One commentator, plumber, he said that here we have the last prophecy of the old dispensation and the first and the new. Remember Zacharias in his unbelief, the angel Gabriel came to him and he was made to be speechless. maybe even not even able to hear either. Do you wonder what it would have been like for nine months? You who speak and you who hear, can you imagine nine months?
But think of this, this believer Zacharias, and he hears the angel Gabriel of a testimony to come in the Messiah. My brother here is making, Emotions to me, my young man, I like that. I think maybe he's watching me do things, my two-year-old friend there. Sorry, I got distracted. But Zacharias here has just heard from the angel Gabriel of the Messiah to come and the forerunner to come through him in this news. So can't you imagine for nine weeks, what would you do? I mean, there's no TVs, you're not going to the play. What are you doing? I imagine he's opening the scrolls. Do you think he would go to Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and the Psalms and Malachi and Micah to put all this together? And could this be from my own family? And then on that glorious day when he said his name is John and his mouth His tongue was loosed, and this is where we are today, and I'm going to read, and you're hearing the whole word here of Zacharias, and then we will concentrate on the latter half today.
Hear the word of the Lord. We will start in verse 67. And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel. for he has visited us and accomplished redemption for his people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David his servant, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old. Salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to show mercy towards our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to Abraham, our father, to grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.
In verse 76, and you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go on before the Lord to prepare His ways, to give to His people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, with which the sunrise from on high will visit us, to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet in the way of peace. And the child continued to grow and to become strong in spirit. And he lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel.
This is God's word. Please receive it as such. Let us pray. Father, what a glorious testimony of one of your Old Testament and New Testament saints. Lord, as your people, we desire to hear from you. Help us, I pray. Give us hearts to receive, ears to hear, eyes to see. Lord, may your spirit do a work in each and every one of us. Lord, fill us, I pray, with your spirit. Teach us your ways. In Christ's name we pray, amen. We saw from last week how the title of our message, From Speechless to Praise, this man for nine months is silenced and now he's just bursting forth in praise to God. And we looked at last week, there was two sections of his of his benedictus or his hymn of praise, the first being to God. And by all means, he should be first to God. And then he draws his attention next to God's servant or God's chosen minister. And that's where we are this week.
When we come to verse 76, we see that there is a transition in the passage. And here Zacharias has turned his attention to the son who was just born. the son who was just born three months prior to the anointed one to be born. So this would be the son who we know as Zacharias' son to be that of John. John, the Reformed Baptist John, this John. And he says, and you child, he comes to you child. This is where he transitions.
And where I want us to go today is I want to see God's chosen minister. Secondly, I want us to see God's motivation in salvation. And thirdly, God's preparation of his chosen minister. And so we come first to God's chosen minister. He says, and you, child, We know this to be John. This is who he's referring to. Remember what John's name means. Do we remember? Johanan. It means Yahweh is gracious. This is what John's name means. Remember what Zacharias' name means. Yahweh remembers. These are no accidents. God has no accidents. He is sovereignly working over all things.
And so we look at this minister, this prophet, and I want us to see his calling, his task, and next his message. All of these are such great importance and remember Zacharias is just flowing out of him the scriptures. He is just proclaiming the scriptures that he was probably deep in study for nine months and they are rolling out of him. I think I might have said last week some 16 or 17 Old Testament quotations and allusions, and I gave many of them out last week, and if you want more, you can come to me, and I will gladly share.
He says, you child will be called the prophet of the Most High. This is unique in itself, for remember a priest, a priest, his children, his male son of a priest would be assumed to be a priest also. That's how you became a priest. But he says, you shall be the prophet The prophet, he says the prophet of the Most High. You shall be the last prophet. We have an Old Testament priest, it's in the New, but he's the last of the Old Testament priests and he's proclaiming who would be the last of the Old Testament prophets.
John came before Jesus. He was the forerunner. Remember, I spoke of this last week, that he prepared the way, he came before the king, make the way straight, clear the highway, the king is coming, and he would herald and make known the message of the king. And this is his task. His task is to go before Yahweh. To go before the Lord God. the Lord God who would come in the flesh. We're going to see in the very next chapter, as we come to it on Christmas Eve, the birth of the Messiah. Luke is narrating this historical event for us so that we can know.
