Breaking and Making Christmas Chains
Luke 1:67-79
As we enter the Advent season today I want to talk about chains we need to break and chains we need to make. The background for this message comes from the life and ministry of Zachariah a priest in Israel. Zachariah was carrying out his priestly duties before God and it came his turn to enter the sanctuary of God and burn incense. While at prayer an angel of God appeared to Zachariah and told him that his wife Elizabeth would bear them a son.
Their son would have an important mission of God. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit from birth and would grow up to be a preacher and prophet. He would call Israel back to God and get people ready for the coming of the Messiah.
Because Zachariah doubted the word of the Angel he was struck deaf and dumb ¡V he could not hear or speak. When he came out the sanctuary he could not speak and had to communicate in sign language.
At the end of nine months Elizabeth gave birth to a son. On the eighth day in accordance with Levitical law the baby was circumcised. According to custom the baby was given a name at the time of circumcision and it was customary to name the first born son after the father. Friends began calling the new baby Zachariah but the mother protested and said, ¡§No. He is to be called John.¡¨
They used sign language to communicate with Zachariah and asked him what the name of the baby should be. Zachariah asked for a tablet and wrote, ¡§His name is to be John.¡¨ At that moment Zachariah¡¦s tongue was lose and he began talking and praising God.
Zachariah sand forth a hymn of praise ¡V the Priest became a Prophet. Luke 1:67-79 (The Message)
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;
He came and set his people free,
He set the power of salvation in the center of our lives,
And in the very house of David his servant.
Just as he promised long ago
Through the preaching of his holy prophets:
Deliverance from our enemies
And every hateful hand;
Mercy to our fathers,
As he remembers to do what he said he¡¦d do,
What he swore to our father Abraham---
A clean rescue from the enemy camp,
So we can worship him without a care in the world,
Made holy before him as long as we live.
And you, my child, ¡§Prophet of the Highest,¡¨
Will go ahead of the Master to prepare his ways,
Present the offer of salvation to his people,
The forgiveness of their sins.
Through the heartfelt mercies of our God,
God¡¦s Sunrise will break upon us,
Shinning on those in the darkness,
Those sitting in the shadow of death,
Then showing us the way, one foot at a time,
Down the path of peace.
The child grew up, healthy and spirited. He lived out in the desert until the day he made his prophetic debut in Israel.
The first part of the hymn proclaims the coming of the Messiah. The second part describes the life and ministry of John the Baptist. John the Baptist would not be your normal preacher. John work clothes made of camel¡¦s hair and he had a leather belt around his waist (and maybe a chain hanging from it ¡V if he were preaching today he would come riding in on a hog, Harley Davidson Motorcycle). His food was locusts and wild honey.
A Sunday school was telling her first-grade Sunday school class about John the Baptist. Mentioning that he ate locusts and honey comb, she noticed a puzzled look from one of the boys. "Wow," he commented, "I never knew they had cereal back then!"
John the Baptizer proclaimed the truth without compromise. He came preaching repentance and forgiveness of sins. He prepared the way for the coming of Jesus the Messiah.
Zachariah prophesied (Luke 1:68) that Jesus would come as redeemer and set his people free. People living in the bondage of sin would be set free and those living in darkness would be given the Light of Life.
Luke 1:69 NIV ¡§He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.¡¨ The ¡§horn¡¨ was a symbol of strength. A mighty Savior and strong deliverer would come to set His people free. The reference to David predicts the Messiah would come from the family of David. Matthew 1:2-16 gives the family tree of Joseph the husband of Mary. Joseph was a distant relative of King David. Matthew 1:17 says, ¡§There were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ.¡¨
At the age of thirty Jesus began his public ministry by preaching in a Jewish Synagogue:
The Spirit of the Lord is on me;
Because he has anointed me
To preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
And recovery of sight for the blind,
To release the oppressed,
To proclaim the year of the Lord¡¦s favor. Luke 4:18-19
A vital part of the ministry of Jesus both then and now is setting people free. Let¡¦s look at the various chains that bind people and the power that is available to set people free.
I. The Chains that Shackle People
There are a number of chains that shackle people and take away their freedom. We know who the chain maker is. Ever since the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to now, the chain maker has been Satan. Chains are the work of the Devil.
„« People are bound by the chains of materialism. Satan says, get all you can and enjoy all you can because you can take it with you. But the fact is, ¡§Have you ever seen a hearse pulling a U-Haul?¡¨ No, because you can¡¦t take it with you.
Scrooge in the Christmas Carol was shacked by greed. All Scrooge had to live for was money. Take away his money and he would be left with an empty life.
#Video Clip ¡V Marley¡¦s Chain ¡V was made of things representing material wealth.
John Wesley the founder of Methodism lived by the principle: ¡§Make all you can, save all you can, so you can give all you can.¡¨
You can¡¦t take it with you but you can invest in kingdom ministries and send it on ahead. Everything you hang on to will be lost to you, but everything you invest in God¡¦s work will be saved.
