The Carol of Zacharias

Transition w/ key word – Our text reveals several insights of God’s redemptive plan through Zacharias’ Christmas carol.

1. A carol of praise - Vs. 67-75

A. God kept His promises to David - 68-71

B. God kept His promises to Abraham - 72-75

1. God’s purpose: To save Israel - 74a

2. God’s plan: To be served by Israel - 74b

3.God’s process: To sanctify Israel - 75

2. A carol of prophesy - vs. 76-79

John the prophet was to…

1. To prepare the way of the Lord - vs. 76

2. To provide knowledge of salvation - vs. 77a

3. To preach repentance - vs. 77b

4. To point the way to peace with God - vs. 78-79

Introduction – Last Sunday, the culmination of our Christmas VBS, the children sang the songs they had learned. The very first song they sang was called “House of the Lord” by Phil Wickham. We’re going to be singing that song during worship soon. The lyrics are as follows:

Verse 1

We worship the God who was We worship the God who is We worship the God who evermore will be He opened the prison doors He parted the raging sea My God He holds the victory yeah

Chorus 1

There’s joy in the house of the Lord There’s joy in the house of the Lord today And we won’t be quiet We shout out Your praise There’s joy in the house of the Lord Our God is surely in this place And we won’t be quiet We shout out Your praise

The second verse begins: “We sing to the God who heals, we sing to the God who saves, we sing to the God who always makes a way.”

This little song about joy in the House of the Lord describes the joy in the house of the Lord a couple of thousand years ago surrounding the births of JTB & Jesus Christ. You see God made a way as part of His redemptive plan for an older, barren lady, to have a baby, and a young virgin to have a baby. The last two Sunday’s in our series called “The Carol’s of Christmas” we looked at Mary’s Carol in Luke 1:46-55.

Today we’re going to look at the carol from Zacharias’, Elizabeth’s husband, on the occasion of their son John’s circumcision on the 8th day after his birth in the temple in Jerusalem. In vs. 59-66, Zacharias has been mute for 9 months, after his unbelief at Gabriel’s news. They were trying to get Elizabeth to name her baby after his father, Zacharias, but she insisted it was to be John. Zacharias wrote on his Ipad…says tablet in vs. 63…(making sure you all are paying attention) and said his name is John (BTW John means “Jehovah has been gracious.”). The Bible tells us as soon as Zach named John, his tongue was loosed, Zach was overwhelmed and filled with the HS and then his carol came bubbling forth!

Transition w/ key word – Our text reveals several insights of God’s redemptive plan through Zacharias’ Christmas carol. Rd Text - vs. 67-80

1. A carol of praise - Vs. 67-75

Explanation - Obviously Zach is one proud papa, having a son in his 80’s after so many years of people whispering that they must be under the judgment of God b/c they had no children. Zach circumcised his son according to the requirements of the law, & named him John in obedience to Gabriels word. People were wondering what kind of child this would be in vs. 66. So God told them, through the lips of Zacharias. “He was filled with the Holy Spirit” - That means Zach was God’s mouthpiece a that time. His words were Gods words! Like Mary, Zach was saturated with Scripture! As a priest, no doubt he had studied the OT, his Bible, and knew the promises of God so his carol is full of OT phrases. Some scholars have calculated old Zach used as many as 33 possible allusions or quotes from the OT! His carol is full of praise! How did & why did Zach praise God? Because…

A. God kept His promises to David - 68-71 - God promised David through the prophet Nathan in 2nd Sam. 7:11b-13 that he would be succeeded by his son, who would build a temple to God in response to David’s desire to build a temple to the Lord. We know this son was Solomon, the son of David & Bathsheba! I want you to just pause and think for a moment, that God made this promise to David, before David and Bathsheba had an adulterous relationship. Before David was guilty of murder of Bathsheba’s husband Uriah, trying to cover up his sin, by having him sent to the front of the battle, and having the army pull back and leave Uriah exposed to certain death! Of course God knew what David would do and how he would fail miserably. Yet God is able to work even that for good & for His glory! The metaphor of a horn of salvation vs. 69 is derived from an animal’s horns, a buffalo or an ox that symbolize strength and power. It makes sense to us in S. Texas where we hunt deer and seeing a couple of bucks with their huge antlers in the wild is a sight to behold! How strong, how powerful, how mighty, how able & capable is God’s horn of salvation to save & redeem? Well, Heb. 7:25 tells us: “Therefore He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” I don’t care what you’ve done, what sins you’ve committed, my God is able to save through His perfect sinless Son Jesus Christ, the horn of salvation! Even adulterous & murderous people like David!

