WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.040 So let's turn to Scripture this morning to Zechariah, song in Luke chapter 1. 00:00:08.040 --> 00:00:14.400 And we're going to… today and next two Sundays, we're going to look at the various 00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:17.960 songs of Advent as we think about the birth of Jesus. 00:00:17.960 --> 00:00:25.039 Now, I don't know if… I'm not sure if Blue Peter is still on the television, probably 00:00:25.039 --> 00:00:26.039 not anymore. 00:00:26.039 --> 00:00:31.919 But for some of us here, Blue Peter was a staple children's program growing up. 00:00:31.919 --> 00:00:38.000 And one of the things they did on Blue Peter when the likes of John Noakes and Peter Purvis, 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:41.920 I think is the name of the other one, and Valerie Singleton, we're on it, really showing 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:44.519 my age here, was that they would always make something. 00:00:44.519 --> 00:00:50.960 And usually they made it out of toilet roll holders or empty cornflakes packets, boxes, 00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:51.960 things like that. 00:00:51.960 --> 00:00:56.320 And what they would do is they would always say they were going to make a spaceship or 00:00:56.320 --> 00:01:00.719 something and they would start… and they would say, here's something we did earlier 00:01:00.719 --> 00:01:05.040 and they would bring it along and it would be already prepared. 00:01:05.040 --> 00:01:09.040 And that was always the kind of way it worked on the show. 00:01:09.040 --> 00:01:11.859 They would always bring on something they'd prepared earlier. 00:01:11.859 --> 00:01:15.079 And all the grown-ups who watched it said, nah, they've cheated. 00:01:15.079 --> 00:01:18.920 It hasn't really worked that way because when we tried it with the toilet rolls, they 00:01:18.920 --> 00:01:22.879 always got soggy or something happened and it never worked out. 00:01:22.879 --> 00:01:28.120 But it was always important that they showed that there was preparation to what they did. 00:01:28.120 --> 00:01:32.960 And if you're a home DIY person, then you'll know the importance of preparation if you're 00:01:32.960 --> 00:01:37.159 going to be painting a room or wallpapering or decorating whatever you happen to do. 00:01:37.159 --> 00:01:41.879 It needs to be prepared and you need a plan for what you're going to do just as the people 00:01:41.879 --> 00:01:44.240 in Blue Peter did. 00:01:44.239 --> 00:01:50.039 And even for Christmas, you're all planning for Christmas, one way or another. 00:01:50.039 --> 00:01:54.479 And whether it's the Christmas meal or whether it's the presents or whatever it is, there'll 00:01:54.479 --> 00:01:56.799 be preparation going on. 00:01:56.799 --> 00:02:01.679 That always just reminds us that most of the things we do in life, we don't necessarily 00:02:01.679 --> 00:02:08.079 just act instinctively or on a whim or without counting the cost. 00:02:08.079 --> 00:02:12.319 It's not all reactive and it's not all an afterthought. 00:02:12.319 --> 00:02:17.799 And that's really very important when we think about the birth of Jesus and when we think 00:02:17.799 --> 00:02:25.319 about what has happened because it is absolutely not just random that Jesus was born. 00:02:25.319 --> 00:02:30.079 Because and of course we know this, it's all in God's sovereign plan, right from the beginning 00:02:30.079 --> 00:02:35.479 of the Bible, right to the birth of Jesus, we recognize it's part of His God's sovereign 00:02:35.479 --> 00:02:36.479 plan. 00:02:36.479 --> 00:02:41.120 God is, if we are planners, God is the planner extraordinaire. 00:02:41.120 --> 00:02:43.759 There is no one who plans like God. 00:02:43.759 --> 00:02:49.560 And indeed, God only has one plan. 00:02:49.560 --> 00:02:51.200 There only has ever been one plan. 00:02:51.200 --> 00:02:55.520 In His perfection, He doesn't need to change plans. 00:02:55.520 --> 00:02:58.280 He doesn't need to make other plans. 00:02:58.280 --> 00:03:04.840 He doesn't need to fine tune plans because His perfection and the reason our plans change 00:03:04.840 --> 00:03:10.480 is because there's imperfections in us and in others and in the circumstances we find 00:03:10.479 --> 00:03:11.479 ourselves in. 00:03:11.479 --> 00:03:14.000 But He's the eternal God. 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:18.599 And it was always the plan of God that He would enter into humanity in the person of 00:03:18.599 --> 00:03:21.959 His Son, Jesus Christ, becoming a human being. 00:03:21.959 --> 00:03:29.319 That is the most central and most significant and most important reality in the history 00:03:29.319 --> 00:03:30.319 of the universe. 00:03:30.319 --> 00:03:36.439 It's the most significant event and it is right at the core and the center of God's 00:03:36.439 --> 00:03:37.439 plan. 00:03:37.439 --> 00:03:48.199 Now, the church or the Bible has a very low rating in society. 00:03:48.199 --> 00:03:53.439 Maybe in your life, the Bible and church is a very low place, even though you're here 00:03:53.439 --> 00:03:54.439 today. 