The news of the Messiah's coming produced an unshakeable hope in many causing them to praise God. As we see Zechariah's response to God answering his prayers (Luke 1:67-79), we'll inspire our hope in God's faithfulness to His promises that enables us to flourish daily in His grace.
The news of the Messiah's coming produced an unshakeable hope in many causing them to praise God. As we see Zechariah's response to God answering his prayers (Luke 1:67-79), we'll inspire our hope in God's faithfulness to His promises that enables us to flourish daily in His grace.
It is good to be worshiping with you this morning. If you do not know me, my name is Dwight. I'm the interim pastor here at Westtown and I'd love the opportunity to meet with you after the service, if we haven't done so previously. This Advent season we're focusing on the songs for the Savior that unfold from Luke, chapters one and two. How people responded to the good news of the birth of Jesus Christ. In fact, their praise was so exuberant that they sang with joy over the news that the Savior was born. And we jumped right into that series a few weeks ago and I did not give any background or context to the gospel as recorded by Luke, and I want to do that this morning.
Speaker 1:Luke was not one of the 12 apostles with Jesus. He was from the Apostolic Circle, he was a travel companion of Paul, he was a learned man as a physician, and he sat down to compile a well-researched, orderly account of Jesus Christ. And he mentions, in verses one through four of chapter one, the reasons that he did so. He said inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word, have delivered them to us. It seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, almost excellent theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. We don't know who this theophilus was. We don't know if it was a person or a group of people. The name theophilus means lover of God, but the point is is that there were many eyewitnesses to the events of Jesus' life. There were many who undertook to write about it, and Luke had followed very closely and set about to write a well-ordered event of the life of Christ, based upon his own observations, based upon the eyewitnesses' accounts of others, bringing into account the writings of others. And Luke says that the reason he was compiling this record of the gospel is so that we might have certainty of the things that you have been taught.
Speaker 1:Now we live in a rather cynical time, right. What are the only things in life that we can be certain of? Death and taxes, right? That's not a very encouraging outlook on life, is it? But through Christ, through the gospel, through the proclamation of the good news, we can be assured of so much more than our demise and rendering to Caesar what is Caesar's. And so, following that statement, in the beginning of Luke, he unfolds the narrative of the birth of Jesus and how people responded to it, so that we may be assured of certain things through Jesus Christ. Well, what are some of these things that Christ instills confidence in us? Well, let's look at verses 67 through 79.
Speaker 1:This is the praise of Zechariah. You remember he's the father of John the Baptist when he was serving in the temple as a priest and the angel Gabriel appeared to him and said that he and his wife, though they were well past the age of bearing children, were going to have a son. Zechariah responded in disbelief. The angel said OK, since you didn't believe this, you're not going to be able to talk until the things that I've spoken to you are fulfilled. Well, the day of John the Baptist's birth arrives, and Zechariah's first words that he is able to speak again are this wonderful declaration of praise.
Speaker 1:The father of 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 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 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 and holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, child, that is, john the Baptist, 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 and 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. So from Luke's record that is very concerned that we would be assured rightfully, not blindfully, not in terms of like believing in a fairytale. But what are the realities that we can be assured of through the birth of Jesus? We're focusing on hope and the service. Oftentimes we use the word to express wishful thinking oh, I hope this or that happens. And in the scriptures, use of the word. It is an expected certainty. So what are these things that the birth of Christ instills confidence in us? Well, the first thing we see is that Christ's birth instills faith, confidence in God's faithfulness to us.
Speaker 1:And verses eight through 25, this is when Zachariah is serving in the temple and Gabriel comes and appears to him and Zachariah doesn't believe and the angel says okay, you're not going to be able to speak. And at the end of verse 20, we read the angel says because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time. Chapter focuses on the fulfillment that God is going to do what he says. We read it again when Mary goes to visit Elizabeth, elizabeth says to Mary blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. Mary herself erupts in joyful praise and she says of the Lord that he has helped his servant, israel, and remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever. So, even going back to the time of Abraham, mary is acknowledging that God brought to pass what he said he would do. And that leads us to review again Zachariah's words.
Speaker 1:I'll just highlight a few things in verses 70 through 73 of how the Lord spoke by the mouth of the holy prophets to show mercy that was promised to their fathers, to remember his holy covenant, which, in an essence, is a promise, the oath that he swore to our father, abraham. Now it's interesting that the book of Hebrews elaborates that because there was no thing greater than God whereby he could swear the truthfulness of his promises, he swore by himself. God's faithfulness simply means that God is going to do what he has said he will do. God always keeps his promises. Now, immediately following even Adams fall into sin, god made a promise. He said that the seed of the woman would conquer over the serpent and his kingdom. And the rest of the Old Testament is an unpacking and an expanding of that initial promise.