Vs. 68 - Zacharias said God has (past tense) visited and redeemed His people. Interesting he spoke in the past tense; that’s because when God makes a promise, it is as good as done! The OT prophets made it clear that the Messiah would come through the kingly line of David. The prophet Isaiah would write 750 years b/f the birth of Christ this in Is. 9:6-7 - The throne of His father David! Zach praised God for keeping His promises to David. He also praised God for:

B. God kept His promises to Abraham - 72-75 - Zach not only praised God for keeping His promises to David, he had another reason to praise God. Zach reached even farther back in Israel’s history from the glory days of Israel under King David, farther back even to the beginning of the COI, to one man, an old man named Abraham. The Abrahamic Covenant is critical to God’s plan of redemption. Without God’s promise to Abraham, there is no King David, there is no nation of Israel, there is no Messiah named Immanuel, God with us! This goes all the way back to Gen.12:1-3. (Turn & Read). Abraham was 75 when God came calling. Here’s another example of an older couple, with no children, no one to carry on the family name and God says “I’m going to make of you a great nation!” And Abraham just believed God! The whole redemptive plan of God hinges on, is built on God’s promise to Abraham! How important is it? Vs. 72, Zach says it was part of God’s merciful plan! People sometimes confuse grace and mercy. Grace is God giving us what we don’t deserve. Mercy is God withholding from us what we do deserve. The wages of sin is death! What we deserve is death, eternal separation from God.

Now it was about mercy, it was a covenant to show mercy.

The idea is that God was compassionate, God was merciful toward undeserving people and He made a covenant. Now this mercy was, first of all, to Abraham and then repeated to Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and then extended to the nation of Israel and then extended through Israel to the world. So when it says in verse 72 to show mercy toward our fathers, that’s just where the stream of mercy starts. That mercy of God has been extended down through, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and on to generation to generation of sinners who deserved to be punished for sin. When I read of God’s dealings & faithfulness to Abraham’s offspring, the COI, I’m not sure God could have chosen a more stubborn, rebellious & hard-hearted group of people! I think that’s actually the point! If God can save and redeem Israel, there is hope for everybody! Yet God is a merciful & patient God who’s not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance! (2nd Peter 3:9). BTW this promise from God to Abraham is so important, it was repeated in the book of Genesis, 8 times! 8 times! God only has to say something once for it to be authoritative, and yet to hammer the point home with a jack hammer, He repeats the promise 8 times in Genesis: 12, 13, 15, 17, 22, 26, 28 & in chapter 35. The most notable of course in Gen.22 where God swore by Himself after putting Abraham’s faith to the test regarding sacrificing Isaac, his only son. You see God tested Abraham to see if he’d sacrifice his only son, while all along, God planned to actually sacrifice His beloved son Jesus Christ to save His people from their sins. The HS had Zach share:

1. God’s purpose: To save Israel - 74a - Here you’ve got tiny little Israel, the whole nation’s territory is roughly 8,000 square miles, the size of Connecticut, Delaware & Rhode Island combined. Since you Texans have no idea how small that is up in Yankeeville, let me help: S. Texas, from Del Rio to Brownsville and up past Rockport is 37,800 square miles. If you flipped Israel sideways, you could lay it on map between Del Rio & Brownsville and still have all kinds of room left over! And all around this tiny little country are enemies of Israel who hate them! Zach says God’s purpose was to save Israel out of the hands of her enemies. He used David to give Israel relief from their enemies.

2. God’s plan: To be served by Israel - 74b - Then, the HS inspired Zach to reveal God’s plan: to be served by Israel. When God found Moses in the back side of the Midian desert and called him to be God’s deliverer of Israel, after 400 years of slavery in Egypt, part of God’s message to Moses, was that Israel was to serve Him! IE Ex. 3:12 “I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” When Joshua commissioned the COI at the end of his life after taking over for Moses & conquering the Promised Land; he said in Josh. 22:5, they were to serve the Lord with all their heart and soul; and in 24:15; something some of us may have on a plaque in our homes: “Choose this day who you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!” It’s still God’s plan for His children to serve Him! But in order to serve Him, we must be holy which why the Holy Spirit inspired old Zach to reveal:

3. God’s process: To sanctify Israel - 75 - “In holiness & righteousness” - all the days of our lives. God called His people to be Holy - sanctified and set apart to serve Him. They were to be different from the nations and the world around them and thereby shine as witnesses and point people to Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob. Sadly the people didn’t do that and followed after idols and God kicked them out of the promised land. God has a process of sanctification. We call it progressive sanctification, the process of becoming a mature disciple and follower of Jesus Christ. God still expects, demands that His people be set apart and holy from the world around us. Unfortunately we have a lot of cultural Christians who are Christians in name only & live like, act like the world every other day. Do us a favor & don’t tell anyone you’re a Christian b/c you’re probably not! The day God is finished sanctifying you and making you more like Jesus is the day you get promoted to Heaven!

