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Introduction
Back in the 90s to the early 2000s, I was a card-carrying, chart-making, conspiracy-believing dispensationalist.
I had watch all four of the Thief in the Night movies and read The Third Millennium and The Fourth Millennium by Paul Meier.
I read all the Left Behind Series up to The Glorious Appearing.
I had Tim LeHaye’s book on Revelation.
I had studied Clarence Larkin’s Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth and Dispensational Truth.
Every book I could get on the Tribulation and the Second Coming, I bought and devoured.
Why?
Because I was convinced that Jesus would soon rapture his church.
I was convinced that everything that needed to happen for Jesus to rapture his church had been done.
Now, I still believe that there is nothing keeping Jesus from returning; I just don’t believe in the secret rapture of the Church.
Now, take that type of enthusiasm that I had in the 90s and 2000s and transfer that to Zechariah.
Israel has been waiting for hundreds of years to hear from God. Malachi was the last prophet of Israel.
He promised that the Messiah would come and before him a messenger would come to prepare a people.
Nine months before John the Baptist was born, Gabriel told Zechariah that he’d have a son who would be the preparer of the people.
Mary had shown up at his door with news that she was carrying the Messiah.
But Zechariah couldn’t say a word!
Who knows even if he really understood what happened with Mary?
But he knew that if his son was the preparer, then the Messiah was close at hand.
God’s Kingdom was coming!
And the moment he was able to speak, Zechariah sent up a praise to God.
As we open up Zechariah’s song, his prophecy, often called the Benedictus (as that is the first word in the prophecy), we see two inter-related acts of God.
The first act is the sending of the Messiah.
The second is the sending of the Messenger.
Sending of the Messiah
Sending of the Messenger
The Sending of the Messiah
The first act that we see Zechariah prophesying about is God’s act of sending his Messiah.
This was not mere speculation on Zechariah’s part.
Whether or not he knew why Mary was staying with them for six months or who the baby in her womb was, Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit as he spoke.
This is the fourth mention of the Holy Spirit in Luke 1. John the Baptist would be filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb.
Mary would be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit.
Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit as she spoke to Mary.
And now Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit when he prophesied.
I mentioned when we first began this series that Luke had a desire to show the Holy Spirit at work more than any other Gospel writer.
Before we get out of the first chapter, he has already mentioned him and his powerful work four times!
May we never be a people who downplays the Holy Spirit as if he is not constantly working behind the scenes.
By the power of the Holy Spirit, Zechariah prophesies and he praises God for his acts.
By sending the Messiah, Zechariah tells us three truths about what God is up to.
God’s Power of Salvation
God’s Product of Salvation
God’s Purpose of Salvation
God’s Power of Salvation
The first truth that we see is in the Benedictus is God’s Power of Salvation.
As Zechariah prophesies, he actually prophesies a praise.
That word bless, as we’ve seen in other verses, is not the “happy” kind of blessing, but the “praise” kind of blessing.
“Praise be to the Lord God of Israel.”
Why? There’s that word again!
“For/Because!”
God has visited and redeemed his people.
The word that we have for visited means literally to look after or to look over.
Of course, that would imply visiting and caring for his people.
He is not simply looking from on high, but is looking out for them in their midst.
It’s the verbal form of the word Paul used in 1 Timothy 3 in which we get the word “overseer.”
Just as a pastor is to oversee—watch over his flock—so God oversees—watches over his people.
A good pastor does not watch over his flock from a distance and a good God does not watch over his people from a distance either.
But there is significance in these words because Zechariah isn’t just talking about God’s general oversight and care.
He’s speaking to something specific—specifically redemption.
God has watched over his people and has made redemption for them.
God was, in this moment, understood to be bringing about salvation for Israel.
And look at how he went about it: He raised up a horn of salvation.
When we think of a bull, what do we think of as being its dominant feature?
Or a ram or a goat?
It’s the horn.
The horn is a symbol of the power of the animal.
In much the same way, when the Bible speak of the horn of salvation, it is referring to the power of salvation.
Except this horn wasn’t from a bull or a goat or ram.
This horn was from the house of David.
This was royal power.
This was kingly power—Messianic Power.
So we see then that Zechariah revealed the truth of God’s Messiah being the power of salvation for Israel.
God’s Purpose of Salvation
But secondly, Zechariah revealed the truth as it dealt with God’s Purpose of Salvation.
Why did God save his people?
Freedom and Worship!
Israel was under Roman rule.
The Romans were certainly occupying enemies of Israel.
And eventually, God’s people would be delivered from their enemy Rome through the work of the Messiah and the Holy Spirit.
But the greater threat to Israel and to us was the occupying enemy in the human soul.
This enemy hates us.
It seeks to harm us, hurt us, even kill us if it gets the chance.
Zechariah understood that the result of Jesus—the power of salvation—was a deliverance, a salvation from this enemy.
To what end?
To serve God without fear in holiness and righteousness.
The word “serve” is the same word that Paul used in Romans 12:1, in which he stated that this was our spiritual worship.
It’s the word “Latria” and it can be translated as either worship or service because it really means both.
One does not worship God without serving and one does not serve God without worship.
All of life (Paul’s point!) is a worship service to the Lord.
Zechariah is saying that’s the purpose for Jesus’s salvation is that we are now able to worship—to serve—in holiness and righteousness forever.
Our salvation is not fire insurance.
It’s not simply a “get out of hell free” card.
It’s purpose is to move us away from our enemies so that we may worship freely and fearlessly.
This was what Moses was to do with Israel and what Jesus does with us.
I would warn all of us, God had delivered Israel from Pharaoh and Egypt—those who were their enemies and hated them; those who had enslaved them—the very symbols of sin.
Yet Israel did not worship and serve the Lord.
Instead, they made sacrifices to a golden calf and celebrated it instead.
Let us see that in our salvation, God’s purpose is to make a people who would worship and serve him fearlessly (the main point in the text), which means our worship and service is done in holiness and righteousness.
God’s Product of Salvation
Finally, we see God’s Product of Salvation.
It is to prove himself faithful and good and true.
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