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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!
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