CALL TO CONFESSION

Isaiah 53:6

All we like sheep have gone astray;

    we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

    the iniquity of us all.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

O Source of All Good, What can we offer You for the gift of gifts, Your own dear Son? He is begotten, not created; He is our Redeemer, our Substitute, and our Guarantee. We cannot comprehend how He emptied Himself, And the infinity of His love is beyond our hearts' grasp.

Yet, O Lord, we confess we have not loved Him as we ought. While He came below to raise us above, we have often preferred the dust of the earth. While He was born like us that we might become like Him, we have strived to remain as we are, comfortable in our pride.

We confess that we have been undone. We admit that, in our natural hearts, we had no will to return to You, And no intellect to devise our own recovery. We were stranded in our foolishness, separated from You by a gap we could not bridge.

But here is the wonder of wonders: when we could not climb to You, You drew near on wings of grace. When we were infinitely apart, You united us in an unbreakable bond. You came, God in the flesh, to save us to the uttermost. As a man, You died our death, to shed satisfying blood on our behalf, and to work out a perfect righteousness for us where we had none.

O God, forgive our wandering hearts. Take us now in spirit to the watchful shepherds, and enlarge our narrow minds. Let us hear again the good tidings of great joy, and in hearing, let us believe, rejoice, praise, and adore. Let our consciences be bathed in an ocean of perfect rest, and let our eyes be lifted to a reconciled Father.

Place us beside the humble animals of the stable, to look with them upon our Redeemer’s face, and in Him, count ourselves delivered from sin. Let us, like Simeon, clasp the newborn child to our hearts, embrace Him with undying faith, and exult that He is ours and we are His.

In Him, You have given us so much that heaven can give no more. 

In the name of our Redeemer and Savior we pray, Amen.

(Adapted and modernized from Valley of Vision, The Gift of Gifts)

“Take a few moments to personally confess your sins to the Lord.”

ASSURANCE OF PARDON

“Hear these words of comfort and assurance.” 

Titus 3:4-7

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

• Four hundred years. That is how long Israel had waited since the last prophetic word. Four centuries of silence from heaven.
• But for one man, the silence was even louder. 
• For nine months, an old priest named Zechariah had been trapped in a prison of silence. 
• He was struck mute by the angel Gabriel because he doubted God’s promise that the Lord would give him and his barren wife Elizabeth a son. 
• Zechariah has watched his wife’s belly grow, unable to speak a word of blessing, unable to pray out loud, unable to sing. 
• He has been forced to sit in the quiet and think about the God who acts. 
• And then suddenly, God shatters the silence and begins to speak to his people again.
• At the birth of his son, Zechariah etches the name “John” on a writing tablet and his tongue is loosed. 
• After nine months of holding his breath, he opens his mouth to speak, and he doesn’t complain about the difficulty, he explodes into song.
• His doubt gave way to doxology. His silence turned into song. 

• The church has historically known Zechariah’s song as the Benedictus (Latin for “Blessed”). 
• It is a bridge connecting the promises of the Old Testament with the fulfillment of the New. 
• It teaches us that when God finally pierced the silence, the coming of Christ brought three things:  A Song of Redemption, A Song of Remembrance, and A Song of Revelation. 
• God has visited his people; proof of His faithfulness in keeping His promise. 

Luke 1:67-79

And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,

68  “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,

    for he has visited and redeemed his people

69  and has raised up a horn of salvation for us

    in the house of his servant David,

70  as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,

71  that we should be saved from our enemies

    and from the hand of all who hate us;

72  to show the mercy promised to our fathers

    and to remember his holy covenant,

73  the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us

74     that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,

might serve him without fear,

75     in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

76  And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;

    for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,

77  to give knowledge of salvation to his people

    in the forgiveness of their sins,

78  because of the tender mercy of our God,

    whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high

79  to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,

    to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

• Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied. 
• What happened to Zechariah had not happened in four hundred years, breaking the silence since the days of Malachi. 
• He begins with a shout of praise, “Blessed by the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people.” (68)
• Notice he is referring to God’s visitation and redemption in the past tense. 
• Yet, Jesus hadn’t been born yet.
• Zechariah is holding his baby, John, in his arms. 
• But as a Spirit-filled prophet of the Lord, through faith, God’s promise is as good as fulfilled. 
• This is a song of redemption! 