00:03:54.439 --> 00:03:55.439 Maybe not. 00:03:55.439 --> 00:04:00.199 But it's interesting, isn't it, that with all the purposes and all the plans that are 00:04:00.199 --> 00:04:05.960 being made and all the government bodies that are coming together and working out the future 00:04:05.960 --> 00:04:15.600 of the universe, hands down the gospel, trumps, transcends, surpasses and exceeds every other 00:04:15.600 --> 00:04:21.160 plan that is currently happening in the universe. 00:04:21.160 --> 00:04:23.240 Infinitely more significant. 00:04:23.240 --> 00:04:29.600 And we want to make it speak into our lives because all of our lives are part of this 00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:30.600 plan. 00:04:30.600 --> 00:04:36.120 We're all embraced and subsumed into God's greater plan. 00:04:36.120 --> 00:04:40.360 And we're going to look at this second song because it speaks very much into God's purpose 00:04:40.360 --> 00:04:41.920 and God's plan. 00:04:41.920 --> 00:04:51.200 Sung by or prophesied by or spoken by, certainly poetic, the dad of John the Baptist, Zechariah. 00:04:51.199 --> 00:05:00.879 John the Baptist, a last great Old Testament prophet, cousin in law of Mary, or Zechariah 00:05:00.879 --> 00:05:09.519 at least, or Elizabeth was a cousin in law of Mary, Jesus' mother. 00:05:09.519 --> 00:05:16.480 And John is the forerunner of Jesus, the one who comes to prepare the way, the messenger 00:05:16.480 --> 00:05:24.960 that opens up the way for Jesus prophesied about, expected by the people and now spoken 00:05:24.960 --> 00:05:26.960 of to Zechariah. 00:05:26.960 --> 00:05:31.200 I'm just going to look quickly at two things, the singer and the song. 00:05:31.200 --> 00:05:32.200 It's very simple. 00:05:32.200 --> 00:05:37.000 We're going to look at the singer and we're going to look at the song. 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:42.800 And we didn't really, if we had more time, we would have read the first section of chapter 00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:47.920 1 and you can maybe read that when you get home, which speaks about the birth of John, 00:05:47.920 --> 00:05:51.600 the Baptist being foretold in the time of Herod. 00:05:51.600 --> 00:05:55.840 And the angel goes and speaks to Zechariah, who is John's dad. 00:05:55.840 --> 00:06:04.639 And of course, Zechariah, can I doubt what's happening, which is why he is struck dumb for 00:06:04.639 --> 00:06:10.879 the period of the pregnancy, which I mentioned earlier, because he didn't believe. 00:06:10.879 --> 00:06:14.680 We'll speak about that in a minute and we'll think about him. 00:06:14.680 --> 00:06:16.920 So I want to look at Zechariah first. 00:06:16.920 --> 00:06:20.120 His name means Jehovah has remembered. 00:06:20.120 --> 00:06:25.120 So even there's significance in his name, Jehovah has remembered. 00:06:25.120 --> 00:06:32.240 And he's an Old Testament priest who worked in the temple, a religious leader, someone 00:06:32.240 --> 00:06:37.000 who was soaked in the Old Testament, who knew the Bible very well. 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:44.600 Finally, as we see from the early section of chapter 1, he was a genuine believer. 00:06:44.600 --> 00:06:49.120 He was a godly man and he was waiting for the Messiah. 00:06:49.120 --> 00:06:54.040 He understood and knew his Old Testament and he knew a Messiah was to come. 00:06:54.040 --> 00:06:57.920 But he was an Old man. 00:06:57.920 --> 00:07:07.240 He's served a long time and he himself and his wife had had no children. 00:07:07.240 --> 00:07:18.120 And there was 400 years silence from heaven since the last prophetic message in Malachi. 00:07:18.120 --> 00:07:19.639 God hadn't spoken. 00:07:19.639 --> 00:07:23.319 They felt abandoned and far away from him. 00:07:23.319 --> 00:07:25.520 Nothing was being said from heaven. 00:07:25.520 --> 00:07:27.480 What on earth was going on? 00:07:27.480 --> 00:07:36.759 And then Zechariah is the first person to hear a message from heaven as the angel Gabriel 00:07:36.759 --> 00:07:39.040 breaks the silence. 00:07:39.040 --> 00:07:46.160 So at the beginning of chapter 1, which we didn't read and I hope you'll be able to read. 00:07:46.160 --> 00:07:51.240 Zechariah before Mary, Zechariah before anyone else. 00:07:51.240 --> 00:07:54.840 He was given this message, this big deal. 00:07:54.839 --> 00:08:04.119 He was being told by the angel from heaven whom he was really afraid of by the way, that 00:08:04.119 --> 00:08:07.839 his wife would bear a son and it would be the forerunner of the Messiah. 00:08:07.839 --> 00:08:11.120 The Old Testament Elijah coming back as it were. 00:08:11.120 --> 00:08:12.120 Big deal. 00:08:12.120 --> 00:08:15.159 And I think it's great today. 00:08:15.159 --> 00:08:20.079 You're all sitting here and I'm standing here and we're all very ordinary. 00:08:20.079 --> 00:08:21.479 We're all very ordinary. 00:08:21.480 --> 00:08:25.800 He really takes notice of us outside of our own loving family circle and a few colleagues 00:08:25.800 --> 00:08:26.800 and friends. 00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:35.320 But isn't it great in God's economy that He brings this most significant and important 00:08:35.320 --> 00:08:43.519 message to someone who is ordinary and quite unremarkable and unnoticed really in the world 00:08:43.519 --> 00:08:49.039 other than God made him remarkable and noticed by including him in Scripture. 