Luke 1:67-79 – Zachariahs song

Good to be with you this classic Irish winter's day.

Rainy and wet and dull.

It's great to be here today.

Let me pray for us as we uh come and we look at this passage together.

Let me pray.

Loving Father, I thank you so much uh for your word.

I thank you so much for this moment, this time, where we get to just pause, we get to think and consider the wonder of what you've done.

I pray that you would reveal yourself to us by your spirit that we might see and behold the beauty and the glory of who you are.

In your name I pray.

Amen.

Just over a week ago, we celebrated Ezra, my son's birthday.

And back when we found out about uh our that we were pregnant, there was so much excitement, so much joy as you can imagine for our unborn child.

And in that season, you're thinking, will it be a boy?

Will it be a girl?

We didn't know uh what gender he was gonna be.

We were thinking about his character, what would he be like?

We were thinking, will he be cute or ugly?

There are ugly babies, I'm sorry, there are.

We were wondering all these things, and Becky through the pregnancy was like, oh, it's going so quickly, it's going so fast, and I felt as though it was going so, so slow.

It felt like it was going so slow, and I just wanted him to be here.

Finally, the day came, 5th of December, 612 a.m.

Ezra was born.

That morning felt as though time went so quickly.

You're not really doing much, you're just there together, but yet time goes so quickly.

I remember after a little while stepping out into the corridor in the hospital to share our news.

I wanted our family to be able to celebrate this wonderful news, the birth of our child.

And I called my mum, I called Becky's parents, I called my siblings, sharing this wonderful news.

It would have been odd, though, after everything, after our desire to start a family, after our waiting for our child to be born, for me to start in that moment talking about a different baby.

To call people and say, you never believe it.

There's a baby Toby that is about to be born.

Can't wait.

I don't know a baby Toby, just to be clear.

But speaking about him, saying, Oh, he's gonna be wonderful, he's gonna be so amazing.

I can't wait for him to be born.

How excited I am about baby Toby.

If I responded that way, you'd be like, that's odd, that's weird, that's strange.

And yet, in our passage, what we find is Zechariah, a priest, who has longed for a child with his wife Elizabeth, but they are old.

It seems as though the time has long passed them by for them to be able to have children, and yet the Lord has different plans for them.

The Lord does what he always does, he acts and he moves for Zachariah and Elizabeth that they can have a child.

This is a theme we see throughout scripture that God uses barren women to display his goodness, his glory, and him to fulfill his promises.

Women who have been looked down upon because they can't have children, but God sees them and knows them.

And this is what he does for Zechariah and Elizabeth.

Zechariah is told by the angel Gabriel that they are going to have this child, but he questions, he doubts this.

He doesn't believe what he's been told.

There's a very angel stood before him, but he questions.

And because of this, he is silenced.

As a result, he's not able to speak.

Can you imagine how long they have waited, how long they have longed for this moment, and after this, after calling out to God time and time again, Lord, please give us a child, bless us with a child.

The moment is come that they're pregnant with this child, and yet he is silenced.

Nine months not being able to speak, not being able to share the joy of this child, not being able to speak with his wife Elizabeth and say, talk about the future child to come, not being able to speak with family or friends, not being able to share in conversations that are happening about this child, this unborn child, waiting in silence.

And after these nine months, nine months of waiting, the first words he speaks is not, it's a boy, or anything like that, but rather, blessed be the Lord God of Israel.

That Zachariah knows that this moment, this time is not about his plans and his desires, but rather about God.

That this moment is about something far more glorious than the birth of his child.

That this moment is about God and what God will do and how God will use his son.

This moment is about the true son entering into human history.

This moment is about God's salvation plan being unfolded, and Zachariah can't but sing.

Singing a song of thanksgiving, a song of worship, a song of salvation, and he declares to you and I the security of our salvation, the purpose of our salvation, and the way of our salvation.

The security of our salvation.

