WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.440 Our scripture reading tonight, and the passage that David's going to preach to us from, 00:00:04.960 --> 00:00:10.859 ! is the first chapter of Luke, verses 57 to 80. This is God's own word. 00:00:12.060 --> 00:00:17.839 Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. And her neighbors and relatives heard 00:00:17.839 --> 00:00:23.059 that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. And on the eighth day, 00:00:23.199 --> 00:00:27.600 they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zachariah after his father, 00:00:27.600 --> 00:00:32.760 but his mother answered, no, he shall be called John. And they said to her, none of your relatives 00:00:32.760 --> 00:00:38.520 is called by this name. And they made signs to his father inquiring what he wanted him to be called. 00:00:39.020 --> 00:00:46.960 And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, his name is John. And they all wondered. And immediately 00:00:46.960 --> 00:00:53.460 his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. And fear came on all their 00:00:53.460 --> 00:00:58.480 neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea. 00:00:59.120 --> 00:01:05.079 And all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, what then will this child be? 00:01:05.540 --> 00:01:10.420 For the hand of the Lord was with him. And his father Zachariah was filled with the Holy Spirit 00:01:10.420 --> 00:01:17.460 and prophesied, saying, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people 00:01:17.459 --> 00:01:24.099 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant, David. As he spoke by the 00:01:24.099 --> 00:01:29.000 mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand 00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:35.219 of all who hate us, to show mercy, promise to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant. 00:01:36.079 --> 00:01:42.239 The oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we being delivered from the hand of our 00:01:42.239 --> 00:01:48.919 enemies might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. A new 00:01:48.919 --> 00:01:54.560 child will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, 00:01:55.000 --> 00:02:01.840 to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender 00:02:01.840 --> 00:02:08.259 mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high, and give light to those who sit in 00:02:08.259 --> 00:02:13.919 darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet in the way of peace. And the child grew and 00:02:13.919 --> 00:02:19.799 became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel. 00:02:20.879 --> 00:02:30.439 Amen. This is God's holy word. We turn this evening to that passage that Chris read for us a little 00:02:30.439 --> 00:02:40.979 earlier, Luke chapter 1, verse 57 through to verse 80, our focus on the prophecy that runs from verse 67. 00:02:42.159 --> 00:02:51.639 I suppose preparing for the arrival of a new baby can seem like an all-consuming task. There's 00:02:51.639 --> 00:02:59.039 so much to be got ready, and when God willing the baby arrives, there is, of course, a whole lot more 00:02:59.039 --> 00:03:07.919 to be done. It's a very special time, one that is often shared and enjoyed with others. And that's the kind of 00:03:07.919 --> 00:03:16.500 situation that we encounter here in these verses of Luke chapter 1. We're told in verse 57 and 58, 00:03:16.699 --> 00:03:24.979 the time came for Elizabeth to give birth. She bore a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord 00:03:24.979 --> 00:03:35.199 had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. The birth of a son to Zechariah and Elizabeth 00:03:35.199 --> 00:03:42.719 had been foretold. We read of that earlier in the chapter. Zechariah the priest is visited 00:03:42.719 --> 00:03:49.959 by an angel of the Lord in verses 8 through 17. And despite the fact that he and his wife Elizabeth 00:03:49.960 --> 00:03:57.600 were childless, they were of advanced years, Zechariah is told that Elizabeth will bear him a son, 00:03:58.020 --> 00:04:07.379 and that he is to be called John. However, Zechariah's response to this startling, unsettling, 00:04:07.500 --> 00:04:15.480 astounding news is to question its veracity. And for his unbelief, we're told in verse 20 of the 00:04:15.479 --> 00:04:22.639 chapter that he's struck dumb. Gabriel tells him, Behold, you will be silent, unable to speak until 00:04:22.639 --> 00:04:30.579 the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled 00:04:30.579 --> 00:04:39.439 in their time. And so, what we're reading of here in these verses is that fulfillment. 