00:08:49.039 --> 00:08:56.919 He's so beautiful and it's so unexpected that God uses Zechariah to a message to Zechariah 00:08:56.919 --> 00:09:00.959 to break the silence of 400 years to someone who was un... 00:09:00.959 --> 00:09:05.039 No one would know about Zechariah if it wasn't for the fact that God spoke to him. 00:09:05.039 --> 00:09:06.360 He wouldn't be remembered in history. 00:09:06.360 --> 00:09:08.039 No one would know what his grave was. 00:09:08.039 --> 00:09:13.799 But God speaks and brings significance and importance to ordinary people's lives by his 00:09:13.799 --> 00:09:16.159 intervention and that's very true for us as well. 00:09:16.159 --> 00:09:20.559 We are believers today, particularly that we have found this amazing truth and know 00:09:20.559 --> 00:09:22.240 this amazing truth for ourselves. 00:09:22.240 --> 00:09:25.439 So Zechariah, just for a minute or two, let's think about, he was faithful. 00:09:25.439 --> 00:09:28.639 Verse 6, we can look at some of the verses even though we didn't read them today. 00:09:28.639 --> 00:09:33.079 And verse 6, we're told, he walked blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the 00:09:33.079 --> 00:09:34.679 Lord. 00:09:34.679 --> 00:09:39.480 So he was a faithful believer in that Old Testament way, waiting for the Messiah, trusting 00:09:39.480 --> 00:09:41.600 in the Messiah who was to come. 00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:45.759 And you know, that's really hard for us today to be faithful. 00:09:45.759 --> 00:09:50.879 So I'm going to apply that quickly to our own lives as Christians, as followers of Christ, 00:09:50.879 --> 00:09:52.480 if we are followers of Christ today. 00:09:52.480 --> 00:09:53.480 It's so hard. 00:09:53.480 --> 00:09:58.439 But wouldn't that be a great description that would end up on our tombstone, our gravestone, 00:09:58.439 --> 00:10:02.000 tombstone, gravestone, that we are faithful? 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:05.039 Even if it's nothing else, it's said we were faithful Christians. 00:10:05.039 --> 00:10:06.439 What a great description. 00:10:06.439 --> 00:10:14.399 Because we live in a world and our hearts are so often prone to be unfaithful, betrayal, 00:10:14.399 --> 00:10:21.439 easy believism, complaining and denying and walking away from the living God. 00:10:21.439 --> 00:10:28.759 Yeah, what a great aspiration and a great ability for us to seek by God's grace that 00:10:28.759 --> 00:10:30.279 we are known as faith. 00:10:30.279 --> 00:10:32.439 It's a great aspirational prayer. 00:10:32.439 --> 00:10:35.399 Lord, today help me to be faithful to You. 00:10:35.399 --> 00:10:40.039 Whatever transpires, whatever happens, whatever difficulties and trials come my way, help me, 00:10:40.039 --> 00:10:41.879 Lord, today to be faithful to You. 00:10:41.879 --> 00:10:43.919 He was faithful. 00:10:43.919 --> 00:10:49.120 So we also see and know that He was a believer who knew sadness in His own life. 00:10:49.120 --> 00:10:53.120 Verse 7 tells us that they had no child. 00:10:53.120 --> 00:10:54.599 They were both advanced in years. 00:10:54.599 --> 00:11:00.799 And in verse 25, in connection with that, when the angel speaking to Him, the angel said, 00:11:00.799 --> 00:11:08.120 you know, or Elizabeth says, the Lord has done this for me in the days when He looked 00:11:08.120 --> 00:11:11.079 at me to take away my reproach among the people. 00:11:11.080 --> 00:11:15.120 So there's this sadness in their lives, maybe in lots of different reasons, but certainly 00:11:15.120 --> 00:11:18.800 one of the reasons that they were an old married couple, but they had no child. 00:11:18.800 --> 00:11:26.840 Now, and wrongly, that became a reproach, a shame as it were in the society they lived 00:11:26.840 --> 00:11:27.840 in. 00:11:27.840 --> 00:11:29.360 That wasn't right. 00:11:29.360 --> 00:11:33.000 People said, oh God, we'll be judging them for something they've done wrong. 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:34.680 Clearly wasn't the case. 00:11:34.679 --> 00:11:41.759 But nonetheless, Elizabeth felt that reproach among the people, and Zechariah, maybe felt 00:11:41.759 --> 00:11:46.839 there was no child to follow the family line, which was so important in ancient Near Eastern 00:11:46.839 --> 00:11:49.120 culture that he lived in. 00:11:49.120 --> 00:11:51.599 And it was his lifelong prayer. 00:11:51.599 --> 00:11:57.559 In verse 13, the angel says to him, don't be afraid for your prayer has been heard. 00:11:57.559 --> 00:12:01.399 Now, your prayers generally, your prayer has been heard. 00:12:01.399 --> 00:12:03.000 You will have a son. 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:05.000 So he prayed for it. 00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:08.200 He said, oh man, prayed for a long, long time. 00:12:08.200 --> 00:12:09.200 Tremendously important. 00:12:09.200 --> 00:12:19.840 So he knew sadness and he knew that sense of emptiness because of that reality. 00:12:19.840 --> 00:12:26.559 And very often we don't think of that. 00:12:26.559 --> 00:12:31.600 Everyone here will have their own unique sadness. 00:12:31.600 --> 00:12:37.879 And whatever your sadness is today as a Christian, don't stop praying about it. 00:12:37.879 --> 00:12:40.720 Zechariah just kept on praying. 