John is to prepare the way, the way of the king. John is to herald the truth. He is to proclaim A message, the message we're going to hear about. Who is he to proclaim it to? To his people. And I talked about that last week, that he has accomplished redemption, meaning it is done. He has accomplished it for his people, his particular people whom he has chose to save. That you will go before the Lord. Go before the Lord. This brings us back to Malachi 3.1 and Malachi 4.2. You can go back and look at this in your time. But this prophet was to go before the Messiah. To go before God in the flesh. And what was his message? His message was none other than the message of salvation. of calling people to the holiness of God, to come before the holy God and to repent of sin, to turn from your sin and to trust in Christ.
And he records it here in 72, what this message was, to give to his people two important things, the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins. the knowledge of salvation. This is the forerunner's work, to go before them and say who God is, and that it is appointed to man once to die and then the judgment, and you will come before this God, and he was calling out the holiness of God and what he requires in man, and the requirement he has in man and woman.
You have not done. You have failed. You have not stood up to what God's perfect standard was. You have transgressed. You have missed the mark. and He's calling people to repentance of sin, to realize that they are under the judgment of Almighty God if they do not turn. And that it's not for a bloodline of people, a certain family, no, it is for those of faith, those who have come to faith in Christ, who have seen the gravity of their sin, and that they are doomed and destined for hell, that they are destined to perish if they don't have a Savior,
And this is the preparatory work. The old preachers talked about the law work was the preparatory work. It was the plowing of the ground of the law. The law must come first. The ailment in our modern churches is that many times just Jesus comes first. We'll just add a little Jesus. Well, why? The law work hasn't been done. The law work shows us our sin.
Do you remember when the Pharisees came out? You know, the religious folks. And they came out to John. What did he say? Welcome, come. No. He said, who warned you to flee from the wrath of God, you brood of vipers? John was not one to mix words. We're going to look more at his message in the coming days, or in the coming verses.
But I want to share several verses regarding the forgiveness of sins. And we could go for a long time as we think about what the Bible says about forgiveness of sins. But I wanna steer us to several, one passage in particular in Micah, if I could find it. Micah, hear the word of the Lord in Micah chapter seven, verse 18 and 19. Listen to the prophet.
Who is a God like you who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of his possession? He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in unchanging love. He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot. Yes, you will cast all their sins in the depth of the sea. You will give truth to Jacob, unchanging love to Abraham, which you swore to our forefathers from the days of old."
Many in the New Testament, of course, in the preaching of the New Testament, and I'll just go through a few of these. In Luke 7, where the Pharisees and the Sadducees came against Jesus, They were coming against him as he healed a man, and he said, their sins are forgiven. Chapter seven, verse 47. For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little. And then he said to her, your sins have been forgiven. And those who were reclining at the table with him began to say to themselves, who is this man who even forgives sins? And He said to the woman, your faith has saved you, go in peace.
And they were coming against Jesus because only God can forgive sins. And here He says, this is why I have come.
in Acts 2, 38, and Peter and his preaching, and he said to them, and he says to you and I, repent, each one of you, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
It takes one to realize the depth of our sin and to repent individually, to repent before God and to come in faith, and he calls us to be baptized in the name of The Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.
In Acts 3.19, he goes on, therefore repent again and return so that your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.
Acts 5.31. And more preaching from the New Testament. He is the one whom God exalted to the right hand as a prince and a savior to grant repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.
You see that same theme, forgiveness of sins.
Acts 10, 43, of him the prophets bear witness that through his name everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins.
Acts 13.38, Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him, that is Christ, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.
Acts 13.39, And through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the law of Moses.
Romans 3.25, more preaching, Sins, previously committed. Forgiveness of sins. This is a theme that we could see going on and on.
And this is why Christ has come. So this is salvation. It is in Christ. It calls us to repent and believe in Him, to trust in Him.
But what is God's motivation for salvation? Have you ever considered? Why? That's a great question. The Bible answers that. Zacharias answers that and he does so in verse 78.
Because of the tender mercy of our God. Do you hear that? Our God. Not a God out there, but the tender mercy of our God.
Do you know, you probably don't, but this word, tender mercy, it means from the bowels. It means from the intestines, the inner being, where the seed of your emotions. And this is God, the seed of his emotions, from his heart of his being is his tender mercy.
Mercy to not give you what you deserve. That's what mercy is. It's not giving you what you deserve. This is who our God is. This is the compassion of our God.
This should bring us to praise. If we have been silenced and we have been speechless as Zacharias was when we hear about how our God is His great love for sinners. This should take us to glory in God, to exclaim who our God is.
