Sermon Tone Analysis

Pre-Introduction:

At this time, we invite any children who desire to join my dear wife for a children’s service to follow her where you can hear a wonderful bible lesson and sing some uplifting songs about Jesus.

For those joining us online, you’re listening to the Services of the Broomfield Baptist Church.

This is the Pastor bringing the Sunday Morning message entitled “Light for the New Year” or “The Road to Redemption.”

We invite you to follow along with us in your Bible in the Gospel of Luke, chapter One, and verses Sixty-Seven through Eighty.

Introduction:

[Start Low]

The story has been told of a missionary who became a good friend of an Indian pearl diver.

The two had spent many hours together discussing salvation, but the Indian could not understand anything so precious being free.

Instead, in making preparation for the life to come, the diver was going to walk the nine hundred miles to Delhi on his knees.

He thought this would buy entrance into heaven for him.

The missionary struggled to communicate to his friend that it is impossible to buy entrance into heaven because the price would be too costly.

Instead, he said, Jesus had died to buy it for us.

Before he left for his pilgrimage, the Indian gave the missionary the largest and most perfect pearl he had ever seen.

The missionary offered to buy it, but the diver became upset and said that the pearl was beyond price, that his only son had lost his life in the attempt to get it.

The pearl was worth the life blood of his son.

As he said this, suddenly the diver understood that God was offering him salvation as a priceless gift.

It is so precious that no man could buy it.

It had cost God the life’s blood of his Son.

The veil was lifted; he understood at last.1170 [Michael P. Green, 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000), 315.]

Main Thought: *Christ is the Hope of our Salvation: No More Fear of Death’s Darkness; Freed to Walk with God in His Wondrous Light!*

Sub-introduction: Give the context of the Birth of the Baptist preceeding.

Jesus Christ brings deliverance to the hopeless both personally, powerfully, and as promised before; and this Good News is signified by His prophet's ministry and message in preparation of His path toward redemption.

Quote: Michael Milton.

Milton, a professor and pastor, says that the song of Zechariah is “the song of a mind made clear” (1:69–73) and “the song of a soul revived” (1:74–75).2

[2 http://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/new-testament/advent-zacharias’-prophetic-song-luke-1-67-79-11596979.html?p=2.]

[R.

T. France, Luke, ed.

Mark L. Strauss and John H. Walton, Teach the Text Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2013), 31.]

Body:

I. Bless the Lord, O My Soul (Lk.

1:67-75)

The Redeemer Has Risen

A. Sing of His Salvation!

(Lk.

1:67-71)

Blessed.

There is not a word in this noble burst of divine song about his own relationship to this child, nor about the child at all, till it has expended itself upon Christ.

[David Brown, A. R. Fausset, and Robert Jamieson, A Commentary, Critical, Experimental, and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments: Matthew–John, vol.

V (London; Glasgow: William Collins, Sons, & Company, Limited, n.d.), 223.]

Nearly every phrase here is found in the O. T.

(Psalms and Prophets).

He, like [Elisabeth & Mary], was full of the Holy Spirit and had caught the Messianic message in its highest meaning.

[A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1933), Lk 1:67.]

This song, which was composed in the priest’s mind during the time of his silence, broke solemnly from his lips the moment speech was restored to him, as the metal flows from the crucible in which it has been melted the moment that an outlet is made for it.

[Frédéric Louis Godet, A Commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke, trans.

Edward William Shalders and M. D. Cusin, vol. 1 (New York: I. K. Funk & co., 1881), 110.]

1.

The Personal Presence of the Lord to Procure Our Deliverance (Lk.

1:67-68)

The verb “visit” (ἐπεσκέψατο) forms an inclusio around Zechariah’s ode (1:68, 78).

[David E. Garland, Luke, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012), 106.]

“Observe that Zechariah’s previous doubt and his discipline through loss of speech did not mean the end of his spiritual ministry.

So when a believer today has submitted to God’s discipline, he may go on in Christ’s service.”69

[69.

