The original Christmas playlist contains songs of God’s faithfulness in the face of our fallenness...

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...