So this is the motivation. But what about the effect? What about the effect of God's tender mercy?
It ought to draw us, because we see right in this next passage, this next verse, with which the sunrise from on high will visit us.
And he's quoting, remember I told you how the indentions in your Bible, some of your Bibles will have it indented and then it'll have capitalized, if it's quoting that's capitalized from the Old Testament, to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.
Isaiah 9, Isaiah 9-2, right before he talks about the virgin to conceive, that he would The sunrise, this is a word to picture Christ coming. The day spring, the morning dawn, all being in darkness in the land, all being in darkness in our own land now, and Christ comes with the light, but in the time of Christ coming, this is before his birth, darkness, darkness over all the land. but a light was coming, a light to shine. The dawn was opening and this day spring who is Christ the Lord was coming and has come to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.
Psalm 23, the shadow of death. If you are outside of Christ, if you do not know Christ, you are there in the shadow of death. You are in darkness and you have no light. Christ is the light.
This reminds us who our God is. God is transcendent. That means he's other than, he is high above, he's nothing like us, and he's all powerful. He has crushing power. He controls everything. Yet He's also imminent, meaning He has imminence, meaning He's close, He's near. Not only is He far, but He's near and He's near in His Son. He's near in Jesus Christ come into creation in the incarnation that He would draw close to image bearers, that He would in His kind gentle mercy.
Think about this, a God who has crushing power can still hold with a gentle touch those of us who are needy, those of us who are lonely, those of us who are in despair. The very one who has crushing power also has the power to deliver, and the tender care to hold you fast all the way. This is our God. His tender mercy, the compassion, the affection He has, that He would, in His kind providence, enact salvation.
I hope you're not one to say, well yeah, Jesus came, now I'm saved, whoopee, and you just make light of it. Like, God did this. Because of his love for us, in order to dwell with us. Emmanuel, God with us, that's what this means. And how all of this ties in so beautifully together, he says, to guide our feet in the way of peace.
Peace, people talk a lot about peace. Peace in the Middle East, peace over here. Look, there's no peace without God. There's no peace to the wicked. Peace only comes through restoredness, to restoration, reconciliation with our God, and it comes through the divine light who is the morning star, who is the day spring, who is the sunrise from on high. He opens the eyes of the blind. This is that kind of light. Blind eyes to open.
C.S. Lewis, he said something that I thought was helpful. Speaking of Christianity, he says this, I believe in Christianity as I believe in the rising of the sun. Not simply because I can see it, but because by it, I can see everything else. When you see Jesus, you see him, you see the bright light, but you can see everything else. But you can see yourself rightly. We can see who God is.
Jesus frees the captives that we just sang about too in our second hymn. He frees the captives by this. The captives to sin. We are all captivated by sin and rebellion against God, but He breaks the chains. He frees us and He brings us to peace. And when He says peace, that means no more conflict and quarrel. The war that was before us has now turned to fellowship and communion with God. Not just neutral, but friendship. that God would so do this.
And at the last part of this passage, let's don't make Passover this too quickly, but we see that God's servant has a preparation time. There is a preparation for God's servants of all kinds, but especially here for John. He said, and the child, that's speaking of John, and the child, John, continued to grow and became strong. What we see is growth, we see maturity. We need to be matured. We need to grow, not only in physical stature of some of our young, but a spiritual stature, and that goes for all of us, the oldest of us. The growth that he wants to do, both body and spirit in this John, Continued to grow.
The words here really bring us back to other places in the Old Testament where, if you remember Samuel, these same words were spoken. The child continued to grow and became strong in spirit. The same words were used for Samson. The same words used for John the Baptist. And the same words are used for Jesus the Christ. That's going to blow our minds when we get there, that Jesus continued to grow. We'll get there another time.
Strengthening. Training. John needed to be trained. And so do you. And so do I. We need to be trained in righteousness. We need to be strengthened. Often the strengthening and the training involves making us weak. Really? I'm to be strong by making us weak? Yeah, God has to make you weak so that you can be a vessel for Him. Because in your own strength, you're worthless to Him. And so am I. He only uses weak vessels. Vessels that are handed over to Him, that are given over to Him to say, Lord, you do with it as you want. where the clay speaks to the potter and says, I am yours, put me in the kiln if you need to, take it out, shape me, throw it on the ground, whatever you wanna do, Lord. And that takes time. That takes training. And that takes trials. It's gonna be hard. It's not easy. The Christian life is not easy, I promise you that. People who say that lead people astray.
