The Father’s Gifts at Christmas: The Visit
Luke 1:67-75
When we receive “good news” we love to share it, especially when it comes to children and family. Because of Zacharias’ disbelief upon the news that his aged wife would have a child, Zacharias ability to speak was taken away. He experienced nine months of silence in order to brood, ponder, pray and meditate on his Bible, the Old Testament. This silence may have been a divine reprimand for his unbelief, but God always turns his rebukes into rewards for those who keep faith. Hear the Song of Zacharias in Luke 1:67: “And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying: (Everything that comes out of Zacharias’ mouth is Holy Spirit-filled and God-DIRECTED!)
68 "Praise be (or blessed) to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people. 69 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), 71 salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us-- 72 to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, 73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham: 74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear 75 in holiness (undefiled from sin) and righteousness (innocent and guiltless) before him all our days.”
God visits us
Who is it that comes to visit us? The Lord God of Israel has come. The word for “has come” is often translated “visits”, so it is God who visits us. This is the glory of Christmas: God comes from His Heaven, in the flesh, to our house, to the home which He created for us in which to live an He makes His Home with us.
John 1:13-14 &18: “No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven--the Son of Man. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth…..No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God (NAS:theos) who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”
It is only people who have been filled with the Holy Spirit of God who can comprehend the power of God in Zechariah’s Song: for God to come in flesh, Immanuel, God WITH US. Luke 2:14: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." God comes in the flesh to bring HIS PEACE and His love to those who would receive Him. “Merry Christmas!”
God accomplishes the work
Secondly, God he has come and has “redeemed his people.” God accomplishes the work of redemption. Don’t underestimate this work of God. God comes in the flesh in order to redeem. Listen to these verses from 1 Peter 1: 18:…”You were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. 20 For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you 21 who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”
Jesus comes into the world to liberate from sin by the paying of a ransom. That payment could only be made on God’s terms: a perfect unblemished sacrifice for the sinful. By the substitutionary blood of Christ, sinners are released from the payment their sins. The ransom is paid by God through Jesus because Yahweh (the Lord God of Israel) is our Salvation!
What Zecharias had in mind when he said “God had visited and redeemed his people” was probably the same thing Moses had in mind when he described God's deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt. In Exodus 6:6 Moses quotes God, saying, "I am the Lord, I will bring you out from under the burden of the Egyptians and I will deliver you from their bondage and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment." But God’s rescue goes far beyond those expectations! It is far greater than any national liberation. He brings personal eternal liberation from sin that you could not possibly earn, accomplish, or deserve on your MERIT. This is why believers in the Lord Jesus can offer a MERRY CHRISTMAS GREETING!
God brings the gifts we need.
At this time of year, people sometimes agonize over buying the “right” gifts for others. If someone would have given me a guaranteed super-duper mousetrap for Christmas last year, I would have felt very little appreciation because I had no need of one. If my house was infested with mice, I would be very appreciative. We don’t value or love a gift or an offer for help unless we recognize that we have a need or desire for such things.
If I offered an $800 gift certificate to you for Christmas for a free ambulance ride from anywhere in our town to the local hospital, it would not be appreciated unless you cut off your hand or had extreme chest pain.
Vast numbers of people look upon Jesus and the Christmas story of his coming as a useless mousetrap or needless trip to the emergency room, because they don't know that they have a terminal illness called unforgiven sin, and they don't believe in the fearful enemy, Satan. They do not realize that God brings the gifts we need.
The Horn of Salvation
Verse 69 says: “He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), 71 salvation from our enemies”. For most people in the world, the "horn of salvation" is a useless toy, when, in actuality, it is the only hope of recovery from this deadly disease of sin that infects our souls: it is the only protection from Satan, the most dangerous of all enemies. This is an exciting image for Christmas: Jesus as the horn of salvation. The kind of horn meant here is not a musical instrument but the deadly weapon of the wild ox. This is the only place in the New Testament where Jesus is called a horn.
Psalm 92:9-10 gives us a picture of what the horn stood for: “For lo, thy enemies, O Lord, for lo, thy enemies shall perish; all evildoers shall be scattered. But thou hast exalted my horn like that of the wild ox.”
