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Good morning Christ Church.
My name is Susie and I'll be reading today's scripture lesson from the Gospel of Luke, chapter
1, verses 11 through 17 and 67 through 80, as printed in the liturgy.
A reading from the Gospel according to Luke.
Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense.
When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear.
But the angel said to him, Do not be afraid, Zechariah.
Your prayer has been heard.
Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John.
He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will
be great in the sight of the Lord.
He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy
Spirit even before he is born.
He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God.
And he will go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the
parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready
a people prepared for the Lord.
His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, Praise be to the Lord,
the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he said
through his holy prophets of long ago.
Salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to show mercy to our ancestors
and to remember his holy covenant.
The oath he swore to our father Abraham, to rescue us from the hand of our enemies and
to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go on before the Lord
to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness
of their sins because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from
heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.
And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he lived in the wilderness,
until he appeared publicly to Israel.
This is the gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Christ.
Good morning, Christ Church.
I'd love to just begin today by saying how much I love the elders of Christ Church.
These are men and women sitting in our pews this morning who've been gifted and called to the work of overseeing
and shepherding this church.
And I just have so much trust in them, so much respect for each of them in most situations,
except for when it comes to our annual Christmas party and our white elephant gift exchange,
which happened last night, in which case all trust and all respect just goes completely out the window.
These are some of the most vicious, cutthroat, cold-blooded, ruthless, heartless people you could ever meet.
They will not hesitate to steal from you, to kill your hopes.
So I just want to say trust your elders unless there's a competition of some sort with a reward on the line,
and in that case stay very, very far away from these callous and cruel people.
So with that introduction to the sermon, we are in a series that we're calling the Songs of Christmas
because this gospel, Luke's gospel, begins that way.
It begins with songs.
It begins with singing about who the Messiah is, about why he's coming into the world, what he's going to do,
and they're meant to give us understanding about the true meaning of Christmas.
And so far we've looked at the song Ave Maria in Luke chapter 1.
It's the combination of these words to Mary from the angel Gabriel and from this fellow believer Elizabeth.
And the words of Ave Maria say,
Hail Mary, you who are highly favored of the Lord.
Blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.
Jesus.
We looked last week at Mary's song, The Magnificat.
She says,
My soul magnifies the Lord.
My spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
These songs, Ave Maria, The Magnificat,
there have been many, many works that have been produced,
countless musical works to reflect their beauty into the world.
Next Sunday we're going to look at the Song of Simeon,
the Nunc Dimittis,
and maybe this song particularly rings in our hearts for some of us this Christmas.
It says,
Lord, you may now dismiss your servant in peace,
for my eyes have seen your salvation.
And then on Christmas Eve we're going to be reflecting on the Song of the Angels,
the Gloria in Excelsis Deo,
which is so well known to us.
It's in so many of the Christmas carols that we sing.
But today we're going to look at what I would consider to be the least known of all these songs in Luke's gospel.
And it's the Song of Zechariah,
often known by its Latin title the Benedictus.
And it's this beautiful song of joy.
It's been one of the most well-known songs of the New Testament
throughout the history of the church,
and yet it's probably the least known to us today.
And so on this third Sunday of Advent,
I'm hoping that I can just help us get better acquainted
with this Christmas song that's been sung by the church,
it's been sung by God's people for the last 2,000 years.
And I hope that you'll be able to sing it maybe in a fresh way after today.
I want to look at it under three headings.
First of all, that it's a song of benediction,
and then that it's a song of liberation,
and that it's also a song of preparation.
All right, so this is a song of benediction, liberation, and preparation.
And let's look, first of all, at a song of benediction.
If you look at verse 67, it says,
His father, John the Baptist's father, Zechariah,
was filled with the Holy Spirit,
and he prophesied, saying,
Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel.
So what's the first word out of his heart and out of his mouth?
The Greek is eulogitos, which is where we get the word eulogy.
Right?
And the Latin word is benedictus, where we get the word benediction.
And what is a eulogy?
What is a benediction?
It's a good word about someone.
It's a word of praise.
It's a word of blessing.
A word of worship and adoration.
And what we've seen in this little group of Elizabeth and Mary and Zechariah,
this little community of believers right here at the beginning of Luke's gospel,
is that they're just a people who are full of praise.
Right?
They're people who they can't contain their love for the Lord
and the sense of joy that they find in Him.
Their souls are just bursting forth with songs that they hope will bless the Lord
and exalt the Lord and please and delight and honor and praise the Lord.
And this is showing us, I think, that worship is not primarily about us.
Right?
Worship is not primarily about our experience.
It's not about what we receive.