And he goes on at the very end, he says, and he lived in the deserts. A place where not the modern conveniences, not the big city, not even the towns. He lived in solitude. Time with God. You need solitude, time with God. In our world now, with all these gadgets and trinkets, we have little time of silence. Make time for silence, turn them off, put them away. You need to be with God and you can't be interrupted. You need to have a time, maybe even a day every week where you are uninterrupted. Get away from the stuff of this world where you can spend time with God in solitude and let him teach you and train you and call out to him.
And then next there's awaiting. Not only is there growth and strengthening training, there's time with God, there's waiting. John may have known he was called to this at an earlier date, but it wasn't yet until the day of his public appearance in Israel. There was a time when it was to begin and it wasn't on John's time. He had to wait. God, I'm ready. I've been training. I'm ready to go. I'll tell you when. In fact, if you're that gung-ho to go, you're probably not ready because it's going to be hard. John, it's going to be hard. You're going to have to stand up against the religious leaders. You're going to have to stand before kings. John, what if they ask for your head? John, you need to be trained a little more. You need to get a little more John out of you. You need to become less so that I can make more of my servant who is to come after you. John, you're not ready yet.
a period of waiting for each of us. I'm going to give you some guidance here because I know from experience, do not get ahead of God. It won't go well for you. I say that because I've done that. You get ahead, you say, well, I know the way now. We have Old Testament examples and people like Abraham. Don't get ahead. Stay back, young man, young lady. Wait. But there was a day that was coming. There was a day that He was prepared for, and the day was the day of His public appearance in Israel. What did He do? We're going to get to there at some point.
Luke 3, Matthew 3, Mark 1, He came in baptizing for the repentance of sins. He came preaching preaching the gospel, preaching the law, and those who came to faith and were confessing their sins, that means they understood they were sinful, they understood they would need to repent, and they came before him and they were baptized. This is what he was doing. He was coming, proclaiming, clearing the way, alerting people to their sin.
The word baptismo means to submerge. He is going into the deep waters of the Jordan. In fact, when Jesus was baptized by John, when he came up out of the water, the idea of this water being thrown on people is ridiculous. He came into the water, and he's preaching to them that there is one coming, and you better get right. You're going to stand before Him. And you and I are going to stand before this God. You don't know when your last day is. It's appointed to man once to die and then the judgment. In fact, all of your days have already been appointed by God. Are you right before Him? Are you ready to meet Him? Prepare to meet your God.
The youngest of you here, are you ready to meet God? You must answer this for yourself. I can't for you. Your parents cannot for you. We can show you the way, but you must call out. You must repent. The first words of Jesus, repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent. Turn from your sins. You are under judgment at this time, and if you do not repent, you will be damned.
This prophetic word we have from Zacharias, we could spend much more time hearing what the priest had to say to us. Zachariah the priest, his hymn was so full of praise and theological truth. It is rich, and I didn't even start to mine out the depth of it. It's God's full plan of redemption that Zacharias is saying here. It's preaching. He's showing that it's all fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's tying in the old to the new. In fact, the ministry of John is tying the old to the new. Zacharias is taking the Old Testament to the new. And they're preparing them for Jesus the Christ.
Oh, I pray that this hymn of praise would bring us from silence to praise, would enliven our hearts, would bring us to see that God's full fulfillment and his promises have been fulfilled, that his word is sure, that we can trust it. For all of these things, the puzzle that's working together is absolutely amazing. It's like no other. To remember what he said earlier in the first part, that God has visited us. He has come in the person of Jesus, and if you have received, if you have repented of your sin and come to Christ, he has visited you with his Holy Spirit to cause you to come to life, to be born anew, to be born again. And it says that he has accomplished salvation, meaning he's done it all. He hasn't made a possible way for you to come. No, He has accomplished it. So come. Come to the Savior.
He has raised up a horn of salvation. Our God is all-powerful. This type of horn. And it should call us. It should cause us to cry out, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel. Blessed be. How great is His love for sinners, brethren. The message that John preached, have you this great knowledge of salvation? You who hear me today, do you have this knowledge? Not only the knowledge of what has happened, but the saving knowledge that you have received it by faith, that you have come to the Savior and says, I believe in Christ, Jesus, forgive me for my sins. Lord, I come in repentance. Take my life. It is yours. Have you received this salvation by faith? Not by some ritual, not by something you've done, by no works of yours and no merit, but simply by faith, trusting and believing.
