Christmas: The Dawning of Hope Fulfilled

We'd like to invite you to open up your New Testaments to the scripture passage that was read a minute ago.

Um is found in Luke chapter one, Luke chapter one, verses sixty-seven through seventy-nine.

You know, Christmas in America is is just crazy.

I don't really don't know how it is in other parts of the world, but here it's it seems just crazy and getting crazier the older I get.

Just the insane busyness of December and of programs and of things going on.

And that coupled with the expectations of our culture can so easily leave us feeling numb and very disconnected to one of the most profound and far-reaching events in human history, right?

And um we long for more this time of year.

We long to really be connected uh deeply with the Lord and um and in the truths of what He's preserved for us to encourage us.

But what would it take for us to actually feel blown away by what the birth of Christ means for us?

What would that actually take?

Well, it might take a lot, but at the very least, uh it would take being alive in our hearts and not just in our brains, but being alive deep inside our hearts to the vision that God has given of Christmas, of what Christmas really means.

And this passage, that's a very familiar passage, um, known as Zechariah's song or prophecy, is recorded for that very reason.

God spoke it and he preserved it so that we would be reminded of the astounding things that he set in motion on that first Christmas, and that we might ask the Lord to impact us by its truth.

Now, the occasion of this uh of this song or this prophecy is the birth of John the Baptist.

And uh this passage was spoken by John's father, Zechariah, who was a priest, and this happened six months before the birth of Jesus.

Well, I'd like to begin by just looking with you at the, first of all, at the at the foundation of this vision that is given in this passage, and this is found in verses 68 to 70.

Uh this prophecy reads like one of the Psalms, if you look at it.

Uh, it begins with, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel.

And one of the things that will help us here is uh in just appreciating what the Lord has given us here is that this was this was the first word or one of the first words that God had given in 16 generations prior.

There had been 400 years of silence to Israel.

400 years since there had been any prophet who had spoken and had cast a vision of where God was going in in human history.

There had been this long silence, and then there's this one of the first prophetic utterances in generations.

And it's an utterance that begins with the praise of God for what he has done.

And he's done several things here, he says, that God has visited and redeemed his people, and he's raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.

And so Zechariah here is reminding us of something that the Lord, he says that the Lord has done, that the Lord has actually come.

He's visited his people, he always said he would do it, and now he's done it, and he always promised that he would redeem his people, and now he's done it.

And he always said that he would raise up a king, a Messiah, who would deliver his people once and for all from the house of David.

And now he has done it.

I think what's interesting in these first few verses, and they're so striking, is that the people, in fact, that he's speaking to have not yet been redeemed, right?

The Israelites are under Roman bondage at this very moment when Zechariah speaks these words.

In fact, Jesus is just in the womb.

This is six months before his birth.

There is no redemption yet at this point.

And yet Zechariah speaks in the past tense.

He speaks as though it has already been done.

And I think this is one of the things that should be a great encouragement to us.

We can take a lot of heart in this.

Because this is the way God often speaks of things that he's going to do even before they're done.

Because in God's economy, when he intends to do them, even if they're not yet completely unfolded, they are as good as done.

And what a contrast that is to human faithfulness and to human words, right?

I mean, at best we express our intentions of what we hope to do.

One of the things, one of the lessons of parenting that I think we learn is wow, how often we break our word when we don't intend to.

And we have reminders that live in the house with us that tell us, Dad, you said, you said, you said.

And uh things don't often unfold the way I intended them to unfold, and so my plans have to change.

But with God, he can pull it off.

And he does pull it off.

The living God's vision is unstoppable, and it's one of the things that makes him so other.

It's as good as done, even before it happens.

Now, I think that's an important lesson, not only for what Zechariah says here, but in what he's going to say here in the rest of the verse.

And the the rest of this vision gives us the terms of a great vision.

What does this vision mean for us?

That's what I want us to look at today.

A couple of preliminary things.

As you look at this passage, this is one of the ones we read, and it's maybe not one we spend a lot of time on because it it's it's it's a very Jewish-sounding prophecy, right?

It sounds a lot like the Old Testament prophets.

In fact, it is largely a Jewish vision in a lot of ways.

Zechariah speaks in the plural as our.

He talks about our father Abraham and our fathers, plural, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and that we have received these promises and even a covenant from the Lord that God was going to deliver us.

Furthermore, the way Zechariah lays this thing out is it it sounds very reminiscent of countless cycles of former deliverances.

And when you read the Old Testament, in one sense, there's this ongoing cycle that happens again and again.

Is it Israel?

Israel is walking with the Lord for a short time, they veer off into sin and idolatry.