I wonder this year how secure you have felt.

Whether it's your job, whether it's your health concerns with COVID, whether it's feeling vulnerable by your lack of control being exposed.

This year has taken away so many places we normally go to find security, places we go to feel safe.

And as we consider these words of Zechariah, it reminds us of the security we find in God.

The security we find in our salvation, that there is no doubt in our salvation.

Look at verse 68.

For he has visited and redeemed his people, he is drawn near, he has visited his people, he has redeemed his people.

And what is striking, nothing has yet happened.

Jesus has not yet been born, Jesus has not yet lived, Jesus has not yet died, Jesus has not yet risen.

But as Zechariah prophesies, the security of this salvation that is coming is so secure that it is as if it has already been accomplished.

It is as if Jesus is already the other side of the cross, risen and reigning.

It is as if Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven.

This is astounding.

Because we so desperately need to be reminded of this, of the security we have.

No matter what is going on, no matter what you are going through, you are secure if you have faith in Jesus.

That as we consider Jesus coming, we need to see it was never in doubt what the outcome might be.

God does not fumble around, he's not fumbling.

Oh, I hope this works out.

I hope it will do what's needed.

That's not what's happening.

That is not who God is.

This is the God who has planned and purposed it all before creation itself, the sovereign Lord, Almighty, the faithful one.

How often we lose sight of who God is.

The one who is unchanging, the one who speaks, and whatever he speaks happens.

The one who has never and will never lose his grip on his world.

How often we can live our lives, and maybe we intellectually know this.

I know that to be true, and yet the way I live is not as if I believe it.

As Zechariah declares the horn of our salvation, he is pointing us to an image, an image that brings complete and utter confidence, the image of the horn of a wild ox, this image of strength and power.

It is an image to bring us certainty in the one who is all powerful, in the one who holds all strength, that none can stand against the horn of salvation.

None can stand against Jesus Himself.

This is what the Old Testament has been looking toward this moment, this time, when the words of the holy prophets will be fulfilled, when the man from the house of David would step into human history with a purpose to save, to save his people, to work a work of restoration.

As we gaze back, it's so easy for us to miss this.

It's so easy for us to lose the significance of this moment of what's happening.

A moment that is spoken about since Adam and Eve in the garden rebelled.

We need to be reminded of the wait that has taken place.

Just as Zechariah and Elizabeth have longed and waited for their child, so the whole of creation has been waiting for the child, the true son.

These words of Zechariah come as an overflow of his heart.

A man who would have known the promises of the one who was to come.

A man who would have known how long the wait had been.

A man who would have studied and most likely memorized most of the Old Testament.

Around 2,000 years has passed from the moment that God declared the oath to Abraham.

2,000 years of waiting.

Think about how long lockdown felt.

When lockdown was said, I was like, what are we gonna do?

How am I gonna survive?

Six weeks.

Now, don't let me diminish it.

It was tough, it was hard.

But what I'm saying is, even that lockdown, even that weight within lockdown should should somehow help us to appreciate this.

The image of generation after generation saying to one another, the time is coming.

The time is coming, the time is coming.

The one who we are longing for is coming day after day, month after month, year after year, decade after decade, century after century.

And now the time is here.

Do you feel that?

Do you appreciate what's happening?

The time of the Lord to continue to reveal his faithfulness toward his promises has come.

The time for the Lord to show himself to be trustworthy is here.

We do not need to wonder, will he, can he?

No, if the Lord has promised, he will surely do it.

Zechariah remembers the oath God gave to Abraham.

I will make you, I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and to him who dishonors you I will curse.

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

It was never just for Abraham, it was never just for Israel.

This is a blessing for the whole earth, and it has come.

A blessing for all the people.

This is God's global salvation plan, and it has arrived.

It was never in doubt.

Brother, sister, in a season of Advent, in this season, it is a time for us to be reminded of the weight, to reflect upon, to grow in our longing for Jesus' coming, that we might increase in our understanding of what he has done, that we might increase in our joy in what he has done.