Speaker 1:And think of all the twists, the turns, the detours, the possible upsetting and destruction of that promise. Time and time again, it looked like God's people weren't going to make it. Cain kills Abel right off the bat, right. And so we see, for instance, again, the Israelites are freed from their bondage in Egypt and they think they've got it made and, lo and behold, they're trapped between the Red Sea and the pursuing Egyptian army. It looks like the enemy is going to wipe out God's people again.
Speaker 1:The Old Testament is full of those kinds of twists and turns and detours. Many times people thought that God's promises at best were delayed, at worse that God would not follow through on what he said. But there was never a chance that God would not do what God promised he would do because he is faithful. In fact, all of those twists and turns, all of those details, all of those potential threats were not things that took God by surprise that he had to come up with an alternative plan to bring to pass his promises. But God ordered all of the events of history so that when Jesus Christ was born, it was precisely at the moment of God's appointing. That's what Paul says in Galatians, chapter four, when he said but when the fullness of time had come. That is, that when everything had reached the appointed hour of God's choosing, through all of those twists and turns, god sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive the adoption as sons, or to be read as children here. And because you are sons, god has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying Abba, father, and like the people of the Old Testament, our lives are often full of twists, turns, detours.
Speaker 1:There are times that we are left to feel that either God is not true or, at best, he is delayed and fulfilling his word for us. We might be tempted to think that God's promises have failed. Dear ones, let the birth of Jesus Christ instill within you a fresh, a confidence in the faithfulness of God, that what he has promised he in fact will do. God's Word never fails. God's mercies are new each and every morning and therefore we can trust Him and we can wait upon Him.
Speaker 1:Closely associated with Christ's birth inspiring confidence or instilling confidence in God's faithfulness we also see that Christ's birth instills confidence in God's Word. These two are so closely related that it's really kind of difficult to separate them, but we do so because of emphasis. God's Word, we believe, is truth and we believe that God speaks truth. That's the birth of Jesus, instilling confidence in the Word of God. But because God does exactly what he says he is going to do, it inspires us and instills confidence within us that our God is faithful, and we often speak of how the Scriptures, the Word of God, are true, they are authoritative, they apply to all people at all times, and they certainly do. But what we see here is that the fulfillment of that Word, that God is bringing to pass what he said he's going to do. We saw a moment ago, in verses 70 through 73, what has put Him on the screen. To highlight it again God speaking by the mouth of His prophets, fulfilling His promise. And we remember this Holy Covenant, the oath that he swore to our Father Abraham. God's Word is true. God's Word is powerful.
Speaker 1:When we speak of the Scriptures being inspired, we're not referring primarily to the human authors being inspired, the way in which we think an artist might be inspired to create a song or a play or something like that. We are talking about the Scriptures themselves, with the truth, the authority, the life of God Himself, so that he carried along the human authors so that what they produced was exactly what God intended that they would write. But it applies to all people, at all times, everywhere, and the reason that we can have confidence in the Word of God is that we see it coming true, especially in the birth of Jesus. There is somebody that has gone through the Old Testament and they've calculated and others have confirmed that there were 300 distinct prophecies about the Messiah, the anointed one that God would send to redeem His people from their sin. Others have calculated I've not confirmed that there are roughly 3,000 other illusions, inferences and those kind of things to who the Messiah would be, and Jesus Christ fulfilled them all.
Speaker 1:It is amazing when you think about the Word of God and how diverse that it is, and yet it speaks of one common message. There were over excuse me, there were 40 human authors that wrote the Scriptures over a span of 1,600 years. They used three different languages the majority of the Old Testament in Hebrew, a little bit of it in Aramaic and the New Testament in Greek. They used 10 different writing mediums, from animal skins to stone and all other kinds of things. The Scriptures are comprised of 66 books, or 1,189 chapters.
Speaker 1:Yet out of all of that diversity, there is a unity of a common theme in the Word of God, and that is this that God redeems people through Jesus Christ. There are great similarities between Luke, chapter 1, and the very end of the book in Luke, chapter 24. And part of it is this whole theme of fulfillment, of God bringing to pass what he said would happen. You might remember, in Luke, chapter 24, the resurrected Jesus Christ comes upon two men traveling on a road and they're talking with each other and Jesus' identity is concealed from them. And these two men speak dejectedly about their hopes dying when Jesus was crucified on the cross.
