Latest / HBCWestminster / 12.15.19 Luke 1:57-80 Pastor Danny Gardner

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12.15.19 Luke 1:57-80 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  Well, I'm going to read our text, and we are actually going to conclude chapter 1 of the book of Luke this morning. And so I'm going to read verses 57 to 80. If you're able to stand in honor of God's Word, I would ask you to do that now. We'll read and then pray and begin. It says, Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.
• 0:32
  And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they would have called him Zechariah after his father, but his mother answered, No, he shall be called John. And they said to her, None of your relatives is called by this name. And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called. And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, His name is John. And they all wondered. And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, Blessing God.
• 0:59
  And fear came on all their neighbors, and all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea. And all who heard them laid up them in their hearts, saying, What then will this child be? For the hand of the Lord was with him. And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.
• 1:27
  as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to show the mercy promised to our fathers, to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear and holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High.
• 1:50
  For you will go before the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people and the forgiveness of their sins because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel. Let's pray. Almighty God,
• 2:23
  whose loving hand has given us all that we have, whose hand has given us all that we need. Lord, I pray that you would draw our hearts to you and guide our minds and fill our imaginations, Lord, and control our wills that we may be wholly yours. God, it is our heart's desire that we would be utterly dedicated to you and nothing else. And then I pray that you would use us, however you will, for your glory, for the welfare of your people.
• 2:57
  Lord, we ask all of these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you. You can be seated. Well, we are five or six weeks now into our study of the gospel of Luke, and just now finally finishing chapter one. You guys who have been with us for the last month and a half know that the first chapter of Luke's gospel is monstrous. It is huge. In fact, we could have remained in the first chapter of Luke many, many, many more months, but we wanted to get kind of through the first chapter.
• 3:29
  And so that we could come to the birth of Jesus Christ, which we'll study next Sunday. We have said for the last month and a half that the gospel of Luke was written to all nations and peoples, regardless of ethnicity, gender, or station in life. Luke's gospel was written so that all would know that the Savior of mankind, Jesus Christ, was sent, was killed, and was raised for even our most heinous sins. Whatever the worst thing you have ever done.
• 3:57
  That is why Jesus was sent. We live in a time and place where many were raised around the gospel message. Many have heard it. Many even maybe pay lip service to it. But few have actually been transformed by it. We live in a time and place where many have been taught, but few are certain. As we prepare for Christmas, we find houses in our neighborhoods adorned with lights, declaring, I think maybe unwittingly by our unbelieving neighbors,
• 4:29
  that the light of the world has come. That's why we put lights on our houses, because the light of the world is coming into the world. And yet, when you talk to those same unbelieving neighbors about spiritual things, you may find their hearts closed or calloused. The Gospel of Luke was written so that they may know. Last week, we studied Mary's Magnificat, a hymn of thanksgiving from a young virgin mother. This morning, we study another hymn of thanksgiving.
• 4:57
  but instead of from a young lady who would be the mother of the Lord Jesus, this time by an aged priest who would be the father of John the Baptist. Well, I've titled this morning's message, The Unpredictability of God. I find that the older I get, the more observant I am, the more I am able to discern patterns in life. Have you noticed that? Have you noticed that the same things tend to keep coming around?
• 5:29
  I was at a Christmas concert for my son's high school this last week, Tuesday night, and a whole bunch of your kids were actually in it. We were all there together celebrating our kids, our sons and daughters, and their choir and their music ensembles and percussion classes and all of that were doing their thing, their little Christmas recital. And Hallie and I, as we're watching this thing, you know, Pierce and Zach were both in it, both in the choir.
• 5:52
  saw a young girl stand up. She was maybe in the fifth or sixth grade, stand up. And what was noticeable about this girl, you know, 10, 11, 12 years old, was her ponytail. And a lot of little girls have ponytails. There's nothing new about that. But her ponytail didn't just come straight off the back of her head, right? But instead was like kind of coupled together with these rings that were all stacked. So it made it kind of point up and then off to the side.
• 6:18
  So I saw this young girl get up and move and then come back and sit back down. And I leaned over to Hallie and I was like, 1987, baby. I mean, we are back. It's the seventh grade, Hallie. And Hallie's like, I totally did that. You know, what's funny is this young girl probably thinks she's a trendsetter.