Reflecting upon this first advent should help cast our eyes forwards toward Jesus' return.

To actually consider are we still waiting with eager anticipation?

Are you waiting with deep longing for him to come again?

To restore all things to himself?

Consider the early church.

How often they spoke about his coming again?

How often they spoke as if it was about to happen.

Have you lost the tension you should rightly feel?

Have you allowed yourself to be drawn into the moment before you?

We need to wait with eager excitement that we celebrate this first advent as we do.

We look forward.

We look forward with eager anticipation to the moment Jesus will return again.

Not as a baby, but as a conquering king.

And how do we wait with complete security?

With full confidence.

Brother, sister in Christ, you might be here, you might be listening, and you just feel distant from the Lord.

You feel so weak in your faith that even in your darkest day, know the light of Christ has shone, and no darkness can defeat it.

Rejoice in the security of your salvation, not found in you and your pursuit of him, but rather found in his pursuit of you.

How beautiful, how glorious it is, the security of our salvation.

And as we gaze upon this, we look toward the purpose of our salvation.

Look at verse 74.

That we being delivered from the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

I wonder how you would answer what is the purpose of your salvation.

It's easy for us to think about our salvation and to be wrapped up in what is to come rather than in our lives now.

Now we say we are saved, but what we mean by that is we don't need to face death.

What we mean by that is we get to enjoy the new creation, which is true.

But Zachariah sings of something far better, far more significant.

That the purpose of our salvation is a life of service, a life lived before God, in relationship with him, that we need not fear him because our salvation is secure.

We need not fear what is to come because our salvation is secure.

We get to experience him and know him in our lives now, we get to enjoy him now, not just in eternity.

We don't need a priest to go before him.

No, he invites us in, he invites us to call him Father.

He invites us to a life of holiness and righteousness, a life transformed by his saving grace.

A life that can only be lived because of that he came, because he entered in, not demanding but giving, not taking but serving.

We will always miss the joy of our salvation when we turn inward.

When we believe the lie that joy is what I will get.

In this season, that is what it is built up for.

What am I gonna get?

Rather than knowing the joy we have received is a joy that points us toward Him.

A joy that calls us not to be inward, but the Savior who says, follow me.

That true joy is found in a life lived in relationship with God.

True joy is found in a life lived serving Him.

How often I can be deceived, how often I can think, no, joy is in what I get, joy is in this life being about me.

That is a lie that will rob me, rob you of joy, but rather living a life serving him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days is a life of unspeakable, unshakable joy.

Knowing that we will one day taste and see the goodness of our Lord completely.

The veil will be lifted, we will see and gaze into the eyes of our Savior, we will hear his voice, we will see the horn of our salvation, but know that this sort of life is because of him.

This isn't a call for you to just work it up within yourself, to work on it.

Just you need to just do more.

No, we first need to be reminded of our salvation, of the one who is holy and righteous, fully and completely, the one who has brought you near, who has given you his spirit to dwell within you, the power that is yours to step into this sort of life, the life he longs you to have.

You will fall, you will fail.

Trust me.

But keep your eyes fixed.

Keep your eyes fixed on the one who is before you.

Jesus Himself, the one whom you are being formed into.

That one day you will be fully holy and righteous.

One day you will be before him, face to face.

Because the Lord is also showing us the way of our salvation.

This song finally turns to Zachariah's child.

And yet, in this moment, it is actually.

Talking about the purpose of his life.

It's not even about him.

Look at verse 76.

You, child, will be called the prophet of the most high, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way.

Even at his birth, the purpose of his life is being fulfilled.

That the life of John, the life John will lead is pointing others toward the Lord, pointing others towards Jesus the Savior.

How many parents have you heard say to their child, this life is not about you?

This life is not about you being the center.

This life isn't about you getting all the praise and glory.