Old Zach praised God for God being a covenant keeping, promise keeping God. He kept His promise to David, to Abraham, He kept His promise to Zacharias & Elizabeth, & to Mary & Joseph; & guess what? He’s going to keep His promises to you too! That’s something to celebrate & thank God for this Christmas! We see:

2. A carol of prophesy - vs. 76-79

Explanation - Here we can see Zach’s emotional blessing and prophesy over his special 8 day old son John. I can picture aging Zach, holding his infant son, 1 week old in his arms. A faithful priest who’d been waiting for God’s promises to come to pass, 400 years of silence was deafening b/w the last OT prophet Malachi who wrote in Mal.4:5-6 (Turn & read). Zacharias had 9 moths to think about what Gabriel had said to him that day he was burning incense in the temple & Gabriel appeared and said in Luke 1:17 (read)! Gabriel’s message from God to Zach was a direct quote from Mal. 4:5-6! John was to be the forerunner of Christ! 400 years of silence and then God speaks that Messiah is coming! Then Zach shares 4 things his son was going to do.

John the prophet was to…

1. To prepare the way of the Lord - vs. 76 - a clear reference to Isaiah’s prophecy in 40:3 to prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert the highway for our God. Tell about how servants would go before the king to smooth out the roads. Saw this in WA traveling through the bush!

2. To provide knowledge of salvation - vs. 77a - John would come preaching and as he was preaching people began confessing their sins! If you don’t confess your sins you cannot be saved!

3. To preach repentance - vs. 77b Once confession of sins is made, you must repent & do an about face! Confession of sin, repentance of sin & faith in Jesus Christ = forgiveness or remission of sins. Set free! And that leads people to…

4. To point the way to peace with God - vs. 78-79 - Explain how people sit in darkness all around us, eyes blinded by Satan who wants to keep people in the dark, separated from God. Jesus came to bridge the gap between Holy God & sinful man! How can one have peace with God? Have you confessed & repented of your sin? That’s not the same as walking an aisle, getting baptized. You do those things after confession & repentance. Share the ABC’s.

Zach’s prophecy about his special son John, we know him now as JTB is summed up briefly in vs. 80.

Applications -

1. Zacharias is proof prior failures in matters of faith does not mean God can’t use you in the future! David is proof prior failures don’t negate God’s promises, Abraham was a sinner who lied repeatedly about his wife Sarah claiming she was his sister. But these men exercised faith in God! So our application is: Every day is a great day to exercise your faith in the person of Jesus Christ! No matter what you’ve done or how badly you’ve mess up! BTW - Zach & Elizabeth old, Mary young - Salvation is for everyone regardless of age, social status income or what side of the tracks you’re from! Has to be received by faith.

2. In an uncertain and fearful world, God wants you to walk in the way of peace! (vs. 79). You can literally sleep in heavenly peace and walk in heavenly peace! Phil. 4:6-7!

Close – Have you ever tried to squeeze a wet bar of soap? It tends to shoot right out of your hands, doesn’t it? It is kind of like the peace of God—one minute you think you have it and the next minute it’s gone! But the problem isn’t with the soap or with God’s peace—the problem is with our grip. Is there a secret that could help us hold on to the peace of God—regardless of the circumstances? Absolutely! (Leadership Ministries Worldwide. (2001). Practical Illustrations: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians (p. 105). Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide.)

Mary’s Christmas Carol, Zacharias’ Christmas carol both lean on the promises of God & God’s track record of faithfulness. They believed God & trusted His Word & they did it w/ only the OT Scriptures to guide them! David & Abraham believed God & took Him at His Word! “The way of peace” is the way of faith, & gratitude to God & the foundational assurance the God is always true to His word. Jesus Christ truly is the “Prince of Peace.” Oh come let us adore Him!