Sermon Tone Analysis

Here’s a tip.

If an angel ever appears to you with a message from God Almighty, you might do well to believe what he says.

I guess the news was just too good for Zacharias.

He and wife Elizabeth had been praying for years for a child, but to no avail.

By all appearances their prayer was not to be answered in the affirmative.

Elizabeth was now well along in years, and it was very unlikely that she would ever conceive.

To fully grasp how crushing this news was to them we must understand that in these days a woman of Israel lived for one thing and one thing only: To bear children.

Women who could not bear children were shamed and humiliated by their communities.

They were the source of constant gossip and slander.

In fact, the Jewish Rabbis said that seven types of people were excommunicated from God and the top of the list was, /"a Jew who has no wife, or a Jew who has a wife who has no child."/

All his life Zacharias had waited for his chance to serve in the Temple in Jerusalem, and now his time had come.

He had been chosen by lot.

And there he was, in the Temple all alone burning incense.

Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appears standing next to the altar of incense.

His message is one of joy: /" ... Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John."/ (Luke 1:13, NASB95).

Their prayers had been answered!

Elizabeth and Zacharias were to have a son.

And not just any son.

This was to be a one in a million son.

He would be great in the sight of the Lord.

He would come in the Spirit of Elijah, and be a forerunner to the ministry of the Messiah, and his message will turn many back to the God of Israel.

Not only was Zacharias and Elizabeth going to have a son, but God was getting ready to do something really, really BIG.

And their son was going to have something to do with preparing the way for that.

And Zacharias said /“Wow, that’s great!”/

Well, no.

That’s not exactly how Zacharias responded, is it?

Zacharias said something more like, /”Yeah, right Gabriel.

In case you haven’t noticed, me and the old lady are kinda done for in the baby department if you know what I mean.”/

So Gabriel struck Zacharias’s speech.

For saying such an unbelieving thing he would get to say nothing at all until the baby was born.

And then he would name the child John, just as the Lord said.

Zacharias and Elizabeth had a lot of time to think about what the angel said, and to ponder the doings of God in their lives.

By the time of John’s birth Zacharias was able, being filled with the Holy Spirit, to prophesy about his little boy, and about what His God was doing.

This /Song of Zacharias”/ranks right up there with /Mary’s Magnificat”/as a beautiful psalm of praise and devotion and trust.

It’s frequently referred to as The Benedictus because of the first word of the song in the Latin: Benedictus esto Dominus Deus Israelis, meaning, /Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel.”/

/And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying: 68“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people, 69And has raised up a horn of salvation for us In the house of David His servant— 70As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old— 71Salvation from our enemies, And from the hand of all who hate us; 72To show mercy toward our fathers, And to remember His holy covenant, 73The oath which He swore to Abraham our father, 74To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, Might serve Him without fear, 75In 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 on before the Lord to prepare His ways; 77To give to His people the knowledge of salvation By the forgiveness of their sins, 78Because of the tender mercy of our God, With which the Sunrise from on high will visit us, 79To shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace.”"/(Luke

1:67-79, NASB95).

So let’s take some time this morning and ponder the message the song of Zacharias has for us.

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I. STANZA #1: REMEMBER GOD FOR HIS VISITATION vv.

68-75

#. in these verses, the focus is on a number of things that God has done for us that are worthy of our praise and adoration

#.

Zacharias had had nine months of silence to brood and ponder and pray and meditate on his Bible, the Old Testament

#. his silence may have been a divine rebuke for his unbelief, but God always turns his rebukes into rewards for those who keep faith

!! A. GOD’S VISITATION FILLS HIM WITH PRAISE vv.

68-69

#.

Zacharias begins with a doxology: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel

#.

He praises Jehovah, Israel’s covenant God, for his concern about, and saving intervention in, the affairs of his people

#.

He says that God has looked after them

#.

Zacharias is filled with praise because after four hundred years, God has broken His silence

#. his own wife’s niece is at that moment three months pregnant with the Anointed One of Israel

!! B. GOD’S VISITATION HAS FULFILLED PROPHECY vv.

70-71

#.

Zachariah next recollects 1,000 years of Hebrew prophecy by referring to the holy prophets from old

#.

singularly, none of the Old Testament prophets have the entire story, but collectively their predictions tell of a time when God’s Anointed One will appear and save His people

#.

Zachariah, by the Holy Spirit, understands that his new born son will stand in this long line of prophetic voices

#. he will be called prophet of the Most High for he will go before the Lord to prepare his ways

#.

Zachariah realized that the birth of his son, John, indicated the imminent coming of the Mssiah

#. he speaks of Christ’s advent as an accomplished fact before it has actually happened

#. he says in verse 68 For He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people

#. faith enabled him to say God had already visited and redeemed His people by sending the Redeemer

#. his arrival would mean salvation from one’s enemies and safety from foes

!! C. GOD’S VISITATION IS A FULFILLMENT OF HIS COVENANT PROMISE vv.

72-75

#. the Lord had made an unconditional covenant of salvation with Abraham

* /Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, 16and said, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies.

18“In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”/(Genesis

22:15-18, NASB95)

#. this promise was fulfilled by the coming of Abraham’s seed, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ

* ILLUS Who, in reading these words, does not immediately think of the hymn My Hope Is Built; specifically, of the words: His oath, his covenant, his blood, Spport me in the whelming flood?

#. so eager is God, as it were, to instil in the hearts of his children faith in his gracious promise that in order to confirm it he even takes an oath by himself!

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II.

STANZA #2: REMEMBER GOD FOR HIS REVELATION vv.

76-77

#. most of Zacharias's song is taken up not with his own son but with the salvation the Messiah would bring

#.

only these two verses (76 and 77) refer to John the Baptist specifically

#. in them Zacharias reminds us of the promise of God concerning His child

#. as you know, this baby grows up to become John the Baptizer

#.

John’s mission will that of a herald

#.

John would be the prophet of the Most High, preparing the hearts of the people for the coming of the Lord, and proclaiming salvation to His people through the forgiveness of their sins

#. by his preaching, he is to reveal God’s Anointed One to Israel

#.

God had promised long ago that this would happen

#. the prophet Malachi predicted a messenger to prepare the way before Jehovah

* /Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me.

And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the Lord of hosts."/(Malachi

3:1, NASB95)

#.

Zacharias’s psalm of praise reminds us that God had promised redemption, and that in the about-to-be incarnation of God in the flesh, our redemption draweth neigh

!! A. GOD REVEALS THE KNOWLEDGE OF SALVATION IN THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS

#. it is God, and God alone, who saves

#.

John was God’s chosen instrument to impart to the people the knowledge of salvation through forgiveness

#. he would be able to do this because of strength and wisdom given to him by God

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III.

STANZA #3: REMEMBER GOD FOR HIS EMANCIPATION vv.78-79

#.

Christ’s coming is characterized in two ways

#.

First, it epitomizes God’s mercy

#. mercy is the bestowing of great kindness to someone of considerable need who does not deserve it

#.

Second, it is likened to the sunrise

#. for centuries, the world had lain in darkness

#. for four hundred years there had been no prophetic voice in Israel

#. now through the tender mercy of our God, dawn was about to break

#. it would come in the Person of Christ, shining on the Gentiles who were in darkness and the shadow of death, and guiding Israel’s feet into the way of peace

#.

God’s tender mercy is a mercy that warms our souls like the rising sun and sets us free from the dominion of darkness and the shadow of death

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IV.

CHORUS: LESSONS FROM ZACHARIAS’S PSALM OF PRAISE

#. every hymn needs a chorus that sums up the lessons learned from the verses