[0:00] Luke chapter 1, picking up where we left off last week, which will be verse 39.! Typically, I don't always do that in these Christmas series or Easter series. We don't always pick up where we left off, but we will.
[0:12] This morning, we'll pick up verse 39. And we'll read the remainder of that first chapter of Luke. So, we'll get down to verse 80. So, Luke 1, verses 39 through 80 will be our text this morning.
[0:26] Before I get into it, I think the next business meeting, we're going to make a vote. I think Jet needs a ukulele or something to stand up here. I think it'd be wonderful or harmonica or something.
[0:40] And I know it drives moms crazy, and I know at times it drives dads crazy when they do that. But, hey, parents, listen to me, especially you dads. Don't ever be upset when your kids want to come stand beside you when you're doing what it is God's called you to do.
[0:56] What a joy. Right? What a joy. I tell dads this quite often, and I try to tell parents this. Dad, you're the first hero that any son will ever have.
[1:09] And to the daughters, you'll be the first love of her life she should ever have. So, that means they need to stand beside you. It's a challenge because I am quite often the one that falls short in that in my own parenting.
[1:21] But what a joy it is to see kids don't ever bother me, no matter where they're at. I remember when I, you know, just a moment ago I got interrupted as I was talking here.
[1:34] My oldest granddaughter came up and gave me a hug. And I tell people all the time, if I'm talking to you, there are a few people that can interrupt me. And they kind of go in order. My wife, my daughter, and my grandkids.
[1:45] Don't mean it in any disrespect, but that's just the way it works. Usually my sons know, give me just a minute. But the rest of them, so our granddaughter came and someone asked me when I first became a Pop Pop.
[1:55] I said, what are you going to do when they come running to you when you're preaching? I said, well, I guess I'll pick them up and keep preaching. There's nothing wrong with that, right? So, it's okay. It's a joy to be in the church.
[2:06] And anyway, my grandkids don't ever want to stand beside me because they say all Pop Pop does, and this is their word, to stand up there and go blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But I'm on TV. You ask them.
[2:17] I'm on TV. It's closed-circuited every week. Back to the nursery. They see me Pop Pop's on TV every week. It's pretty cool. Nowhere else but here. Anyway, we're in Luke chapter 1.
[2:27] We're going to start in verse 39. If you are physically able and desire to do so, would you join with me as we stand together and we read the text found in verse 39 to verse 80. Starting in Luke chapter 1, verse 39.
[2:41] If you remember, the angel has just departed from Mary. Mary has just been told the wonderful news that she will be overpowered and overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and she will conceive a child who will be the Messiah.
[2:53] Now, at this time, Mary arose and went in a hurry to the hill country to a city of Judah and entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
[3:09] And she cried out with a loud voice and said, Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how has it happened to me that the mother of my Lord would come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy.
[3:24] And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what has been spoken to her by the Lord. And Mary said, My soul exalts the Lord and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
[3:37] For he has regard for the humble state of his bond slave. For behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed. For the mighty one has done great things for me. And holy is his name.
[3:48] And his mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who fear him. He has done mighty deeds. And with his arm he has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart.
[3:58] And he has brought down rulers from their thrones and has exalted those who were humble. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent away the rich empty handed. He has given help to Israel, his servant, in remembrance of his mercy.
[4:12] As he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his descendants forever. And Mary stayed with her about three months and then returned to her home. Now the time had come for Elizabeth to give birth.
[4:23] And she gave birth to a son. And her neighbors and her relatives heard that the Lord had displayed his great mercy toward her. And they were rejoicing with her. And it happened that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child.
[4:36] And they were going to call him Zechariah after his father. But his mother answered and said, No, indeed. But he shall be called John. And they said to her, There is no one among your relatives who is called by that name.
[4:48] And they made signs to his father as to what he wanted him called. And he asked for a tablet and wrote as follows, His name is John. And they were all astonished. And at once his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed.
