Sermon Luke 1:57-80 Zechariah’s Song
Introduction
Friends of ours, brother & sister have just had a baby. And not just one baby, but 2 babies. That sounds kind of weird & insestuous. So to be clear, our friend Kara had a baby with her husband Ben & her brother Rohan had a baby with his wife Lisa. So the 2 baby boys are cousins, same as Jesus & John in our passage.
The birth of a baby is a time filled with excitement & anticipation. And people understandably want to celebrate the birth of their child. In the past it used to be announcements in the newspaper. Today its Facebook & Instagram posts.
It would be weird though if my friend Rohan posted an announcement about his sister’s son & not his own. “Lisa & I are proud to announce the birth of our nephew Byron”. Or for Kara to post about her nephew Kingsley & not her own son Byron.
But that’s kinda what we see happening here in the final part of Luke chapter 1. Elizabeth, Mary’s sister, has just had a baby. And Elizabeth’s husband Zechariah is posting about another kid, who hasn’t even been born yet. That’s weird right? Well it would be, if the child he was posting about wasn’t Jesus. And the circumstances of both these babies John & Jesus coming into the world are far from ordinary.
Zechariah was a priest in Jerusalem. And Luke 1 tells the story of how an angel predicted that he and his barren wife Elizabeth would give birth to a son who would be the forerunner of the Messiah. Zechariah didn’t believe the angel, so his power of speech was taken away from him for the nine months of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. When the baby was finally born, Zechariah named him John (as the angel had instructed), and his speech was immediately restored. In that joyous moment, as he held his son in his arms, Zechariah broke into song praising God. And we are going to explore the content of the song together to see what it reveals about Jesus & about John & ultimately about God who sent them.
The theme of Zechariah’s song isn’t hard to find. Zechariah uses one key word at the beginning and at the end of his song: (v68) says,
“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
Then in (v78) he says
“the rising sun will come to us from heaven.”
In both verses the verb phrase comes from a root word that means “to visit personally”. It carries the sense of God visiting his people in order to bring them great blessing. It has the idea of seeing someone in distress & intervening personally in order to relieve their misery. It’s what happens when you hear about the death of someone you love. You don’t just send a text message to the family or an email. You go over to the home in person.
To “visit” means to be so moved by the misery you see all around you that you get personally involved in providing a solution. And that is ultimately what God has done in sending Jesus to die on the cross for our sins so that we can know God & be friends with God & receive all the promised blessings of God.
This is the idea that’s on Zechariah’s heart when moved by the Holy Spirit, he nursed into song. At long last God has visited his people!! At long last God has kept his promise. At long last God has arrived on the scene. The Visitor from heaven has come to us.
And the first thing we need to see in Zechariah’s song about God’s purpose in coming to earth is to save his people.
God’s Saving Purpose
Zechariah focuses on the great purpose for the coming of Christ to the earth. He came to save his people! Zechariah mentions God’s saving purpose in four different ways:
a. “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them. (v68)
b. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (v69)
The expression ‘horn of salvation’ portrays a Messiah of great power & strength, who will deliver his people from her enemies. It’s an Old Testament image of an ox with horns which was able to defeat its enemies with a powerful thrust of its head.
The image was then transferred to the warrior who wore a horned helmet to symbolise the presence of power. It was an image adopted by the house of David, the house from which the Messiah would come.
c. He has come to save us from our enemies. “Salvation from our enemies.” (v71) “To rescue us from the hand of our enemies.” (v74)
D. He has come to forgive our sins. “To give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins.” (v77)
Zechariah is telling us that God didn’t visit this planet simply to see how we were going. It wasn’t a social call. He knew how we were going & he didn’t like what he saw. He knew we were in trouble and so he came to save us. That’s what this song is all about.
2. God makes good on his promises
This song of Zechariah’s does not exist in a vacuum. Zechariah’s prophecy is filled with Old Testament expectation. The expectation that God will keep his promises. And at last all that God said he would do, he has begun to accomplish. Zechariah says three things about the promise of the Messiah:
a. It was promised by the prophets. “As he said through his holy prophets of long ago.” (v70)
b. The promise was given to the ancestors: “To show mercy to our fathers.” (v72)
c. It was guaranteed by the oath to Abraham. “To remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham.” (v72-73)
God is now doing what he promised to do. The prophets saw it coming. Not every detail, & no one saw it clearly, but they knew the day would come when God would visit his people. Micah spoke of it, & so did Isaiah & Jeremiah. In our Old Testament reading, Isaiah 40 it says:
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
[And here are the words which were on the lips of the adult John when he began his public ministry, announcing the coming of the Messiah]
A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Even Abraham looked forward to this day, as did Moses & David. They all saw it coming! All of them looked through the dim mist of history & saw a bright glimpse of the day when God would visit his people. They knew it was coming; they just didn’t know exactly how or when it would happen.