Speaker 1:And we pick up on these happenings in Luke 24, verse 21. They say to Jesus we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. And besides all of this, it is now the third day since these things happened. And Jesus said to them oh foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures that he was turning himself, that is, that all Scripture points to Jesus, verse 44,. Then he said to the disciples these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me and the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures and said to them thus it is written on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. So, out of that extraordinary diversity of the scriptures, they all point to Jesus Christ. He is the fulfillment of God's promises to us and therefore we should have great confidence that God is speaking to us in the Word and we can believe what he says. And if we order our lives by what God has said, we will experience the hope and the blessing of Scripture, even through all the twists, turns and detours of life. Yes, christ's birth inspires confidence in God's faithfulness. It inspires confidence in God's Word, which leads us to the last point that Christ's birth inspires confidence in God's salvation through His Son Jesus.
Speaker 1:In verses 69 through 77, salvation is a recurring theme Salvation, deliverance, forgiveness. We read how, in verse 69, how the Lord has raised up a horn of salvation, a horn being a symbol of strength. Verse 71, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hands of all who hate us, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear and all holiness and righteousness before Him all of our days. And you, child. That is referring to John the Baptist, will give knowledge of salvation to his people and the forgiveness of their sins. The scriptures speak a common theme. That common theme is God redeeming his people through Jesus Christ, and when we see God bringing to fulfillment the promises that he has made for our salvation, the chief of which is that the incarnate Son of God was raised again from the dead, we can be assured that if we embrace the promise of Christ that our sins are forgiven and we are the children of God.
Speaker 1:Now there are some who, incorrectly, will allege that people like Elizabeth and Mary and Zachariah and Anna and Simeon, when they are talking about deliverance from enemies, that they are referring only to the political bondage that the people of Israel were under at this time from the Roman government. But when we look at verse 77, we see that that is not the case. The salvation that God was offering to his people is in the forgiveness of their sins, and from that they would experience other blessings in life. Now, this salvation, this promise of salvation that God offers us to Jesus, encompasses at least these two things that are mentioned in the text. There are more in the rest of scripture, but in this passage there are two things. As we noted in verse 77, it's referring to the forgiveness of sin, that is, that we are saved from that, we are delivered from the guilt that our sin brings upon us. This is what scripture refers to as justification that God pardons us of our sin, even though we deserve wrath and punishment, separated from him for all eternity. God doesn't treat us as we deserve, but rather he has placed that penalty upon his son that, by believing in him, god says I release you from that debt of your sin that you could never pay.
Speaker 1:When Connie and I got married, we knew that I had been called to the ministry and wanted to go to seminary and be a pastor. But I had racked up quite a bit of college debt and in those days, boys and girls, the interest rate was 9% and 10% on student loans, and so we thought that it would be better for us to work for a little bit, pay off that debt and then save money to go to seminary. And we thought it was going to take us five years. But God blessed us extraordinarily so that in 18 months we paid off all debt, saved up enough money to pay for seminary for cash, quit our jobs and we moved so that I could start seminary. I remember the day that I wrote that final check. I can tell you what the amount is Paying off the remainder of that debt and man, what a great feeling that was, a freedom that I no longer had to pay the man back for the money that I had borrowed.
Speaker 1:Apply that by infinity and it'll give you a sense of the release and the relief that Christ has paid the debt for our sin. We're free Free from the guilt, free from the condemnation that should be ours because Jesus paid it for us. But there's another aspect of this salvation, if that isn't enough in and of itself. We read in verses 74 and 75 how we are saved from sin's power. We are delivered from the hands of our enemies that we might serve him without fear and holiness and righteousness before him all of our days.
Speaker 1:Now we talked about how the first component of salvation is what the Bible calls justification. The second component here is sanctification that we can change. Not only has our debt been paid, not only were we freed from the guilt of our sin, but we are no longer the people that we once were. The glory of our salvation is that God empowers us by the Spirit that we are no longer slaves to sin. We don't have to sin anymore. We can live, putting to death that sin and living like Christ and following after him.