Jesus said: ¡§Don¡¦t hoard treasurer down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or ¡V worse! Stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasures in heaven, where it¡¦s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It¡¦s obvious, isn¡¦t it? The place where your treasurer is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.¡¨ (Matthew 6:19-21)Message)
„« Satan binds people with the links of bitterness. Bitterness can shrivel a person¡¦s soul and suck out all the joy of living. Bitterness eats away at a person¡¦s sense of well being like hydrochloric acid eating away paint on your car.
When someone says something to you that hurts you or life hands you an injustice you have a choice: To wallow in self-pity and become bitter or turn the hurts over to the Lord and find his healing and make a decision to focus on the future. Christ can empower you to make an apology that melts the frost of alienation.
„« Satan binds people with worry and resentment. There are people who would rather worry than pray. Worry can become a self fulfilling prophecy. ¡§Today is going to be a terrible day.¡¨ Guess what. You are right. ¡§Nobody appreciates me.¡¨ ¡§My peanut butter and jelly toast always lands jelly side down.¡¨ Like Roger Dangerfield you can¡¦t get no respect. If anything bad is going to happen it¡¦s going to happen to me.
If you love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, then you trust God with you life. Rock bottom trust clears away the clouds of worry and lets the sunshine of God¡¦s love shine in. God cares for you and will never leave you or forsake you.
„X A close neighbor to worry is resentment. You shouldn¡¦t have gotten that promotion. I deserved it so now don¡¦t expect me to be friendly to you. Because you said or did (whatever) to me I resent you and have nothing to do with you.
Forgiveness busts the chain of resentment. Because of all that Jesus has done for me I was forgiven in His name I will forgive and not hold grudges or resentment.
II. Power is Available to Break Chains
Satan is the chain maker but Jesus is the chain breaker. Romans 6 the Apostle Paul teaches that all who live in disobedience of God¡¦s law and sin are slaves to sin. The Apostle John says: ¡§He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil¡¦s work.¡¨
„X There is no chain too strong for Jesus to break. The chain of darkness was one of the first chains Jesus broke. When Jesus came into the world he shined forth as Truth and Light and the darkness could not overcome the Truths or Light. When Jesus enters the picture there is no darkness at all.
On one occasion Jesus met a man possessed by the Devil. This man had demonic strength. He was the strongest man of his area of the Gerasenes. The man lived in a dark rock tomb near a burial area. No one ventured near the man. He was a strong as Sampson. Sampson received his strength from God; this man received his strength from the Devil. The authorities had often bound him with heavy chains hand and feet and the strong man broke the chains like threads from his hands and feet.
Here was a man living in darkness and under the authority of Satan. Though he could break chains he could not free himself from the torment or Satan. When he saw Jesus he ran to Jesus and knelt at his feet and cried out: ¡§What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?¡¨
Jesus asked the demon possessed man what his name was and he said ¡§Legion, for we are many.¡¨ Jesus cast out the demons from the man and they entered 2,000 pigs and the pigs ran down a cliff into a lake and drown.
When the town people came to see what had happened they saw the former demon possessed man ¡§sitting there, dressed and in his right mind.¡¨
Jesus breaks the power of Satan. Jesus is in the business of driving out demons and casting out evil spirits and setting people free, no longer a slave to sin or Satan.
„X Our Greatest gift at Christmas is Jesus. In Jesus God became man. God left the glory and splendor of heaven and came to earth as baby Jesus. God humbled himself and became a man.
Because of sin we were condemned to die. No one on earth could take care of our sin. No one could forgive sin. God became man in Jesus to provide a way of salvation.
#Illus. A young Russian Army soldier whose father was a friend of the Czar was given the responsibility of distributing money each month to the other soldiers in his barracks. In due course the young man received notice that a representative of Czar Nicholas was coming to check the accounts. He knew he was in trouble, because he had taken to gambling and had used the government funds as well as his own. Checking the books, he was overwhelmed at the astronomical debt he owed the account.
Determined to commit suicide, he wrote a summation of his misdeeds on the bottom of the ledger: ¡§A great debt! Who can pay?¡¨ At midnight he would pull the trigger. Instead, he fell asleep.
That night, Czar Nicholas I, as was his custom, was making rounds of this particular barrack. Seeing a light, he stopped in to look and recognized the sleeping boy. After reading the ledger the Czar was about to arrest him when he saw the boy¡¦s note. ¡§A great debt! Who can pay?¡¨ He scribbled one word on the ledger and left.
Later, the soldier awoke, glanced at the clock, and reached for his revolver. But as he did so his eye fell upon the ledger. Beneath his note, ¡§A great debt? Who can pay?¡¨ was one word, ¡§Nicholas.¡¨ Only the Czar could pay, and the Czar did pay. The next morning a messenger came from the palace with exactly the amount needed to meet the deficit.
Everyone is bound with the chains of a huge debt of sin and rebellion. Who can pay? The Lord Jesus steps down from heaven to earth, born in a feeding trough in a barn and signs his name to our debt caused by sin. After who can pay? We read ¡V ¡§Jesus Christ.¡¨ Only Jesus is worthy to pay and He does.