• 6:38
  I'm the first one ever to do this. I'm the first one ever to someday, everybody's going to be wearing the tall sideways ponytail. I'm like, man, you know, you're not trying to become your mom, but you're totally becoming your mom. She did that, right? Seventh grade, Parkview Junior High. There she was. See these patterns, repeats, fashion, modern pop music really is basically all the same.
• 7:04
  The chord progressions, the lyrics, the melodies, they're the same. They're singing about the same stuff. Rare, I think, is the movie whose ending you can't predict. Television shows, board games, books seem to have inevitable endings. But there is one of life's events, which in my opinion is completely unpredictable, right? One thing that we all do around the Christmas season whose ending you cannot guess. And you've probably guessed it.
• 7:35
  It is the White Elephant Gift Exchange. I know that our young marrieds just had a White Elephant Gift Exchange an hour ago, but our young adults also had one this last Thursday, my house and my basement. You know, the best gifts that you receive at Christmas are the ones that you have no idea that you would receive. Not to get too Forrest Gump, but you really never know what you're going to get. Sam Porges, Pastor Sam, this last Thursday became the proud owner of a used bottle of perfume.
• 8:07
  The title of which was Fresh White Musk. I thought, musk? Isn't that the stuff that deer squeeze out? You know, like that's, okay. Musk, which he then proceeded to spray in my basement. And I don't think my basement will ever be the same. My favorite gift that was given, and I have to brag about it a little bit because it was the gift that we gave. The best one, Hallie's idea was that we would wrap up one of our son's goldfish.
• 8:38
  We did. We filled a mason jar up with water. We stuck the goldfish in there, put a lid on the top of it, and then wrapped the thing up. And it was clearly marked. It had arrows pointing this way up. It said on the front of the package, do not shake.
• 8:53
  right? Fragile, do not shake. But nevertheless, one of our young men chose it. His name is Tom, extremely funny young man. He just is. Everything he says, he's just a funny dude. But he goes over, he picks it up, completely disregards the wrapping, is flipping it every way you can imagine. And then after he gets it out and he's starting to realize he just thinks it's a jar of water, he literally begins to shake the thing like this. We're all saying, no, no, no, no, no, because everybody can see that there's a little goldfish in there.
• 9:20
  You know, so he begins shaking it real hard and whatever, and he's laughing and all this stuff. And as soon as he stops, we're saying, no, no, no, there's a fish. He realizes there's a fish. You see the fish in the middle of the jar. Just do this. And then just drift slowly down. I don't know if you guys ever saw Finding Nemo, but he totally darled that thing. He's a fish killer, you know. He just sits there shaking, shaking, shaking. He realized what he's done. He goes back over and he sits down on the couch.
• 9:49
  He's holding up this jar with a dead fish in it. The guy sitting next to him grabs his phone and begins to play funeral music. He's just holding up the fish, you know, this funeral dirge in my basement. That was funny. What was even funnier maybe was that somebody who will remain nameless, but who was sitting up here next to our Pastor Sam, decided, you know, during those...
• 10:17
  those white elephant gift exchanges, you can steal other people's presents. She went over and stole it. Of all of the things that she could have taken, she went over and stole the dead fish. And I asked her why. She said, first, she renamed the fish Deadwin. But she said, I have every intention of rewrapping this next year and giving it to somebody. So I look forward to that. Unexpected, completely unpredictable. And that's what makes those nights fun.
• 10:48
  You know, one of the most common and effective methods of studying the character and nature of God is to study His attributes. An attribute is a quality or a feature, like a characteristic of a person or object, which taken together with their other attributes defines who or what that object is. Now, the attributes of God are typically divided into two categories. His communicable attributes are those attributes which He shares in common with mankind.
• 11:18
  So we would say that God is loving and patient and kind. We can also be loving and patient and kind. And so we share those attributes with him. But there are some things that are true about God which are not true about us. These are called incommunicable attributes. God is eternal. We are not.
• 11:41
  God is transcendent, which means He lives outside of space and time. The physical laws of this universe, which we are bound to, He is not bound to. He is transcendent. We are not. One of those incommunicable attributes is called God's immutability. Immutability, okay? Immutability, simply defined, means God cannot change. God is unchanging. Listen to the Word of God for a moment.