It's not about whether or not we feel blessed.
No.
Worship is about making sure the Lord is blessed.
It's making sure that He is praised.
And Mary is a beautiful model of this, as we saw last week.
Zechariah is a brilliant example of this,
of how we can offer up these Holy Spirit-filled songs,
these prophetic and divinely inspired hymns that bless the Lord.
And what do we notice immediately about the theme and the focus of this song
that's meant to praise and to bless the Lord?
Well, Zechariah says this.
He says,
Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because He has come to His people and redeemed them.
He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David.
I hope you have a pen or a pencil or something,
because I'm going to encourage you to underline or circle some words today.
And kids, if you're following along, you've got a crayon or something,
you can circle a couple words.
So look at verse 68.
You'll see a word that says,
Redeemed.
Circle that word,
Redeemed.
Okay?
And then in verse 69,
you'll see this word,
Salvation.
Circle that word,
Salvation.
And then look down in verse 71,
you'll see that word again,
Salvation.
Circle that word.
And if your eyes scan down the passage,
verse 74,
it says,
you'll see this word,
Rescue.
Circle that word,
Rescue.
And then again in verse 77,
you'll see the word,
Salvation.
Just circle that word,
Salvation.
Why is Zechariah full of praise and thanksgiving?
Why is he letting us know that the Lord is worthy and deserving to be praised?
What is he telling us about the true meaning of Christmas here?
He's telling us that God is sending his son.
God is sending the Messiah.
God is sending a new David to what?
To redeem us.
To save us.
To rescue us.
This is not a song about how we save ourselves.
It's not even a song about the God who helps those who help themselves.
This is a song about the Lord God of Israel who's come to redeem and save and rescue,
just as he promised he would do a long, long time ago.
And this is what he says in verse 69.
He says,
God, about a thousand years before Zechariah is singing this song,
God gave a promise to David.
And he said to David in that promise,
he said,
you're never going to lack a king from your royal line to sit on the throne of Israel.
And he promised David,
he said,
one of your descendants is going to rule and reign forever over Israel.
And from Israel,
he's going to reign over all the nations of the world.
And his kingdom is never,
ever going to end.
It's a massive promise that God gave to David.
And yet with that massive promise comes a massive problem.
Because the problem of the Old Testament is that David's throne fell.
Right?
David's kingdom crumbled.
When Zechariah is singing the song,
there's been no king in David's line to sit on the throne of Israel for 600 years.
They've been dominated by Babylon.
They've been dominated by foreign power after foreign power.
Even now when Zechariah is singing,
they're dominated by Rome.
Now I wonder if any of us here today have ever found ourselves supporting a losing team.
Anyone know what that's like?
To support a team that's had a losing streak for a very long time?
How many of your teams have been losing for 600 years?
Okay, Israel has been losing for 600 years.
And God is telling Zechariah that I'm about to turn things around.
That I'm going to fulfill my promise to put a king on David's throne
who's going to redeem and save and rescue my people.
And through this coming Messiah,
through this new David that I'm going to send into the world,
he's going to fulfill all the promises that I've ever made.
Not just to David,
but to Abraham as well.
Look at verse 71, 72.
He says that God is going to show mercy to our ancestors
and remember his holy covenant,
the oath that he swore to our father Abraham
to rescue us from the hand of our enemies.
Mary sang this last week in her Magnificat.
She said God made promises to Abraham in Genesis.
And he promised that Abraham,
and through Abraham and his offspring,
all the nations are going to be blessed.
And one of God's great promises to Abraham
is that through one of your singular particular descendants, Abraham,
I'm going to make your name so very great.
And you see, God's promises to David,
God's promises to Abraham,
they really go all the way back to the beginning,
all the way back to Adam and Eve.
And you can sort of just trace this golden thread of God's promises
all the way back to that mother promise in Genesis 3, 15
that says the offspring of the woman is going to come,
and he's going to be terribly wounded,
and yet he's going to crush the head of the serpent.
And you know, if you're a Jew in the first century,
a Jew like Mary or a faithful Jew like Zechariah,
you absolutely cherish these promises
from Genesis to Samuel to Psalms to the prophets.
And if you were to decorate your home
for the coming of the Messiah,
do you know what kind of things you would put in your front lawn
if you were a faithful Jew in the first century?
You would not put Santa Claus, right?
It would not be Charlie Brown.
It wouldn't be Frosty the Snowman or the Grinch.
No, who would you have in your front lawn?
You would put these real historical people,
these people who had real relationships with the living God,
Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah,
the prophet Nathan, King David.