This truth leads me to a crucial conclusion about Jesus Christ: He must be great because the preparation for his coming took 2,000 years. This is no small event.
The coming of Jesus is the biggest event in history. History is really ‘HisStory’! All that came before him pointed to him. All that comes after him, looks back to him. He is the centrepiece of history, the demarcation between yesterday & tomorrow. In the birth of Jesus Christ, we have come to the crux and pivot of history. His birth is the focus point of time. Even our calendar pays tribute to this fact. It’s the year 2018. It represents two thousand & eighteen years (more or less) since his birth. We don’t do that for Confucius or Buddha, Mohammed or Zoroaster, or any other great leader—ancient or modern. How important is Jesus Christ? We measure time by his coming to the earth. Even unbelievers pay unconscious tribute to him every time they write the date on a cheque or a form or write it on a letter.
Zechariah is telling us something very crucial: God has visited the world in the person of Jesus Christ & nothing will ever be the same again.
3. God brings transformation to those who believe
In verses 74 & 75 Zechariah speaks of the transformation God will bring about in the lives of those who believe & follow him:
to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
So many people live lives of quiet desperation. They feel there is no answer to the question—”Why am I here?” “What purpose do I have?” And tragically at the most extreme end of that questioning despair sees many people take their own lives because they can see no point in living. Zechariah makes the answer clear: Jesus Christ came to admit us to the joyful service of God. This is God’s ultimate purpose for you. So even if you feel you have nothing else in this life, there are a multitude of ways in which to serve God.
If you believe that God sent Jesus into the world to save you from your sins, then He has saved you so that you might fulfill the highest calling which is to serve God without fear, in righteousness and holiness forever! He came so that we who were lost in sin might be lifted up into the service of God.
4. John the forerunner to Jesus
Now as we come to the end of the song, Zechariah considers the significance of the infant son he holds in his arms. In (vss76 & 77) he speaks directly to his son and utters three specific predictions about his future:
And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins,
And that’s exactly what John the Baptist did. His whole mission was to make the nation ready for the coming of the Messiah. He was a prophet, a preparer & a preacher of salvation.
John began his ministry by going out to the desert region around the Jordan River preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin. Multitudes of men and women flocked to hear his message, and many heard him & were baptised (Luke 3). Some thought he might be the Messiah. But John told the people, Luke 3v16:
“I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them.
And the Gospel of John records that when John saw Jesus, at the beginning of His public ministry, he cried out,
“Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)
But at this moment John is just eight days old. And yet his father clearly sees the work God has called him to do.
For those of us who do have children, think back to the time when you held your son or your daughter in your arms for the first time. What were the dreams, the aspirations you held for your child? Was it your hope that your child might grow up to be a follower of Christ, & one who would point others to Jesus?
It’s a wonderful thing to discover your place in God’s plans and to fulfill your mission in life, whether your part be great or small. John was the man God chose to prepare the way for Jesus Christ. His father plainly saw it & included his infant son in his song of praise to God.
Conclusion
Let’s wrap this up. In one final burst of praise Zechariah speaks of the blessings that the coming of Christ brings to the earth, (v78)
because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
This is the difference Jesus Christ makes. In Christ, God has visited his people & nothing will ever be the same again.
—He has come to save his people
—He has come to release them from their fears
—He has come to forgive their sins
—He has come to guide them on the path of peace
If you’ve ever doubted the Promises of God – the Word of God – then believe. The Promises of God are true and sure. Everything God promised has occurred. He promised to come as our Saviour, and He did. He promised to send John to prepare the way for Jesus, & He did. He promised that Jesus would die & rise again, & he did. In Jesus, our sins are forgiven, we are cleansed & made right with God.
In Jesus we have the promise of eternal life. Our God is the Great & Sovereign God. He is the Only God who can save us. He is the Only God we can trust. When you trust in God through faith in his Son, God will loose your tongue in praise like He loosed Zechariah’s. May we also be a people who will seek to point others to Jesus.