This week we have been looking at
a song that was a part of the original Christmas playlist that was written by a
man named Zacharias. Zacharias was a priest who was a direct descendant of a
man named Aaron, who was the very first priest of the Jewish people. Zacharias
was married to a woman named Elizabeth, who was also a direct descendant of
Aaron. However, Luke tells us that Zacharias and Elizabeth were childless,
because Elizabeth was barren and they were both advanced in years.
Zacharias was selected by lot to have the privilege to enter
into the sanctuary of the Temple to burn incense before the Lord. And in the Temple, Zacharias had an encounter with an angel of the Lord. The announced to Zacharias that he and his wife would have a son that would
be the fulfillment of a promise that the Lord would send a messenger prepare
the Jewish people for and to announce the arrival of the Messiah who would
bring the Jewish people back to the Lord and back to prominence in the world.”
Instead of rejoicing at the angel of the Lord’s
announcement, Zacharias doubted the angel of the Lord’s announcement. The angel
responded to Zacharias’s doubt by providing him with the credentials to prove that
he was a messenger from the Lord that had been authorized to announce the
arrival of the son who would prepare the Jewish people for the arrival of the
Messiah. After providing his credentials to Zacharias, the angel Gabriel then
proclaimed that Zacahrias would be unable to speak until his son was born.
When Zacharias emerged from the Temple, he was unable to
speak a sound. Luke tells us that after finishing his time serving the Lord at
the Temple, Zacharias and Elizabeth returned to their home in the hill country
of Judea. A short while after returning home from serving the Lord in
Jerusalem, Luke tells us that Elizabeth became pregnant. Then, eight days after John the Baptizer’s birth, as they came
to circumcise their firstborn son, Elizabeth officially announced that that
they were going to name their son John.
When Luke tells us that they were all
astonished, this phrase literally means to be extraordinarily disturbed by
something.
Zacharias
family and friends were extraordinarily disturbed that Zacharias would not want
to pass on his name to the next generation after God had acted in such a
miraculous way to provide them a son by which to pass on his name. However,
Zacharias family and friends would become even more disturbed with what was
about to happen next. And it is what happens next that we see Zacharias respond
by composing and singing a song that would become a part of the original
Christmas playlist. So let's look at that song together, beginning in Luke 1:64-74:
And at once his mouth was opened and
his tongue loosed, and he began to speak in praise of God. Fear
came on all those living around them; and all these matters were being talked
about in all the hill country of Judea. All who heard them kept them in mind,
saying, "What then will this child turn
out to be?" For the hand of the Lord was certainly with him. And
his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying:
"Blessed be the Lord God
of Israel, For He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people,
And has raised up a horn of salvation for us In the house of David His
servant-- As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old-- Salvation
FROM OUR ENEMIES, And FROM THE HAND OF ALL WHO HATE US; To show mercy toward
our fathers, And to remember His holy covenant, The oath which He swore to
Abraham our father, To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our
enemies, Might serve Him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before Him
all our days.
Luke tells
us that as Zacharias made his wishes concerning the naming of his son known,
his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed. In other words, Zacharias mouth and
tongue were once again enabled to function by the Lord. And here we see the
Angel Gabriel’s words come to fulfillment. As Zacharias obeyed the Lord’s command to name his son John, the Lord enabled Zacharias
to be able to speak. And as Zacharias spoke, he responded to the evidence of
the Lord's activity in his life by worshipping the Lord. Zacharias was empowered by the Spirit of God to deliver
new verbal revelation about God and His divine plan in the world to the world
in the form of a song of worship.
Zacharias song
of worship surrounding God’s Divine Plan in the world, if communicated in the
language that we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like
this: “Praise be to the Lord God who is going to look after us and come to help
us in a way that is going to bring about a great deliverance for us. Praise be
to the Lord God who is going to cause to come into existence the Messiah
through a descendant of King David and who has the mighty power to deliver and
rescue us from the transcendent danger of selfishness and rebellion according
to the promise that He made to us. Praise be to the Lord God who is going to
fulfill His promises to extend kindness and concern for us in need as He
promised our ancestors in Psalm 106:10. Praise be to the Lord God who is
remembering the promises that He made to our Father Abraham in Genesis 22:16 to
rescue and deliver us from our enemies so that we would be able to serve and
worship Him fearlessly with a proper attitude toward God that is reflected in our
actions and that results in a life that is right in God’s sight.”