• 12:11
  Hebrews 13.8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is unchanging. Psalm 102, you, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning. The heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish. This universe one day will draw to a close. It will run out of juice. They will perish. He says, but you remain. They will all wear out like a garment, but you are the same, and your years will have no end.
• 12:43
  Malachi 3 and verse 6, the Lord simply declares, I, the Lord, do not change. If you were to look up the immutability of God in a book, it would say, God is unchanging in His being, perfections, purposes, and promises. Who cares? What does that have to do with Zechariah's prophecy? Yes, we know that God is unchanging. God cannot change. Amen?
• 13:14
  God will not change. Amen? The problem with that simplified definition of immutability is that it can cause real problems with our practical Christian living. Okay? So here's what I mean. Because God is unchanging, we assume then, inaccurately, I think, we assume then that he will always respond the same way every time.
• 13:44
  We use the same words of our boss at work. That guy will never change. He's immutable, right? That's what we're saying. And so we can anticipate his reaction because we know that he is unchanging. My wife, my kids, my friends, my co-workers, my neighbors, that guy will never change. Okay? We don't necessarily mean that in a positive way. And so because we think that they never change, we then begin to think that their reactions
• 14:16
  in certain life situations are predictable. And we do the same thing with God. When we say, you know, the Bible says, pray for healing. God is the God of healing. And then He doesn't heal. We're like, what gives? You said you would heal. When He says He'll provide, God is our provision. But then here we are in need. You're like, what in the world? You said you would provide.
• 14:51
  And here I am, and you're not providing. When he says, you will be a wealthy, I'm going to give to you according to my riches, according to my abounding riches. And you're like, what's the deal? I don't feel wealthy. What's the deal, Lord? You don't fulfill your promises? I thought you were a promise-fulfilling God. You're immutable. You're unchanging. And so we assume that God must respond the same way every time. We begin to think that God is predictable.
• 15:23
  And that leaves us disillusioned and even at times spiritually confused. Everybody following that? I like A.W. Tozer's definition much better. Listen to how he defines it. To say that God is immutable is to say that he never differs from himself. In other words, God acts the way that he acts, and he never acts differently than the way that he acts.
• 15:50
  God being God, he reserves the right to act differently than you and I think he should act. Okay? And that's what he does in our text this morning. You guys all see there, we've got two kind of sections in the passage this morning. One is the birth of John the Baptist and his naming. That's the first section. But the second section, the translators of the ESV have called Zechariah's prophecy. Do you guys all see that? Zechariah's prophecy. And really this is a song.
• 16:19
  Some have even called it a song of salvation, okay? But rather than Zechariah singing about his own salvation, like it's a personal testimony, here's how I got saved, song of salvation. Rather than doing that, you can imagine this being more like God's testimony. Rather than here's how I got saved, Zechariah is saying, here's how God saves.
• 16:47
  And he takes a couple of different covenants. You probably even noticed the name of David is mentioned. The name of Abraham is mentioned, right? And so he takes a couple of different covenants and he weaves them together because the people during Zechariah's time thought that God had abandoned his promise. Like David is going to have a son on the throne forever? That didn't work out so well. We don't have a king from David's line on the throne. It's broken. God gave up.
• 17:19
  Abraham, the Lord will establish a nation. The nation is broken. We've been subjugated by the Roman Empire. Gentiles run the place. It's broken. God gave up. And I think that's sometimes what we do as well. We'll listen to the promises of God. When they're not fulfilled the way that we want them to be fulfilled, we'll say, you know what? God is finished. God is finished. And we leave off what Zechariah then turns everybody's attention to.
• 17:49
  It wasn't about David and a new king. It wasn't about Abraham and a nation. It was about Jesus coming to save a people from their sin. And so let's look at it. Two points this morning. We'll go through these quickly first. John's birth and name. John's birth and name. Look at verse 57. It says,
• 18:17
  rejoiced with her. And on the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child. They would have called him Zechariah after his father. Faithful Jewish parents, even today, circumcise their sons on the eighth day. Eighth day after his birth, they do a circumcision. It's called a brit. It's a ceremony. They call in a special kind of rabbi, mohel. They call this guy in to come in and perform.