These are the people you'd be excited about
when you're celebrating the coming of the Messiah
because you're seeing that now all of these,
through all these people and the promises God made to them,
God is fulfilling his promises.
And that is what,
what is it that gives Zechariah such joy and such delight?
What is it that causes him to want to bless the Lord,
the God of Israel?
What causes him to sing so passionately with praise and thanksgiving?
It's that these ancient promises,
that God would send a child of Eve,
that God would send a son of Abraham,
that God would send a king in the line of David
to redeem and save and rescue his people,
that these promises are coming true now.
And so that's the question for us is,
is this what Christmas means to you?
Will your time and your energy,
will your attention and your money in the season ahead
be primarily devoted to praising and blessing the Lord
and singing enthusiastically about the one
that he sent to redeem us?
Or will our time and our energy and our money
be devoted to something else,
to lesser things that pale in importance
and really don't matter all that much in the end?
So Zechariah is inviting us
and he's challenging us
to make Christmas about benediction,
to make Christmas about blessing the Lord,
the God of Israel with words of praise,
words of adoration for keeping his promises
to redeem and save and rescue his people.
Does that make sense?
It's a song of benediction.
And that's what the church is meant to sing,
songs of benediction to God.
But secondly, it's not just a song of benediction,
it's a song of liberation.
A song of liberation.
You want to circle and underline some more words?
You guys ready for that?
Verse 71 says that God is going to give us salvation
from our enemies who hate us.
Circle that word, enemies.
And you'll see it again in verse 74.
God is going to rescue us from the hand of our enemies.
Circle that word, enemies.
Here is Zechariah.
He's filled with the Holy Spirit.
He's been given prophetic insight
into what God is going to do
through his coming Messiah.
And what he tells us in this song
is that Christmas is all about liberation
from our enemies.
Christmas is about being released
and set free from our enemies.
And the critical question here is,
who are our enemies?
Who are these enemies who hate us?
These enemies who hold us in their iron grip
of their oppressive hands.
And if you're in the first century,
you know the obvious answer
about who your enemies are
is it's the Romans.
Romans.
They're clearly the enemy.
Right?
This occupying power
of these pagan,
non-Jewish,
idol worshipers
who enforce the Pax Romana
by crucifying their enemies
and confess that Caesar is the Lord.
Those are the enemies, right?
I mean, isn't that,
isn't the Roman Empire
the hand of the enemies who hate us?
Surely the enemy.
Surely the problem with the world
is out there somewhere beyond us.
They're the baddies
and we're the goodies.
And God is surely sending his Messiah
to deal with them, right?
Isn't that what this prophetic song
of Zechariah is all about?
Take that as an amen.
Bam.
So I want you to underline
and circle a couple words
that might feel a little uncomfortable
this morning.
Words we might not like to hear
but words that are nevertheless
part of the story of Christmas.
And in verse 77,
you'll find it says,
God's gonna give his people
knowledge and salvation
through the forgiveness
of their sins.
Circle that word, sins.
And then in verse 79,
it says that he's gonna shine
on those living in darkness,
circle that word darkness,
and those living not only in darkness
but in the shadow of death.
Circle that word, death.
Now do you see who our enemies are
who hate us
and who hold us in the iron grip
of their oppressive hands?
It's sin.
It's darkness.
It's death.
This is what we human beings
need to be liberated from.
Sin is not out there.
It's not beyond us.
It's not over there in those baddies.
No, sin, Zechariah says,
it's in here.
It's inside of us.
It's in those of us
who think we're the goodies.
Right?
We don't need to be liberated
politically and sociologically
from Rome
or from whoever is the governing power
that's creating all the problems.
No, he says,
what we need to be liberated from
is not a sociological problem
or a political problem.
It's a spiritual problem
and it's a moral problem.
What we need to be liberated from
is ourselves.
It's ourselves.
What is sin?
Right?
Why is it so bad
that God had to become
a human being
and die
to deal with it?
Sin in a word
is self-centeredness.
Right?
Sin is rebellion
of the self
against the authority
and the love of God.
Sin is self-assertion
against God.
Sin is a dethroning
of the Lord
and an enthroning
of myself
in place
of the Lord
where He deserves to be.
Sin is simply
self-deification.
It's behaving
as if I were the Lord.
And because that's true
in my heart,
because that's true
in your heart
and in every heart,
we're living
under a cloud
of darkness
and death.
The effect of sin
in this world
is darkness
and death,
Zechariah says.
He gives us
this amazing picture
in verse 79.
And he says,
I just want you
to imagine
a picture
of a number
of people.