00:04:39.439 --> 00:04:48.019 Elizabeth and Zechariah's neighbors and relatives gather round to rejoice on the safe arrival of this 00:04:48.019 --> 00:04:55.879 child, and then something happens that they are quite unprepared for. Verse 59, on the eighth day, 00:04:55.959 --> 00:05:01.459 they came to circumcise the child. They would have called him Zechariah after his father, 00:05:02.180 --> 00:05:09.060 but his mother answered, No, he shall be called John. And they said to her, None of your relatives. 00:05:09.439 --> 00:05:16.779 is called by this name. In such a traditional culture, it would have been expected that the son 00:05:16.779 --> 00:05:24.199 would take the same name as his father. Perhaps they were already referring to him as little Zach. 00:05:24.660 --> 00:05:32.339 But Elizabeth is adamant he will be called John. That's the name given to them by the angel. 00:05:32.339 --> 00:05:39.279 All very unusual. All very unusual. All very irregular. All very unexpected. And so, 00:05:39.619 --> 00:05:47.219 the relatives and the neighbors consult Zechariah. Perhaps they hoped that he would overrule this 00:05:47.219 --> 00:05:54.500 pretty strange decision. Of course, he is dumb, so they make signs to the father inquiring what he 00:05:54.500 --> 00:06:01.639 wanted him to be called. He asked for a writing tablet, verse 63, and wrote, His name is John. 00:06:01.639 --> 00:06:13.759 And they all wondered. Despite all the objections, Zechariah and Elizabeth stick to their guns. In the face of 00:06:13.759 --> 00:06:22.419 the community's incredulity and in obedience to the angel's words, they remained with the name that God 00:06:22.420 --> 00:06:32.379 had revealed to them. The name John itself means Yahweh is gracious. The Lord is gracious. Here was a child 00:06:32.379 --> 00:06:42.360 given to them by the grace of God. And that same grace loosens Zechariah's tongue and fills him with the 00:06:42.360 --> 00:06:49.540 Holy Spirit. Immediately, we read in verse 64, His mouth was opened, his tongue loosed, and he spoke, 00:06:49.540 --> 00:06:57.560 blessing God. Fear came on all the neighbors. And all these things were talked about throughout the hill 00:06:57.560 --> 00:07:05.280 country of Judea. All who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What then will this child be? 00:07:06.220 --> 00:07:13.160 For the hand of the Lord was with him. And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit 00:07:13.160 --> 00:07:24.980 and prophesied. All that happens here is a sign of God being at work in a very special and unique way. 00:07:26.340 --> 00:07:34.460 Those around are astonished. John is going to be great. The hand of the Lord is going to be upon him. 00:07:34.459 --> 00:07:42.719 Indeed, as Luke will tell us later on in his gospel, among those born of women, there would be none 00:07:42.719 --> 00:07:52.659 greater than John the Baptist. That is none greater except Jesus Christ himself. And so, as Zechariah 00:07:52.659 --> 00:08:01.639 is filled with the Holy Spirit, he bursts into this prophetic song, sometimes known as the Benedictus. 00:08:01.639 --> 00:08:08.939 It's a song that celebrates the goodness and grace of God in bringing salvation to his people. It looks 00:08:08.939 --> 00:08:16.979 forward in hope for what is yet to come. And Zechariah's words are a kind of meditation, a reflection 00:08:16.979 --> 00:08:26.079 on God's ways and God's work. They are, in effect, a trailer for the rest of the gospel of Luke. 00:08:26.079 --> 00:08:36.379 Coming soon, God's promises fulfilled at last. Coming soon, God's mighty deliverance and redemption. 