[5:00] And he began to speak in praise of God. And fear came on all those living around them. And all these matters were being taught about in all the hill country of Judea. And all who heard them kept them in their minds, saying, What then will this child turn out to be?
[5:15] For the hand of the Lord was certainly with him. And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited us and accomplished redemption for his people.
[5:28] And has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David his servant. As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to show mercy toward our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to Abraham our father, to grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear and holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
[5:54] And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High. For you will go on before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give to his people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, with which the sunrise from on high will visit us, to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet in the way of peace.
[6:18] And the child continued to grow and become strong in spirit. And he lived in the desert until the day of his public appearance in Israel. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for the opportunity of being able to gather together to lift our voice up in song.
[6:34] We praise you that we can hear your word. We can see it. We have the grand privilege of holding your Bible in our hand. So, fathers, we have read it.
[6:44] We pray now that the word of God would speak to every heart and mind, that it would penetrate to the very depth of our being, that through it we would come to a greater understanding of who you are, that we would be moved to closer fellowship, to walk in holiness and righteousness before you all of our days.
[7:00] Lord Jesus, may you be glorified. And we ask it all in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. As we are narrowing our view during this Christmas season, I want you to see this morning a people of praise.
[7:23] When we began this Christmas series, we covered a multitude of years as we began looking at what Scripture has been saying from the very beginning.
[7:34] We went all the way back to the book of Genesis, and we began to look at the covenants of God, starting with the Adamic covenant, that is, the Proto-Evangelium recorded for us in Genesis 3, verse 15, that the seed of a woman would come and crush the head of the serpent, and the serpent would bruise his heel.
[7:53] That is the first mentioning of the good news in Scripture that man has fallen, and there is a tragedy that has been introduced into the world simply known as death because of man's open rebellion to walk faithfully before the Lord God Almighty.
[8:08] But God has a plan. Before the foundations of the world were laid, before heaven and earth were created, before you were formed and fashioned in your mother's womb, God had a plan for the redemption of man, for Jesus is the Lamb slain before the foundations of the world.
[8:24] And he declares that plan to man. He declares it in the form of a covenant. And it is a covenant promise that is unconditional, not that man would do certain things and then God would do it, but rather God is going to send a deliverer who would be the seed of a woman.
[8:39] We trace that seed through the pages of the Old Testament, namely through the covenants which God had given with his people. From the Adamic covenant, we went to the Abrahamic covenant, and then we eventually made our way to the Davidic covenant, and we saw the fulfillment of that covenant found in the pages of Scripture, Matthew chapter 1, where we are introduced to the genealogy of Christ, and we meet the seed of a woman, for Joseph is betrothed to Mary by whom Jesus was born.
[9:07] And God has absolutely fulfilled that with the coming of Christ. What the entire Old Testament and the whole world of God has been declaring is one great story. We find its fulfillment in the Christmas event.
[9:20] And then last week, we narrowed it down just a little bit. We went from what Scripture has always been saying to what happened when Zacharias was standing in the temple. For over 400 years, God had been silent, and then all of a sudden, heaven could no longer remain silent, for the angels kept declaring the good news.
[9:37] Beginning with Gabriel's appearance to Zacharias as he was burning incense in the temple, the declaration that his wife, Elizabeth, would bear a child, and it would be he who would go as the forerunner before the Messiah.
[9:53] And then the same angel standing before Mary and calling her the highly favored one, in the most unlikely of places, in Nazareth of all places, and declaring that she would bear a son who would sit upon the throne of his father, David, and reign eternally.
[10:08] And then the angel appearing to Joseph in a dream, assuring him that he could take Mary, his wife, that he would not be concerned. And each and every one of them received an angelic message that heaven could not be silent.
[10:23] Scripture has been telling us from the very beginning. And now as we get closer to the time, heaven cannot be silent, for the angels keep declaring what's about to be. And now we bring it in just a little bit closer and we see what the people involved are saying.
[10:39] Now we know what the word of God has always said. We know what heaven has begun to say. And now we look and see what it is that those involved, those people say.
