Zechariah's Praise

Good Morning,

Thank you, Marc for filling in last week and reminding us of the perspective we should have. How when we look at the world with God’s eternal perspective, everything seems small compared to our Rock and our redeemer.

Today we are looking at the song of Zechariah’s Praise. This is found in Luke 1 and we will be looking at verses 67 through the end of the chapter. We will see some of that eternal perspective in Zechariah’s praise today.

Before we begin lets open with a word of Prayer.

Pray 3+

In this passage we have really have 4 parts we have the setting in verse 67, then in verses 68 through 75 is the Zechariah’s praise for Messianic deliverance, verses 76 to 79 contain prophesy about John and Jesus, and our passage closes with the growth of John. If you haven’t already turn in your Bible’s with me to Luke 1 and I will start reading in verse 67.

Luke 1:67–75 “67 And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, 68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people 69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, 70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, 71 that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; 72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, 73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us 74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, 75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.”

Luke 1:76–80 “76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, 77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, 78 because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high 79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” 80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.”

Right off the bat Luke tells us how we are to read this passage. In the opening verse and setting we see that Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, meaning all of what he was going to say was going to have a future fulfillment and like I had said verses 68 through 75 are praise for Messianic deliverance, but they have a very nationalistic tone to them. The first words he speaks “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel”, speaks of the special blessing that Israel had recieved from God, but the language continues through out the first half of the praise. Zechariah continues to use this WE, US, OUR language, in his mind there is no separation between the spiritual and national salvation that was to come in the Messiah that was about to be born.

Zechariah’s praise here is for the total deliverance of God’s people and he presents the whole work of salvation here rather than the twofold coming of Jesus that we see happen as we continue through really any of the Gospels. This is important for us to catch because it tells us that God’s work is not done. Israel is still part of God’s plan despite the fact that they have currently rejected the Messiah. Zechariah is praising God for His future fulfillment of the promises spoken by the prophets and this fulfillment would come through this one who was the Horn of Salvation a thee house of his servant David.

What is the "horn of salvation"?

First we have to look at what the horn reference is pointing to to determine what this term means, this term comes up a couple of times in the Old Testament. One of these in in 2 Samuel 22 and the other is in Psalm 18 which is a parallel of what we see in 2 Samuel and are nearly identical. Turn with me to the one in 2 Samuel 22 and we will start in verse 1.

2 Samuel 22:1–4 “1 And David spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. 2 He said, “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, 3 my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my savior; you save me from violence. 4 I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.”

We see in this passage the idea of strength and might, a stronghold and a rock. If you remember to what Marc said last week about the Lord being a rock, it is much more than some big boulder that is hard to move but can be moved. It is much more akin to a mountain. But in verse three, David calls the Lord several things all pointing to his ability to save David from violence. He says my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and refuge, my savior. And it is right in the middle of all of these strength and shield descriptors that we see our term the horn of my salvation, which gives us a clue as to the meaning. We see it has to do with strength and power. However if we continue to read this song we see more to this picture of salvation, when David said you save me from violence, it was much more than a reprieve from the violence. God, himself, fought for David. Jump down to verse 7.

2 Samuel 22:7–15 “7 “In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I called. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry came to his ears. 8 “Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations of the heavens trembled and quaked, because he was angry. 9 Smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth; glowing coals flamed forth from him. 10 He bowed the heavens and came down; thick darkness was under his feet. 11 He rode on a cherub and flew; he was seen on the wings of the wind. 12 He made darkness around him his canopy, thick clouds, a gathering of water. 13 Out of the brightness before him coals of fire flamed forth. 14 The Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered his voice. 15 And he sent out arrows and scattered them; lightning, and routed them.”

This is the full picture of the horn of my salvation or in our passage today in Luke the horn of salvation. It is the picture and strength of an ox fighting. When we compare ourselves to a bull’s strength ours is next to nothing but then it has the horns which can be used to violently gore it’s enemies. This is the picture of the horn of salvation we are given in scripture and this picture is given to God. His salvation is a powerful salvation that fights and destroys his enemies. This a power that is ascribed to the Lord God and now in our passage is given to this one who is coming from the line of David, Jesus. He would save them from their enemies. He has delivered his people from the first and most powerful of these. Death and sin. He has completed this.

If you turn back to Luke with me, we see this has been accomplished and it was pointed to by John the baptist. In Luke 1 verses 76 and 77, Zechariah says his own son: Luke 1:76–77 “76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, 77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins,” And we will see in Luke 3 that John did prepare the way for the Lord. He had a ministry of repentance baptizing with water preparing the hearts and minds of the people for the coming saviour of the world. In verses 78 and 79 we see that the God would visit his people and give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.

