Well, I invite you to turn this morning to Luke chapter 1. Last week we looked at the beginning of Luke and the muting of Zachariah, and now we're going to look at the opening of his mouth to praise, to complete the story that we started last week. Luke chapter 1, beginning at verse 67. Let's give our attention this morning to the word of the Lord.
"And his father, Zechariah, was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant the oath that he swore to our father Abraham to grant us that we being delivered from the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear and holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace and the child grew and became strong in spirit and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to israel
There will end the reading of God's word.
Well, we looked at last time uh what appeared to be the frustration in the book at least for Zechariah and for Israel was the seeming inactivity of our Lord to answer prayer. You might say, or that he has remained silent himself, or that he is off in some distant place and has not made good on all that he said that he would do. Well, we looked at that last time. That's the great frustration. At times, it just seems like nothing ever changes and the mundane continues, and we hear these promises over and over, and we even get maybe tired of hearing the word "promise" because promises are promises. Is anything happening? Is anything ever changing? God may do something, but we tend to live and think, "Well, that's going to be way down the road. That's going to be way down the road. That's going to be way down apart from my life."
This is what's made studying Zachariah so fascinating, because we're actually studying fulfillment. We're actually looking at promise coming to fulfillment here. God is is working God is acting in history god is doing what he said he would always do. And that's why we looked at last time the connection between the first coming and the second coming, and the death of Christ and the final judgment all of that parallels and provides for us a paradigm and way to think in this age as we wait for the fulfillment of his second coming.
But I love this, because his song expresses what are the blessings and the benefits that we are intended to enjoy right now. It's not that we're supposed to go through life with a grim face. We live in the best position of all time. This is what all the Bible looked for. This is what the scriptures looked for in this age for the announcement of the deliverer to come and to save and to fulfill righteousness. This is what the prophets long to see, and we stand at our point in history and say, "God has been faithful." We have more revelation than them. God has been faithful. God has fulfilled his word.
But interwoven into this story for us has been Zachariah's struggle to believe, and that's for us. That's to help us. We learned something important about it today about faith in this Christian life. about trust in the christian life And that's why I want to focus on what happens here with Zachariah: that he is blessing the Lord now. His mouth is now open, his tongue is loose, and he is blessing the Lord for visiting us, and he is blessing the Lord for keeping his promise, and he is blessing the Lord for opening our hearts to receive him. So those are the three ways we're looking at for his visiting and his keeping and his opening here.
Uh, we see in this little song and prophecy of zachariah i want you to look at verse 67: "And his father Zachariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David
This has just followed now the birth of John, and John's arrival, and now Zachariah is singing a song. We have a beautiful moment here of Zachariah opening his mouth. It's fascinating, because the Septuagint uses the very same word the greek word when the Lord visited Sarah and Abraham. Zachariah had a lot of time to think about this. He was mute for a while, and he's been thinking about history, he's been thinking about fulfillment and promise, and I don't see how you could begin to appreciate Zachariah's song without considering just for a moment again what happened to him and why this is so significant.
What I didn't dive into last time was "why" the muting. Why the muting of him? Why did the angel say, "Ah, you didn't believe that's it, you're silent"? Well, we consider that last time. We were introduced to Zacharias, this priest who was serving in the temple. The lot had fallen to him in the Holy Place to take care of the burning of the incense, and as he's doing this, Gabriel appears gabriel this powerful angel, this messenger angel. And Zachariah is deathly afraid. Fear falls on him. And the angel says, "Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John."
Notice that "your prayer is her What prayer? Luke tells us but they had no child because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years. We've heard your prayer. Elizabeth shall bear, and then he says this: "And you will have great joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth."