[10:53] We narrow it down until eventually we get to a husband and wife, finding their way into Bethlehem and sitting in a stable.
[11:04] There is Emmanuel. And for a moment, all of the world is still. The shepherds come and bow before him.
[11:15] The wise men travel some distance over a number of months to come lay their gifts before him. And the long expected one has now come. But before we get there, look at these people of praise.
[11:30] These are people that praise in advance. Sure, we can see when Christ is brought into the temple when he is eight days old and we can meet people praising there. We can meet Simeon, who is a wonderful testimony of one who had longingly anticipated the coming of the Savior and had been told by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he saw him in the flesh.
[11:50] And he is waiting daily into the temple before he comes. And we find that in the latter pages or passages of Luke chapter two. And we see Simeon praising the Lord. We see Anna, the prophetess, who had resided in the temple since the death of her husband.
[12:04] And for a number of years, she had been declaring that he is coming. And we see Anna prophesying and praising the Lord. But even before the event came, well, it is still, quote, unquote, the silent years of Scripture.
[12:18] We're still living in what is referred to as the prophetic age because the close of the prophetic age in Scripture ends with who? Not Malachi, but John the Baptist. John the Baptist is the last prophet.
[12:31] For it is he who comes in the power and spirit of Elijah to prepare the way of the Lord to turn the hearts of the children back to the fathers and the hearts of the fathers back to their children. He is the closing of the prophetic age.
[12:42] But yet for 400 years, the prophets have been silent. For no man nor woman has been moved of God to speak the word of God, to declare the truth of God.
[12:53] But yet in a moment, in just a matter of days, actually, we see women and a man being moved of the Lord to declare his praise.
[13:06] Namely, we see Elizabeth and Mary and Zechariah all being moved of the Lord, declaring the praise of the Lord God Almighty.
[13:17] They are people of praise. And it causes us to stand back and go, then what child is this? I'll be honest, I've never preached in particular from this portion of Scripture during a Christmas series because our temptation is to just get to the main event, to skip over it and to see.
[13:37] But yet we're talking about the individuals that God is using to bring these things and how do they respond? The first thing that we notice here is that the word of praise that comes from them is number one, a word of assurance.
[13:53] It is a word of assurance. One side note that we must take very special attention to when we are looking at these three for we have the declaration of Elizabeth.
[14:05] Then we have what is referred to as the magnificent of Mary because it is taken from the original wording, the first word is magnify. I magnify the Lord that is the magnificent of Mary.
[14:16] And then we have the prophetic word of Zechariah there. But each one of them, we need to understand this, flow not from their personal minds or their own volition.
[14:30] It says that they are all filled with the Holy Spirit. They are all filled with the Holy Spirit. It says, and Elizabeth being filled with the Holy Spirit said, and Zechariah has been filled with the Holy Spirit said, you say, but it doesn't say that Mary was filled with the Holy Spirit.
[14:46] Oh, friend, go back just a few verses because by this time Mary is pregnant, correct? Blessed is she who has come, who has the womb.
[14:56] And what does it say? That she would be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and she would conceive in her womb. So the conception of the child in her womb is the testimony that what the angel has already declared that she would be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit has already taken place.
[15:16] So each of these being moved by the Holy Spirit declare these things. Now, that should cause us to stand up and take notice because if we were just to take the Old Testament alone, we would do well to pay very special attention but we also have the testimony of the New Testament but let's confine ourselves to the Old Testament.
[15:36] There are a number of individuals that we can find in the Old Testament that may not be what we would refer to as very trustworthy individuals. Balaam comes to mind. We would not refer to Balaam. You remember, he's the false prophet who brings about a curse upon the nation of Israel for his false prophecy but we can also look at Numbers chapters 23 and 24 and see a great prophetic word offered by that false prophet.
[15:59] In particular, we see Numbers 24 verse 17 which refers to the star arising out of Judah that a scepter shall never depart from his hand which is a prophetic word of the coming Savior.