00:12:40.720 --> 00:12:43.040 He must have thought, there's no point anymore. 00:12:43.040 --> 00:12:44.920 I'm not going to have my prayers answered. 00:12:44.920 --> 00:12:48.000 But he kept praying. 00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:51.360 Remember that in your sadness is to take them to the Lord in prayer. 00:12:51.360 --> 00:12:55.639 I'm not saying we will not have sadnesses, but take them to the Lord. 00:12:55.639 --> 00:12:58.480 What is the subject of our prayers? 00:12:58.480 --> 00:13:04.920 Are they kind of shallow and sack that's just on the surface? 00:13:04.920 --> 00:13:12.680 Are we allowing the sadnesses that we feel to just govern and dictate our prayers to 00:13:12.680 --> 00:13:13.680 the living God? 00:13:13.680 --> 00:13:16.039 That's what he wants us to take them. 00:13:16.039 --> 00:13:23.560 And when you look at others today in St. Columbus, you remember, don't criticise them or condemn 00:13:23.560 --> 00:13:24.800 them or judge them. 00:13:24.800 --> 00:13:27.480 That's God's place. 00:13:27.480 --> 00:13:33.320 But remember your own sadnesses before heaping unnecessary sadness and isolation on others. 00:13:33.320 --> 00:13:35.680 Think of their situation. 00:13:35.680 --> 00:13:36.680 We're not God. 00:13:36.680 --> 00:13:39.560 We're not asked to know people's hearts. 00:13:39.560 --> 00:13:45.240 But we live in a society where there's precious little mercy and encouragement, 21st century 00:13:45.240 --> 00:13:46.759 Scotland. 00:13:46.759 --> 00:13:55.039 So let your Christian faith evidence a different spirit with other people. 00:13:55.039 --> 00:13:58.959 Relative to their sadnesses, even though we might not know them. 00:13:58.959 --> 00:14:03.599 Sensitive how we respond and react and wonder why they speak in a certain way, act in a 00:14:03.599 --> 00:14:06.759 certain way towards his sadness. 00:14:06.759 --> 00:14:07.759 He knew sadness. 00:14:07.759 --> 00:14:14.759 And very encouragingly, I think for us as well, he was someone who struggled to believe. 00:14:14.759 --> 00:14:19.959 We saw that before, you know, that he who struck them, verse 20, and the people were 00:14:19.960 --> 00:14:25.759 waiting for Elijah, for Zechariah, Friday in slip, and they were wondering as delaying 00:14:25.759 --> 00:14:28.639 the temple when he came out, he was unable to speak. 00:14:28.639 --> 00:14:34.519 Because Gabriel had said to him, you'll be silent and unable to speak until the day these 00:14:34.519 --> 00:14:37.560 things take place because he did not believe my words. 00:14:37.560 --> 00:14:40.480 Don't blame him for not believing the words. 00:14:40.480 --> 00:14:45.720 He was an old man, his wife was an old woman, they weren't going to have a child. 00:14:45.720 --> 00:14:52.279 And he struggled to believe, even though Gabriel came and then the angel spoke to him and said, 00:14:52.279 --> 00:14:55.759 you're going to be the father of the great, last great Old Testament prophet, the one 00:14:55.759 --> 00:14:59.560 to come before, just before the Messiah. 00:14:59.560 --> 00:15:06.240 He was terrified by the encounter and he struggled, but yet he still struggled to believe it. 00:15:06.240 --> 00:15:09.600 How often have maybe you said, well, I just wish Jesus was in the room with me. 00:15:09.600 --> 00:15:12.279 Then I find it easy to believe. 00:15:12.279 --> 00:15:16.079 Or the angel Gabriel came down and spoke to me, then of course I would believe. 00:15:16.079 --> 00:15:21.559 But he struggled to believe, he struggled to understand and he doubted. 00:15:21.559 --> 00:15:26.679 And the being struck dumb was actually a mercy. 00:15:26.679 --> 00:15:32.679 It wasn't a judgment, it was a mercy, it was given to encourage his doubt, I think. 00:15:32.679 --> 00:15:37.199 Because you know, this will happen, you'll only be dumb for a little while and it will 00:15:37.199 --> 00:15:41.000 remind you that I've come and I'm here and you're waiting and there'll be a nine month 00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:42.399 period. 00:15:42.399 --> 00:15:50.679 It's okay, it's fine, you'll have this and you will need to know and see who I am. 00:15:50.679 --> 00:15:53.159 And that's great, that's comforting, is that comforting to us today? 00:15:53.159 --> 00:15:55.120 I hope so. 00:15:55.120 --> 00:15:59.679 Because doubt is always with us to one degree and another, it's comforting. 00:15:59.679 --> 00:16:03.320 And doubt will always be with us, but it's never with God. 00:16:03.320 --> 00:16:07.679 It is never God who doubts, never God who thinks, well, maybe my plan's not right here, 00:16:07.679 --> 00:16:09.759 maybe the way I'm treating you is not right here. 00:16:09.759 --> 00:16:12.200 Maybe I should change the way I'm doing things with you. 00:16:12.200 --> 00:16:16.200 So never that way with God, it's us always who are struggling with God's will and God's 00:16:16.200 --> 00:16:17.200 purposes. 00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:21.519 But God knows and He helps us to believe as we go to Him. 00:16:21.519 --> 00:16:25.240 And He will allow things to enable us to believe. 00:16:25.240 --> 00:16:28.439 So there we see a little bit about the singer. 