Sermon Tone Analysis

The Gift of Hope

Malachi 4:1-6 & Luke 1:67-79

“By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."

Luke 1:78-79

Before we read our New Testament lesson for today, I would look at two Old Testament passages.

The first is from the prophet Isaiah in chapter 9.

Isaiah 9:2

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.[i]

The prophet, Malachi, gives the following words to the people of Israel--400 years before the birth of Christ.

Let us listen to the prophet Malachi.

Malachi 4:1-6

See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.

2. But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings.

You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.

3.

And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.

4. Remember the teaching of my servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. 5. Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.

6.

He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse.[ii]

These words are cryptic and confusing.

These words are hard to understand and difficult to hear.

This morning we enter the season of Advent.

Today’s candle is called the CANDLE OF HOPE and it is also called the CANDLE OF PROPHECY.

Isaiah, Malachi, Elijah—they were Old Testament prophets.

Called by God to give the people His messages but, more often than not, the people don’t like to hear what the prophets are saying.

After Malachi delivers this message, there is nothing for the next 400 years.

Can you imagine 400 years of silence from God?!

Let us listen to God’s word for us today from the Gospel of Luke.

Luke 1:67-79

His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: 68“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people.

69He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David 70(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), 71salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us— 72to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, 73the oath he swore to our father Abraham: 74to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear 75in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

76And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, 77to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, 78because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven 79to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”[iii]

GOD IS SILENT

We don’t really like silence, do we?

Especially in a group of people.

Have you ever been in a small group praying, and there’s 30 seconds of silence?

It feels like an eternity.

Have you ever prayed about a struggle in your life and, as best you could tell, God was or is silent?

I think many of us have experienced that long, pause of God when our prayers seem to go unanswered.

At the time we are going through the silence, it feels like we will never hear from God again.

This is how we can connect with the Jewish people—except they didn’t just wait a lifetime to hear from God.

They waited for 400 years?

What was that about?

Generations came and went without a fresh word from God—sixteen generations came and went--to be exact.

I think it’s helpful to try to envision things from God’s perspective.

God was silent from a human

perspective but that doesn’t mean God had stopped working.

The apostle, Paul, wrote in Galatians 4:4-5, “When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.”

When the time had fully come—God acted.

God had been silent--but certainly—God was preparing the world for the exact coming of the Messiah.

It just happened to take 400 years!

From 356–323 B.C., God brought into power a man known as Alexander the Great.

As Alexander ordered his army around the Mediterranean, he set up cities and libraries--for the sole

purpose of spreading Greek culture and language.

By the time Rome came to power, Greek

was the language of commerce and education.

This Grecian influence led to the translation of the Old Testament into Greek--what scholars today call the Septuagint.

Gentiles—that’s us non-Jewish people--were then able to become acquainted with the principles of Judaism.

Later on, when the biographies of Jesus and the letters of instruction for the early churches were written, they were written in Greek.

Did you know that Alexander the Great believed he was on a divine mission from God?

In the silence of those 400 years between Malachi and the birth of Jesus, God was silent but extremely busy preparing the world for Christmas.

After Alexander the Great, Rome came into power and one of the lasting legacies of the Roman Empire became the system of roads they constructed.

“All roads lead to Rome.”

Along with this unified Empire, came unprecedented freedom to move from one Roman province to another—all because of the roads that connected the province.

Can you imagine the great sense of liberty and freedom these people felt?

And in the silence of these 400 years, God was preparing the world for Christmas.

It’s amazing what a change of perspective can bring.

To the Jewish nation, it looked like had God had abandoned them, gone silent on them, never to be heard from again.

But from our perspective, we know that God was not silent.

God was very much at work--preparing the world, setting the stage, for his greatest work—the coming of Jesus Christ into our world!

GOD SPEAKS TO ZECHARIAH

Let’s think about God’s interruption after the 400 years of silence.

The story of Zachariah is retold to us in the first chapter of Luke.

Zachariah is a priest working in the temple.

He has been doing his work day in and day out, hoping and waiting for the Messiah.

16 generations had come and gone, as well as 400 years of silence.

Zachariah and his wife, Elizabeth, have had no children.

They are old, and at their age, they hold no hope to ever have a child.

As a priest, Zachariah has been selected to go into the Holy of Holies to offer up the sacrifices for the people of God.

Zachariah never expected that God would break His 400 year silence and speak to him.

Yet right before his old eyes, the angel Gabriel appeared relaying the message from God that his wife, Elizabeth, is going to have a baby.

Gabriel goes on to say that Elizabeth will give birth to a son and Zechariah is to name him “John”.

Zechariah finds it hard to believe what the angel said.

Because of this, Zechariah is silenced for the nine months of Elizabeth’s pregnancy.

What a crazy interruption!

God had been silent for 400 years.

Finally, a fresh word of hope is delivered--and Zechariah falters in disbelief, in the HOLY OF HOLIES!

Instead of God being silent…Zechariah is now silenced for nine months!

ZECHARIAH’S SONG OF HOPE

The more Zechariah was silent, the more he had to think about the words of the angel, Gabriel.

“He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God.

With the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

(Luke 1:16-17)

Let’s rewind to 400 years earlier—do you remember what was said?

God gave a promise—that a prophet would come and proclaim the way of the Lord!

Malachi promised that a redeemer was coming, but first—there had to be a prophet who would announce the arrival of the coming Messiah!

Let’s fast forward.

400 years have come and gone and there’s been no prophet, no fresh word—nothing but silence from God! God has been silent, but the silence was speaking.

The silence had been hard at work.

The silence had been preparing for this very important Advent Interruption!

Zechariah saw an angel, was given quite a message but because he didn’t believe it—he was silenced!

Fortunately, Zechariah only had to wait nine months, not 400 years.