Liefeld, p. 839.

Zechariah’s failure had been relatively minor, so major discipline was unnecessary.]

[Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Lk 1:67.]

Now, Zacharias also was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Again, he did not speak in tongues or manifest any other charismatic behavior other than powerfully praising God, prophesying (forth telling) what had already been revealed to him by Gabriel earlier.

[David H. Sorenson, Understanding the Bible, An Independent Baptist Commentary - Matthew through Luke, vol.

8, Understanding the Bible, An Independent Baptist Commentary (Northstar Ministries, 2007), 559–560.]

The word redeem means “to set free by paying a price.”

It can refer to the releasing of a prisoner or the liberating of a slave.

Jesus Christ came to earth to bring “deliverance to the captives” (Luke 4:18), salvation to people in bondage to sin and death.

Certainly we are unable to set ourselves free; only Christ could pay the price necessary for our redemption (Eph.

1:7; 1 Peter 1:18–21).

[Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 174.]

2. The Power of Our Lord to Bring Us Salvation (Lk.

1:69-70)

The word “world” here is not simply the cosmos—the ordered world—but the ages of time.

From the very beginning God had been speaking of this coming One.

From the Garden of Eden right on, He had been telling of the coming Saviour, and now He was soon to appear.

His forerunner had already arrived.

God had given His word and He sealed His word with an oath; and so He was about to perform the mercy promised to the fathers, and to remember His holy covenant, “the oath which He sware to our father Abraham.”

We are told in Genesis that when God made the covenant with Abraham, He said, “In thy Seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed,” and He confirmed it with an oath, and because He could sware by no greater He sware by Himself.

He is the only one who has a right thus to sware.

This was in connection with the Old Testament, and now the precious blood of Christ has sealed the New Covenant.

We know that the Almighty will never go back on His covenant; so our Lord Jesus Christ came as the promised Seed of Abraham, and through Him already blessing untold has gone out to Jew and Gentile, but the promises are by no means fulfilled in their entirety.

When they are, all Israel, as a nation, shall be saved, and shall turn to the Lord for redemption; and all the Gentiles shall own His authority, and righteousness will cover the earth as the waters cover the great deep.

Then the entire universe shall be subjected to the Lord Jesus Christ.

[H. A. Ironside, Addresses on the Gospel of Luke.

(Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Brothers, 1947), 51–52.]

3. The Protection of the Lord in Our Salvation (Lk.

1:71)

Note - Davidic Covenant Applied

There are six covenants in the Old Testament that are specifically referred to by that term.

Three of them, the Noahic (Gen.

9:9–17), Mosaic (Ex.

19:5; 24:7–8; 34:27–28; Deut.

4:13), and the Priestly (Num.

25:10–13) covenants, are non-salvific; eternal, spiritual salvation is not in view in any of them.

The other three covenants, the Davidic, Abrahamic, and New, do relate to salvation.

The Davidic covenant is universal; it involves the eternal rule of Jesus Christ over all.

The Abrahamic covenant is national; it designates God’s promised blessing of Israel.

The New covenant is personal; it refers to God forgiving sin in the lives of individuals.

Of course no one will enter into the full blessings of the Davidic and Abrahamic covenants apart from the salvation provided in the New covenant.

[John F. MacArthur Jr., Luke 1–5, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2009), 95.]

B. Serve in His Sanctuary!

(Lk.

1:72-75)

In verses 72–75, a series of infinitives demonstrates the purposes or goals of God’s deliverance that has now come.

Verses 72–73 look at God’s past actions, and verses 74–75 at his present purposes.

[Grant R. Osborne, Luke: Verse by Verse, ed.

Jeffrey Reimer, Elliot Ritzema, and Danielle Thevenaz, Awa Sarah, Osborne New Testament Commentaries (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018), 56.]

1.

The Performance of God’s Promises (Lk.

1:72-73)

G. Campbell Morgan brings out two striking thoughts on this passage.5

First, he points out the arresting connection between the name of John and the theme of the song—both are the grace of God.