00:16:28.439 --> 00:16:37.759 And now we come to a song, this prophetic poem of praise that is given, is filled by 00:16:37.759 --> 00:16:45.360 the Holy Spirit, which means that God speaks this poem into His heart and life and into 00:16:45.360 --> 00:16:50.759 His ability to reflect it in song. 00:16:50.759 --> 00:16:56.000 And it's a message that God wants to reveal. 00:16:56.000 --> 00:17:00.679 And so He's inspired and is prophetic. 00:17:00.679 --> 00:17:08.639 And it happens on the eighth day of John the Baptist's life, his circumcision, and he's 00:17:08.639 --> 00:17:09.639 going to name the child. 00:17:09.639 --> 00:17:14.200 There's no evidence that that always happened at the period, but it certainly seemed to happen 00:17:14.200 --> 00:17:16.359 here. 00:17:16.359 --> 00:17:20.799 And there's an anticipation, people know about it, so the family and friends and others that 00:17:20.799 --> 00:17:24.720 you know, it seems to be talked about and they're all gathered together. 00:17:24.720 --> 00:17:28.599 And of course everyone else knows what a name should be. 00:17:28.599 --> 00:17:34.839 We see that a lot, don't we, in laws and grandparents and friends and that will say, 00:17:34.839 --> 00:17:41.480 oh, you're not going to call them whatever, you need to call them whatever. 00:17:41.480 --> 00:17:43.919 And so they were all gathered and they all had a good idea that we're going to call them 00:17:43.919 --> 00:17:44.919 Zechariah. 00:17:44.919 --> 00:17:51.159 He said, oh man, it's going to, you know, reflect this honour that's due to Him by calling 00:17:51.159 --> 00:17:52.159 them Zechariah. 00:17:52.159 --> 00:17:55.599 But no, the angel had given me the name John. 00:17:55.599 --> 00:17:59.879 He's going to be called John, that's what he's going to be called. 00:17:59.879 --> 00:18:06.480 And that is the name he was given. 00:18:06.480 --> 00:18:12.639 I don't think it's explained anywhere why, but that is the name that comes from God for 00:18:12.639 --> 00:18:16.480 the messenger of the Messiah. 00:18:16.480 --> 00:18:23.199 And this prophecy is not just for the immediate context, it's for all time, it's for all of 00:18:23.200 --> 00:18:31.799 us, it's hugely significant and important because it's set in the context of the Old 00:18:31.799 --> 00:18:35.960 Testament anticipation of the Messiah coming. 00:18:35.960 --> 00:18:43.160 Now the presumptions they made about the coming of the Messiah were for the most part all 00:18:43.160 --> 00:18:44.160 wrong. 00:18:44.160 --> 00:18:50.200 They were looking for a guy in shining armour to come and to get rid of Herod and get rid 00:18:50.200 --> 00:18:54.440 of the Romans and reign on the throne of David. 00:18:54.440 --> 00:18:58.880 So they misunderstood the coming of the Messiah, but nonetheless they were expecting the Messiah 00:18:58.880 --> 00:19:00.759 to come. 00:19:00.759 --> 00:19:07.759 And what we recognise is that John the Baptist was coming in the spirit of Elijah in verse 00:19:07.759 --> 00:19:12.240 17 of the first chapter, the game which you didn't read, we're told, and he will turn 00:19:12.240 --> 00:19:17.200 many of the children of Israel to the Lord our God and he will go before Him in the spirit 00:19:17.200 --> 00:19:22.559 and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the Father and the children and the disobedient 00:19:22.559 --> 00:19:27.559 to the wisdom of the just to make ready for the Lord a people prepared. 00:19:27.559 --> 00:19:32.200 So we're told that he's coming in the spirit of Elijah and it's very interesting. 00:19:32.200 --> 00:19:39.480 We talked about 400 years, silence, you know, the last word of the Old Testament, the last 00:19:39.480 --> 00:19:42.480 prophetic message that came from God. 00:19:42.480 --> 00:19:50.400 Verse 5, chapter 4 of Malachi says, Behold, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before 00:19:50.400 --> 00:19:54.279 the great and awesome day of the Lord comes, and he will turn the hearts of the fathers 00:19:54.279 --> 00:19:57.960 to the children and the hearts of children to the fathers. 00:19:57.960 --> 00:20:05.799 So we've got this last word of the Old Testament and then we have this coming of John in the 00:20:05.799 --> 00:20:11.880 spirit of Elijah's at war with this courage and message of reconciliation that Elijah 00:20:11.880 --> 00:20:13.320 had in his day. 00:20:13.320 --> 00:20:20.000 And his poem is full of Old Testament language and images of God's characters. 00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:26.400 And as he spoke that, and as the people heard that, they would immediately have resonated 00:20:26.400 --> 00:20:30.920 with it as being a fulfillment of prophecy, full of anticipation. 00:20:30.920 --> 00:20:36.320 God's plan, God's plan being unfolded. 00:20:36.320 --> 00:20:40.520 And the more we understand as believers in the New Testament who have the whole completed 00:20:40.519 --> 00:20:47.720 Scripture, the more we know God's word, the more it dovetails into one message, one plan, 00:20:47.720 --> 00:20:56.000 one salvation, one purpose for all humanity in all of God's time, great timeless themes 00:20:56.000 --> 00:20:58.799 of hope and of salvation. 00:20:58.799 --> 00:21:01.240 And so he speaks of a few things here. 00:21:01.240 --> 00:21:02.240 Very quickly look at them. 00:21:02.240 --> 00:21:06.359 First is thanksgiving, 68 to 70. 