Luke 1:67-80, “Salvation”

Ken MacLeod

Prayer • Sermon • Submitted 5 months ago • Presented 5 months ago

Zechariah (father of John)

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Christmas Eve is the final day of Advent, the season we anticipate the coming of the Savior into our world. That word, savior, has lost some of it’s meaning in our time. I grew up learning from my parents and my church that Jesus was the Savior of all people. So, you can imagine my surprise when one day in middle school our principal was setting up a slideshow for an all-school assembly and realized she had forgotten an extension cord for the projector. She asked me to go fetch one, which I did. And when I returned, she said, “Oh, you’re a savior.” No one’s life hung in the balance. Nothing was on fire. No war was averted. No justice was rectified. I was indeed not a savior. I was a relief from embarrassment.

But there have been times in human history when lives and nations hung over a precipice, and someone stepped forward to save the lives of countless thousands and millions. And now, more than ever, the world is crying out again for a savior. Who will save us from war and famine and injustice? People are living in fear. We will see today that Jesus is the savior who delivers us from fear, and transforms us into people who serve God and walk in the way of peace.

As Christians, we believe that Jesus saves us from something and saves us to something. And we believe that salvation is in Jesus Christ alone. Our passage today helps us understand why, and how salvation in Christ changes our lives.

Salvation is Knowing God in Christ Jesus

We meet Zechariah in this chapter of Luke’s gospel. Zechariah is a priest who has served God faithfully, but he and his wife Elizabeth had reached old age without children. But Zechariah and Elizabeth, like all faithful Israelites of their day, were praying that God would send Messiah, a savior who would overthrow Israel’s enemies and free them to carry out God’s purpose, to bless the world with the knowledge of the Lord God. One day, an angel visited Zechariah and promised him a son. And not just any son. Their son would be the herald of the coming Messiah.

When his son John is born, Zechariah is filled with the Holy Spirit and He sings a song. It is a prayer of praise.

Luke 1:67 (ESV)

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

It’s also a prophecy. The purpose of prophecy is to proclaim the truth of who God is and what He expects of us. Zechariah’s first two lines tell us two truths about God. And they introduce everything we need to know about salvation.

Luke 1:68 (ESV)

“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people

Who God is (we’ll start with the second one):

He’s the Savior.

Zechariah uses four words to describe the salvation God is bringing through the Messiah Jesus. We can learn something from each one.

God has visited His people. This is the word used in Exodus to describe God’s personal involvement in bringing Israel out of slavery. The Hebrew prophets wrote that the presence of Yahweh is the salvation of His people. When God is present in our midst, He is protecting us from enemies and guiding us to life-giving provision.

He also redeemed His people. The words here are literally, “accomplished redemption”. Redemption is the restoration of ownership through payment of a price. Oppressors had laid claim to God’s people, but He has bought them back. How? Zechariah links the visitation of the Lord and His redemption. They are coming together in the person of Jesus the Messiah.

Jesus is the Lord visiting His people. Jesus is redeeming His people.

Look at the way Zechariah talks about the coming of Jesus. Jesus has not died on the cross to pay the price of redemption. He hasn’t been raised from the dead. He hasn’t healed one leper or cast out one demon. He hasn’t confronted the false teachers and chief priests that were oppressing His people. He hasn’t even been born yet. (Side-note, what a great testimony of the sanctity of unborn human life.) Zechariah considers the very conception of the Messiah as the completion of God’s visitation and redemption. It’s a done deal. If God promised to send the Savior, and He has sent the Savior, the rest of the game is in the bag.

Zechariah also uses the word, “salvation”, three times. The first is in

Luke 1:69 (ESV)

and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,

The horn of salvation was a phrase from the Hebrew Bible that meant the person was strong enough to save others. David had slain Goliath to demonstrate the power of God to save His people from their most dangerous enemies through the Messiah. Then God promised that He would one day raise up a descendant of David who would complete salvation and reign forever over His people in justice and righteousness. Zechariah, as a prophet, realizes this unborn baby that’s been living in His house for the last three months is the fulfillment of that promise.

The prophets foretold,

Luke 1:70 (ESV)

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

Luke 1:71 (ESV)

that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us;

and later he clarifies the salvation is not necessarily from enemies such as Rome, but from our sins.

