Presentation 06
Presentation 06
Introduction
Immediately Zechariah's silenced lips were opened
he produced a cascade of praise. Like the release of
floodwaters, the pent-up emotion of 9 months broke
through in song. He does not begin as we might expect
in praising God for John’s birth and for the alleviation
of the stress produced by long years of childlessness .
Why? He knew that God was doing something on a far
grander scale. The promised Messiah was about to be
born and their son was to prepare the way for his
coming. For this reason Zechariah's song is wholly
taken up with the kingdom of the Messiah. It is
delivered under the inspiration of the Spirit, provides
a divine commentary on the ministry of John the
Baptist. But he begins not with John but with Jesus.
Presentation 06
A Song In Praise Of Salvation
Zechariah begins by praising God for redeeming his
people. Jesus as yet unborn is the Redeemer. What
does the word ‘Redeemer’ conjure up in your mind?
Redemption belongs to a family of words used in the
N.T. to describe God's work of salvation. Redemption
in the O.T. was the means whereby a possession that
was otherwise forfeit was recovered by the payment
of a ransom price.
We still use this language today e.g. You may have
some possession which for some reason or other
ends up in a pawnshop. Your name may be stamped
upon it, you may love it dearly but you are separated
from it. The only legitimate way to recover it is to
redeem it! To pay a price thus making it yours again.
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A Song In Praise Of Salvation
That is a helpful picture of the mission of Jesus, for
God is separated from man, his precious possession.
Not because God has pawned us but the separation
and estrangement came about as a result of human
sin. That sin offends the justice and righteousness of
God. This is why Adam and Eve experienced
estrangement being put out of Eden.
God's name is still barely discernible etched on
men’s lives for we are made in God's image. God
wants to be reunited with his precious possession.
But to get us back without violating his justice, God
must redeem us. This he does at infinite cost to
himself. ‘God so loved the world....’ Jn. 3v16
Presentation 06
A Song In Praise Of Salvation
Peter tells his Christian readership, "You know
that it was not with perishable things such as
silver or gold that you were redeemed from the
empty way of life handed down to you from your
forefathers but by the precious blood of Christ".
1Pet.1v18
The word ‘redemption’ also reminds us that
salvation is something God does. It is an area of
activity, which belongs exclusively to him.
Zechariah tells us this Redeemer/Saviour was
previously promised to the house of David [and
of course Mary belonged to that house and its
fortunes were about to be reversed].
Presentation 06
A Song In Praise Of Salvation
Zechariah traces the promise of a Redeemer
back through the prophets in v70 to the
covenant which God made with Abraham in
v73. And he says God is now doing what he had
previously promised he would do. Salvation is
therefore God's work from beginning to end!
Why is it necessary to stress this?
Because salvation is often thought of in terms of
what men do. It is astonishing to note that some
people talk and write about salvation without
even mentioning God. Never has human effort
and human power and human organisation
been so highly praised.
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A Song In Praise Of Salvation
God is pictured merely as a goal, as One who
passively waits and watches and who is ready to
reward us for all our wonderful efforts! The ladder
of salvation is not something we build with all our
striving, effort and good deeds. It is something,
which God provides. It hangs down from heaven.
The ladder has been constructed at the cost of
Christ's death and only through him does salvation
come. Archbishop William Temple once wrote,
"The only thing I can contribute to my salvation is
my sin.“
Presentation 06
A Song In Praise Of Salvation
Zechariah continues by describing the
consequent benefits this salvation will bring to
believing men and women and he begins to
speak in terms of deliverance or rescue from
the hand of our enemies.
Don't let that surprise you for the root meaning
of salvation is "elbow room", room to breathe,
room to expand and grow, room to be one’s
best self. When the O.T. speaks of God bringing
salvation to his people, it means that he
pushed all their enemies out of their way to
give his people room. Salvation therefore has
to do with emancipation.
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A Song In Praise Of Salvation
But had not the angel who announced the birth
of Jesus in Matt. 1.22 defined the saving work of
Christ much more specifically "call his name
Jesus he shall save his people from their sins".