00:08:36.740 --> 00:08:45.879 Coming soon, God's Savior shining as a light in the darkness. Coming soon, forgiveness and salvation 00:08:45.879 --> 00:08:53.360 for guilty sinners. And there are three themes that I want to highlight in this Spirit-filled 00:08:53.360 --> 00:09:02.800 prophetic utterance of Zechariah. The first one is one that has already been highlighted in this opening 00:09:02.800 --> 00:09:13.320 chapter of the gospel, and that is this. We see here God's promises being fulfilled. Zechariah begins 00:09:13.320 --> 00:09:15.340 his hymn of praise with these words, 00:09:15.340 --> 00:09:23.580 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and raised up a horn of 00:09:23.580 --> 00:09:30.660 salvation for us in the house of his servant David. Now, this theme of promise fulfillment 00:09:30.660 --> 00:09:39.700 is prominent in both gospel accounts of the nativity. Matthew chapter 1, it is highlighted in the genealogy 00:09:39.700 --> 00:09:45.420 where Jesus, you remember, where Jesus, you remember, is referred to as the son of David, the son of Abraham, 00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:53.379 the very opening verse of the New Testament. And what Matthew does is trace that line of descent 00:09:53.379 --> 00:10:01.840 and to show that how Jesus is the promised deliverer through which both Abraham and David point. 00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:09.800 Jesus is the great deliverer that all the Old Testament saints had been looking for down through the centuries. 00:10:10.080 --> 00:10:18.440 His arrival is a sign that God is fulfilling his promises and achieving his purposes. And there's something 00:10:18.440 --> 00:10:27.180 similar to that going on here in Luke. The connection is being made to show that those ancient covenant promises 00:10:27.179 --> 00:10:34.799 of God are now ready to be fulfilled in the coming of Jesus the Messiah. And you'll notice here that 00:10:34.799 --> 00:10:43.239 Zechariah clearly references these great promises, both made to David and Abraham. He speaks of a coming 00:10:43.239 --> 00:10:51.659 Savior in the house of his servant David as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old. 00:10:51.659 --> 00:10:58.799 And then to show the mercy promised to our fathers, to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore 00:10:58.799 --> 00:11:10.740 to our father Abraham. At this point in Israel's history, God's promises were very old. That great and 00:11:10.740 --> 00:11:17.759 gracious promise made to Abraham of a people and a land through whom the whole world would be blessed 00:11:17.759 --> 00:11:26.539 was by this time a couple of thousand years old. Nonetheless, that ancient covenant promise of God 00:11:26.539 --> 00:11:35.059 remained intact, ready to be fulfilled. The wind, the rain, the great storms of human history had beat upon 00:11:35.059 --> 00:11:42.519 that promise. Generation upon generation had come and gone, yet that promise of God remained bright and 00:11:42.519 --> 00:11:51.480 shiny and new as the very first day it was given. For time and the passing of ages cannot erode, 00:11:51.740 --> 00:11:59.019 deface, or obliterate the promises of God. Men and women come and go, empires rise and fall, 00:11:59.299 --> 00:12:08.500 history ebbs and flows, but God's promise endures. We're told that God has now raised up a horn of 00:12:08.500 --> 00:12:13.820 salvation for the house of salvation for the house of David. The phrase horn of salvation indicates a 00:12:13.820 --> 00:12:21.919 mighty and powerful Savior. God has remembered His holy covenant. He has not forgotten His people. He has 00:12:21.919 --> 00:12:33.080 not forgotten the promise He made to Abraham. Fulfillment is now upon us. Zechariah mentions, as I said, 00:12:33.080 --> 00:12:39.440 the Abrahamic covenant, the Abrahamic covenant, the Abrahamic covenant, after centuries, the Jews were still 00:12:39.440 --> 00:12:46.340 looking for a new king to arise from the house of David. And what we have here is the people that God 00:12:46.340 --> 00:12:55.160 promised to create in the land that God had