• 18:41
  And it's actually a celebration. It's a big deal in the lives of these Jewish families. They'll call family and friends and relatives and neighbors. They all come together to celebrate this boy's circumcision. I've actually attended one of these before. I was invited to one. It was a fascinating thing. It felt very much like a baby shower or a birthday party.
• 19:03
  except instead of blowing out candles, they do a circumcision. I mean, it's a little bit weird. They're like, everybody gather around. But I'm not kidding. This was like a joyous event. Clapping, singing, dancing. I mean, music, celebration. It was incredible. And the reason they celebrate, the reason they rejoice, is because this family has experienced a spiritual...
• 19:30
  That circumcision represents the ushering in of another person into God's family. So they celebrate, right? Let me just, as an aside, I don't know if we do a good enough job celebrating spiritual victories. I know that we celebrate a lot of different things, birthdays and anniversaries.
• 19:56
  and graduations and weddings. You know, we have a lot of celebrations and there's nothing wrong with those. Those are all good things. But I don't know if we do a good enough job celebrating spiritual victories. The Old Testament describes these things called Ebenezer stones, like stones of remembrance. And a really famous instance of one.
• 20:18
  It's when the people of Israel were wandering around in the wilderness for that 40 years, and at the end of that 40 years, they were getting ready to cross over the Jordan River into the Promised Land. Do you guys remember this? God stopped the river. The people crossed on dry ground. And on the other side, the Lord told them, erect 12 massive stones.
• 20:40
  Big stones. These will be stones of remembrance, Ebenezer stones, okay? Stones of remembrance. And that way, when your kids and your grandkids and your great-grandkids and their great-grandkids are walking along the road and they see these big stones, they will ask, why are those there? And it will give you an opportunity to talk about the faithfulness and provision of God. Ebenezer stones. We sing a song called Come Thou Fount, one of the verses.
• 21:09
  says, here I raise my Ebenezer. That's what he's talking about. Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help I come, and I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home. Ebenezer stones. You say, well, what would those look like? And I would encourage us to erect Ebenezer stones in our lives. What would that look like? I have a couple of just small examples I'll give you guys. First is the ring that I wear on my index finger on my left hand.
• 21:37
  I've worn this going on 20 years. Nobody ever asks me about it. Every now and again, my sons will say, Dad, what's with the ring on your index finger? But I've always worn it. I found this ring in a pile of my grandpa's things right after he passed away. My grandpa Gardner, I found this. He was a machinist. He was an airplane mechanic in the U.S. Navy in World War II.
• 22:03
  So that's what he did. He was on a heavy cruiser. They taught him how to work on airplanes. When he got done, he opened a body shop. He knew how to bend metal. And so that's what he did. And I found this ring. He had a whole bunch of them. My grandma told me that what he did was he took, he had a whole bunch of these nuts and bolts and whatever in this bucket. He took those things and shaved them down and opened up the openings and all of that to make them rings. He made this out of just some hardware nut, you know.
• 22:32
  And so I found it, and I stuck it on there. And my sons before have asked me, why do I wear it? It's not just to remember my grandpa, but it's to remember what my grandpa represents. My grandpa, two generations ago, was a man who loved the Lord and loved his wife. Those were the two great loves. I'm not kidding. The two things he loved more than anything else on this earth. And then he had a son, my father, who loved the Lord and loved his wife. And I wear this.
• 22:59
  to remind myself that I will not be the gardener man who breaks that chain. It's an Ebenezer stone, a stone of remembrance. I have another one. My truck, in the tow hitch in my truck, I have a hitch cover, right? And it's an oval thing like this that says Dodgers on it, okay? And it's something Hallie got me years ago, like a stocking stuffer or something. It says Dodgers on it. I've got a Dodger thing in my hitch cover. And a couple of months ago,
• 23:27
  My good friend Dale Jackson, and many of you guys know Dale and Kathy Jackson. They've been a part of this church for many, many decades. Dale came out. Dale's a big Rockies fan. This last October, he came out to my truck, and unbeknownst to me, he pulled the pin, took it out, flipped it upside down, and stuck it back in there. And so now, if you go out to my truck, it's upside down. I've never flipped it back over. There's a couple of reasons for that. Number one, because the Dodgers don't deserve any better, okay?