[16:11] And why can we trust that? Because he is moved by the Holy Spirit at that time. I don't have a tendency to trust many bushes that are talking to me.
[16:22] As a matter of fact, if I ever find a bush that's talking to me, I kind of think it's a little weird and I'll walk away from it. But Moses, when he's traveling on the backside of the wilderness and he comes upon this bush that is talking to him, it is the word of the Lord and it's the fullness of God speaking to him.
[16:36] I don't know if I would really trust Saul, the first king of Israel, to be one that I would go to for great counsel or advice, especially near the end of his life because he was giving this madness, this evil spirit upon him.
[16:49] But we do know that there are times in Saul's life in which he is overcome by the Holy Spirit and he begins to prophesy truth simply because he is overwhelmed and overcome by the Holy Spirit.
[17:02] For there is this wonderful testimony that when this Holy Spirit comes upon an individual, which by the way, let's not remove the deity from the Holy Spirit, that they can only declare that which God wants them to say, which is a good test, by the way, in the early church and even a good test today that if someone comes to you and says they have a new revelation for you and they claim to be filled with the Spirit and they begin to declare things that are contrary to Scripture, then that is not the Holy Spirit speaking to you.
[17:39] For we find out when Jesus says the Holy Spirit will come and he will testify about me and of me and the things I've come and will bring conviction of sin and all these wonderful things that come that are a testimony of the Holy Spirit.
[17:51] If it is not in line with Scripture, then it is not of the Holy Spirit, maybe a spirit, but not the Holy Spirit. And so when we take notice, I know this is a long introduction, that when these three individuals begin to speak and they're all three moved by the Holy Spirit, then this is what God would like for them or long for them or has for them to declare it this time in history.
[18:16] And we go, wow, this is how God moved them to declare this. And the first thing they do is bring a word of assurance. It says, now at that time, Mary arose and went in a hurry to the hill country to the city of Judah.
[18:31] Now we don't know exactly where Zechariah and Elizabeth lived and that's okay. It's intentional. Scripture is very vague in some things. We do know that it's in the hill country of Judah and she went there and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth and look at what it says, and when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
[18:50] Now the first assurance that comes is the assurance that is given to Elizabeth and to Zechariah. You say, well, how were they given assurance? Well, do you remember that when the angels stood before Zechariah next to the altar of incense, there was this really telling statement that his wife would conceive a son that he would be John but it also is this statement that says, and he would be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb.
[19:17] So the promise, the assurance was that this child would be the forerunner of the Savior and one of the signs to the reality that it is going to indeed be that would be that he, that child, would be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb.
[19:35] The moment he is filled with the Holy Spirit is when Mary walks into the house and says, hey, Elizabeth. When she heard her greeting, the baby leaped in her womb for joy and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
[19:55] So the first assurance we give is the validation or the fulfillment of the angelic promise which, by the way, is the promise from the Word of God to the reality of the filling of the Holy Spirit upon John and Elizabeth.
[20:11] And when Elizabeth is moved by this Holy Spirit, she declares these wonderful things and she cried out, blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
[20:21] Just stop right there. All Mary has said is hello. At this point, she has greeted Elizabeth. Probably not hello, more like shalom and all these wonderful greetings that we know that are Hebrew greetings and she came into the house but she didn't announce, she did not do this.
[20:41] She did not walk into the house and go, hey, Elizabeth, I'm pregnant. She didn't do that. She greeted her and the moment she greeted her, Elizabeth is moved by the Holy Spirit and declares the blessing not only upon Mary but upon the fruit of her womb and you can only feel the sense of relief from Mary for Mary has submitted to the angelic promise.
[21:13] She has said, I am the bond slave or the servant of the Lord. May it be to me according to your word but what word of assurance was she given for the angel didn't give her any other sign other than the fact that she would be pregnant.