An important question you must answer. Have your sins been forgiven? the religious person that talks to me about his standing before God and he's religious and does these things, I ask them, what about your sins? The person who is relying on their synagogue and their time in front of the rabbi, what about your sins? And they're usually speechless. because they have no answer. You're going to stand before Him. You're going to be standing in your own sins. But it ought not be that way. It does not have to be that way, for Christ has come. Christ has visited us. The day spring has arrived. I pray that the light would shine upon you, that you would come out of the darkness to realize that your sins can be forgiven.
Are you in Christ? Have you died to sin or are you still living in it and still cozy with it? Oh, it ought not be. Think of the words of Paul in Romans 6. He says, or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
Have you been crucified with Christ? Have you been buried as if under the water? Has this happened to you? Your soul, not an outward act, Are you walking in him? Christian, are you walking in him? Do you obey him? A life that's full of sin does not demonstrate that you are his. Are we obeying him? Jesus says, if you love me, you will obey my commandments.
And what of your service? What of our service? What of our ministry? Are we serving and ministering? We're all called to be ministers. Are we serving out of love for Christ and what He has done for us, His glorious salvation, His redemption, the cross? Or, and I say this because it's things that I struggle with, or out of duty? Well, I have to, I'm called to this, so I'll just pull my boots up. That's not what God wants. He wants a cheerful giver. One that serves Him out of love and out of tender mercy that He gave to us. That's what draws us. That's what should motivate us. It's what motivated Him to save us, was His tender mercy. Can not His tender mercy break you enough to where you want to, desire to, love Him, to follow Him?
and regarding our service and the calling that he's called each of you to, I don't know your individual callings, your individual gifts, I know some of you I do, but are you waiting on his timing? Young people, are you waiting on his timing? Or are you getting ahead? Well, I know the way, so I'm just gonna jump up there like, be careful, don't think you know best, because you probably don't. You don't have all the facts and neither do I. Wait, wait upon God.
I was speaking to the Christians so far at this point, but I would be negligent if I didn't address those others who are yet to be in Christ, those who have not loved the Lord Jesus Christ, who still are in love with their sin. who are yet to come in repentance and faith, who are yet to bow the knee, won't the tenderness of Jesus, won't the tenderness, the tender mercy of our God draw you to himself? That you deserve much, much worse. And that his sure word, all the prophecies come to fulfilled, won't that turn your heart? His salvation for sinners like you and me? Won't that turn your heart? Won't that humble you?
Oh, I pray that you would humble yourself. Come to Jesus with a contrite heart. He will resist the proud. To be proud before God is a strange thing. But this is what we do. We need to come without merit, without works, with just one plea, Lord have mercy upon me. That's the prayer he will hear, Lord have mercy upon me. You can cry it out in the stillness of your bed, you can go into your closet, you can do it right now, but God will hear that prayer, that prayer of repentance, that prayer of contrite heart, God is pleased to visit this one. He is pleased to visit this one. And He longs for all of us to be like that.
For He has raised up a Redeemer. He has raised up a Redeemer for the lost and for the lonely. And He will save your soul if you will come in repentance and faith. Come. Come this Christmas season. Come as you hear the announcement and the birth of the Savior. Come as you hear what the Savior has done for sinners like us.
Let's pray. Oh God, we thank you for Zacharias, who was gripped with unbelief for a time, And Lord, you chastised him and trained him because he was your son. He was one of your children. And he opened up in praise, blessings. Blessed be the God of Israel. And the praise is to our blessing. The praise is to our help. the knowledge of salvation, the forgiveness of sins. What a great God you are. Sin is not some thing floating around. It's rebellion against God. And you have chosen to punish your son in the stead of me and in the stead of other sinners who would believe upon you.
Lord, I pray that you would bring many here to repentance and faith, that you would save the souls of the lost, Lord, that you would guide those who are yours back on the path, that you would keep us on the straight, and Lord, you would lead us in the way of righteousness, that you would cause us to look like your son, you would cause us to unify in the people of God, And then you would prepare us for service. Use us for your glory. Use us for your kingdom. And Father, bring other people into your kingdom as you have told us that you are going to return. And whether we go to be with you first or you return, Lord, we long to see you. We long to be made like you. What a glorious salvation we have in Jesus Christ. I pray that we praise your name for it. And I pray that the lost see their need for it. In Christ's name I pray. Amen.