00:21:06.359 --> 00:21:13.279 Blessed be the Lord God for he's visited and redeemed his people and raised salvation 00:21:13.279 --> 00:21:14.759 up for them. 00:21:14.759 --> 00:21:20.679 And as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from his old. 00:21:20.679 --> 00:21:28.679 So Zechariah links it into all the Old Testament prophecy and is full of thanksgiving and blessing. 00:21:28.679 --> 00:21:31.439 It's called the Benedictus by many. 00:21:31.440 --> 00:21:39.480 A song of blessing and of hope, he speaks about the King David. 00:21:39.480 --> 00:21:46.039 And now we know that Jesus comes as the greater King David, all of which is prophesied. 00:21:46.039 --> 00:21:52.600 The one who brings for us meaning and freedom and identity and life and love through his 00:21:52.600 --> 00:21:59.840 intervention and not in John the Baptist, but the Jesus who he is proclaiming into the 00:21:59.839 --> 00:22:06.919 battlefield of our confusion in our world where we are scrambling around in the dark 00:22:06.919 --> 00:22:10.959 for meaning with his plan of love and redemption. 00:22:10.959 --> 00:22:16.919 And we should each time we gather share that thanksgiving and thankfulness before the living 00:22:16.919 --> 00:22:17.919 God. 00:22:17.919 --> 00:22:24.599 Do you know the, probably the deepest sin of all? 00:22:24.599 --> 00:22:30.959 Thanklessness, drifting into God's presence with a whole long list of requests before 00:22:30.959 --> 00:22:34.639 we've even bothered to thank Him. 00:22:34.639 --> 00:22:42.000 To thank Him for the majesty and the marvel of the fact that ordinary unnoticed people 00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:47.079 like ourselves are plucked from Adam and the Midi into his nearer presence through Jesus 00:22:47.079 --> 00:22:48.079 Christ. 00:22:48.079 --> 00:22:51.799 Forgiveness and hope and future, death is defeated. 00:22:51.799 --> 00:22:56.680 All these things that we should be thankful for as we come into His presence and He begins 00:22:56.680 --> 00:22:58.440 with this sense of thankfulness. 00:22:58.440 --> 00:23:00.039 It's a good way to start a prayer. 00:23:00.039 --> 00:23:04.879 If we ever struggle to start prayers, it's a good way to start. 00:23:04.879 --> 00:23:11.119 But there's also spiritual understanding in this song that He sings, verses 71 to 75. 00:23:11.119 --> 00:23:18.440 He speaks about the need for being saved from our enemies. 00:23:18.440 --> 00:23:24.080 And this covenantal salvation, and it's a salvation that delivers us from the hand of 00:23:24.080 --> 00:23:28.000 our enemies, bringing us hope and righteousness and forgiveness. 00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:32.840 It's not a physical enemy, speaking of here, it's a spiritual enemy. 00:23:32.840 --> 00:23:39.480 And there's this recognition right through the Old Testament, right through the Bible, 00:23:39.480 --> 00:23:44.200 right into today that we face a malevolent enemy. 00:23:44.200 --> 00:23:49.799 If there's God and the reality of God we believe in Jesus Christ, then there's also an enemy 00:23:49.799 --> 00:23:58.519 of our souls, the evil one Satan himself, who has from the beginning been powerful and 00:23:58.519 --> 00:24:06.120 wise and subtle enough to keep us in his deceitful clutches and in the dark spiritually. 00:24:06.120 --> 00:24:12.240 Who once, as destroyed and separated, his cunning and persuasive power has always proved 00:24:12.240 --> 00:24:16.839 too alluring for the human race. 00:24:16.839 --> 00:24:23.039 And his, his, his, his battle cry has always been, you can live without God, you don't, 00:24:23.039 --> 00:24:24.559 you don't need God. 00:24:24.559 --> 00:24:27.279 Right from the beginning, that's been his cry. 00:24:27.279 --> 00:24:30.279 And that is the battle we've always faced. 00:24:30.279 --> 00:24:36.079 And as believers, it's still the battle that we face where we're tempted to believe we 00:24:36.079 --> 00:24:40.039 can live quite happily without God in our lives. 00:24:40.039 --> 00:24:43.960 And that is what he will always whisper to us. 00:24:43.960 --> 00:24:50.680 And so the reality of this prophecy remains our reality that our deepest battle is a spiritual 00:24:50.680 --> 00:24:51.680 battle. 00:24:51.680 --> 00:24:56.639 It's not a battle with, with a secular world outside as it were. 00:24:56.639 --> 00:25:02.639 Our deepest battle is a, is an unseen battle that first begins in our hearts. 00:25:02.639 --> 00:25:08.680 And without the living God and without the Messiah and without the Savior, it always 00:25:08.680 --> 00:25:12.279 ends up in defeat and death for us. 00:25:12.279 --> 00:25:16.560 The only break ever was Jesus. 00:25:16.560 --> 00:25:20.320 Not John the Baptist, he died, it was Jesus. 00:25:20.320 --> 00:25:28.920 The only, the incarnate child who at 33 years of age or so broke the grip of death and walked 00:25:28.920 --> 00:25:31.200 out of the grave victorious. 00:25:31.200 --> 00:25:33.600 Death couldn't hold him. 00:25:33.599 --> 00:25:39.359 Not anyone who trusts in him is the Messiah, and that is the biggest battle that we face 00:25:39.359 --> 00:25:49.119 today is to recognize that everything that happens in our lives, that takes us from, 00:25:49.119 --> 00:25:55.679 turns us away from Jesus, comes from this source, the enemy of our souls, the enemy 00:25:55.679 --> 00:25:58.319 of our lives. 