promised to give, awaiting the person that God had promised to send. 00:12:55.159 --> 00:13:04.399 And Zechariah realizes in these events that that special person's arrival is now imminent. God's Messiah 00:13:04.399 --> 00:13:12.179 is now about to take center stage. God's ancient promises are ready to be fulfilled. God is faithful, 00:13:12.459 --> 00:13:22.759 His promises sure and firm. Well, we hear much, don't we, about promises and vows from the lips, 00:13:22.759 --> 00:13:31.340 perhaps of politicians. I doubt it's much of a surprise to us that many such promises prove to be empty and 00:13:31.340 --> 00:13:40.019 worthless, because human beings break promises. People let us down. We're all promise breakers. 00:13:41.179 --> 00:13:47.559 There's only one promise keeper, and that is God Himself. He keeps His promises. 00:13:47.559 --> 00:13:58.279 I think it's worth laboring that point. Oftentimes in life, we cannot see any tangible sign of God's 00:13:58.279 --> 00:14:06.199 promises being fulfilled. Things may be hard and difficult, but if we are God's people, we are called 00:14:06.199 --> 00:14:17.419 to hold on to the promises of God. We look around Western culture, the witness, the demise of the 00:14:17.419 --> 00:14:24.539 church, and sometimes we despair. But we have the promise of Jesus Christ Himself. I will build my 00:14:24.539 --> 00:14:32.699 church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail. We may be facing illness and even death. We may be 00:14:32.699 --> 00:14:40.279 anxious and worried about the future. And Jesus says, in my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, 00:14:40.279 --> 00:14:47.579 would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? Or we may be weighed down and troubled by our 00:14:47.579 --> 00:14:53.659 sins. The apostle tells us if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, 00:14:53.659 --> 00:15:01.699 to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Maybe we're struggling. We're wondering, can we keep going in the 00:15:01.700 --> 00:15:09.879 way of faith? Jesus says, I give them eternal life. They shall never perish. Neither shall anyone snatch 00:15:09.879 --> 00:15:17.640 them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to 00:15:17.640 --> 00:15:26.100 snatch them out of my Father's hand. God's promises shall not be broken. God has bound Himself in covenant 00:15:26.100 --> 00:15:35.139 love to His people forever. And here we read of those great Old Testament promises, all being fulfilled 00:15:35.139 --> 00:15:44.100 in the coming of Jesus the Messiah. All the promises of God, yes and amen, in Jesus Christ. All fulfilled 00:15:44.100 --> 00:15:53.420 in Him, in a person we can come to know and love. He is the one in whom we can come to know and 00:15:53.419 --> 00:15:59.059 experience the living God for ourselves. He is the one who will carry us through difficult times, 00:15:59.159 --> 00:16:05.539 hard times. He will never leave us or forsake us. His promise is forever sure. 00:16:08.179 --> 00:16:18.099 I recall some years ago the death of one of the members of my church, a lady called Betty Buckley, 00:16:18.100 --> 00:16:30.240 and being told of how in the midst of very challenging times. She had two, at that time, 00:16:30.320 --> 00:16:39.840 two young daughters. She was virtually destitute. She'd been abandoned. She was alone with her two 00:16:39.840 --> 00:16:50.720 young daughters, and they told me of how she would literally stand on her Bible to pray and to claim 00:16:50.720 --> 00:17:02.500 the promises of God. I'm not recommending that as a technique, but it was very moving to hear her 00:17:02.500 --> 00:17:13.940 daughters. She said, I don't know. She said, I don't know. She said, I don't know. She said, 00:17:13.940 --> 00:17:24.079 I wonder this evening, have God great, great promises got hold of your heart like that? 00:17:24.079 --> 00:17:31.980 Because sometimes in life, those promises are all we have to hold on to. 00:17:36.079 --> 00:17:42.579 We're standing on the promises of God. There's that old hymn. We don't have it in our repertoire. 