Does that at all sound familiar to you? He will be great in the sight of God and filled with the Holy Spirit. And here's his mission: He will turn we looked at last time, this is all grace he will turn heart hearts abound in ministry he will turn the children of israel's hearts to the Lord their God. He's going to turn many hearts back, proud, arrogant hearts. He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of their father to their children and the disobedient to the way of the just to make ready people prepared for the Lord. child is um given a wonderful mission. He would make hearts ready to receive the King. He would be the herald before the King. He would open up hearts to, in preparation for the Gospel, he would turn the hearts of people back to the Lord. What a wonderful thing! It's really the whole model of ministry: is to turn hearts back to the Lord.
Now, what happens? Zacharias says to the angel, "How shall I know this? For I'm an old man, and my wife is advanced in years." And here we're prompted that be take to to be taken into the larger story of Scripture. On the mind of Zacharias, and the mind of Luke actually as he's recording this, is the near abraham narrative and Genesis 21 was on his mind to show how Scripture is fulfilled. And he says notice this blessed be the Lord. Praise him, bless him, make his praise glorious, because this God of israel notice has visited his people and blessed them. He's visited." And he mentions in verse 73, "the oath that he swore to our father Abraham."
He's visited. That's what Sarah said. That's what the Sarah narrative said: "And the Lord visited Sarah as he had spoken, and the Lord did unto Sarah all that he had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bear Abraham a son in his old age at the set time of which God had spoken to him."
Now, what a history that was! What a history! So much attention in Genesis was given to that story. "My wife is old," said Abraham, when the promise came. "I'm old. How can I really know?" This is just deja vu. This is recapitulating history. Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, "Shall a child be born to a man who's a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?" So Sarah laughed within herself, saying, "After I'm worn out, and my lord is old. Shall I have pleasure? That doesn't happen anymore."
The Lord said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, shall I indeed bear a child now that I'm old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time, I will return to you according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son."
But Sarah denied it, saying, "I did not laugh, for she was afraid." And he said, "No, but you did laugh. See, he even knows when you're laughing."
Now, first scene in Luke. You have Abraham and Sarah relived. At the heart of Zechariah is unbelief in the word that was spoken to him. So what happens? Listen to this: "And the angel answered and said to him, I am Gabriel who stands in the presence of God and was sent to speak to you and bring to you these glad tidings. I was sent by God to bring you Gospel. To speak his word so that you would have glad tidings of great joy, but behold, you shall be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place the appointed time because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own time
Now, what did God just do? I had a few of you asked me last week. This is confusing, because in the next chapter you know, Mayor in the in the previous section mary is given the same thing. Right after the last section, in verse 34, Mary said to the angel, "How will this be since I'm a virgin?" And she's praised. And here, the angel's rebuking and muting Zachariah for the question.
And I think you can't miss what was said earlier: Hearts need to be turned. God sees hearts. Angels know from God what's going on in the heart. What the angel communicates to us, and you'd have never known it from a priest, a pastor, was that deep in Zachariah's heart, when the Gospel was preached to him, was no faith, no belief in what was spoken.
Now, we're all here today. Nobody raises their hand if I ask and say, "Is there anyone here who doesn't believe this?" Yeah, me, right? Anyone say that? Oh, there's some. I pray to everyone who believes it. God knows the heart. And every word that comes out.
On the one hand, I think the muting of Zachariah is a response to what Zachariah and the people thought of God: that he's mute. That he's mute. That God has been mute all these years, and God is mute to his promises, and God is silent, and God doesn't say anything. And in this one sense, you have to say, "God's saying, no, who's the mute ones Who are not speaking my word and who are not believing my word? It's almost as if God says at this point, after he makes the promise, to prevent what happened with Abraham and Sarah, I'm going to prevent you from laughing, going away and laughing. The next time you speak, there will be fulfillment. So that at my word, now listen, there will be the laughter of joy." That's what he said: "You will have joy and gladness."
You know where that's taken from? When Isaac was born, you know what Isaac's name means, right? Laughter. When Isaac was born, Sarah said, "God has brought me laughter. And everyone who hears about this will laugh with me." Older translations, closer translations, even if you look at Septuagint and other early translations. God has made great joy for me today, Sarah. Everyone who hears me will rejoice with me."