[21:23] She said, well, of course she's pregnant and she can understand and on the inside but she gets this assurance the moment the Holy Spirit speaks through Elizabeth and how has it happened to me that the mother of my Lord would come to me.
[21:35] Notice that, the mother of my Lord. So she is referring to not only as the blessing upon the fruit of your womb but the fruit in your womb, the one in your womb is my Lord, the Almighty, the Savior.
[21:52] So we see that the very thing that God had moved and sent the angel Gabriel to declare to Mary is also being declared by Elizabeth when she is filled with the Holy Spirit.
[22:03] Why? Because there is consistency with the word of God. The angels declare the same thing that those moved and led by the Holy Spirit declare and this brings assurance.
[22:18] It brings an assurance of the reality that the Lord God is doing something for behold when the sound of your greeting reached my ears the baby leaped in my womb for joy and blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what has spoken to her by the Lord.
[22:32] Friend, listen to me, those led and moved by the Holy Spirit offer assurance to the word of God. The Holy Spirit never brings, never brings doubt in the word of God.
[22:49] it always brings assurance. My mind goes to the great problem that Billy Graham faced early in his ministry.
[23:04] If you remember your history correctly, Billy Graham was not the most popular evangelist of his day when he began. in the youth crusades and Charles Templeton was a much better well-known evangelist.
[23:20] As a matter of fact, Billy Graham was kind of the sideline or the backup guy. Templeton was the major proclaimer of the gospel for all the Youth for Christ movements.
[23:32] Templeton entered into what is known as a crisis of faith because of the atrocities of World War II and just really could not wrestle with some of the things that he saw and the things that were coming upon him and began to have intellectual doubts and began to have physical doubts.
[23:45] As a matter of fact, late in his life when Lee Strobel interviewed him, Templeton made the declaration. He said, I wish I could believe. I wish I could believe. Because Templeton was preaching from his own mind and his own strength and his own abilities and his own persona.
[24:04] But right before the great Los Angeles crusade that would put Billy Graham on the map, so to say, as an evangelist and crusader, Templeton questioned him and started trying to cause doubt.
[24:17] Many of you may know, Billy Graham went up to the woods of Northern California and put his Bible upon a stump. He said, there are so many things, Lord, that I do not know, so many things that I cannot explain, but by faith I will accept these and may the Holy Spirit give me the ability to be certain of them.
[24:37] And he went forward in his public ministry with the assurance of the Spirit that these things were so. Because, see, the Holy Spirit brings assurance in the Word of God.
[24:50] Secondly, we see that these people of praise are people that offer assurance. Number two, there's adoration. There's adoration. Elizabeth, Mary, and Zachariah have one great theme of adoration.
[25:12] They each adore the same one, and they each exalt but one. Even Zachariah, as he is declaring the wonder of his son's birth after nine months, actually nine plus months, we don't know how many months transpire from the time that Zachariah was in the temple until Elizabeth becomes pregnant.
[25:32] We know that some days, because he completed the number of his days there in the temple, and then he went back home, and after they went back home, then she conceived. We don't know how long it was, but for a minimum of nine months, Zachariah's been silent.
[25:44] He who was a doubter is now a full believer, and he's going to declare what John the Baptist is going to be. He does that, but when we read his prophecy, there's one great run-on sentence, by the way, and it starts in verse 68.
[25:57] Verses 68 all the way down to verse 75 is one sentence, and so we ought to read it without any pauses or breaks, and so when Zachariah offers his prophecy, he is moved by the Holy Spirit, and the very first thing he's going to talk about, let me think about this for just a moment, let's just put ourselves in dad's position here.
[26:15] He has been in the temple, he is burning incense, and the angel Gabriel stands before him and makes a promise of this son that his wife is going to have. He doubts it, he goes on, he can't say anything, so he is silent, and the whole time he knows that this child that is in his wife's womb is going to be the forerunner that Malachi spoke about 400 plus years prior to this, and he knows this, he knows it internally, if there was ever any doubt, the angel's judgment upon his doubt has been removed, we see that for he writes his name is John, we get that on the tablet, but the very first thing he says, I mean the very first thing he says, now if that had been me, and I've been sitting on this for so long, like man do I have a story to tell you, right?