00:25:58.319 --> 00:26:03.279 And God's plan is the only plan that defeats him. 00:26:03.279 --> 00:26:11.519 So thanksgiving, spiritual understanding, verses 76 to 77 speaks about forgiveness. 00:26:11.519 --> 00:26:18.200 You my child, Zechariah at this point starts talking to his child, as it were, the eight-year-old, 00:26:18.200 --> 00:26:23.519 eight-day-old child, and also to all of us. 00:26:23.519 --> 00:26:27.359 You child will be called the prophet at the most high, for you will go before the Lord 00:26:27.359 --> 00:26:31.920 to prepare his ways to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their 00:26:31.920 --> 00:26:32.920 sin. 00:26:32.920 --> 00:26:33.920 That's the message, wasn't it? 00:26:33.920 --> 00:26:34.920 He was a wild man. 00:26:34.920 --> 00:26:37.000 He had locusts and wild honey. 00:26:37.000 --> 00:26:38.680 He lived in the desert. 00:26:38.680 --> 00:26:42.440 He was mad to look at, probably long hair. 00:26:42.440 --> 00:26:46.200 He didn't go to the hairdresser, all these kind of things. 00:26:46.200 --> 00:26:51.800 He was known as a kind of wild man, and he had the message of repentance and forgiveness 00:26:51.800 --> 00:26:55.080 of sin, repent and turn to the Lord. 00:26:55.080 --> 00:27:02.720 And Zechariah prophetically speaks into that. 00:27:02.720 --> 00:27:07.839 With this great recognition, not just for John the Baptist, but for all of us, it remains 00:27:07.839 --> 00:27:09.720 an absolutely significant, isn't it? 00:27:09.720 --> 00:27:17.519 The very heart of a new relationship with God is that we recognize our need for repentance, 00:27:17.519 --> 00:27:20.400 that we recognize that we are sinners before a holy God. 00:27:20.400 --> 00:27:22.960 How unfashionable is that? 00:27:22.960 --> 00:27:28.079 How uncool is that to speak about a holy God before whom we are sinners? 00:27:28.079 --> 00:27:31.160 That's 19th century talk and preaching, isn't it? 00:27:31.160 --> 00:27:35.400 It doesn't bother us now that that's what we are. 00:27:35.400 --> 00:27:38.440 We're gods in our own minds. 00:27:38.440 --> 00:27:40.400 We don't need God at all. 00:27:40.400 --> 00:27:41.400 Why should we repent? 00:27:41.400 --> 00:27:44.720 That is a destructive talk. 00:27:44.720 --> 00:27:55.759 Yet by faith, we see our lovelessness, not so much the general morality, but the lovelessness 00:27:55.759 --> 00:28:01.799 of our hearts, the selfishness that often shoves other people and God out of the way 00:28:01.799 --> 00:28:07.400 and a rebellion against them, which says he doesn't really matter. 00:28:07.400 --> 00:28:08.400 He's not that significant. 00:28:08.400 --> 00:28:09.400 He's not that important. 00:28:09.400 --> 00:28:18.279 We can be the nicest people in the world, but when our eyes are opened to the living 00:28:18.279 --> 00:28:23.119 God, we recognize we need to be made clean. 00:28:23.119 --> 00:28:25.200 We need to be made right. 00:28:25.200 --> 00:28:28.440 We need a new heart, not new behavior. 00:28:28.440 --> 00:28:32.559 New behavior will come with a new heart, wouldn't it? 00:28:32.559 --> 00:28:35.200 It's a new heart we need. 00:28:35.200 --> 00:28:39.799 It's new life, not just new morality. 00:28:39.799 --> 00:28:42.200 We can buy new morality. 00:28:42.200 --> 00:28:44.319 We can live new morality. 00:28:44.319 --> 00:28:45.319 We can preach it. 00:28:45.319 --> 00:28:47.319 We can principallyize it. 00:28:47.319 --> 00:28:48.559 We can do what we like. 00:28:48.559 --> 00:28:55.039 We can all have new morality, but no one can have new life and God honoring morality. 00:28:55.039 --> 00:28:59.279 Without Jesus Christ and without His grace. 00:28:59.279 --> 00:29:06.480 So for Thanksgiving, spiritual understanding, forgiveness, and lastly, but very importantly, 00:29:06.480 --> 00:29:07.480 beauty. 00:29:07.480 --> 00:29:15.440 He speaks about beauty in the last two verses, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby 00:29:15.440 --> 00:29:19.920 the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and 00:29:19.920 --> 00:29:25.600 in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the ways of peace. 00:29:25.600 --> 00:29:28.960 That's what we know. 00:29:28.960 --> 00:29:32.039 That's what we see when we see Jesus. 00:29:32.039 --> 00:29:42.600 When we meet with the risen Savior, the same God from Genesis to Revelation, this one plan, 00:29:42.599 --> 00:29:51.679 we see His nature most powerfully revealed through the journey into the prophecy of John, 00:29:51.679 --> 00:29:56.000 the preparer of the way, and then into the incarnation. 00:29:56.000 --> 00:30:05.399 God, the Son, and the womb of Mary coming into this world, where He exposes and reveals 00:30:05.399 --> 00:30:07.240 His tender mercy. 00:30:07.240 --> 00:30:11.519 That's such a beautiful phrase, tender mercy. 00:30:11.519 --> 00:30:19.680 And that's what He reveals, because He understands and He knows, and He's committed, committed 00:30:19.680 --> 00:30:27.099 all the way to the cross and to the pit of hell on Her behalf, committed to forgiving 00:30:27.099 --> 00:30:34.599 and redeeming and bringing life to all who will come to Him and ask Him to be their Savior. 