Zechariah Gets His Voice Back

Intro

Last week - prophecied the coming birth of jesus

the king - and this king would be victorious - change history

in other words - Christmas is cosmic - and politicial

Today - Zechariah - not only cosmic and political but also very personal. Chrismtas has come so we as individuals - and therefore - families, church - can serve the Lord in all of our lives.

THE BIRTH OF JOHN THE B

LUKE 1:57 Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. 58 And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. 59 And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, 60 but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.” 61 And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.” 62 And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called.63 And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all wondered. 64 And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. 65 And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea, 66 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 him.

Naming a child - a very important Jewish custom

we have customs as well. customs can be good, but they can cause issues as well. even take precedence over God’s commands if we aren’t careful.

Eliz has baby - news spreads fast - and everyone rejoiced

8th day - gather for circ. - custom to name the child in the presence of the community - and custom to name after dad - but NO! “his name is John” - and folks weren’t cool with it. - this goes against their custom.

The custom of a people is not our law. but at times, we seem to think it is.

Let me say it a different way - the “acceptable norms” of our society are not a law. But we feel a certain pressure… we feel a need to cave to it when we know that God would call us in a different way.

Let me take it further. Sometimes we feel as though we ought not say something, it just isn’t appropriate, it isn’t the right time, but … we know it is true and right.

Z is our example here. He looks down the face of the norm. The accepted customs. And says no, God has said otherwise.

“well, it’s perfectly fine to live together before marriage.”

in fact, statistics show.....

“disciplining your kids isn’t for everybody… in fact statistics...

stop. bible. What does the Lord say?

See what I mean? our customs .. they’re coming for us.

ZECHARIAH’S PROPHECY

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...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.

THE PURPOSE OF CHRISTMAS

Z gives us the purpose of Christmas - we will “be delivered fromt eh hand of our enemies” but why? that we might serve him without fear - in holiness before him all our days.

So yes - the defeat of Herods, and Satan, and sin - but also very personal. The submission of the self to God.

TO SERVE - this word is significant - most often translated as worship ro service of a deity.

the connotation here is worship - in all of life.

on the job site. at the home. in the study, kitchen, office.

all things. always. for the Lord.

Romans 12:1 to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship/service.

your life is not yours.

Hands:

We are priests and our hands are the sacrifice. not for sexual perversion or violence or theft but for praise, worship sharing, and receiving grace.

The virtuous women of proverbs 31 works with her hands.and eats the fruit of her labor.

The psalmist raises his hands toward the temple

The faithful worker of ephesians 2 works with his own hands that he might have something to share.

Eyes:

The psalmist puts nothing wicked or worthless before his eyes.

And his eyes have been opened by god so that he can behold wondrous things from the law.

The faithful man does not look upon a women to lust.

But rather his eye beholds the glory of god through a glass dimly, and is careful to take the speck from his eyes.

Mouth: whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of god.

BUT NOT JUST BODY - heart, soul, mind, strength.

to go back to our text - we are delivered from the hands of our enemies - TO SERVE. TO WORSHIP. Everything in life is service to God.

so in other words - we are slaves - no longer slaves to sin, but slaves to Christ - free to serve

the world wants freedom, but the wrong kind. absolute freedom. freedom like a dolphin free from the sea, flapping on the shore. freedom like a sky diver free from a parachute. freedom like a kit, free from a string.

while it chooses slavery. slavery to lust. to the teachings on the TV. to the gurus on the internet.

Te be a disciple of jesus… is to disrupt everything else in your life.

meaning every other loyalty, falls to the side.

and because Jesus is good, he is going to lay your life out to make your former loyalties and loyalty to him come into conflict.

the world around us - will not understand this.

Think about Eliz and Zech for a moment.

They had a child, and they knew his eternal purpose beforehand, to prep the way for the messiah. They probably understood the dangers and the risks associated here… and the let it roll.

They did not choose safety or comfort for themselves, but rather, leaned into this promise of God and shifted their lives there.

This is like what happened to Israel in Egypt.

Moses’s words in Ex 3:12 let my people go that they might serve the lord.

See that? real freedom, is freedom of service.

Then given God’s law, and it was completely comprejensive.

healthcare, sex, education, clothing, food, inheritance, property rights - all of it.

all of life, was centered on God and his words.

Now these commands have changed form in the NC, but they’re still present. There is still not a facet of our lives that is outside of the jurisdiction of Christ.

but then I am a slave? Yes.

your sex life, the way you raise your children, your job, all of it.

But our real problem? What makes this truly difficult?

Functionally - we’ve all adopted the idea of pragmatism.

Pragmatism: an american born and raised philosophy that determines the value or moral goodness of a plan of action or a strategy or a product by whether or not it is successful.

“well, does it work?”

let’s think of some examples

“school vouchers have been shown to improve test scores overall in 80% of states that have tried them” Ok.

or maybe a little closer “if there were more funding for ____ then it would improve, you need money to...” and some may be fine with a bit more tax $$ goign to this or that.

asking whether or not it works is fine. knowing somehelpful data is fine too.

But who determines the ultimate goals? Who determines the means to achieve those goals, and if the means is acceptable?

are we just data driven robots?

the difference is the Christian isn’t just governed by facts and data and what seems pragmatic.

For example, “states with legal access to abortion actually have less abortions than those states where it’s illegal.”

that’s a classic argument, and I think it’s wholly false, but you still hear it. But lets assume that it is true.

that part doesn’t matter. You see, God has determined the ends and the means, and we will never sacrifice some babies to save others. we will fight for them all.

THE FIRST QUESTION for the servant/slave of Christ? What does my master say? What does Jesus say?

this is a reflex we have to hone. practice.

Let me bring this more close to home for us.

Well, I’ve found that spanking my kids just doesn’t work. Do you hear the tones of pragmatism here?

What’s your goal? Just want your kids to be obedient? I assure you it takes far more than just a swat to accomplish that.

but do you want your kids to be God fearing lovers of Christ? Then even more than just spanking your kids. But certainly not less.

It’s a command of God. Am I going to stand and give a pragmatists argument in support of it? No. I think we’ve been a slave to that for quite long enough.

A few more, close to home for us...

Studies have shown that couples that live together actually have better marriages… stop. God says no.

Studies show that when you play this type of music, or have this type of assimilation system in your church, you grow!

but do you really?

but the data I’ve read on social media says… retrain your knee-jerk reaction.

My therapist doesn’t agree with what we teach about sin… I’m not shocked.

And the counter to this pragmatic culture we live in… is to change our mindsets. And can you picture a society that would operate this way? It would be distinct. Set apart. Obviously different. And able to offer the world around us a different way.

And this life of service will be for the rest of our lives

Rev 22:3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship (serve) him.

But you ain't going to have it there if you ain't got it now.

When you die you re not radically changed in your disposition toward God. if you are his servant now, you will continue to be. If you are not you will not be with him.

if you are going to have it there, the evidence will be you have got it now.