They're going
on a long journey
and they're traveling
a far distance
to this certain city
and they believe
that if only
they reach that city
and they get
to that city
and they get
inside of that city,
they're going
to be satisfied.
They're going
to be happy.
But alas,
with this whole group
of people traveling
on this road,
the sun has set
on them.
Right?
The night has descended
upon them
and the whole place
where they are
is covered
with a thick darkness
so that they just
can't see
and they can't go on
and they're living there
and they're settled there.
In fact,
it says that they're
sitting there
in hopelessness
and in despair.
Right?
The city
that they were seeking,
they can no longer
even see the city.
They've lost the road
to the city.
They don't know
where they are.
They see no path
in front of them
and so they just
simply sit down.
And that's just,
that's not even
the end of their troubles
because they realize
that they're exposed
out here
in this open country
on the way
to this place
to terrible dangers.
Right?
They're not only
sitting in darkness
but they're also
sitting in the shadow
of death.
They realize
that out here
at any moment
they can be attacked
by wild beasts
and set upon
by robbers
and thieves
and murderers
because out here
there's no city wall
in the open country
to protect you.
There's no police
to come and defend you.
They don't know
where they are.
They don't know
how to get to where
they thought they were going.
They're just helpless
and they're hopeless
just sitting there
in the darkness.
At any moment
they might be overwhelmed
and be put to death.
And the result
of this darkness
and this threat
of death
is a deep unhappiness,
a deep misery
and anxiety.
They're living
in a deep sense
of discontentment
and depression
and despair.
And Zechariah says
this is the picture
of our hearts in sin.
It's the picture
of our world in sin
that we're lost.
We're stranded.
We're stuck
in a state of darkness
and death
and we're unable
to arrive
at our desired destination
where we would be safe
and where we would be satisfied.
Sin and darkness
and death,
these are the enemies
who hate us
and are constantly
attacking us
and holding us
in the iron grip
of oppression.
And this,
Zechariah says,
is the reason
for Christmas.
This is the condition
from which we need
to be liberated
and released
and set free.
And without this,
we simply cannot understand
what Christmas means.
We can't understand
why God would send
a Messiah for us.
But it's this bad news
that makes the good news
shine all the brighter.
Because look at verse 77.
It says,
that the rising sun
will come to us
from heaven
and shine on those
living in darkness
and in the shadow
of death.
And He is the one
who will give us
the forgiveness
of our sins.
The question is,
who is this rising sun
from heaven?
Who is this,
as the old King James Version
says,
who is this day star,
this day spring
from on high
that will shine upon us?
Is it not Jesus Himself?
Jesus who says
in the Gospel of John,
He says,
I am the light
of the world.
Whoever follows Me
will never walk
in darkness
but will have
the light of life.
Christmas says
that Jesus
is our sunrise.
Jesus,
in the midst
of this world
and darkness
and sin
and death,
Jesus is
the morning sun
who comes
and scatters
the night away.
Jesus is the one
who brings
the dawn
of a new day.
A dawn of a new day
that brings forgiveness
and healing
that brings beauty
and joy.
The dawn of a new day
that enables our feet
to be guided
in the path
that we lost,
the path of peace,
the path of peace
with God
and peace with each other.
And this is why
we love to sing
this great hymn
of Advent
when we sing,
O come thou
day spring,
O come thou
rising sun,
come and cheer
our spirits
by thine advent
here.
Disperse the gloomy
clouds of night
and death's dark
shadows put
to flight.
Rejoice,
rejoice,
Emmanuel
shall come
to thee,
O Israel.
My question
for you,
if you're here today
and exploring
Christianity
and you're just
kind of curious
and open
and discovering
who Jesus is
and what he claimed
to be for the first time,
my question for you is
are you able
to deal with your enemies?
The real enemies
that threaten you
and haunt you,
the enemies of sin
and darkness
and death,
are you able
to deal
with those enemies
in your own
limited resources
and your own
finite strength?
Or do you need
someone much greater
than you,
much stronger
than you
to come
and be
your liberator,
to come
and give you
liberation?
And if you're
a Christian,
my question for you
is does this liberation,
the liberation
that our Messiah
Jesus brings,
does that thrill you?
Does that kind of
overwhelm you
like it overwhelms
Zechariah?
Does it cause you
to burst forth
with song
and say praise be
to the Lord,
the God of Israel,
because he's come
to save us
from our enemies?
It's a song
not only of
benediction and praise,
but it's a song
of liberation
and rescue.
But finally,
I want you to see
it's a song
of preparation.
It's a song
of benediction,
it's a song
of liberation,
and finally,
it's a song
of preparation.