You see,
when provided a second chance to respond to the announcement of the Messiah,
Zacharias responded by proclaiming that announcement to everyone around him.
Zacharias then continued to announce God’s Divine Plan by shifting the focus of
his announcement to the role that his son would play in the announcement of the
Messiah in verse 76-79:
"And you, child, will be called the
prophet of the Most High; For you will go on BEFORE THE LORD TO PREPARE HIS
WAYS; To give to His people the knowledge
of salvation By the forgiveness of their sins, Because of the tender mercy of
our God, With which the Sunrise from on high will visit us, TO SHINE UPON THOSE
WHO SIT IN DARKNESS AND THE SHADOW OF DEATH, To guide our feet into the way of
peace."
As the
family and friends of Zacharias and Elizabeth looked on in fearful and
disturbed astonishment, Zacharias continued by singing that the son whom they
just circumcised and strangely named John would become the prophet of the Most
High. Their son would grow up to be the fulfillment of a promise God made some
400 years earlier in a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of
our Bibles called the book of Malachi.
In Malachi
3:1, the prophet Malachi had predicted and proclaimed to the Jewish people that
the Lord would send a messenger ahead of the Messiah in order to announce the
arrival of the Messiah. That messenger would call the people to prepare for the
Messiah’s arrival by removing the obstacles of unbelief that would cause them
to miss the Messiah’s arrival. And Zacharias proclaimed that his newly born son
would be that messenger that would prepare and make known how all of humanity
could have the opportunity to be rescued from the selfishness and rebellion
that separated them from God so that they could experience the forgiveness and
the relationship with God that they were created for.
Zacharias
quoted from a section of a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament
of our Bible called the book of Isaiah to reveal the reality that their son
would be the messenger that would announce the arrival of the Messiah who would
be sent by God as a demonstration of His merciful heart to reveal and explain
God to those who were far from God. Their son would announce the arrival of the
Messiah, who entered into humanity to direct and point humanity to the path
that would provide them an opportunity to live in a state of harmony and well
being with God in relationship with God.
And it is in
this song that was composed and sung by a man who once doubted God’s promise
that would become a part of the original Christmas playlist, that we discover a
timeless truth about the very first Christmas and its
place the grand story of God's activity in history. And that timeless truth is
this: The original Christmas playlist contains songs of God’s faithfulness in
the face of our fallenness.
The timeless reality is that God
is a promise maker and a promise keeper. The timeless reality is that history
demonstrates that God was faithful in the past and God will be faithful in the
future. And this morning the timeless reality is that humanity is flawed and
fallen as a result of our selfishness and rebellion. The timeless reality is
that history demonstrates that humanity consistently doubts God and the
promises of God. The timeless reality is that history demonstrates that
humanity chooses to reject God and the relationship with God that we were
created for and does things out of that selfishness and rebellion that hurt God
and others.
And nowhere is the collision
between God’s faithfulness and humanities fallenness more evident than at
Christmas. Christmas is all about God making good on promises that go all the
way back to the beginning of human history. Christmas is all about God
responding to the fallenness of humanity who rejected Him by promising to
faithfully pursue and rescue them. Christmas is about God making good on a
promise to give what was closest to Himself to rescue what was furthest away.
And Christmas is about the
reality that God will be faithful to fulfill His promises in the future.
Christmas is about God making good on all of His promises not because of our
performance, but in spite of our performance.
Christmas is about the reality that God is a promise maker and a promise
keeper who has a plan in history to provide all humanity the opportunity to
experience the forgiveness and relationship with God that they were created
for.
So with that in mind, here is a
question to consider: Do you believe that God is a promise maker and a promise
keeper? Do you believe that God can be faithful in the face of your fallenness?
How are you responding to the promises that God has made to you through the
original Christmas playlist?
Have you come to the place where
you have responded to the reality that we are all flawed and fallen and have
hurt God and others by responding to God’s faithfulness that has been
demonstrated throughout history by believing, trusting, and following Jesus as
Lord and Leader?
Because the timeless reality is
that the original Christmas playlist contains songs of God’s faithfulness in
the face of our fallenness...
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