Speaker 1:You know, a lot of times we go after sinful activities or pursuits because of the pleasure that we can derive from them. Scripture talks about enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season. But sin operates like this that once it gets its hooks into us, it demands more. So the things that we once derived pleasure from, from sin, now require more to get that type of pleasure out of it. And if anybody stands in our way from achieving what it is that we want, then we run over them or we get angry at them and so many other things. The Bible describes that sin is like slavery. It's not just alcoholics and drug addicts that have a problem with being enslaved. Everybody is a slave to sin. But through Christ we are able to overcome that bondage that our sin brings to us. We can change. We no longer go after those things for satisfaction in life, whether and it's not just sinful things it could be elevating career or relationships with other people, things that are naturally good. But when those desires are elevated to a place of demand. They become idols in our lives and the Lord frees us from it all. We are now slaves to righteousness, scripture describes, and anybody can change by the power of Christ. Christ fulfills God's promises of the Savior who delivers us from our sin. Jesus' birth fulfills centuries of prophecies concerning the Messiah, god's anointed one who would save their people from their sin. And if God says that we are saved by trusting in His Son, we can know for certainty that our debt has been paid, we are free from sin, that we might enjoy God's favor and blessing in our lives.
Speaker 1:When I was much younger, I was searching spiritually. I knew that there had to be more to this life than what existed, and so I started getting books and I read this book written by a medical doctor who had a lot of patients and knew of other doctors that had a lot of patients that died and then were brought back to life, and he interviewed them and he compiled all of this data about what the afterlife was like and I thought, well, that's pretty cool. There's something beyond this life. How do I get there?
Speaker 1:And my family attended a church faithfully, but unfortunately that church did not preach salvation through Jesus Christ. The gospel was more of a social thing. You were saved by your baptism and you just pretty much coasted after that. I'm sure they would object to that caricature, but that's the way that I took it as a teenager. And even though the gospel wasn't preached in that church, they printed out and they read a lot of Scripture during the worship services and I remember being a young man sitting there reading the Scriptures one day and I thought if what this is saying isn't true, it's true. I am in deep trouble.
Speaker 1:And then somebody gave me a book that listed, among other things, those 300 prophecies of the Old Testament about the Messiah and how Jesus Christ fulfilled them. And I was struck for the first time that Jesus is God in flesh and he came to redeem me from my sin and I believed in Christ as my personal Savior and forsook my sin. If I thought paying off debt later in my life was going to be awesome, that was extraordinary. And that is what the birth of Jesus Christ confirms for us is that the salvation that God promises through him is true to all who believe, and perhaps you are one here today that is not yet believed in Christ. Perhaps you're struggling and wrestling with doubts. I encourage you to seek Christ in the Scriptures, talk with other people about their experience, get those questions and answered as best as you can and rest in Christ alone for your salvation. Now, perhaps maybe you're somebody who you have trusted in Christ some time ago and you're struggling with the twists and turns of life. Perhaps you feel like God has put you on a detour that has left you wondering where God is and whether or not his promises to you are true.
Speaker 1:There's an Old Testament prophet by the name of Habakkuk that was struggling with some of those twists and turns in life. He looked at his fellow citizens in the Israelites and he saw their sin and their corruption. And he wondered God, where are you? Why aren't you doing something about the sin of your people? Because they're causing the nations of the world to mock you as a result of their sin. God said to Habakkuk I got this, habakkuk, don't worry, I'm going to send the Babylonians and they're going to judge the people of Israel for their sin. And Habakkuk is responded by saying what? What do you mean? The Babylonians? They're worse than the Israelites and you're going to use them as the tools of your judgment on your people. And Habakkuk wondered, and of course, habakkuk himself, as among the citizens of Israel, was going to experience that same judgment, even though he was not guilty of the sin like his fellow Israelites. And then Habakkuk came to a place in his soul where he was able to rest in the faithfulness of God, in the promises of his word.
Speaker 1:And we read in Habakkuk, chapter three, some of the very favorite passages of Scripture for many people that remind us that, though the fig tree should not blossom, nor the fruit be on the vines or the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food and the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will take joy in the God of my salvation, no matter what the twists, turns or detail or the detours that we may face, if we believe in the word of God and his faithfulness to his promises, we can have great joy.
Speaker 1:And that's what led Mary and the others in Luke, chapter one and two, to be able to magnify the Lord and rejoice in God their sins. And we read in Habakkuk, chapter three, some of the very favorite passages of Scripture for many people to see the Lord and rejoice in God their Savior. So if you're somebody who is already a believer, then maybe this news of Christmas is falling on you flat. I've heard this all before. You might be thinking. Take joy in your Savior, remember the delights of the Lord and trust in him. Let us pray together.