Luke 1:67-75 - God's Promise Kept!

Introduction

We have been out of the book of Luke for about 3 weeks (this was not intentional as we had Lord’s supper, I was out and then senior Sunday)

So let me catch us up to where we are at in our text in the Gospel of Luke chapter 1.

If we remember Luke was written as an orderly account, therefore he sought to write most of what happened in order (and we learned from the start of the Gospel of Luke that God’s Word is (infallible and inherent)

Infallible - the belief that what the Bible says is wholly useful and true

Inherent - The belief that the Bible is without error or fault in all of it’s teaching

So as we start this morning lets take a step back and look at the birth announcement of John the Baptist:

See with the birth announcement of John the Baptist did not only come a mention of a son to Zechariah, but their was more to this encounter and announcement.

It was said that Zechariah’s son John, would “be great before who? - the Lord” - and that “he (John) will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, v.17 and He will go before Him

Who is this Him?, Him being Christ Jesus the Messiah who is to come.

So while the birth of John the Baptist was about John’s birth announcement. (mind you the son who Zechariah and Elizabeth prayed for.)

So Zechariah’s prophecy today in V. 67-75 is about Zechariah in a moment of thanks, being filled with the Holy Spirit to testify to another Son, this Son; being the Son of Man who was to come. Who was to rescue and deliver and Keep His people from the dominion of darkness and sin.

So on the timeline in Luke Ch1: (Recap)

We see Birth of John the Baptist Foretold

Birth of Jesus Foretold (Mary is overshadowed by the Holy Spirit)

Mary Visits Elizabeth (Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit to testify to Christ in Mary‘s Womb)

Mary’s Magnificat

The Birth of John The Baptist

And today is Zechariah’s Prophecy

And as we look today and next Sunday at Zechariah prophecy Luke 1:67-80

We will break it up into two parts:

First this morning we will be looking at God’s promise Kept! - We will understand more as we go through this text

Second (which is next Sunday) we will look at Verse 76-80 as Zechariah praises God that His son (John) gets to usher in the Lord and prepare the way for Him

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

Pray

Luke 1:67 “And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,”

So John, Zechariah’s son was just born…

Meaning John has been born and it’s important for us to know Zechariah is John’s Father

Zechariah according to God’s Word was going to have a son and now Zechariah‘s name has changed to Father.

And let it be said, only by the mercy of God can a man become a Father.

“And his father…Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit...”

So what happened to John’s Father in our text?

“was filled with the Holy Spirit”

In the greek “was filled” - means to be or become generously supplied with; or fill completely

The idea of having a glass half full at the restaurant (meaning their is room for more) But when the waitress comes around and fills it to the top their is no more room.

This “was filled” was meaning their was no room left for anything but God’s Spirit that has filled Zechariah

Now Really Quick:

Does this mean Zechariah‘s flesh and the deeds and desires of the flesh were fully gone?

No! As this was a temporary filling, to bring about the Word of the Lord To the people of the promise.

So Zechariah was still trapped in this sinful flesh; and often times would sin…

And what was he filled with?

“with the Holy Spirit” - in greek meaning blast, wind, breath

It wasn’t any kind of spirit, but it was the “Holy” -meaning devoted and set apart for the saints of God

And as we know from the text Zechariah and Elizabeth were both “righteous before the Lord...” (meaning they were chosen saints of God awiting the promised Messiah just like everyone else )

So you might be asking from our context what is this mentioning of the Holy Spirit right now?

We know the Holy Spirit as the gift the Father has given to us, through what Christ Jesus His Son has done, in His death burial and resurrection from the grave.

But just because Jesus hasn’t yet been born, died and rose again; (in our context. He’s not even physically born yet)

Does not mean the Holy Spirit does not exist and play a key role.

It’s important for us to see that Father, Son and Holy Spirit have always been (we know this as the Holy Trinity)

So as we speak of Zechariah (the Father of John) now being “filled with the Holy Spirit” even before Christ is physically born; let us jump back even further…

Let us also make this connection of the Holy Spirit in the OT Joel 2:28

Joel prophesied of this - Joel 2:28 ““And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.”

And in the NT:

In our Gospel of Luke we have been tracking through...

If we can remember back in Luke 1:41-42 “And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”

And this being another instance where we see the filling of the Holy Spirit in the NT before Christ is even born (which indeed validates our point even more that the Holy Spirit is found in both OT and NT.)

And validates our point that just because Christ hasn’t been physically born ,does not mean the Holy Spirit has not played a role in the Bible from time past to time present and into the future

And now we read of Zechariah being “filled with the Holy Spirit...”

This filling as we know was a foretaste of what Christ was going to do, as the Holy Spirit will soon be the gift of God given to the chosen saints of God.

But what happened after he was filled?

“...Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit…and prophesied saying.”

Now as Zechariah has been filled with the Holy Spirit so now it says “he prophesied saying...”

Mind you, all of prophecy in Sacred Scripture points to Christ Jesus our Lord!

Prophecy being:

Communication of a divine message through a human.