00:30:34.599 --> 00:30:39.480 Never will turn anyone away who comes to Him and seeks forgiveness. 00:30:39.480 --> 00:30:41.720 He is tender in His mercy. 00:30:41.720 --> 00:30:48.160 Boy, do we need tender mercy in our lives. 00:30:48.160 --> 00:30:52.079 Light in the darkness. 00:30:52.079 --> 00:30:55.759 Both in the reality of what we see around us and maybe in your own personal experiences, 00:30:55.759 --> 00:31:01.120 so many shadows, so much darkness for so many people. 00:31:01.120 --> 00:31:04.599 But it's a wonderful image that we all understand, isn't it? 00:31:04.599 --> 00:31:07.720 We all understand a dark room. 00:31:07.720 --> 00:31:12.680 Many of us still stick our hand round the door to put the light on before we go in, 00:31:12.680 --> 00:31:15.039 because we're afraid of the dark. 00:31:15.039 --> 00:31:20.920 All of us know what it's like to be terrorized by darkness at one degree or another. 00:31:20.920 --> 00:31:27.319 And many here know what it's like mentally to be in darkness and the horror and terror 00:31:27.319 --> 00:31:28.319 of that. 00:31:28.319 --> 00:31:32.640 And He says that He brings light into our darkness. 00:31:32.640 --> 00:31:39.040 That is what the Messiah does as we live in the shadow of death. 00:31:39.040 --> 00:31:46.000 And He brings light even into that horrible place and peace. 00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:47.880 Peace is what He brings. 00:31:47.880 --> 00:31:53.400 Guide our feet into the ways of peace. 00:31:53.400 --> 00:31:56.600 He knows that we suffer from this peace and He knows that that's in the world in which 00:31:56.600 --> 00:31:57.600 we live. 00:31:57.599 --> 00:32:04.599 But the nagging insecurities of life, life, He can release us from the dis-peace of that. 00:32:04.599 --> 00:32:08.359 Peace in it, not from it. 00:32:08.359 --> 00:32:13.159 Peace in it as we come through it because we have this foundation and this strength, the 00:32:13.159 --> 00:32:25.399 supernatural gift from God that can't be worked out, can't be gained by our own wisdom, 00:32:25.400 --> 00:32:30.720 is a gift from Him, it's a thing of great beauty. 00:32:30.720 --> 00:32:38.720 And I do think we all, I certainly do and I'm sure some of you do also, need to recapture 00:32:38.720 --> 00:32:47.400 the beauty of our salvation and not take it for granted and not just regard it as insignificant 00:32:47.400 --> 00:32:48.400 or unimportant. 00:32:48.400 --> 00:32:54.840 What is prophesied here is exactly what is offered and exactly what we've experienced 00:32:54.839 --> 00:33:01.399 and we need to come out from the shadow of death and from our places sometimes of drift 00:33:01.399 --> 00:33:06.359 and backsliding from Him and recapture His beauty. 00:33:06.359 --> 00:33:14.599 And if you don't know Jesus, then I challenge you with all the love in my heart to trust 00:33:14.599 --> 00:33:16.159 in His rescue plan. 00:33:16.159 --> 00:33:18.439 It's the plan. 00:33:18.439 --> 00:33:20.720 That isn't another one. 00:33:20.720 --> 00:33:23.839 It's not Jesus plus, it just isn't. 00:33:23.839 --> 00:33:29.639 And consider His claim on you as your Creator and Lord and pray that it will become real. 00:33:29.639 --> 00:33:34.199 And pray for it tonight and come again with our carol service. 00:33:34.199 --> 00:33:39.039 It's the one service of the year that we can usually guarantee a huge number of people 00:33:39.039 --> 00:33:45.879 who don't normally come to church or who are not Christians, who don't necessarily think 00:33:45.880 --> 00:33:54.040 about the gospel in their lives and we want them to think about it with, to be attracted 00:33:54.040 --> 00:33:58.600 by the message that they hear as well as challenged by it obviously. 00:33:58.600 --> 00:34:03.440 So please pray this afternoon about that and that people will see the beauty. 00:34:03.440 --> 00:34:08.200 We can't make them see the beauty, but pray that they will see. 00:34:08.200 --> 00:34:13.079 And that will be easier if we are seeing it ourselves, isn't it? 00:34:13.079 --> 00:34:18.639 So we pray that we will see the spiritual understanding, the thanksgiving, the forgiveness 00:34:18.639 --> 00:34:23.319 and the beauty of what Zechariah prophesied for us today. 00:34:23.319 --> 00:34:24.319 Let's pray. 00:34:24.319 --> 00:34:31.920 Father God, help us to understand your beauty and the amazing reality of who you are. 00:34:31.920 --> 00:34:42.400 And for those who sense the darkness creeping in, which we all do at various times and to 00:34:42.400 --> 00:34:49.360 various degrees in our lives, may your light shine very strongly, may there be great peace, 00:34:49.360 --> 00:34:55.119 great thanksgiving and a great understanding of where our priorities lie as people, even 00:34:55.119 --> 00:35:03.840 if the world in which we live and its philosophy, secular philosophy will tell us not to be 00:35:03.840 --> 00:35:08.720 stupid and not to believe in these things. 00:35:08.719 --> 00:35:15.919 We ground our faith in the historical reality of God who broken our existence and who came 00:35:15.919 --> 00:35:17.319 to rescue and redeem us. 00:35:17.319 --> 00:35:22.119 His one purpose is one plan, which is made known to us through Scripture. 00:35:22.119 --> 00:35:23.839 We ask it all in Jesus' name. 00:35:23.840 --> 00:35:39.920 Amen.