• 23:57
  And I've made a covenant with the Lord. It will go right side up when the Dodgers win a World Series. Now, I am of the opinion that we are at the beginning of a hundred-year curse for the L.A. Dodgers. And so I'm guessing for the remainder of my life, that thing will be upside down. So that's one, but that doesn't matter. The reason I leave it upside down is because it reminds me to pray for Dale and Kathy Jackson.
• 24:23
  And you guys, I see it all the time. Every time I'm walking out to my truck, I notice that thing and it's upside down, right? When people see it, like Pastor Dan, do you know it's upside down? Yeah. It's a reminder to pray for people that I love dearly at this church and honestly, who have been faithful in this church for decades. It's a very simple stone of remembrance. I would encourage you guys. Here we have an example, Luke 1 58, an example of how
• 24:50
  This spiritual victory was celebrated. They rejoiced with her. They saw the mercy of God on her life, and they rejoiced. They're setting up this stone of remembrance. I want to encourage us to do the same. That's first. You'll notice this stone of remembrance idea. Continue in verse 60.
• 25:10
  They would have called him Zechariah after his father, but his mother answered, no, he's going to be called John. And they're confused by that, right? Because names are significant. And they had the same kind of cultural tradition that we do. You name boys after their dads or whatever. You name girls after their grandmas. There's nobody by that name in your whole family, they said. So they go in verse 62, they begin to make signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called.
• 25:39
  You guys will recall from a couple of Sundays ago, Zechariah is confronted with the angel Gabriel, right? And Gabriel says, your wife will bear a son and he will be great. And the Bible says that Zechariah disbelieved. That can't happen. We're old. That can't happen. Not after all of these years, certainly not. Where there's no way that can't happen, he disbelieved. And so because of Zechariah's...
• 26:09
  Gabriel, the archangel, pushed the mute button. Remember that? The mute. He couldn't speak for almost a year now. He hasn't been able to speak. Verse 62 says that his friends and family were actually making signs to him, trying to communicate with him. So maybe he couldn't hear either. Deaf and mute, right? And so he goes and gets this pen. You can imagine the last thing he heard, the last words that he heard.
• 26:38
  And in fact, maybe even still ringing in his ears were those words from Gabriel. Your son will be great. And he will be the forerunner to the Messiah. He hasn't even been able to communicate this to them yet. Right? Maybe Elizabeth isn't even sure yet how God is going to use this boy. But Zechariah has been holding this in his heart for nearly a year. The Messiah is coming. The Messiah is coming. And my boy will be the forerunner.
• 27:07
  to the Messiah. And he says, in verse 63, he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, his name is John. His name is John. And they all wondered. We know that names, especially Hebrew names, have spiritual significance. In a time when the nation of Israel had felt forgotten, God sent the archangel Gabriel to a man, Zechariah, whose name means God doesn't forget. Yahweh remembers.
• 27:40
  And John's name is no exception to that. John is from the Hebrew Yohanan, which means the grace of God is here. The grace of God is here. And what a perfect name for a man who would spend his life declaring the grace of God. He's here. Lord, make us like John, who declared the grace of God wherever we go. I often wonder.
• 28:12
  how my kids will remember their childhood, what they're going to think of their home as they think back when they're in their 40s and are looking backward. What will they remember about me and about Hallie? What lectures will they remember? No doubt my sons will remember the times that we watched baseball together. They'll probably remember the times that we caught baseballs together. They'll remember the times that we went fly fishing and slept in tents in the rain. You know, when you're camping with your kids,
• 28:43
  and the weather is beautiful, nobody remembers those trips. But if the weather is awful, you guys, it etches itself in their memory. And honestly, some of the most fun we have is reminiscing about the times when the weather was awful. Lightning was striking, the tent was filling with water. Miserable at the time, but they'll certainly remember that trip. They'll remember reading books together. But how much of me and Hallie talking about and praising the grace of God in their lives? I hope and pray that we...
• 29:15
  Talk about God's grace in our homes. I mean, we say that our home is founded upon the grace of God, right? That's what we say, founded upon. If that's true, then the grace of God and his goodness and faithfulness to us should permeate every conversation. It should be talked about. The grace and praise of God should be talked about in our homes. He says his name is John, a declaration that the grace of God was here.