This divine message being “prophetic” Zechariah being filled with the Holy Spirit was God using and telling one human to tell other humans who was to come

So what did Zechariah say as He was filled?

Luke 1:68 ““Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people”

Context - remember John was just born, but we see Zechariah turning his affections and attention not on John but...

Zechariah mentions...“blessed be the Lord God of Isreal.”

We see this kind of language, as it says “blessed be the Lord God of Israel” repeated in places like the Psalms…

Psalm 41:13 “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen.”

Psalm 72:18 “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.”

Psalm 106:48 “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say, “Amen!” Praise the Lord!”

Remember God visited Zechariah and Elizabeth. And now He was about to visit the whole nation of Isreal and His Chosen saint’s with the birth of the promised Messiah, as He promised.

The Long Awaited Messiah, because they had been waiting...

See has someone at one time promised you something; and yet you are still awaiting for that promise to come to pass.

How difficult does this time become? How trying does this time become? What temptations usually come upon us because our impatience?

Especially if you are looking forward to it, and to it’s blessing upon your life, and your families life!?

Well the people of God have been waiting for rescue, redemption and deliverance for a long time!

And here Zechariah, being filled with the Holy Spirit has just mentioned...

“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel… (for what?) ”for he has visited and redeemed his people.”

Has visited in greek - to visit someone in order to determine their condition

Their condition was number one sinful, and number two their offerings for their sins was still OT sacrifices of animals, using the blood of animals to please God’s Wrath towards them and their sin.

Remember in context this time it was dark for the people of God but these testimonies of what has been happening started to break the silence that was quite long.

As God had been silent for 400 years until the appearing of the Angel Gabriel in the Temple to Zechariah and the silence was broken Of His Son and another to come.

And what is Zechariah saying about the Lord God of Israel?

“he has visited…and redeemed his people.”

Christ has not yet been born into the world. But Zechariah speaks surely that Christ is here and not only that, He has been sent by His Father to “redeemed his people.”

Redeemed - meaning to deliver from harm or evil, conceived of redeeming or buying something back

The mentioning of this redemption Zechariah speaks of Christ’s future work of redemption on the cross even now, before he is actually physically born into the world.

And we need to know Christ’s work of redemption does not change. Those in past Or present (OT saints and NT saints) still chosen for redemption through Christ death, burial and resurrection; will still be redeemed and delivered!

Ultimately His People filled with His Holy Spirit now; and the saints He Chose in Christ who died before Christ was physically born into this world, so they receive the same redemption from sin.

Chris Hensley “The plan of redemption had been their through all eternity and now it’s time for the promise to be fulfilled and kept through Christ“

So Zechariah speaks “He has visited and redeemed his people...”

“and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.”

R.C. Sproul said in his commentary “It would be almost impossible to count all the titles used to describe the Messiah in sacred Scripture. But here is one we could easily miss if we pass over the text too quickly. This visitation and redemption involves the coming of the Messiah, who is here referenced as a horn of salvation in the House of HIs servant David. The image of the horn refers to those beasts of the earth that use their horns in battle. It is a symbol of great strength.

Enormous strength, a strength that cannot be overcome!!

Notice: as we can read Zechariah in this first part of the prophecy is not speaking about his son being born

As John was not “from the house of His servant David “but of the house of Levi “and not from the tribe of Judah, which is the tribe from which the Messiah was to come.”

Here the one who has visited and redeemed His people, the one who is a horn of salvation is Jesus Christ God’s Son from the house of his servant David.

Luke 1:69-70 “and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,”

To list a few OT Prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, David, Elijha, Hosea, Nathan, Enoch, Amos, Malachi, Jonah and Abraham

This isn’t something new God has spoken, but this has been the plan all along “He has raised up a horn of salvation for us, Strong and Mighty!”

“The prophecy of the coming Messiah begins with Adam and Eve and the curse on the serpent, whose seed would be crushed by the Seed of the woman. Throughout the pages of the OT, the prophets again and again reiterate the gospel promise of the coming Messiah who would bring redemption with Him. R.C. Sproul

So what has been spoken by “prophets of old?”

Luke 1:71 “that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us;”

“that we should be saved” - in the greek meaning salvation or deliverance- when one is in danger or on the brink of death the one who delivers us, is the one who saves us from that which would kill us, sin.

See Two things Jesus our Messiah and Lord is saving us from:

From our enemies - Psalm 106:10 “So he saved them from the hand of the foe and redeemed them from the power of the enemy.”

from the hand of all who hate us - Psalm 18:17 “He rescued me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.”

As R.C Sproul says...

We would assume this might be talking about Israel's battles with Romans, Philistines, the Amorites or any of those other nations constantly who besieged Isreal. Rather the ultimate enemy that twill be crush by the horn of salvation is the devil, the prince of darkness, and all his minions who are part of the curse- death, darkness, diseases, and everything else that puts a shadow over the joy of a human life.

All enemies will be conquered by the Messiah Christ Jesus our Lord, who will rise from the house of David...

Does this mean we wont see evil? And at times be faced with trials and tribulations?

No! But in light of what we know about Romans 8:28 “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

And James speaks of James 1:2-3 “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.”