[27:00] He doesn't say anything about the angel, he doesn't say anything about where he was at, he doesn't say anything about what his son is going to be, yet the very first thing he says is he adores the Savior who is not yet born.
[27:19] Look at what it says, blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he has visited us and accomplished redemption for his people, by the way, John the Baptist is not the redeemer, he says that, he has accomplished redemption for his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David, his servant, that's not John the Baptist, that's the one that's in Mary's womb, that's the horn of salvation, as he spoke by his mouth to the holy prophets from old, salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, do you notice what he's doing?
[27:50] He is adoring the Savior before he ever declares the position of his son. If we go back to Elizabeth, blessed is she, how am I, who am I that the mother of my Lord would come to me?
[28:02] It's not that, who am I that Mary would come and speak to me? Who am I that the mother of my Lord would come into my house? She adores the fruit of the womb and the Lord that is to be born.
[28:14] The magnificent, if we read of what Mary has to say, my soul exalts the Lord or magnifies the Lord and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
[28:26] Do you notice the theme here? It is an adoration of the Lord God Almighty and an anticipation of this coming. We'll get to that in just a moment. Of the Savior.
[28:37] But notice the adoring here. Each of these involved, they have but one great love, one great adoration and it is an adoration for the Messiah and the Savior who is to be born and they're rejoicing in the Lord God Almighty.
[28:53] Man has a habit and at times a problem of magnifying the vessels that the Lord God uses more than we magnify the Lord God himself.
[29:10] Mary is a grand vessel. Zechariah and Elizabeth are grand vessels. But each of them in the midst of the most remarkable time of their life, none of them say, look at me.
[29:27] Rather they say, my soul exalts the Lord. I rejoice in the God of my salvation. There is no highlight.
[29:39] Their humbleness says, who am I? Mary refers to herself as the servant or the bond slave of the Lord. She who has been humbled and God has raised her up and exalted her.
[29:53] May we acknowledge the vessels God used, but may our adoration, may that which we adore and we love be reserved for the Lord God Almighty himself.
[30:06] Be careful who we put on the pedestal. For we find that by the Holy Spirit there is but one that we can adore.
[30:17] The grand Christmas hymn, O come let us adore him, should be the life theme of those filled by the Holy Spirit. Because it is he and he alone that is the adoration of his people.
[30:33] Those moved by the Spirit have but one that they want anyone to see. Mary went there to settle her doubts. Elizabeth was waiting in anticipation and keeping it a secret.
[30:44] Zechariah couldn't say anything. Nobody was hearing anything from him. But the love that flowed out of their heart was for the fact that they were being used. Friend, listen to me. When we're used of the Lord, it's not about us.
[31:00] Rejoice in the fact that who are we that he would use such an unfit vessel but we magnify the Lord God Almighty because he saw fit to do this.
[31:12] What joy when we notice the adoration of these people. Third and finally we see these people of praise come with anticipation.
[31:25] There is a holy anticipation of what's going to be not what has already been. Elizabeth was excited and overwhelmed by the reality that she was going to bear a child in her old age.
[31:40] She was so overwhelmed she hid herself from the people of her community because she just really didn't know how to respond. Mary is on the opposite end of that spectrum. She is probably excited and overwhelmed by the reality that in her young age as a virgin she who never has known a man now has a child within her that the angel has said was the son of God.
[32:03] Zacharias is the first man in centuries to have an angelic visit and to receive a word from God and yet he can't tell anybody. He has to be silent.
[32:17] And they're all looking around like something is about to happen and when their mouths are loose and they're moved by the Holy Spirit they begin to declare the anticipation that is built within them.
[32:30] Elizabeth declares it. I know we've said it over and over again. She is the mother of my Lord. That is the same word used as Yahweh. It is the covenant God coming to dwell among us.
