October 27, 2024
Luke 1:67-80
“It Shall Be Done”
Do you have a desperate need? Does someone you love have a desperate need? Have you ever been at a point in your life where you were desperate for direction or answers or some kind of helpful intervention? Have you even been desperate for emotional or spiritual or physical healing? Big or little, we’ve all had desperate needs.
Have you ever wondered about people who don’t believe in God? Have you even wondered about where they turn in those desperate moments of their lives? What about people who don’t know Jesus as their Lord and Savior? How do they hold up when desperation knocks them down? We all have a desperate need for meaning and purpose in our sometimes dark and stormy lives. Which is exactly what God promises in the gift of a Savior.
Let’s now look at Luke 1:67-80 one last time:
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 peopleand 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 usthat we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,might serve him without fear,in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins,because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on highto give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.
As we saw last week, Jesus, our horn of salvation, is our ever present help in times trouble, turmoil, and tumult. And what that means is…all the time. Without our horn of salvation, sin and death would haunt us into forever. Without Jesus, we would be consigned to the ash heap of eternal separation from God.
Here's another way to put it:
OUR ONLY HOPE OF RECOVERY FROM THE DEADLY DISEASE OF SIN AND DARKNESS IS JESUS’ DEATH ON THE CROSS.
In other words, our greatest adversary is unforgiven sin. Jesus, the horn of
salvation, is the only answer. The only answer.
Let’s now look at how an ever so slight and subtle linguistic switch signals the Biblical truth of what will happen in Bethlehem. Not so subtle hint – notice I said truth of what will happen in Bethlehem.
Whenever writing any kind of law or policy or giving a directive, you need to be very careful about wording. You want no misunderstanding or misdirection. The two most important words in your arsenal are will and shall. For example, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Then there’s this, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Then there’s the Ten Commandments. You shall or you shall not are in eight of the ten. Commandments. Not suggestions. Or options. Or potentials or possibilities.
In light of that, let’s isolate verses 76-79:
“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins,because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on highto give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
In these verses, every verb is in the future tense. These things will happen. They shall come to pass. Note, once more, the trajectory of God’s salvation history. Mary hasn’t even given birth. Yet Zechariah says that the Savior his just born son will make the way for, will accomplish these things. The horn of salvation will destroy sin and death.
Here is the sureness of God’s promise of salvation. From Malachi 4:1-6:
“For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.
Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
That promise was made hundreds of years before Elizabeth and Zechariah were given the promise by an angel of God that they would have a baby. Over four hundred years before the birth of Jesus. Over four hundred years before John the Baptist made a way in the desert for the Messiah. That is the unstoppableness of God’s salvation history. Not it might happen. Not it could happen. But it will happen. That’s the importance of the switch to future tense. It makes a key point.
I love what happened in Zechariah’s life. Remember, he questioned God’s promise from the angel Gabriel. Because of that, he was unable to speak for nine months. What do you suppose Zechariah did over those nine months? No doubt he prayed and read God’s Word. That is always a good place to be when at a loss for words. When grief feels too heavy to bear… when confusion clouds vision…when frustration or anger threatens to over-whelm…prayer and God’s Word ought to be in the position of first choice, not option of last resort. Amen?
Here's something I see happening in Zechariah’s life. Remember his initial skepticism of the promise of a son. Because of that, he can’t speak for nine months. As soon as he is silenced, he is fully invested in the promise from the angel of God. The silencing snaps him out of his skepticism. As a result, he has a renewed purpose in his life.
Here's something from the fantastic Viktor Frankl that connects what happened 2,000 years ago with our lives today:
“EVER MORE PEOPLE TODAY HAVE THE MEANS TO LIVE, BUT NO MEANING TO LIVE FOR.”
Elizabeth and Zechariah were blessed by God, totally undeserved and unearned, with a next-level purpose for their lives. Their son would be the Elijah of his generation, making way for God’s Messiah. Can you imagine?
In a different way, but it’s still an equally unearned and undeserved blessing, we live for Christ and his glory. Again, as Zechariah says in verses seventy-eight and seventy-nine:
“Because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
God does not free us from the shackles of sin and oppression so we can live in the tranquility of our private little lives. No, no, no. God frees us from the weakness of our own flesh so we can be used to serve the needs of others. God frees us from sin and death so we can enjoy the privilege of making our little corner of his world a better place. That’s where these final verses of chapter one direct us.
I love how Paul expresses this reality in Ephesians 3:1-2:
“For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles - assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you.”
In other words, the grace God bestows on us is intended by God to be passed on to someone else. Or shared with someone else. Or poured into someone else’s life. However you look at it, we are saved to spread this grace to others. Another observation from Frankl perfectly captures the spirit of how this drives our attitudes and actions:
“I DO NOT FORGET ANY GOOD DEED DONE TO ME AND I DO NOT CARRY A GRUDGE FOR A BAD ONE.”
Think about what our community becomes as more and more of us reflect God’s grace and mercy in our lives.
Here’s something else you might want to write down:
THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION IS TO BE FOUND IN HOW WE EXPRESS THIS GIFT OF SALVATION TO OTHERS.
When God’s grace has taken hold of your life, it cannot be contained. It will be seen in how your feet walk in the way of peace.
Two final thoughts.
First, from 1 John 3:8:
“Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.”
Second, from Hebrews 9:26:
“Christ has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”
We are freed from sin and the guilt that sin brings for good works. All we have to do is turn from our sin and faithfully follow Jesus Christ. We are invited to follow the horn of salvation, who has defeated sin and death.
Because of that, Christmas is good news of great joy to all who believe.
And together, the people of God said, AMEN.
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