Sadly, that doesn't happen a lot.

So many times parents fail to do this.

They idolize their children.

Where children are fed the lie that their world should be about them.

Zechariah is not having any of it.

He is utterly focused in declaring to his son that his life is not about him, but rather about the giver of all life.

That as Zechariah looks into the eyes of John, his son, he speaks about the wonder of God's salvation.

The one who has come to save, but not in the way that was expected.

As we read about the salvation earlier in the passage, for the Jewish nation, it would be easy to miss what this salvation actually was and is.

Their understanding of the type of salvation that was coming was one of earthly significance.

That when Zachariah states that they will be saved from our enemies and from the hand of those who hate us, as a Jewish nation, they would have been seeing this in a world where they were in exile, in a world where the enemy was the Roman Empire.

And this salvation in their minds is about this moment in history.

But that is not God's salvation plan.

His plan is far greater than their low expectations.

His salvation plan is not momentary relief but eternal.

His salvation plan is not for one nation, but for every nation.

Zechariah looks to his son and proclaims verse 76: For you will go before the Lord and prepare his way to give the knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins.

John's purpose is to make clear the way of our salvation, the forgiveness of our sins.

That we would know the sweet assurance of being redeemed toward our Creator.

That we would know the brokenness we experience, the brokenness we contribute to, will be dealt with by the coming of Jesus.

That the greatest need we have is being met by Jesus.

No longer wandering away from him, but rather running toward him, knowing that we can come because he came down to bring salvation that displays his tender mercy.

Do you hear that?

The motive, the heart behind our forgiveness is because of the tender mercy of our God.

I feel as though this is a theme that the Lord has been teaching me over the past several years.

It feels as though he's just constantly correcting my view of him.

A view that so often I see him as distant, as ashamed of me, as, oh Duncan, you've mucked it again.

Instead of this view, the one who longs for my good, the one who is there for me, the one who longs to me to know his heart toward me, to know his love toward me, love that is unspeakable and unending.

Love that has no limit and is not limited by my response, by my goodness, by my holiness, but rather the sword of God who delights, who delights to reveal his tender mercy.

Hear these sweet, sweet words.

Brother, sister, God has shown you his tender mercy, his deep desire for you.

Zachariah's prophecy points us towards this amazing truth.

He sees the Lord God, a God who has a heart of tenderness toward the broken and needy, toward the rejected, toward those who have no peace.

And in his tenderness, he has drawn close.

In his tenderness, he has stepped in that we might know the light, his light, in our lives, that we might be brought out of darkness, out of the shadow of death, that we might find the wrestle of our longings met in the peace in which he offers.

The way of salvation has never been demanding of you.

But rather, the nature of God is to woo you, it is to invite you toward life, toward joy, toward peace, toward himself.

He is calling you.

Come, see what your life is truly about.

A God who in his salvation shows his tender mercy toward you, as a father longing for you, longing to see your good, longing to see you flourish.

Why would we not want this?

Why would you not yearn for this to experience his tender mercy in your life?

He has not left us to our own devices.

Jesus is the one who will guide us home, the one to guide our feet into the way of peace, knowing that this peace, this peace is eternal, this peace is certain.

How much should we just grip on to this, especially in the year we have had?

Especially in this moment.

How much should we long to experience a peace like this?

A peace that is not determined by the situation before us, around us, but rather in the savior who rules and reigns, who is faithful, who will surely do this.

It is as good as done.

Praise the Lord.

Let me pray.

Loving Father, I thank you so much for your goodness, your kindness, your grace, your mercy, your faithfulness toward us.

I thank you for your love that is unending.

I pray for all who are here, all who are watching, that we might be reminded of the truth of who you are, that we might be reminded of what you have done, and in that we might rejoice in your goodness toward us.

Bring us to see you more fully.

Help us to see your beauty, your glory, and all your deep longings for us.

Help us to know your peace.

In your name I pray.

Amen.