[32:41] Mary when she declares her anticipation she says in verse 50 his mercy upon generation after generation towards those who fear him. By the way that's a quote from the book of Psalms and begins to declare his mercies and they come and he has done mighty deeds and with his arm he has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart.
[32:59] He has brought down rulers from the thrones. He has exalted those who are humble. He has filled it says the hungry with good things and sent away the rich empty handed. I love how they refer to these things in the past tense though they haven't happened yet.
[33:14] Even Zacharias prophecy is past tense right. He has already done these things. Why? Because this is God's eternal plan since the foundation of the world was laid. In the time frame of God these things had already taken place.
[33:29] They are just being introduced into the history of man for the first time. And notice this. Verse 55. As he spoke to our fathers to Abraham and his descendants forever.
[33:41] Remember those covenants? Mary this humble teenage girl more than likely from Nazareth. A town that's not even mentioned in the Old Testament.
[33:55] By the way when it declares in the book of Matthew that he should be called a Nazarene. You won't find that quote in the Old Testament. And the reason you won't find it in Old Testament. Actually I think that's John.
[34:08] The Gospel of John. That he should be called a Nazarene. You won't find that because Nazareth is never mentioned. That word Nazarene is a derogatory word. He should be called someone from a place of lowly estate.
[34:20] He's a no good. And it does tell us that in the Old Testament that Jesus would be mocked. Ridiculed. But now Mary is talking about what?
[34:33] The covenant faithfulness of God. That God is fulfilling his covenants through the child that's in her womb. When Zechariah prophesied he said blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he has visit and accomplished redemption.
[34:46] Notice that he has already accomplished redemption for his people. And he has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David his servant. He hasn't been born yet but he's already done it.
[34:57] A horn of salvation be the one that when the battle was seemed to be contrary against his people and they seemed to be losing all of a sudden this strong one this great victorious warrior would be raised up and he would lead them out and that's him.
[35:11] That's the anticipation. Salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us and show mercy toward our fathers and to remember his look at this holy covenant. There's anticipation of the fulfillment of that covenant.
[35:25] The oath which he swore to Abraham and our father and here is why. Here's this anticipation in verse 74 to grant us that we being rescued from our enemies might serve him without fear.
[35:39] Friend those of us that are moved by the Holy Spirit we ought to know that what Christ has done is he has rescued us from our enemies that we might serve him without fear. Fear of condemnation, fear of judgment, fear of rejection before a holy God maybe not acceptance before man but fear nonetheless has been removed that we might serve him with sincerity and truth and then he declares a new child will be called the prophet of the most high for you will go on before the Lord to prepare his way to give his people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins because of the tender mercy of our God with which the sun rise from on high will visit us to shine upon those who sit in darkness in the shadow of death to guide our feet in the way of peace.
[36:30] Here is this holy anticipation. The sun has risen to those of us sitting in darkness to give us light that we may follow him without shame or fear.
[36:45] Those that are moved by the spirit live with anticipation that the day of redemption has drawn not. That through this child, this Christ, we are forgiven, we're set free, we are redeemed.
[36:57] This is so much more than the birth of a baby. This is a fulfillment of the promises of God which have resonated throughout history and now they have come to be that we may be redeemed.
[37:10] Those of us that sit in darkness may have the sunrise from on high shine upon us to give praise and glory to his name. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this day.
[37:22] We thank you for the opportunity and the grand privilege it is to build together, together with your people. We pray now that your word would continue to speak to our hearts. Lord, if there be one here today who does not know you, maybe they don't know what it's like to be visited by the sunrise from on high, to be redeemed from their enemies, that they may serve you without fear and trembling.
[37:46] All by the power and presence of your spirit, would you speak to their heart and mind? Would you draw them close? Lord, for those of us that do, may we continue to glory and rejoice in the coming of Emmanuel.
[38:01] And may the theme of our life be to adore you as we follow you faithfully. We ask it all in Christ's name. Amen.