00:17:43.519 --> 00:17:52.539 Maybe get Donald and the music team to remedy that. Standing on the promises that cannot fail. 00:17:52.539 --> 00:18:01.519 When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail. By the living Word of God, I shall prevail. 00:18:02.119 --> 00:18:10.819 Standing on the promises of God. Where are you standing tonight? So that's the first thing here. 00:18:11.579 --> 00:18:18.399 The promises of God being fulfilled. The second thing, we see God's purpose being revealed. 00:18:18.400 --> 00:18:26.840 In verses 70 through 75, the prophecy goes on. He has visited, redeemed His people, raised up a horn 00:18:26.840 --> 00:18:32.080 of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, as spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets 00:18:32.080 --> 00:18:39.660 from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. 00:18:39.660 --> 00:18:48.420 And then He goes on to say, to grant us that we being delivered from the hand of our enemies might serve 00:18:48.420 --> 00:18:57.519 Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. And what Zechariah is 00:18:57.519 --> 00:19:04.960 reminding us of here is that God is in the business of redeeming a people for Himself. Zechariah speaks of 00:19:04.960 --> 00:19:11.079 the deliverance that God will surely bring to His people. It's the style of many of the prophets that 00:19:11.079 --> 00:19:18.120 He speaks of something future as having already been accomplished. Why? Because God has purposed it 00:19:18.120 --> 00:19:24.519 and decreed it. The Lord is visiting His people just as He did in the days of the Exodus. He's rescuing 00:19:24.519 --> 00:19:32.299 them from their enemies. He's raised up a horn of salvation for His people. The language and imagery 00:19:32.299 --> 00:19:40.559 borrowed there from Psalm 18. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in 00:19:40.559 --> 00:19:48.220 whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I will call on the Lord 00:19:48.220 --> 00:19:55.659 who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. It's the picture of God as a place of 00:19:55.660 --> 00:20:02.279 safety for His people. An impregnable fortress that cannot be stormed, a rock that cannot be moved, 00:20:02.480 --> 00:20:10.740 a victor who crushes His enemies beneath His feet. And in the birth of John, Zechariah sees that God is 00:20:10.740 --> 00:20:17.779 on the move, bringing deliverance to His people. Once more, He's bringing redemption. Once more, there's 00:20:17.779 --> 00:20:23.420 going to be an exodus. Once more, there's going to be a great salvation. The language used here is very 00:20:23.420 --> 00:20:30.340 concrete, very physical. You'll notice a particular focus on God's people being delivered from their 00:20:30.340 --> 00:20:38.340 enemies, rescued in order to serve the Lord in righteousness. Divine deliverance at hand. It will 00:20:38.340 --> 00:20:45.640 come to pass. It's not something vague. It's not something nebulous. It's not something ethereal or 00:20:45.640 --> 00:20:55.340 otherworldly. It won't be purely spiritual. It will be physical, a tangible rescue. Enemies will be 00:20:55.340 --> 00:21:02.580 defeated. A deliverance will involve flesh and blood. C.S. Lewis once wrote, 00:21:03.600 --> 00:21:10.080 there's no good trying to be more spiritual than God. God never meant man to be a purely spiritual 00:21:10.079 --> 00:21:18.839 creature. That's why He uses material things like bread and wine to put new life into us. We may think 00:21:18.839 --> 00:21:27.699 this rather rude and unspiritual. God does not. He invented eating. He likes matter. He invented it. 00:21:28.539 --> 00:21:35.059 And that's why at this time of year, we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the incarnation. In the 00:21:35.059 --> 00:21:43.519 incarnation, Jesus takes to Himself our flesh and blood. And that's why the resurrection is a bodily 00:21:43.519 --> 00:21:51.980 resurrection. The physical and material is to be redeemed. According to Paul, believers are given 00:21:51.980 --> 00:21:59.339 resurrection bodies. That's why we have in the book of Revelation a vision of a new heavens and earth, 00:21:59.339 --> 00:22:06.740 because we live in a world that has stopped working properly. God's good creation has been despoiled. 