• The word “visited” is not like a casual social call. 
• In the OT, when God visits his people, he comes with purpose and power to change things. 
• God has seen the distress of his people and has come to render aid and rescue, because he is moved with compassion. 
• We see this most clearly in the language of Exodus, where God told Moses to tell the Israelites in Egypt, “I have surely visited you.” (Ex 3:16)
• God was stepping into human history to intervene on behalf of his people. 
• In the sending of His son Jesus, God was personally getting involved to render aid to his people, to bring about the salvation of those who were in distress and misery. 

• He continues in v69, “and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.” 
• The word “horn,” refers to the horn of an ox or bull. In the ancient world, the horn was a symbol of strength, kingly power, and victory. 
• While Zechariah is holding his own son, John, his song isn’t ultimately about John. 
• He is looking past the baby in his arms to the baby in Mary’s womb. Zechariah sees the Horn of Salvation. 
• He realizes that God is raising up a King from the line of David, just as he promised he would. (2 Sam 7).
• That King will have the power to bring about the salvation of his people.

• God’s visitation is TO his people and it is FOR his people. 
• Look at some of the things God’s visitation will bring FOR his people. 
• Redemption (68)
• This essentially means a ransom, a price paid to release a captive. 
• Redemption implies bondage. Imagine someone trapped in a debtor’s prison, he cannot work to pay off his debt. A benefactor goes to the magistrate and pays the man’s full debt and secures his release. That is redemption. 
• Israel has been in a spiritual debtor’s prison, bound by sin, occupied by Rome, seemingly abandoned. But Messiah has arrived to secure their release. 
• And that is what he has done for us. Jesus paid the price for our redemption. 
• Jesus said that he came, “to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45)
• Salvation and deliverance from our enemies (71,74)
• Israel was politically oppressed by Rome, but their true enemy was not Caesar but sin. 
• Sin and death are our enemies. 
• The world, the flesh and the devil are our enemies. (1 John 2:15-16)
• Paul wrote that Christ, “Gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of God our Father.” (Gal 1:4)
• Forgiveness of sins (77)
• This was the good news that was heralded by the apostles in Acts on the Day of Pentecost and elsewhere, that “everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins.” (Acts 2:38; 10:43)
• “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Col 1:13-14)

• You might have walked in today feeling bound and trapped by a sinful habit you can’t break, a guilt you can’t shake, or fear of the future or your present circumstances. 
• The message of Advent is that you cannot let yourself out of the cell. You need a Redeemer. 
• The Good News is that He has visited you.
• Christ, the “horn of salvation,” is strong enough to break the chains of any sin that binds you. 
• Advent reminds us that Jesus did not come to make life slightly better, he came to save!

• Zechariah tells us why God is doing this.
• “To show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham.” (72,73
• This is a prophetic song of remembrance. 
• When the Bible says God “remembers,” it doesn’t mean that God forgets.
• In Scripture, when God remembers, it means he is moving to act in accordance with a previous pledge or promise he has made. 
• God remembered Noah and sent a strong wind to dry the land after the flood. (Gen 8:1)
• God remembered Rachel and opened up her barren womb. (Gen 30:22)
• The holy covenant is the one all the way back in Genesis that God made with Abraham.
• It was an unconditional binding promise that through Abraham and his descendant, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. (Gen 12:2, 15:18, 17:4-8)
• For centuries, it felt like that promise had been forgotten and abandoned. 
• But God had a timetable.
• Galatians 4:4,5 “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law…”

• But look closely at WHY God saves us. What is the goal of this redemption? 
• V74, …that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.” 
• We like being delivered from the hand of our enemies. 
• We want our problems to go away. We want to be healed, want our debt cancelled, and the conflict resolved. 
• But God delivers us so that we can serve Him without fear. 