So we are being saved from 1. our Enemies and 2. all who hate us. why?

Luke 1:72-73 “to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us”

Mercy here spoken in the past, meaning mercy is nothing new God shows and it was actually through Christ we see the mercy of the Father on display to send the Son Christ to save us from our sins and redeem us.

Mercy - compassion, courtesy and kindness

See this mercy that was promised to our Fathers (think OT) finds it’s fulfillment only in Christ from them then and us now.

But thats not all we see it says...

“to show the mercy promised to our fathers...and to remember his holy covenant,

What is a covenant? - a covenant is a promise kept

Gen 17:7 “And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.”

Exodus 2:24 “And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.”

In the midst of our unfaithfulness to the God who has redeemed us through His Son Jesus, so God has “remembered His covenant (promise) to us.- You think you have to keep your promise to God? No Good News; He keeps His promise to us!

And in this time for Zechariah; It’s just now (in the faithful timeline) that God will show and demonstrate His great mercy and love for us in sending His Son Jesus to redeem us from our sins, and deliver us from enemies.

And we have to notice this is the same theme Mary focuses on in the Magnificat when she said that God has remembered the promise that He has made to our Father Abraham.

That he would “grant us” - meaning to give freely; those whom have been appointed by the Father

To be heirs to the promise who is Christ!

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

Points:

So we know from our text that this is Zechariah Prophecy and yes (even though John is Just born)

We see Zechariah First worships Christ the Lord who is to come to redeem and deliver His children

This shows where his first priority lies. (and where ours should lie too)

And we know Zechariah and Eliz. Were both righteous before the Lord: Luke 1:6 “And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord.”

So they too have been waiting for the Messiah, Christ the Lord who was to come.

And what did we read in our text in Luke 1:68-69 ““Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,”

“he has visited and redeemed His people”

Has visited - because of a certain condition we are in...

And whats our condition? Sinful, separated from a Holy God

So our condition is that we broken and lost in sin and darkness in need of redemption!

Everyone born into it, no way around it and no other way through it except through Christ and His power!

So why is Zechariah filled?

To speak of Christ our Savior and Lord to come!

Because in this time what the people of God relied upon was the offering of sacrifices that were animals, to kill them and that the shedding of that blood of the animal might please God’s wrath towards them and their sins.

If we are in a bad and sinful condition, can the blood of animals continue to do what it used to?

Heb 10:4 “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”

Christ has been sent and soon, that which was His plan from the beginning, so now is the time for it to be fulfilled:

The promised Christ sent to take away the sins of the world!

Christ Jesus being our Savior, being:

1. A horn of salvation (strong and mighty)

2. He saving us from our enemies (Satan and His demons)

3. And from those who hate us

Points:

So as we have been visited and redeemed and delivered by Christ (As Zechariah’s prophecy we know is true)

The question then remains from Verse 74 - Whom shall I fear? Ultimately if Christ has…

Saved us from our enemies

and from those who hate us (thinking of David running from King Saul)

So we see the work Christ has done and is currently doing.

A continual saving, and keeping power He has for His Saints no matter how tough the battle, no matter ho dark it looks.

We can look at it this way for the Christian:

- We Are saved

- We are being saved

- We are forever saved

So we in Christ who have been visited and redeemed, shown mercy and are currently being delivered

who are we to fear?

Luke 1:74 “that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear,”

Oh Church do we understand what the Word is saying?

Do we really fully comprehend our new life in Christ?

So often we truly are crippled by the fear of the enemy and his henchmen

But let us not forget our Jesus and who He is and what He has done and is currently doing on our behalf.

Our God has kept His promise to us; and this promise was fulfilled in Christ His Son to…

Redeem Us

Deliver Us

Give us Mercy

And to “fill us with His Holy Spirit”

Why?

That we (His children) might serve Him Without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days”

Serve Him the one who is the horn of salvation; who has power over the enemy, and his demons and over those who want to harm us.

As Christians:

We know we are shielded, protected and we know through Christ we have the VICTORY through His death, burrial and ressurection from the dead!

His blood covering our sins, the new covenant in His blood; covenant meaning promise and the blood of Jesus is a sure promise for those who are His, as it has been applied to our life as we have put our hope faith and trust In Him.

Heb 9:11-28 “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

We have entered a new covenant through Christ perfect blood; and we have received redemption, and deliverance and the Holy Spirit as the inheritance of our salvation that now fills us just as it did Zechariah, now we are to serve Him without Fear!

Why?

Because He has dealt with sin, and the enemies after us both physical and spiritual; although it doesnt feel Iike it sometimes; so our feelings do not shape truth for us, but The Truth of God’s Word is what shapes Truth for us and molds us and makes us more like Jesus!

See the people of God have been waiting for rescue, redemption and deliverance for a long time

Church God has been faithful to Keep His promise to redeem us “We his people” from our sins through sending Christ.

Trust in Jesus today, be redeemed, delivered and BE SAVED and Filled to serve Him without fear!

JOHN

Isaiah 40:3-5 “A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.””