Luke 1:77 (ESV)

to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins,

Our sins oppress us, and we are powerless against them on our own. And the wages of sin is death. Eternal conscious torment in hell, separated from joy and hope. Jesus saves us from the power and the penalty of sin through the forgiveness of our sins. His death on the cross was an atoning sacrifice for our forgiveness.

The fourth word Zechariah uses for salvation is “delivered”,

Luke 1:74 (ESV)

that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear,

The word here for “delivered” would be the word used for a rescue. It is a rescue from some danger, in this case sin and death, and a wasted life. Look at Zechariah’s closing words,

Luke 1:79 (ESV)

to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Those who live in the shadow of death cower in fear. So many people are making life decisions based in fear. Because they fear death, they fear to truly live. They have no peace.

So, when we are rescued or saved from something we are also saved to something. We are saved from the shadow of death, to walk in the way of peace. To serve the Lord fearlessly. The apostle John says, perfect love casts out fear. Jesus demonstrated the love of God for us in such a complete way, that anyone who repents of their sin and believes in Him no longer needs to fear condemnation and death. We are free to serve Him…

Luke 1:75 (ESV)

in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

People are looking for salvation from the externals. Salvation from war and corrupt leaders and unjust systems. But those externals exist because our sin enslaves us to selfishness, self-serving, and fear. So salvation happens when we are made new from the inside out. Jesus rescues believers from sin and recreates us in holiness and righteousness to live a life of service to the Lord and others.

Zechariah’s is telling us, God is the Savior. Salvation is knowing God as Savior, and the way we know God as Savior is to know Jesus Christ. God has visited us in Jesus Christ, who redeems us through His sacrifice, saves us through forgiveness, rescues us through His resurrection from the dead.

There is another way Zechariah describes God.

2. He’s the Lord God of Israel, v.68

Luke 1:68 (ESV)

“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel

Yahweh, the Ever-living One, the LORD, is the God of Israel. He is the One True and Living God over all, but He chose this nation, the descendants of Abraham, to demonstrate His mercy to all people.

Salvation is Receiving Mercy

God’s relationship with Israel was defined by mercy.

Zechariah is a priest in Israel. He is among the chosen of the chosen. He is one of a very few people on earth that is allowed into the presence of God in the Temple in Jerusalem. But he recognizes what so many other religious Jews of his day missed. God saves people not according to merit, but according to His mercy.

Luke 1:71–73 (ESV)

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,

God made a covenant with Abraham that his descendants would be a great nation. They would be enslaved but God would deliver them by His mercy and they would dwell with God in the promised land. But remember, redemption is salvation from something, but also to something.

Luke 1:73–75 (ESV)

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, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

God would deliver Israel from slavery to Egypt to be a blessing to all nations. Their temple to Yahweh, the Eternal God, would be a house of prayer for all nations, that they may know Him who is eternal life. Their Messiah would save all who would put their trust in Him.

The point for us is, we are saved because of promises made to someone else. In our sin, we sit in darkness, without God and without hope. Because God promised Abraham that He would send a deliverer to rescue His people from slavery, He sent Jesus who saves us according to His mercy. In our sin, we deserved death, eternal conscious torment.

Luke 1:78–79 (ESV)

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.”

Because of the tender mercy of our God, He sent the light of Jesus Christ to guide our feet into the way of peace.

In other words, salvation is not making a decision for God. Salvation is receiving the mercy of God by faith in Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah of Israel, the chosen people of God, descended from Abraham, whom God called out of his sin and idolatry to walk with Him by faith. Salvation has always been by grace through faith, according to God’s mercy.

Communion

Considering the mercy of God, in what ways will you and I serve Him fearlessly? In what ways are you set apart for His purposes? The last phrase Zechariah sings leads to a good questions for each of us: Where is Jesus guiding my feet into the way of peace? Zechariah links the mercy God shows us in Christ Jesus with our feet walking in the way of peace. Who is someone with whom I can seek peace as a response to the mercy God has shown me in Christ Jesus?

Questions for Discussion

What are you praising God for this Christmas? What brings you peace at Christmas time?

What do we learn about God from this passage?

What do we learn about Jesus from this passage?

In what ways have you experienced the salvation God has accomplished in Jesus Christ?

What does it look like to serve God without fear, in holiness and righteousness?

What do we learn about our salvation from Luke 1:72-73? How does that shape our relationship with God? With others?

What imagery does Zechariah use in Luke 1:78-79 to describe Jesus’ coming? How does it help us learn to walk int he way of peace?