• Think about how first century Jews lived with fear as a daily reality. 
• Zechariah envisions a salvation that removes the fear of judgment and the fear of man, replacing it with the worship of God. 
• We aren’t just saved FROM something, we’re saved FOR something, to be holy and righteous people who worship, serve, and trust the Lord. 

• The salvation Jesus brings silences all of our enemies. 
• And the truth is that none of us deserves salvation. None of us is worthy or good enough. 
• But God’s covenant mercy is stronger than our past, stronger than our sin, stronger than our enemies. 

• Think about how much energy you spend on fear. 
• The gospel application here is rest. 
• Because God has remembered his covenant, you can stop frantically trying to secure your own future. 
• If you are in Christ, God has sworn an oath to bring you safely to the glory he has promised for all that are his. 
• You can serve him, not out of guilt or dread or anxiety, but out of relief, rest, and joy. 

• Finally, Zechariah looks at his infant son and the tone shifts from the distant past to the immediate future. 
• This is a song of revelation.
• His little baby is part of God’s redemptive plan. 
• His all important role is to prepare the way for God’s Messiah. 
• He would teach the people that their biggest problem wasn’t Rome; it was their sin. He will give “knowledge of salvation to his people.” 
• They needed forgiveness personally and spiritually more than they needed political freedom. 

• This salvation and deliverance and redemption and forgiveness of sins happens…“Because of the tender mercy of our God.” (78)
• Literally, the “bowels of mercy,” because of a gut-level, compassion God feels for His suffering people. 

• Zechariah describes the Messiah as “the sunrise shall visit us from on high.” 
• Think of travelers in the ancient world. Walking a treacherous mountain path. 
• The darkness of night put them in grave danger. 
• They would wait and pray for the dawn.
• When the sun rises, everything changes. The terrain hasn't changed, it’s still dangerous. But now you can see. The light has revealed the way.

• Have you tried to walk through your house in pitch blackness? 
• That is what life is like without Christ: tentative and anxious and fearful. 
• The Sunrise doesn’t move all the furniture out of the way; the hard and difficult things of life, but it reveals them so you can navigate them. 
• The Sunrise turns panic into the way of peace. 
• Christ, the Sunrise, evaporates all of that fear and guides us so that we know where to place our feet and where to step. 
• He gives “light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” 

• Some of you might be sitting in the “shadow of death.” 
• Zechariah’s song tells us that we don’t find the way of peace by stumbling around in the dark trying harder. 
• We find peace by waiting for the Sunrise. 
• We look to Jesus and he guides our feet through peaceful paths. 

CONCLUSION

• The silence of the priest who was unable to speak because he doubted God’s word was replaced with singing, because he has seen God’s faithfulness in keeping his Word. 
• Christmas is not just about a baby in a manger. 
• It is about the Covenant-keeping God invading our darkness to ransom us and bring us into the light. 
• He is the God who Redeems and breaks our chains and sets us free. 
• He is the God who Remembers and is faithful to fulfill his promise. 
• He is the God who Reveals the way of peace; he is the Sunrise that ends the long dark night of the soul. 

• As we leave today and are four days from Christmas, there is a lot of noise and distractions around us.
• Like Zechariah, let your doubts give way to doxology! 
• The Sunrise has come! The true horn of salvation has been raised. 
• May the God who has spoken, who has come, and who will come again, guide our feet into the way of peace. 

APPLICATION AND REFLECTION

In light of today's message....

• What did I learn about the gospel?
• How can I apply what I learned about the gospel to my life?
• With whom can I share the gospel this week?