The Lord sends his enemies against them, their enemies against them.

They're in bondage or needing to be delivered, and they cry out for deliverance, they come to repentance, and there's a cycle, right?

And the Lord delivers them and forgives them from their sin.

And so this passage is cast in really, really familiar terms from the Old Testament, terms that would have looked very physical to them, because these are the terms in which time and again the prophets had spoken and that the people had experienced.

But is this passage just a passage about physical deliverance of Israel at the time?

Well, undoubtedly there will be, as Scripture foretells, a national fulfillment of this passage in a millennial reign in days to come.

But this vision is far bigger than that.

This vision is a global vision.

It's a global vision that ties into a number of passages in the Old Testament that foretell that God's not just going to deliver Israel, his people, but he's going to deliver the Gentiles as well.

That a great number of the nations are going to come to the Lord and that they are going to be brought into his kingdom.

And there's going to be one God and one people on a new heaven and a new earth.

One of the places that we see this is both in verses 73 and in 79.

You have, there's a reference here.

Zachariah refers to something that God swore, an oath that he took, a covenant that he established in the Old Testament.

And you know, when God makes a promise, those promises stand.

But one of the aspects of the promise that he made to Abraham, one of the crucial aspects of that is that Abraham was going to be the father of many nations, and that all the nations on the earth would be blessed, not only through Abraham, but through his seed, through one of his offspring, through a coming king someday.

The Lord was going to bless all of the nations on the earth.

We get the same kind of indication in verse 79.

Here we're given a picture.

A picture that's an Old Testament familiar picture.

And it's a picture of people who have sinned and that are arrested and in jail and in a dungeon, in a dark, dingy dungeon, and they're just awaiting an encroaching death coming.

But a great light shines on these people to bring them encouragement and to a light of deliverance for them.

Back in Isaiah chapter 42, one of the great servant songs, the servant there is going to bring and be a light to the nations who sit in darkness and who are going to come to the restoration that God has planned for humanity.

Isaiah 42 · chapter mention

Even a new heaven and a new earth.

Now I'd like us to just spend the remaining time looking at the actual terms of this vision.

And we don't have time for all of it, but I want us to look at five aspects of promise, or you might even think of five words of promise in this passage.

And what I'd like you to try to do today is to try to let your imagination capture what God is really saying in these passages and what it would be like, what it will be like.

To share in these components and these aspects of the vision that God is bringing about.

Well, the first word is found in verses 71 and 73.

Deliverance from our enemies.

And it in a sense, the physicalness of this passage helps us come to grips and really picture a little better what God's talking about, doesn't it?

I mean, you can peep you can picture a nation that's been overrun and they're imprisoned and they're in hardship and they can't break free and they're enslaved and in bondage.

And God said He's going to deliver his people from our enemies.

He's going to deliver us from our enemies.

But the enemies that is in this vision is way bigger than Babylon.

It's way bigger than Rome.

It's way bigger than any other physical kind of enemy.

Our biggest enemies are sin.

And Satan.

And evil.

And death.

And all of these put together just encroach upon our life.

And what God is saying here, and I want us to just try to imagine what it would be like for one day, just for one day, to be delivered from sin, your sin.

To be delivered from the impulses of your heart for just a day.

To be delivered from the attacks of the evil one that we feel so often.

The things that happen around us and the kinds of suggestions sometimes that come to us.

To be delivered from evil around us, to be delivered from when we're standing up for what's right and serving the Lord, or to just be delivered from other people's evil around us and darkness.

And to be delivered from death.

To be delivered from the effects of death.

To be delivered from our own coming death.

All of us are dying a little bit each day.

We're all heading to the grave.

Our bodies are unwinding little by little each day, the older we get.

But God says He's going to deliver us from all of our enemies.

There's a second thing that he he promises here.

He says that being delivered from our enemies, that we might serve him without fear.

Verse 74.

Serve him without fear.

That might sound a little strange to us today.

I don't know if any of you came here today in fear.

In the physical aspect of this passage, it's really clear to see what's going on there.

I mean, if you lived in ancient Israel and you were overrun by an invading nation, you were exiled or aliens and strangers and that kind of hostile culture, to stand up for God, to call out injustices was a scary thing, right?

And to even to be able to serve the living God in the way he said, you weren't always able to do that.

It could cost you your life.

There were some obvious ways that we could be delivered from fear.

More than that, in the Old Testament, the Jews, in many of the passages where they speak about being delivered from fear in these cycles of judgment, is that they looked forward to the time when there would be no more judgment against them, no more fear of the Lord's judgment against them for their sins.

They would be free from evil.

