth was asked what they were naming the child. And she said, “John.”

The friends and relatives who were there said, “No, there is no one in your family named, ‘John,’ you have to give him the name of someone in your family, as is the custom of the Jews.”

But Elizabeth insisted, so they asked Zechariah, and he wrote on a tablet, “His name is ‘John’” (Luke 1:63b, ESV). And at that moment, Zechariah’s tongue was let loose, and he began to praise God. Word spread throughout Judea of what had happened, and the people wondered, “What then will this child be?”

That brings us to the song of praise that Zechariah prophesied that we heard this morning. Zechariah was filled with God the Holy Spirit, and he gave the answer to the questions that had been whispered among the people for the nine months that he was unable to speak:

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

Zechariah begins by praising God, blessing God, responding appropriately to the good news he received – the way he should have when he first heard from Gabriel. That’s something we tend to forget. Even if we are good at praying for people and things, we tend to forget to give thanks when God answers “yes” to our prayers and grants us our petitions. If you are praying for someone or something, why not write down the name or a phrase so you will remember, and then when God has answered, give thanks and praise to God. It will not always be as easy when the answer from God is “no,” but we should respond to what God answers to us.

And let us say more than just “thank You, God,” say why. Zechariah thanked God because he now understood that God had come to earth through the line of David, in the Person of a human being to redeem His people. Through incarnating, God has become the strength of our salvation. And we understand now that it is Jesus Who is God Incarnate. He is the “horn of salvation” – that is, Jesus is the strength of our salvation. Jesus is God become Man. He is the One Who accomplishes our salvation. That was reason for Zechariah to give thanks and praise God.

“As [God] spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us;”

When the prophets spoke of being saved from our sins, they meant more that the daily offering of animal sacrifices by the priests. The author of Hebrews explains throughout his book that the fulfillment of the sacrificial system is found in Jesus. No more blood sacrifices are necessary, because Jesus offered up Himself as the Perfect Sacrifice and saved us from the Wrath of God and all our enemies – the world, the flesh, and the devil. So, salvation is not merely temporal – for a day, or for this life, even – but salvation in Jesus is eternal.

“To show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham,”

Why does Zechariah say that God was merciful in keeping the covenant? What covenant is Zechariah talking about? After Abram was blessed by Melchizedek, “...the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: ‘Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.’ But Abram said, ‘O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?’ And Abram said, ‘Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.’ And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: ‘This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.’ And he brought him outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ And he believe the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

“And he said to him, ‘I am the Lord who brought your out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.’ But he said, ‘O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall posses it?’ He said to him, ‘Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.’ And he brought him all of these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

“As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Then the Lord said to Abram, ‘Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for yourself, you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete’

“When the sun went down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kezzites, the Kadmonites, the Hitties, the Perizzites, the Raphain, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites’” (Genesis 15:1-21, ESV).

When God passed through the divided animals, He was symbolically promising that if God did not keep His Promise to Abram, God would be torn apart like the animals He walked through. It was custom that both parties making such a treaty would walk through the animals, but only God did. God was merciful to Abram and his spiritual descendants because God knew we could not keep the covenant. Paul explains the depths to which we fell:

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – among which we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Ephesians 2:1-3, ESV).

So, we understand that God’s Mercy towards us is out of God’s Goodness Alone, not out of anything in us. And why does Zechariah say God shows us this mercy – all we who are spiritual decedents of Abraham?

“To grant us that we, being delivered from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all of our days.”

God came to earth in the Person of Jesus Christ that we would be delivered from God’s Wrath and all our enemies – the enemies we find in the world, the flesh, and the devil. These are the three categories of enemies – those people who seek ill for us, our sinful nature which leads us to lust after things and people, and the devil – who thinks he can hurt God by hurting us. In Jesus and through the Power of the Holy Spirit, we are forgiven and delivered from all of these.

So we can serve God without fear. Without fear of what or whom? Without fear of others. If we are following God, it doesn’t matter what other people think. Because people will tell us what they think. They will tell us that Jesus is not the Only Way, they will tell us that all religions are the same, they will tells us that they think we do and don’t do for Jesus’ Sake are dumb, or legalistic, or no one else follows that – they will try to goad us into sinning. Amen?

And we are now to serve God in holiness and righteousness. In Jesus and through the Power of God the Holy Spirit Who lives in us, we can serve God in faith – we can refrain from sin and follow God believing everything that He has promised. And we can do those things that God has commanded us to do, including loving our neighbor, which means doing everything we can to make our neighbor’s lives better. We ought to cultivate the practice of doing things to help others – not looking for thanks or recognition – just because it is a way that we show that God has saved us and is working in us.

Understand, if you do something for someone else – especially if you do it anonymously, there’s a pretty good chance that the devil will stir up the person you helped to complain about never being helped or that you never do anything for them or that you always do things against them. It’s happened to me – I have done something anonymously and someone has complained to me about how I don’t do anything – and a part of me rages and wants to say, “Well, I did this and this and this ” But we have to squelch that, remembering that if we do everything we ought to do and refrain from everything we ought not do, we have only done our duty. Did you hear me? If we do everything we ought to do and refrain from everything we ought not do, we have only done our duty. Should we be thankful for and to each other – of course. But we shouldn’t be looking for thanks, because the best we do is what is expected of us.

Then Zechariah affirms what Gabriel told him about his son, John: “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 the knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God,”

We know this is the truth of history: John the Baptist was the prophet who prepared the way for Jesus to come, bringing salvation for His people, in the Mercy of God. Do our friends and family know that we are celebrating more than the coming of Santa Claus this season? Do they know our “good cheer” is for more than just the hopes of the presents we will receive?

John prepared the way for Jesus’ first Advent. We are now called, as the Church, to prepare the way for Jesus’ Second Advent. He is coming again – not as the Little Baby – but as the Almighty King and Sovereign God. From Adam to Jesus’ birth on earth, the prophets proclaimed for four thousand years that the Savior is coming. Jesus came two thousand years ago, and since then, from pulpits and the mouths of every Christian, we have said Jesus is coming again. He is coming again. We must tell people that He has come and He is coming again.

“Whereby the sunshine 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.”

Isaiah prophesied, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined. You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with the joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. For the yoke of his burden, the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. For every boot of the tramping warrior in
battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this” (Isaiah 9:2-7, ESV).

If you have doubted the Promises of God – the Word of God – believe, and God will loose your tongue in praise like He loosed Zechariah’s. The Promises of God are True and Sure. Everything God has promised will occur, and everything we ask in Jesus’ Name, according to His Will, He will grant. Our God is the Great and Sovereign God. He is the Only God Who can save us. He is the Only God we can trust. He promised to come as our Savior, and He did. He promised to send John to prepare the way, and He did. In Jesus, we are forgiven for our sins and credited with Jesus’ Righteousness. It doesn’t matter what anyone says, if we are following God, we are doing the right thing.

Let us live for this Savior God sent. Let us open our mouths and tell others that the Promises of God and – especially – the Promise of a Savior – is True – He is the Reason for Christmas. Let us serve Him faithfully and do everything we can to make our neighbors’ lives better – especially by telling them that Jesus has come and will come again. Because there is a world full of people out there who are sitting in the darkness, waiting to hear the Good News – waiting to see the Light.

Let us not be mute when God has put this Great Truth in our mouths.

Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You that You have come to us in the Person of Jesus, giving us eternal salvation. We confess that we have doubted Your Promises, and we ask that you would give us confidence to live for You and to speak up for You – to let others know that deliverance from darkness only comes through the Light of Jesus Christ. For it is in His Name we pray, Amen.