We sing: ¡§And can it be¡¨ ¡§Long my imprisoned spirit lay Fast bound in sin and nature¡¦s night. Thine eye diffused a quick¡¦ning ray: I woke ¡V the dungeon flamed with light! My chains fell off my heart was free, I rose went forth and followed Thee.¡¨ Charles Wesley
Jesus comes to every person wrapped up in the chains of addictions and evil habits and say¡¦s, ¡§I have the power to set you free.¡¨ In the name of Jesus there is healing and deliverance.
#Illus. Bill Wilson was influential in the founding of A.A. Alcoholics Anonymous. In 1934 Bill was a loud mouthed New York City alcoholic. At 40 years of age he was stealing money from his wife¡¦s purse and panhandling to feed his habit.
One November day an old alcoholic friend, Ebby Thatcher, paid him a visit and told he that he was visited in jail by a Christian group and he yielded his life to Jesus. God had taken away the desire to drink. His life was transformed.
After several visits Ebby convinced Bill Wilson to attend a Mnhattan rescue mission sponsored by Calvary Episcopal Church. He was moved by the testimonies but spent the next three days on a drinking binge and ended up in a hospital. Ebby Thatcher visited him in the hospital and encouraged Bill to turn his life over to God.
After Ebby left Bill said he found himself crying out to God, ¡§If thee is a God, let Him show Himself! I am ready to do anything?¡¨ Suddenly the room lit up with a great white light. I was caught up into an ecstasy which there are no words to describe. It seemed to me, in the mind¡¦s eye, that I was on a mountain and that a wind not of air but of spirit was blowing. And it burst upon me that I was a free man. All about me was a wonderful feeling of Presence, and I thought to myself, ¡§So this is the God of the preachers!¡¨ a great peace stole over me and I thought, ¡§No matter how wrong this seems to be, they are all right. Things are all right with God and His world.¡¨ Wilson never took another drink.
There are all kinds of chains that shackle people.
There is power available to break chains.
There are chains you need to make.
III. There are Chains You need to Make.
Not all chains are bad. There godly chains that are a blessing in your life. We sing: ¡§Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love.¡¨
„X We need to make Links of Love. The Covenants of love we make in marriage are links of love that should be hard to break. The commitment of love keeps you faithful in marriage when times are tough. The bonds of love keep you faithful to God when life seems to breakup and tumble in on you.
„X Bonds of friendship are needed to encourage you as a member of the Body of Christ ¡V His Church. The Scriptures know nothing of isolated Christian believers. The Scriptures talk about gathering in small groups and in large groups for prayer, inspiration and service to the community and world.
„X The commitment to be a bondservant of Jesus sets you free to be what God created you to be. Living as a bondslave of Jesus is an exciting way to live. The Apostle Paul said you are either a bondservant of unrighteousness or a bondservant of righteousness. How would you like to live a life starting, December 8th, 2002 with a life of ¡§No More Regrets?¡¨ As you daily walk with Jesus and listen to His voice that quality of life is possible.
Jesus said, ¡§Take my yoke upon you and learn from me¡Kfor my yoke is easy and my burden is light.¡¨ Matthew 11:28 A yoke is used to link to oxen together to make pulling a load easier. Jesus is saying when you are yoked to Him burdens and loads of life are much easier to carry. Think of the almighty power of God as your side lifting you and encouraging you through the toughest of times.
As you are linked to Christ you will be remembered as a person that knew how to make things right.
#Illus. A young Polynesian slave girl was placed on the slave blocks of New Orleans during the Civil War. A wealthy plantation owner was riding by in his carriage caught her eye. He immediately sized up the situation, had compassion on her, and began bidding. The bidding began in the hundreds of dollars but soon reached into the thousands. The competitive bidders of the prostitution syndicate were furious but could do little about it.
Finally, the bidding ended and the stranger had purchased the girl. He finished his paperwork and received the keys to her chains. He approached her and she immediately spat in his face. He wiped the spittle away and continued to unlock her chains. She cursed him violently. The chains dropped away, and to her utter amazement, he said to her very gently, ¡§Woman, you are free.¡¨ She was astounded, not knowing what to say or do. She had been purchased for the slave market and set free.
The plantation owner who had redeemed her climbed into his carriage and began to drive away. Overwhelmed, the girl chased after him shouting, ¡§Sir, let me serve you, I want to be your slave.¡¨
The man stopped his carriage and turned to her. ¡§You cannot be my servant.¡¨ The girl¡¦s face dropped, and she turned to walk away. The gentle hand of her new owner turned her around, and he said, ¡§But you can come share my home as my adopted daughter.¡¨
Jesus comes to each of you and sets you free from all that binds you and wants to take your hand and walk with you as your friend.
There are chains of sin that shackle people.
Jesus came to break up chains and set people free.
There are chains that you can make ¡V chains of love, chains of friendship, and a servant and friend of Jesus.
Jesus offers you the keys to unlock chains. Faith, commitment, surrender, walk the talk, and demonstrate love to others.