But there's another way that fear gets in our way of worshiping God.

And it's huge.

It's probably the biggest way.

And it goes down on the inside of our heart.

You have to know something about yourself to grasp this.

Lewis Meads in um in one of his books gives several suggestions of very common ways that Christians feel that hinder them in their service of God.

And these are all things, these are fears that are associated with shame and uh in their life.

And these have a massive impact on the enjoyment that we have of God.

They have a massive impact on how well we serve one another, how well we love one another, and how well we love the Lord.

Here are the expressions that uh that He offers us.

See how well you connect with these.

I've got a profession of faith, right?

But what I am on the inside is so much different than the outside.

I fear that if people really knew me, they would have contempt for me.

If they really knew what I thought, if they really knew day by day what goes on in the interior conversations of my heart and mind, they would have contempt for me.

I fear living up to what's expected of me.

I'm inadequate.

I can't do it.

The Lord expects a lot of us.

And I feel afraid that I'm just not getting it done.

I'm not meeting his expectations.

Right?

I'm not pleasing him day by day.

Another one, I seldom feel joy at what I am on the inside.

I feel inferior to the really good people.

I'm a second-rate daughter or son of the Lord.

I fear that in God's providence, He's made me to be just deficient.

Just not as good as this one or that one.

I fear God must be disgusted at me.

Well, these are the kinds of things, not all of these would be true for all of us at all times, but these are the kinds of structures, aren't they, that go on inside our heart that are absolutely massive, that keep us from enjoying the Lord, that keep us from loving people well.

Fear plays such a massive part in hindering us from living out well the Christian life and from loving people well.

We're hindered by fear in so many ways.

Fear of what people will think of us, fear of not measuring up, and on and on and on.

It's interesting that when you begin to actually start trying to look inside and wonder how often am I really afraid?

Am I aware?

Of how often I'm really fearful of these kinds of things.

I'd encourage you to think about this, to think about after this service, when you gather together with other friends and you see them and you go up to them.

It's not unlikely that there's going to be some fears rumbling around in your heart about what people think and what they know and who you are and all of these kinds of things that's going to keep you at a distance.

But in this vision, in where God's heading, there's not only going to be a deliverance of sin and evil and Satan, but a deliverance from fear.

A deliverance from all unhealthy kinds of fear.

Wow, what a day that's going to be.

A third aspect of this, of this great vision that God gives in verse 75.

That being delivered from fear now, being delivered from that, we will be able to serve Him, the Lord, in holiness and in righteousness.

In holiness and in righteousness.

Holiness and righteousness speak of, they speak of a moral uprightness and a pureness and light.

In Ephesians 4.29, the New Testament, God says this.

He says that we are to put on our new self, which was created after the likeness of God Himself in true righteousness and holiness.

And so God is bringing us, He's going to bring us to a place when we are absolutely going to be holy and righteous in all of our living.

And one of the things that is exciting about that, if you can get your mind around this, is that you can learn at that time we're going to be able to relate to people perfectly well.

We don't often think of righteousness and holiness in terms of relational interaction.

But think about the laws of God that He gives.

The laws of God relate to how we love Him and relate to Him and how we relate and love to people.

And holiness and righteousness is going to be a state in which we can do that perfectly well.

We're not going to have any competing desires.

There's no boredom, because boredom is a competing desire, right?

If we're bored with the Lord, if we're bored with Christianity, it's because we have another desire that's stronger, that's competing with what God has given us.

And God's vision just pales.

And you know, sorry, Lord, it's just not what my own vision is.

There's not going to be that.

There's going to be a perfect connection with the Lord and with others.

We're going to be relationally healed from all of the kinds of twisted ways that we have learned and the habits that we've learned and the way that we manipulate each other and dance with each other and pose with each other.

We're going to be freed from all of that.

We are going to be set free from all of that.

I love the next line that's given here.

We're going to be able to serve him without fear and holiness and righteousness before him.

Before him.

Before the Lord Himself.

Right now we live by faith and we know the Lord is here today.

He's here in the Holy Spirit, in indwelling his people, even in some sense corporately indwelling his church.

And yet we don't see him.

We see the effects of it dimly, but we don't see him in all of his radiance glory.

But this vision is that there is coming a day when Eden is going to be restored.

See, God's always been moving back there.

From the very beginning, from the time of the fall, God has promised that he's going to bring us back.

He's going to bring us back.

He's going to make all things new.

And he's going to bring us back in his very presence.

And we're going to live before him, naked and unashamed once again.

Not because of our own holiness and righteousness, but because of what Jesus, his King, has done for us.

I'd like you just to read.