00:22:06.740 --> 00:22:14.439 We live in a world that is groaning and creaking, subject to frustration. And the Scriptures tell us 00:22:14.439 --> 00:22:21.839 that when human beings decided to be their own master, a curse fell on the created order. Everything began 00:22:21.839 --> 00:22:32.199 to go wrong. Everything became subject to bondage, decay, and death. And yet the Bible also tells us that 00:22:32.199 --> 00:22:41.720 this state of dis-ease is but a temporary condition, because the healing medicine for this state of death and 00:22:41.720 --> 00:22:49.419 decay is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And a day is coming when the full effects of that healing medicine 00:22:49.420 --> 00:22:59.060 will be there for all to see. And God's purpose will be fully revealed. All things made new. The old 00:22:59.060 --> 00:23:08.240 order of things passed away, replaced by a new world, a new heaven, a new earth. Here is the purpose of God 00:23:08.240 --> 00:23:16.940 in a new creation. And in that new heaven and earth, we will be completely delivered from our enemies. 00:23:16.940 --> 00:23:29.660 If I can paraphrase that famous Scottish singing duo, the proclaimers. It will be sin no more, 00:23:30.420 --> 00:23:38.759 evil no more, suffering no more, unrighteousness no more, pride no more, lies no more, death no more, 00:23:39.100 --> 00:23:46.460 tears no more. And Paul himself uses this kind of language in writing to the Corinthians. 00:23:46.940 --> 00:23:50.580 1 Corinthians 15, 22 and following, 00:23:50.580 --> 00:23:56.160 As in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive, but each in his own order. 00:23:56.640 --> 00:24:02.100 Christ the firstfruits, then it is coming, those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, 00:24:02.380 --> 00:24:09.220 when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority 00:24:09.220 --> 00:24:20.480 and every power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be 00:24:20.480 --> 00:24:30.960 destroyed is death. All, you see, will be brought to subjection. Everything will come under the rule of 00:24:30.960 --> 00:24:39.700 Jesus Christ. Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. The New Testament hope is 00:24:39.700 --> 00:24:50.559 not that of some disembodied, vague, ethereal existence. It looks forward to a physically renewed 00:24:50.559 --> 00:24:57.819 creation, to resurrection bodies, to a transformed heaven and earth in which we will be completely 00:24:57.819 --> 00:25:06.419 delivered from every enemy, and in which we can serve God without fear and in holiness and righteousness. 00:25:06.420 --> 00:25:15.680 It's a glorious hope of a great deliverance. And this is what Zechariah catches a glimpse of here. 00:25:16.720 --> 00:25:24.800 God's promises being fulfilled. God's purpose being revealed. And thirdly and finally here, 00:25:25.720 --> 00:25:31.380 God's people being prepared. Verses 77 to 79, 00:25:31.380 --> 00:25:38.200 you, child, you will be called the prophet of the Most High. You will go before the Lord to prepare 00:25:38.200 --> 00:25:45.380 His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people in the forgiveness of their sins 00:25:45.380 --> 00:25:53.320 because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high and give light 00:25:53.320 --> 00:26:00.800 to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace. 00:26:01.380 --> 00:26:12.300 That final section of Zechariah's hymn really focuses on John's future ministry and on the arrival of the Lord himself. 00:26:12.640 --> 00:26:20.760 John is called the prophet of the Most High. He will prepare the way of the Lord, a ministry of warning and 00:26:20.760 --> 00:26:30.660 preparation, alerting people to the coming of the Messiah. The people are to be made ready for His arrival. 00:26:30.660 --> 00:26:36.720 Hearts need to be prepared later in this gospel. Look, quotes from Isaiah 40. 