Look at verse 14: "You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth."
The judgment for unbelief in people's lives is a shut mouth. They're the ones mute. They would never testify to the Gospel, never speak to anyone about it. And the fruit of their life is no joy, no happiness, no speaking. To which I think you say, "Who are the mute ones? Who are the mute ones?" They can barely sing a song to the Lord. The ones who close up their hearts to Him are the ones whose mouths are shut.
And what does all this mean when we open the Gospel? God is done, beloved. At this point in redemptive history, with the long sin of unbelief, God's done. Unbelief among His people when His Word has been so proven for so long. In His forbearance, remember? God passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. See? The laughter of unbelief, there's no longer any excuse for. It's not that there ever was before, but that now that the forerunner and the Messiah have come, now that he's arrived, what we should see in Zechariah is he will no longer abide unbelief from his people. There's no place for that in us. This is what he thinks of it. This is what he thinks of the laughter of unbelief going on in hearts that are silent, because the day has now arrived.
And whatever doubt, here's the good news, whatever doubt, whatever unbelief we've ever had, his desire is to replace it with the laughter of joy. That's what happened in Sarah. That laughter of unbelief turned to the laughter of joy when the child was born. Happiness happened. Laughter happened. Rejoicing in the Lord happened because God fulfilled His Word.
And so that's what's captured now in Zechariah's song. He opens his mouth, and he is celebrating the faithfulness of God to His promises. We read, "He opened his mouth, his tongue was loosed, and he began to bless and praise God." This is where you know what faith springs out of true faith is this. This is what God wants on the lips of His people who are going to celebrate believing the Christmas story.
Zachariah's eyes are really not on John. As important as John is, he mentions him. He's thinking of the whole plan of redemption being fulfilled. And he says in verse 69, "He's raised up the horn of salvation." He's talking about the Messiah. "For us in the house of his servant David." Horn means his strength, his power, the salvation. Verse 70: "As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from old that we should be saved from our enemies and that from the hand of all who hate us."
Are you hearing what overwhelmed him? God visited us. God visited us. He's always visited at the appointed time. He appointed time with Sarah and Abraham. He visited. God has visited us. How much conflict of enemies surrounded even the birth of the Son of God? How many enemies wanted to kill Him? How many enemies wanted to destroy Him? He who is in the heavens laughed. He sent His Son in the midst of great enemies and hardship, as He promised, and he delivered.
How much hardship and sorrow right now fills life? How much disappointment? No, seriously going on with you right now? How much frustration? How much sorrow over death? Every week, living in this world, we are filled with much tribulation. Entering the kingdom, we have much hardship. What does that do to you? What does that do to you? Well, it discourages you. There are many here discouraged. You see, the word of promise coming to us when God calls us to believe his word and god calls us to believe his promise a different sort of response is intended for us. The laughter of unbelief leaves us mute, and it leaves us bitter. The laughter of joy that is intended for the Christian filled Sarah, as it does Zachariah here, because in the midst of their enemies, here was the Father planning and purposing and sent his Son in human flesh, completely vulnerable. And they couldn't touch him in the wisdom of God. He appointed that that life to be taken on the cross, that all the enemies might be defeated through the resurrection and triumph over the grave and sin through the work of this Messiah. And the victory that comes out of that is what Zechariah is celebrating.
We're delivered. We're delivered. He wants you to know that. He wants you to know it's happened. No, we're not just theorizing here. We're not just proposing theories in Christianity. It's a fact. It happened. God made good on His Word. All of our sorrows are answered here. And Zechariah blesses God, and from that doubt and unbelief, now in a moment is filled, as his tongue is loosed, with joy because the Son has won the battle.
We must go through life believing this. Look where we are in history. Look at the position we're in. The kind of unbelief that made him mute was doubting the word. Listen to what God says: Everything is against you, but here's the truth. Here's the truth: Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. It's done. And you are now more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ and through us diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge in every place.