Here are the words of this promise from the book of Revelation.

Isn't what a great promise that you know, you've read it, you've been inspired by it.

It's meant to encourage us and lift our hearts up to what God is going to do.

Revelation 21, just listen to this.

Let these words fall on your ears.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.

He will dwell with them, and they will be his people.

And God himself will be with them as their God.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more.

Neither shall there be mourning or crying or pain, for the former things have passed away.

And he who is seated on the throne said, Behold, I'm making all things new.

He also said, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.

And he said to me, It is done.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.

The one who conquers will have this heritage.

And I will be his God.

And he will be my son and daughter.

Before him.

And the fifth word here.

All our days.

All our days.

We might could imagine if we try that this would just be an amazing thing.

If this could happen just for one day.

If for one day we could be delivered from fear.

If for one day we could have a taste of this vision where God is going to unleash his people and unshackle us.

Unshackle us from the dungeon of these fallen bodies and this fallen order.

And he's going to just set our hearts free.

And we're going to taste grace like we've never tasted it before.

And we're going to see all the things that we've read and believed and put our faith in and given our loyalty to.

But I think the most difficult thing to really get your mind around is that this is going to be for all our days.

It's going to happen day after day, day after day, millennium after millennium.

We're not going to live to be a hundred and die.

Death will be no more.

We're going to live for a hundred years and then a thousand years and then a million years and then a billion years.

There will be no end.

And why is the Lord doing all of this?

Why in the world is God doing all of this?

Because that's the kind of God that He is.

He's a God of tender mercy.

He's a God who's doing this for rebels.

His vision is for rebels.

His vision never awaits for them to kind of get it right, finally.

In fact, the whole testament is just a testimony that they could never get it right.

And that Christmas is the beginning.

It's the beginning of action.

It's the beginning of a new movement.

It's the beginning of a dawn, of hope fulfilled, of where the Lord is going to show his mercy to rebels in a profound way.

No, actually, from the very beginning of human history, from the fall, this promise has been building and building and building.

But it's only been a promise, see?

It's like my kids in the car waiting on their mom.

She's promised to come.

The engine's running, the heater's blowing.

And it just takes so long sometimes.

I won't say that second hour.

But Christmas, it's finally.

It's in gear, right?

The vision, there's a dawn, there's a sunrise, there's something new, there's a movement that is fresh and that's moving.

This thing is going now.

It's no longer just kind of, wow, he says he's gonna do this, but it's really vague, and I don't get it.

It's clear and it's becoming more clear, and it's better than we ever imagined that it was going to be because he didn't just send an earthly king, he sent his own son from heaven.

And the dawning of a new age has begun.

As awesome as this vision is and was, it wasn't good news to everyone.

One of the other more well-known Christmas accounts is given in Matthew, where you have the three wise men from the east.

Three wise men from the east, probably from Babylon.

Men who had lived in darkness and in bondage in a lot of ways, but who had seen a great light and had followed it and came looking for the king of the Jews.

A kind of parable that's acted out of the very terms of the prophecies.

And when Herod, the kind of puppet king that was in place, when he heard it, and all Jerusalem were told he was disturbed.

And what he was disturbed about is that God had promised he was going to send his king and his who was going to shepherd Israel.

And that is what disturbed him.

Because this would mean it would upset the apple card of his life.

It would mean that the things that he has in place, the status quo and the cushiness and the life in this darkness that he's learned to cope with, that uh that that was all going to change.

Never mind the fact that he was drowning in a sea of fear every day, and that he was in deep bondage to his own sin, and that darkness was encroaching on his soul, and that this man was miserable.

But it turns out that to be free of fear, it requires courage.

It requires us to embrace truth, to quit posing, and to flee and run to a crucified Savior who is our all in all.

I want to end with the words that the angel, I'm sorry, Elizabeth, Zachariah's wife, spoke to Mary.

She said to Mary, Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.

Brothers and sisters, there has been the beginning of fulfillment.

We still await a great, great, great fulfillment.

It's still in the future.

The car is moving, but we still have a journey to go.

Don't settle for being numb and disconnected from the Lord.

Open your hearts up to the Lord and ask him to make this vision alive to you every single day of your life.

May the Lord bless us.

Let's close in prayer.

Our Father, we we thank you.

We thank you for this mind-blowing vision of what was secured by the movement of Christmas.

Lord, we pray that this year and in each day that you would stir within our hearts a deep, deep longing for these truths and for this destination, and that you would bless us and move us to be a people who are just overawed by your love for us, and that in turn receive mercy and are a blessing to others.

We thank you now in Christ's name.

Amen.