A Christmas Song For All Year Round

A Christmas Song For All Year ’Round

Text: Lk. 1:67-80

Introduction

1. Everyone loves Christmas songs, but what we need is a Christmas Song For All Year ’Round.

2. A Christmas song for all year round is a:

a. Song of Redemption

b. Song of Promise

c. Song of Hope

3. Read Lk. 1:67-80

Proposition: A Christmas song for all year round reminds us the real reason that Jesus came, and that is to save us from our sins.

Transition: First, a Christmas song for all year round is...

I. A Song of Redemption (67-71)

A. Visited and Redeemed

1. We are not the first to think of songs at Christmas. God thought of it first.

a. In the next chapter, which describes the events of Jesus birth, the angels sang praise to God over the birth of the Messiah. This is the basis of the familiar song "Angels We Have Heard On High."

b. Earlier in this chapter we see Mary’s song of praise, which is called The Magnificat, which comes from the first word of the Latin translation which means "glorifies."

c. This is Zachariah’s song called The Benedictus, again from the Latin translation, which means "blessed."

2. This song begins by explaining the nature of the song. Luke tells us, "Then his father, Zechariah, was filled with the Holy Spirit and gave this prophecy:"

a. Zechariah was a priest, and since he and his wife were both along in years and had not been able to have children, couldn’t believe when an angel told him that they would have a child.

b. Just like Abraham and Sarah, they had a son, who would come to be known as John the Baptist.

c. Since Zechariah doubted God, he was punished by God in that he was not able to speak again until after John was born.

d. When he finally did speak again, this song was the result.

3. When learn a few very important things about this song.

a. First, we learn that it was inspired by the Holy Spirit. It was because he was filled with the Holy Spirit that this song came out.

b. The Holy Spirit would have a major role to play not only in this birth, also the birth of this boy’s cousin, a young lad named Jesus.

c. Second, it was prophetic. Of course the word being translated here means "to speak for God" (Rogers and Rogers, 110).

d. It was not only a song about God, but a song from God.

4. However, the song itself tells us the true meaning of Christmas, “Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has visited and redeemed his people."

a. "In Luke’s view, the coming of Christ is a divine ’visit’ intended to bring blessing and salvation to those who receive it with repentance and faith" (Trites, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary: Luke-Acts,49).

b. The word translated "visit" means "to go to see a person on the basis of friendship and with helpful intent" (Louw and Nidda, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Symantic Domains).

c. The key here is "with helpful intent," which leads us to the next key, the whole idea of redemption.

d. The visitation of God’s Son was not merely a casual visit, but one in which He would buy us back by taking our place on the cross.

e. We could not pay the price to buy ourselves back, so God had to send His Son to stand in our place.

5. The meaning of the visitation, and the true meaning of Christmas itself, is "He has sent us a mighty Savior from the royal line of his servant David"

a. The phrase translated "mighty Savior" is literally "a horn of salvation."

b. A “horn of salvation” was the horn of a powerful animal such as a ram or an ox. To “raise up a horn” invoked strength and power (NLT Study Bible Notes).

c. God sent Israel a powerful Savior, not to save them from physical enemies, like the Romans, but from the power of sin, Satan, and death.

B. Payment

1. Illustration: “If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent a scientist. If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent an economist. But, our greatest need was forgiveness and redemption, and, therefore, God sent a Savior!

2. We needed redemption because of our sin.

a. Our sin separated us from a holy God.

b. Our sin made us enemies of God.

c. Our sin left us on the outside looking in.

3. We needed redemption because we had a debt we could not pay.

a. Our sin had to be compensated for.

b. We now had a debt that we could not pay.