Oh yes, and this much more comprehensive
understanding is grasped by Zechariah cf.v77....
The salvation about to be unveiled was going to
be greater than any of God's saving acts in the
O.T. and the enemy from which Jesus would
deliver his people would be much more deadly
than those that crowded and suffocated them in
their former history.
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A Song In Praise Of Salvation
God would deal comprehensively with sin, and it is
this that would distinguish Jesus’ work of salvation.
He would take on and defeat and enemy that had
never been overcome before. For this reason
Zechariah describes Jesus as a strong saviour, the
word horn is used in scripture to signify strength and
often the strength of a mighty ruler! And when we
come to ask who are the enemies this great deliverer
will defeat?
Luke’s reply runs throughout the rest of his gospel all of the powers of darkness that are arraigned
against God’s kingdom. The power of Christ reaches
past the physical and into the spiritual realm.
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A Song In Praise Of Salvation
As Zechariah describes this salvation he makes
it clear that we are not only saved FROM
something but also saved FOR something
cf. v74-75....
A mistake a great many people make is to view
salvation merely as deliverance from the
penalty of sin. They view it as a work of God,
which began, and finished on a certain day
when by faith they took Christ to be their
Saviour. Salvation is seen as something,
which is over and done with, the purchase
of a ticket for heaven.
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A Song In Praise Of Salvation
A zealous Christian approached an English bishop
on a train and asked him quite bluntly, "Are you
saved?” The bishop answered in the following
manner, "I have been saved, I am being saved and
I will be saved".
The bishop’s theology was far better than he had
been given credit for. God's saving work in a
man’s life does not end on the day of his
conversion. That is when the work begins. God
not only saves us from something but for
something. For what? In order to make us like his
son or in the words of Zechariah, for a life of
‘holiness and righteousness’.
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A Song In Praise Of Salvation
The design of the gospel of grace is not to
discharge from such service but engages us for
such a life. Paul is saying exactly the same thing
to the Ephesians, "For he chose us in Christ
before the creation of the world to be holy and
blameless in his sight". Eph.1v4.
Salvation is not just a sort of ticket for heaven,
which we pocket and then forget all about it. It
is the beginning of a process of transformation.
How is such a transformation possible? The
Christian is set free from the tyranny of sin in his
life. He is liberated and with the liberation
comes power to live a different kind of life.
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A Song In Praise Of Salvation
Let me illustrate; Imagine that you are living
under an oppressive regime from which there
is no escape. The borders are guarded, mined
and bristling with barbed wire. You are obliged
to live in obedience to the dictator in that
land. Escape appears humanly impossible. And
then one day you meet someone who on your
behalf defeats this dictator and carries you
across the border and into freedom. You are
no longer obliged to do what the dictator
demands thou you may hear him bellowing at
you from across the border. You are now safe.
You are now no longer under his dominion.
Presentation 06
A Song In Praise Of Salvation
That is a picture of what the salvation of Jesus is like.
He delivers us from the tyranny of sin. He has
defeated its power so that we are at last free men. A
life of holiness and righteousness becomes possible.
We have been freed from a moral bondage, and
stand consciously on another soil under another sky
and breathe another air. Life motives are changed
and inward drives made new. The Holy Spirit begins
to rebuild your shattered life.
After describing the salvation, which God was poised
to bring into being through his son Jesus, Zechariah
turns his attention to the significant part his son
would play in preparing the way for this salvation.
Presentation 06
Preparatory Work Of The Forerunner
For 400 years the prophetic voice had ceased in Israel
but now it was revived in John with a particular goal in
mind. His task would be to remove those things,
which would impede the progress of the Messiah a
ministry described in Is 40.3-4… What form would this
levelling work take? What would impede the progress
of the Messiah? Cf v17.... The majority of God's
people were living disobedient lives, despite their
religious observances they had turned their backs on
God, - clearly evidenced in the many broken human
relationships which existed in society. John's task was
to call the people back to God, to impress upon them
their need for change he would call a whole nation to
repent of their sins and turn back to God. cf. 3.3...