00:26:38.140 --> 00:26:42.660 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, 00:26:43.160 --> 00:26:50.080 prepare the way of the Lord, make His path straight. Every valley shall be filled, every mountain and hill 00:26:50.080 --> 00:26:58.500 laid low. The crooked shall become straight, the rough places level, and all flesh see the salvation 00:26:58.500 --> 00:27:08.920 of our God. John's task is to prepare the way of the Lord. And the way in which this is described by 00:27:08.920 --> 00:27:17.940 Zechariah is as the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the 00:27:17.940 --> 00:27:28.380 shadow of death. Jesus Christ will come as the light of the world. The darkness will flee, 00:27:28.380 --> 00:27:37.400 before Him. It's not just the sunrise of a new day. It is the sunrise of a new world, a new creation, 00:27:37.920 --> 00:27:48.900 the beginning for humanity in the coming of the Savior. Those famous words in John's prologue, 00:27:48.900 --> 00:27:55.780 there was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light 00:27:55.780 --> 00:28:01.780 that all might believe through Him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. 00:28:01.860 --> 00:28:09.600 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. The light of salvation 00:28:09.599 --> 00:28:18.740 is now dawning upon the world in the person of Jesus Christ. And you'll notice at the heart of this salvation 00:28:18.740 --> 00:28:28.119 is the forgiveness of sins. To give knowledge of salvation to His people in the forgiveness of their sins. 00:28:28.119 --> 00:28:33.759 That's the great need for all human beings. 00:28:36.559 --> 00:28:45.759 To know the forgiveness of our sins. Why? Because as human beings we're guilty before God. 00:28:47.039 --> 00:28:51.459 We need to be forgiven. That guilt is real. 00:28:51.460 --> 00:29:01.620 Sometimes, excuse me, sometimes we hear in our culture that guilt isn't real. 00:29:02.840 --> 00:29:08.620 You know, it's just a feeling. It's a problem. It really belongs to the past. People today no longer 00:29:08.620 --> 00:29:15.759 believe in God or sin or the Ten Commandments, even right or wrong. Everybody's, you know, happy just 00:29:15.759 --> 00:29:21.100 doing their own thing, going their own way, following their own heart. Yeah, people might be bored. 00:29:21.099 --> 00:29:27.159 They might be apathetic. They may be confused. They may be insecure. They may be lacking purpose in life. 00:29:28.659 --> 00:29:35.379 But burden with guilt? No, no, no. People today, though, are not bothered by that. That was true in 00:29:35.379 --> 00:29:42.500 medieval times or Victorian times. But guilt is a kind of psychologically, sociologically created 00:29:42.500 --> 00:29:49.419 phenomenon. It can be alleviated by counseling and therapy and all sorts. A mental order, a disease 00:29:49.420 --> 00:29:56.460 that we can treat. Something that's not real. It's subjective. 00:29:56.460 --> 00:30:04.620 But that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says that our guilt is objective. 00:30:06.880 --> 00:30:12.720 You know, after all, if we've jettisoned all these ideas of God and the moral law and sin and guilt and 00:30:12.720 --> 00:30:16.220 all that, why do human beings not feel a lot better about themselves? 00:30:16.220 --> 00:30:27.339 Deep down, we all have memories of shame. Thoughts and deeds that make us feel profoundly unworthy. 00:30:29.339 --> 00:30:34.200 Guilt is a real problem, even in a guilt-denying society like ours. 00:30:34.200 --> 00:30:46.039 We are objectively, all of us, objectively guilty before God. And our guilt before our Creator doesn't 00:30:46.039 --> 00:30:53.860 disappear when we die. We take it with us. Because the root of our guilt is not something sociological 00:30:53.860 --> 00:31:00.880 or psychological. It is actually something theological. The psalmist says, 00:31:00.880 --> 00:31:07.360 If you, O Lord, kept the record of sins, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness. 00:31:09.540 --> 00:31:15.780 And this is whom John will prepare a people for, for Jesus Christ, the Savior, who's come to deal 00:31:15.780 --> 00:31:24.500 with all our shame and guilt, to make us right with God, and to bring us the