• 29:46
  Look at verse 64. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed and he spoke, blessing God. He hasn't been able to speak for a year. And what's the first thing he says when he gets his voice back? It's not a declaration of love toward his wife, although he undoubtedly loved her. It's not a thanking of his friends and relatives for coming to their party, although he was probably thankful. Rather, the first words out of his mouth, he used his voice.
• 30:18
  for what it was designed to be used for, blessing, praise, and worship of God. It says, fear came on all their neighbors, and all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea. Suddenly, this news about the Messiah coming, about the forerunner being born, is spreading like wildfire. And all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, what then will this child be? For the hand of the Lord was with them. What you find out from Zechariah, as soon as his mouth is opened,
• 30:46
  you find out that the Messiah is not far behind. In fact, the time between this Sunday and next Sunday for our church, the amount of time between chapter 1 and chapter 2 is a mere three months. Jesus is only three months away. That's first. John, his birth, his naming. Now let's look at Zechariah's song, Zechariah's unpredictable prophecy. You say, well, Danny, why unpredictable? Why unexpected?
• 31:15
  And the reason is this. Zechariah's simple revelation in this text not only describes the fulfilling of Old Testament covenants. That would be unexpected. But he even describes the ushering in of a brand new covenant, which they did not expect. What Zechariah talks about and what is revealed, catch this, for the first time in the New Testament is not only would the Messiah be the fulfillment of the Old Testament covenants. They knew that would be the case.
• 31:46
  David and Abraham and all of those, Moses, not only would he be the fulfillment of all of those Old Testament covenants, but he would actually usher in a brand new covenant. When Jesus, during the Last Supper, is instituting communion, and he says, this is now the new covenant in my blood. They had no knowledge of that previously. They had no clue. And this is why I've called this the unpredictability of God.
• 32:16
  God has the ability and even reserves the right to act in ways that we cannot even fathom. Ephesians chapter 3, when it says God has the ability to do more than you could even ask or think, ask or imagine, that is really true. He not only fulfills the Old Testament covenants, but he ushers in a brand new covenant which offers a blessing which the old ones did not. The old ones could offer a king.
• 32:46
  They could offer the law. They could offer a nation. But they could not offer forgiveness of sin. And that's why his prophecy is so startling and unexpected. Because what he says is, Jesus, the one who my son comes before, Jesus will forgive the people from their sin. And so let's look at it. If you were to divide this prophecy into three kind of verses, like a song, the first verse is about David.
• 33:16
  And he addresses the people's desire for a nation. Look at verse 67, or for a king, I'm sorry, for a king. His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied saying, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people. He says right off the bat, God is not a God who exists far away from his people. He's not a distant God. God is a God who is very near. He visits and redeems his people. Maybe even a reflection there of the incarnation. You guys catching that?
• 33:46
  He visits his people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us. We know that the horn of an animal represents its strength, its power. When we de-horn an animal, we are stripping it of its ability to conquer, kill, destroy, right? And he says, this one who will come, this one who will visit his people will have his horns. He will have the ability to lower his head, conquer.
• 34:18
  Verse 69 continues, Now every time the people of Israel heard the name of David, they thought kings. Kings. He's going to provide a king for us. A king who will sit on David's throne forever. That was the Old Testament promise. By the time you get to Zechariah, the kingly line is broken.
• 34:45
  In fact, there hasn't been a David king sitting on the throne for hundreds of years. King Herod, who was the king at the time of Jesus' birth, was Edomian. We'll come to this in a couple of weeks. He wasn't even Jewish, maybe half Jewish. He's from the tribe of Edom, sworn enemy of the Jews. He was appointed by the Romans, the sworn enemies of the Jews.
• 35:14
  Right? He's not the king that's going to rise up against the Romans. That's not going to be him. Zechariah, what are you talking about? That promise to David didn't come true. It's over. Verse 70, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. And he says, that can't happen. The kingly line is broken. What Zechariah says is, no, he's bringing in a new king who will reestablish the throne of David. That's the first verse.
• 35:43
  Second verse is about Abraham. And this would be the covenant of God's promise to build a nation. You continue in verse 72. It says, To show the mercy promised to our fathers to remember His holy covenant. What covenant? The oath that He swore to our father Abraham. To grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear and holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. When the people heard the name of Abraham, they thought about nations. God.