The horn is a sign of strength and a means of victory. In Micah 4:13 God says to Jerusalem, "Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, for I will make your horn iron and your hoofs bronze; you shall beat in pieces many peoples."
Sin and Satan are real and deadly. Adam and Eve were created to be permanently living-forward. They would not have died YET if they had not sinned, but sin brought death! "All have sinned and come short of God's glory" (Romans 3:23). "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8). "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23) There is a real and powerful enemy. "Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). "He is the god of this world and blinds the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:4). Sin is a deadly disease and an awesome enemy. And every one of us will die from this disease and be devoured by that enemy unless we are rescued by the horn of salvation.
Prize-winning steer and cattle have large, strong horns. Their backs are as high as my head. Their necks are as wide as a barrel, and their horns are deadly when the animals become angry. For the ancient near eastern people, the horn of the wild ox became a sign of tremendous strength and a means of victory in conflict.
HERE’S the picture: Adam and Eve and every member of the human race is born with the tail of the serpent wrapped around them. They are all gripped firmly in his grasp and clutch. But God’s promise was that He would be the deliverer from satan’s grip. He would become the great ox-horn of salvation for those who call upon Him to save. He raised up the most unlikely horn to gouge satan, to destroy him so that his grip would not hold those who look to the Christ of the Cross. And so the Horn of Salvation drips with the blood of the serpent as the Savior sheds His own blood. JESUS TO THE RESCUE!
Last week we looked at 1 John 3:8: "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil." Hebrews 9:26, "Christ has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." 2 Samuel 22:3 and Psalm 18:2 both record the same psalm of David after God saved him from his enemy Saul. He says, "The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation."
Fear, loss, guilt, defeat, and death have been taken away because sins can be forgiven and Satan disarmed and destroyed; God has risen up a horn of salvation, the Lord Jesus, who is the great ox-horn of salvation for all those who call upon Him and trust Him.
The gifts we so badly need AND RECEIVE are through God’s Horn of Salvation: We receive SALVATION from our enemies, mercy from God to save! God’s MERCY to save is even retroactive to those who trusted in God to deliver! That demonstrates the Faithfulness of God to deliver what He promises, to deliver in Jesus! In the Old Testament, believers trusted in the Messiah to come and in the New we trust in the Messiah who came!) 73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham: 74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies… “
God reveals His redemptive Purpose
(And listen to this) and to enable us to serve (as a hired hand, a humble servant) him without fear 75 in holiness (undefiled from sin) and righteousness (innocent and guiltless) before him all our days.”
The redeemed of God do not serve Him out of fear, but as willing slaves who have been freed from the slavery of sin and the serpent in order to serve the Living God. We can serve Him in holiness because we have been cleansed from the darkness of sin. We serve Him in righteousness because we are covered with Christ’s righteousness: We are innocent and guiltless before God…all our days, from the day that we are saved.
In Christ, God reveals His redemptive Purpose for those He saves; we are not saved and forgiven to merely move over from the “hell-line” and into the “Heaven-line.” We are saved to believe in the Savior, to trust the Savior, and to SERVE our God who has saved us.
Do you realize that Zecharias’ song was a response of belief BEFORE he saw God fulfill His promises of salvation? Is that where you are in your life journey this morning? We were created by God and for God; to try and live apart from God is emptiness, it is futile, and it will result in eternal death.
Would you ask God to examine you by His Word and Spirit, that you would understand if you have the assurance and the enablement of God’s saving power in the Savior? "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who has visited and redeemed ME by raising up a horn of salvation for ME . . . that I, being delivered from my enemies, (AND THAT I MIGHT RECOMMIT TO) “serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of MY life." From this day forth and forever more!
Outline:
1. God visits us in flesh. (John 1:13-14 &18, Luke 2:14)
2. God accomplishes our work for us. (1 Peter 1: 18, Ex. 6:6
3. God brings the gifts we need: The Horn of Salvation, Mercy, Faithfulness of God (Ps 92:9-10, Mic. 4:10, Rom 3:23, 6:23 ,1 John 1:8), 1 Pet 5:8,2 Cor 4:4, Heb 9:26, 2 Sam 22:3, Ps 18:2)
4. God reveals His redemptive Purpose: Saved to serve.
Your response: Examine, understand, and RECOMMIT TO “serve in holiness and righteousness all the days of your life.