Because Zechariah,
he gives us
this Holy Spirit
filled prophetic song,
and it's a song
about the Lord,
it's a song
about the Messiah
that the Lord
is sending
to save us
from our enemies.
But it's also
about the role
that his son,
John the Baptist,
is going to play.
It's about how
John the Baptist
is going to prepare
people and make
them ready for the Lord.
And that's what it says
in verse 76,
it says,
and you,
my child,
you,
John the Baptist,
you're going to be
called a prophet
of the Most High,
for you will go on
before the Lord
to prepare the way
for him.
And if you know
anything about
John the Baptist's life
and his ministry,
you know that part
of preparing
the way of the Lord
meant that John
simply just stood there
in front of people
and he pointed,
right?
He would just point
to Jesus.
And the main thing
John would say
is he'd say,
behold,
the Lamb of God
who takes away
the sin of the world.
John would just stand
there and he'd point
and he'd say,
this is the one.
This is the one
that God has sent
to bear our sins
and our punishment
in himself
on his cross.
This is the one.
He's the only one.
The only means
by which God's tender mercy
can flow into our lives.
The only means
by which God's forgiveness
can come to us
in a life-transforming way.
And what's the whole point
of being redeemed,
being saved,
being rescued,
being forgiven by him,
Zechariah sums it up
in verse 74.
He says he's going to
rescue us from the hand
of our enemies
to enable us
to serve him without fear
in holiness and righteousness
before him all our days.
And that's what
John the Baptist
was preparing people for.
Right?
He said this is the whole point
that God desires
for all the people
that he's made
in his image
to rediscover
the meaning
of their existence.
He wants all people
everywhere
to rediscover
the purpose
of their lives
which is
that they might become
his fearless servants again.
That people everywhere
might become
his holy servants again.
That people might become
the righteous servants
of God.
That is what
John the Baptist
is preparing
men and women
and children for.
And that,
frankly,
is what the church
is here
to prepare people for.
That's what
we're all
to be preparing
people for.
See,
John the Baptist
had a unique
historical role
as the forerunner
and the preparer
of the Messiah.
And yet it's true,
isn't it,
that all Christians
have a responsibility,
all Christians
have a privilege
to,
as it says about John,
go on before the Lord
to prepare the way
for him.
And that means
that we,
all of us,
would share our lives
and we would share
our faith
with our family,
our friends,
our neighbors,
our coworkers.
That we would just
stand there like John
and do this.
And that we would
just bear witness
to Jesus
and we would introduce
other people
that God is preparing
for himself
to Jesus.
And why do we do this?
Why does the church,
why does a healthy church,
a living church
engage in this project?
Why are we praying
for people
who don't know the Lord
that they might be curious
about the Lord?
Why are we praying
right now as a church
that our friends
would open their minds
and their hearts
to just explore faith
for maybe the first time
or the first time
in a long time?
Why do we go before
the Lord
to prepare the way
for him
by inviting people
to just come
and share a meal
at our table?
Why are we
sharing our lives
with people?
Why are we engaging
with them
in simple
and serious
and spiritual conversations?
Why are we putting
so much energy
and time
and effort
into our Alpha course
starting this spring?
Well it's right there
at the very end
of Zechariah's song
in verse 77.
The reason
we're preparing people
for the coming
of the Lord
into their lives
is that
we want them
to experience
what we've experienced.
We want them
to know
the joy
of what it's like
to have their sins
being forgiven.
We want them
to know
the joy
of what it's like
for their darkness
to turn into light.
We want them
to know
the joy
of being released
from the fear
of death
and having a sense
of victory over death.
We want them
to know
what it means
to have feet
that are led
into peace
with God.
Not a conflicted
relationship
with God
but peace
and reconciliation
with God.
Peace
and reconciliation
with other people.
That's what we want
people to know
that ultimately
they would come
to experience
the freedom
and the joy
that we've experienced
that they would
serve the Lord
without any more
fear in their lives.
That they would
serve the Lord
in holiness
before God
and righteousness
before God
all their days.
That is the task
and the mission
of the church
collectively
that is the task
and the mission
of every Christian
individually
is to go
before the Lord
to prepare people
for his coming
into their lives.
And my friends
the question
for us today
is
do you accept
the mission?
The mission
should you choose
to receive it
is to go
before the Lord
to prepare people
for his coming
into their lives.
And so this Christmas
will we pray?
Will we plan?
Will we make invitations?
Will we engage
in conversations
in such a way
that at least one person
that God
has put into our lives
might be made ready?
Might be prepared
for the coming
of the Lord
into their lives?
May it be so
in the name
of the Father,
Son,
and Holy Spirit.
Amen.