• 36:13
  would build a nation from the people of Abraham, a people through whom he could display his power, his mercy, and his love. But since that day, the enemy of our souls had been seeking to destroy that nation. And there was the problem. By the time of Jesus, by the time of Zechariah, the people of Israel were scattered. They were all over the map, literally and metaphorically. They were disjointed geographically. They'd been hauled off in captivity to Babylon, and they had not all returned.
• 36:45
  They were scattered across hundreds of miles, but they were also theologically divided. Sects like the Pharisees and the Sadducees and others had come in and divided the people even doctrinally. They didn't even agree on what God had said and what portions of the Bible to use. They didn't even agree on that. This promise of a nation undivided, the promise to Abraham that he would have this undivided nation with God at their head was ludicrous.
• 37:17
  Zechariah, the nation is broken. The nation is broken. You can imagine being offered maybe to stand in the presence of God and enjoy paradise forever. Remember back to when the gospel was shared with you and you understood it and it's being explained. You can be forgiven of your sin. You can actually go to heaven where God is. You can dwell there in that unapproachable light. You can actually dwell there forever where there is no more disease and no more crying and no despair.
• 37:50
  There's no more death. All of that is at an end. You can enjoy that paradise forever. And you say, well, that sounds pretty good. Why wouldn't I do that? Of course I would do that. Can you imagine if your evangelist stopped you there and said, but you know what? You can't go. Well, why not? Because you're a sinner and there has been no provision for your soul. There is no forgiveness. If you'd been perfect.
• 38:23
  Maybe you could go, right? But you can't. You've sinned, and so too bad. You know, all of the blessings that I've just described, too bad. You can't have any of them, right? You're like, well, that's kind of messed up. Why even tell me about it? It's like sharing with your kids the joy of Disneyland, the greatest place on earth, happiest with Magic Kingdom and all of that stuff. Oh, man, the entire time you're there, it's 15 hours of sheer bliss, right? Which any parents who have taken their kids to Disneyland know.
• 38:53
  is a lie from the pit, okay? It's sitting in traffic, paying exorbitant prices to stand in line in the hot sun, okay? That's what it is. But, sorry for all you Disney lovers, but that's what it is. But you tell your kids, oh, it's the greatest place on earth. You walk down Main Street, you see the castle at the end, all of that. It's just the greatest thing. Can we go? No, sorry. Well then, why even tell me about it? You can imagine the people of Israel at the time of Zechariah saying, you know what? The whole David thing, it didn't work out.
• 39:26
  It didn't work out. We've got Herod. That's what we have. The nation thing, Abraham, it didn't work out. We're all over the place. When we pay our taxes, it's not even going to our own people. They're using our tax money to fix Rome. None of that worked. Zechariah says, well, I'm not finished. I'm not finished. And he brings in a new covenant. And look what this new covenant offers. It offers what mankind's biggest problem was, a solution.
• 39:54
  Verse 76, and you, child, he's speaking of his son John, will be called the prophet of the most high. You will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people. He says it's not about kings, although this baby will be a king. It's not about nations, although this king will establish a nation. We are a people. We were at one time not a people, but now you belong. You belong to a people, the family of God.
• 40:22
  It's not about those things. Instead, he says, it's about salvation and the forgiveness of sins. God, he says in verse 78, is tenderfully merciful. The sunrise shall visit us from on high. It will give us light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace. And what the people had wanted to that point, which was maybe a socio-political peace, we understand now through Christ.
• 40:53
  It goes far beyond world peace. We have through Jesus. Romans 5 says we have through Jesus peace with God. You know, God will always fulfill His promises. He will always do that. If He says He'll give you a king, He'll give you a king. If He says He'll make you a nation, He'll make you a nation. If He says He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it, then He will complete it.
• 41:20
  Zechariah's song of salvation answered the Jewish people's, and in our turn, in turn, all people's greatest question. Jesus would indeed become the king. He would indeed establish a nation, but more than that, and this is the takeaway from today, more than that, he would accomplish those things by saving his people from their sin. And Lord, I pray, I pray that we would leave today genuinely rejoicing over this truth. Not only do we have a king,
• 41:50
  And not only do we have a nation, but God, those things have been established because of the blood of your son. Lord, you came so that you could die and redeem us from our sin. And we rejoice in the salvation of our King Jesus. And it's in his name we pray. Amen, church? Amen. Let's stand and sing.