Zachariah breaks into praise here because God has kept his covenant of grace. We saw that exhibited this morning with Eliana. God has kept his covenant. Verse 72: "To show the mercy promised to our fathers, to remember His holy covenant, the oath that He swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we being delivered from the hand of our enemies might, now listen, here's about the blessing of this, serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days."
When God cut the covenant in Genesis 15, Abraham was sleeping, and He passed between those rows and the animals. And God, as Abraham was asleep, was making it very clear that He would fulfill this covenant for us. And He made a vow. He made a promise. And verse 72 says, "Listen, he performed his mercy. He kept it. The oath that Abraham, he was sworn that we might worship him without fear and holiness and righteousness all the days of our life."
I don't know if you think about this. There is nothing more in this life that purges worry, fear, anxiety, trouble, doubt than to be able to come before the face of God every Sabbath and know that He loves you and that He's redeemed you. It's done. What's that worth? And you don't have to worship coming to a God who you think is going to destroy you. He doesn't want that. He doesn't want you to live like that anymore. He's freed you from all burdens. He's carried your sorrows. He's bore your sicknesses. He took the judgment.
You might be troubled about many things today, but shouldn't Psalm 42 which was always the intention be ringing on our lips? "Why are you downcast, oh my soul? Put your trust in God. Why are you downcast? God has sent his Son. God has kept his word. That means you have victory over all enemies. Sin is overcome. Death is defeated. God has kept his oath. God is saving every last one of his people."
And he celebrates that now in John. Just to close this out, the barren man who had no son god just opened the womb of his wife. When the womb of his wife a son would come named John, he calls him the prophet of the Most High. "And your child will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways. Listen to give no to give listen to this. Here's a gift: the knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercies of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness the whole fulfillment of Isaiah and the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace."
You don't just get joy, you get peace. The reason for joy, the reason for peace is because He's forgiven all your sins. You know, that's the greatest blessing of ministry that I get to announce every Sunday. I hope you never take it for granted what's being said to you: "Your sins are forgiven. Son and daughter, your sins are forgiven."
You know what that costs? It's done. There's one phrase that I couldn't get over in this little song of Zachariah: "because of the tender mercy of our God."
He had so much compassion on you in your sorrow, in your stupidity, in your rebellion. Remember what Jesus said what was said of him in Matthew 11? When he saw the crowds, saw the multitudes of people, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. It was his compassion that moved Almighty God to give his life, think about this, for a ruined world.
God doesn't look at you and say, "Wow, you know, they did really well this week. I'll show them some compassion." He knows everything about you. He knows everything going on in your heart. He knows every little thought of unbelief. He knows the sin you pursued that you're sick with. He knows your weariness. He knows how broken you are. You've been trying to cover it for way too long and not being honest. He had compassion on you. And he had mercy on you. And in A.D. 30, he gave his Son to die for you.
Not because you had it together, but because you are a wretch and a broken sinner, and he loved you because of the good pleasure of his will. If you can figure that out, let me know, because I can. But that's what he said: Our heavenly Father, out of his love for us, gave his Son. And he said, "I won't destroy my people. I will save them instead." And the Son has visited us. And he came into our darkness and death to give us great light, to guide our feet into the way of what? Peace. That's His will for you today: joy and peace.
Why are you fighting it? Believe the Gospel. It happened in history. He gave His Son so that your laughter of unbelief would be turned to the laughter of joy right now. You have it. It's a gift. He's defeated sin and death. He's going to take us home soon. Might you learn with the Apostle Paul, as difficult as it might be, in whatever state you are in, to rejoice? And again, I say, rejoice. That's his will for us.
Amen. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, thank You for showing us Your will and Your power and Your compassion throughout history to deliver Your people. Whatever is in our hearts of unbelief, root it out right now and replace it with the laughter of faith and joy that believes Your word, that doesn't make us mute in bitterness, but that opens our mouth in praise and in confidence of the tender mercies of our God. Thank you today for the indescribable gift of your Son. In his work we will rejoice. In Jesus name, amen.