In John 8:12, it reads “12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”” It is amazing how He gives us light when we come to Him. It is in many ways like being here in the winter cloud cover, then the sun comes out and it almost hurts it is so bright. But despite that it feels amazing to have the sun hit your skin and feel it’s warmth. However, Jesus is so much brighter and better than the sun, when we see his light it is both painful and joyous. He is perfection and when we look at Him we realize just how short of that bar we fall. How we can do nothing to reach Him, yet so amazingly joyful because He chose to provide a way. He died for my sin with His blood that i might be washed white as snow. He gives me his righteousness. That exchange is offered to all who are willing to turn to him place their faith in Him as Lord and savior. This is one of the most amazing and undeserved gifts, but it has a purpose and reason.

What is of the main purpose of salvation? 

This reason is found in verses 74 and 75, so many of us miss this so I am going to read it a couple of times.

Luke 1:74–75 “74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, 75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.” Let me read that again.

This is hard because we as fallen people want it to be about us, but our salvation isn’t about us, it is about Him. We benefit greatly because of it don’t get me wrong, but it isn’t about you or me it is about Him. You might be like Pastor Jad that seems a bit extreme, I mean He gave me this gift so it has to be in someways about me. And in part you are right, it is God’s desire that we would each turn to Him and be saved, because living for Him leads to human flourishing, but the Bible speaks to this point quite extensively and we will just scratch the surface, but follow me for a bit and hopefully it will be clear. You don’t have to turn there but for context it is important, in Genesis 1:26–27 “26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” You have God’s image engraved on you, we bear his image remember that this will be important.

Now turn with me over to Mark and the verses I want to look at are in chapter 12. I will start in verse 13.

Mark 12:13–17 “13 And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk. 14 And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone’s opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” 15 But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” 16 And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar’s.” 17 Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marveled at him.”

What is interesting about this test is the word tax. Rulers of the time were considered divine and so this was more than paying a tax. The word here is more like a tribute one would give to a god. This is how the coinage was stamped and most cultures had no problem with this. One more god among all the others. However for the Jews this was something entirely different, this is why this is a test. Yet look what Jesus says, whose likeness and inscription is this? Money was Caesar’s so give it to him, but God’s image and likeness are inscribed on you, therefore give to God what is His. The Jews recognized the allusion to Genesis here that is why they marveled at Him. I know we don’t live in a monarchy, but if you have a coin or dollar in your pocket take it out and look at it. It has an image inscribed on it, most countries it is the ruler of the country, here it is important historical people, but in the same way that image is inscribed on that coin and we recognize it belongs to the US, so to is God’s image inscribed on us and everything we are belongs to Him.

This is the example both John the Baptist and Jesus give us. From their birth to their deaths they lived for the glory of God. Jesus taught his disciples this and they were all willing to give up their lives for the sake of the Gospel. Paul tells us in Romans 12:1 “1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” We are called to live for the Glory of God, giving Him everything within us, because He bought us. He delivered us from death that we might serve Him, without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, when I feel like it. NO, it said in our passage ALL of our days, not just when we feel like it our when we feel him close. It is to be all of our days, in everything we do we are to be serving Him. Does that mean we will do this perfectly or do it without fail? No, and God has already forgiven us for when we fall short of this, but our love for him should drive us to live sacrificially for Him in every area of our lives.

Are we each serving our purpose?

Is this how we are living our lives? I know this is nearly an impossible standard to live by. I say nearly because by our own power it is impossible, we must have our eyes upon Jesus.

We have been called to live in a way that is impossible, much in the same way it was impossible for Peter to walk on water, yet when Peter’s eyes were fixed on Jesus he was able to do the impossible, Jesus said apart from Him we can do nothing, yet with Him we can do what on our own would be impossible. We can serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness. We can lay ourselves down and focus on him. We can overcome sin and consider ourselves dead to the flesh.

This is hymn that is usually considered when thinking about the troubles of the world but it is equally valid when we are talking about serving Him. It is the hymn “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” by Helen H. Lemmel. I won’t sing but listen to the chorus.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus

Look full in His wonderful face

And the things of earth

Will grow strangely dim

In the light of His glory and grace

It is interesting how the things that stop me from serving Him are so strangely dim when compared to the light of His glory and grace. This is true from all of the distractions in the world but it is also true of myself. I am one of my biggest problems in serving God. My pride, my wants, my needs, yet when compared to Him they are rubbish and so much easier to lay down, though I don’t always do this perfectly.

How do we do this though, how do we look full in His wonderful face? Read His word, pray, memorize scripture, but then serve Him how he has gifted you.

Let us close with a word of prayer.