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Preparatory Work Of The Forerunner
One of the great lacks in evangelism today is a reluctance to call
people to forsake their sins. Jesus is packaged, as someone who
makes no demands but who at the same time will bring great
blessing into people’s lives. But unless people see the
seriousness of their sins they are unlikely to be persuaded they
need a Saviour. Unless you are convinced you are ill you are
unlikely to consult a doctor. John's ministry would be unlike
much modern evangelism. He would endeavour to make
people conscious of their sins in order that he might persuade
them of their need of a saviour. Many years ago ministers of the
gospel used to engage in what they described as "law work".
Some would preach for years on the law of God with all its
threatenings and strictures precisely in order to bring their
congregations under a sense of sin.
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Preparatory Work Of The Forerunner
But it is possible to preach on the law of God and the sinfulness of sin
without presenting the grace of God's forgiveness and allowing it to
shine in upon your congregation. That is pastorally irresponsible. It is
like telling a person week after week that they are sick and only after a
number of years saying, "And by the way they is a wonderful cure".
John got the balance right. He exposed human sin, in his ministry
he created a real and awful sense of the sinfulness of sin and then
he pointed to the mercy and forgiveness of God and finally to
Jesus as the Lamb of God who alone takes away the sin of the
world. Are we surprised that people should run from John to
Jesus? From the one who showed them their need to the
One who alone could meet it?
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Preparatory Work Of The Forerunner
And so John in his ministry would point up the great
truth that God in his mercy has provided a salvation
that brings real forgiveness. There is no greater
liberation for a man or a woman than to hear God
authoritatively speak and say, ‘Your sins are forgiven’.
You see when someone is convicted by God’s Holy
Spirit and they become aware perhaps for the first
time of the awfulness of their sin, what they need
more than anything is not so much to hear the
person whom they have offended say, ‘I forgive you’
but to hear God say, ‘I forgive you’ for like the
prodigal they come to realise that their sin is
ultimately a rebellious rejection of God’s rule.
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Preparatory Work Of The Forerunner
When someone is under conviction of sin, human comfort
brings no relief what they need to be persuaded of more
than anything else is that God’s plan of salvation in a plan to
forgive sinners and more than that to be persuaded that they
have been forgiven! At best, John, like any minister of the
gospel, was only a signpost pointing to a great reality the
source of forgiveness.
John would point to Jesus who is described in v78 as the
rising sun. Zechariah is probably thinking of Mal 4v2 where
the Messiah is described as "the sun of righteousness with
healing in his wings", and perhaps also of Isa. 9v2 where we
are told concerning the ministry of the Messiah that "the
people walking in darkness have seen a great light".
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Preparatory Work Of The Forerunner
Can you picture a people huddled together in
darkness and death, helpless, hopeless and in great
danger? They need light, which will lighten their
darkness; they need light to warm and revive their
spirits; they need light so that their feet might be
directed in the right way, and then over the horizon
comes such a rescuer.
Jesus comes to lead people out of darkness and
death. His is a rescue mission! The forgiveness of God
rises like the sun but unlike the sun it never sets. Once
we enter into the kingdom of Christ, our prison
experience is a thing of the past, that darkness is not
allowed to overwhelm us again. We discover the
incomparable thrill of having peace with God.
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Conclusion
Are we surprised that as Zechariah became aware not so
much of his own son’s ministry but of the ministry of the
one John was to prepare the way for that his heart burst
out in a torrent of praise? If we are Christians, if we have
experienced God’s forgiveness and have experience of
peace with God we too will want to thank God for his
inexpressible gift.
If all this is alien to your experience, if you are burdened
by sin and haunted by guilt, if we recognise that we have
been living as rebels opposed to God’s rule then let me
point you to one who receives sinners, who welcomes
them, who forgives them, to one who has died to
redeem them. To Jesus. He alone can guide your feet
into the path of peace with God.
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