forgiveness of our sins 00:31:24.500 --> 00:31:30.500 that we so desperately need. And that's why in Luke's gospel, we witness Jesus journeying to the 00:31:30.500 --> 00:31:39.779 cross. For it's from a crucified and risen Savior there flows to ordinary sinners like us, forgiveness and 00:31:39.779 --> 00:31:48.420 cleansing from sin, divine mercy and love, righteousness and acceptance with God. And friends, isn't that good 00:31:48.420 --> 00:31:57.480 news? Isn't that good news for you, for your family, for your neighbors? Isn't it good news for a guilty 00:31:57.480 --> 00:32:07.680 world that stands under the just judgment of a holy God? Many years ago, time is almost gone. Many years ago, 00:32:08.640 --> 00:32:16.440 there was a priest in the Philippines who was well loved and respected. But he was a man who was haunted by 00:32:16.440 --> 00:32:23.460 the memory of a sin he'd committed when he was back in seminary. He had repented of this sin often, 00:32:23.460 --> 00:32:32.059 but had absolutely no sense of forgiveness in his heart. Now, in his parish, there was a somewhat 00:32:32.059 --> 00:32:40.720 eccentric woman who was always claiming to have visions of Christ in which the Lord would speak 00:32:40.720 --> 00:32:46.799 directly to her. And the priest was rightly skeptical about this woman and her many, many visions. 00:32:46.799 --> 00:32:55.859 But one day, he was so troubled in his heart about his past that he asked this woman, he said to her, 00:32:56.299 --> 00:33:04.279 next time you have a vision of the Lord, ask him what sin I committed when I was in seminary. 00:33:05.339 --> 00:33:12.759 And the woman assured him that she would do so. And so sometime later, he met the woman again, 00:33:12.759 --> 00:33:20.359 and he asked her if Christ had appeared to her in one of her dreams, and if she had asked him about the 00:33:20.359 --> 00:33:29.920 sin he had committed back in seminary. Oh, yes, the woman said. I saw him. I asked him, 00:33:30.920 --> 00:33:42.019 what did he say, said the priest. The woman replied. He said, I don't. 00:33:42.759 --> 00:33:52.799 Remember. I don't remember. God speaks through the prophet Jeremiah and says, 00:33:52.900 --> 00:33:56.400 they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord, 00:33:56.700 --> 00:34:04.599 for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. 00:34:04.599 --> 00:34:11.119 Let me ask you tonight, do you know anything of that forgiveness in your life? 00:34:13.319 --> 00:34:20.360 It is your greatest need. What a great Savior we have in Jesus Christ, 00:34:20.900 --> 00:34:31.420 because in him our sins are remembered no more. It is a liberating forgiveness 00:34:31.420 --> 00:34:36.659 that sets us free to walk in the way of peace. 00:34:40.159 --> 00:34:47.180 To this dark world, Jesus Christ comes and shines his light. To this dead world, 00:34:47.559 --> 00:34:52.320 Jesus brings life. To this guilty world, he brings forgiveness. 00:34:52.320 --> 00:35:17.220 Here in the words of Zechariah, we are being prepared. Yes, to face the challenges and difficulties 00:35:17.219 --> 00:35:24.699 of this life by laying hold of the sure promises of God. Prepare to face the future by seeing something 00:35:24.699 --> 00:35:35.239 of God's purposes that lie ahead. Prepare to meet with a God who in his great mercy remembers our sins 00:35:35.239 --> 00:35:46.259 no more. Let's pray together. Lord, grant us your grace. Grant us faith and trust in Jesus Christ. 00:35:47.219 --> 00:35:55.419 For he is indeed a mighty Savior. Lord, you know us, you know our circumstances, you know our lives. 00:35:56.599 --> 00:36:02.239 You know each of us better than we know ourselves. Lord, speak your word into our hearts. 00:36:03.519 --> 00:36:06.519 May we be a people of faith and trust in your promises. 00:36:08.199 --> 00:36:14.699 May we be a people of hope looking forward to all that you have promised to accomplish. 00:36:14.699 --> 00:36:22.460 And may we be a people who know what it is to be forgiven and to live in the light 00:36:22.460 --> 00:36:28.399 of your mercy and grace. As we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.