Light in the Darkness!
Luke 1:67-80
Introduction: The title for today’s message is based especially on verses
78-79,
“…because
of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us
from on high 79 to give
light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our
feet into the way of peace."
The theme of light and darkness carries through the Bible.
The first creative word in Genesis 1… “Let there be light…” In the New Testament, Paul refers to that
context when he said, “For God, who said, "Let light shine out of
darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ…” (2 Cor 4:6). John makes the
connection already in John 1:4, “In Him was life, and the life was the light
of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
The theme carries through the Gospel of John until twice in chapter 8, and
again in chapter 9, Jesus says, “I am the Light of the world!” The
prophets used that imagery as well, especially in looking forward to the coming
of the promised rescuer of Israel, the Messiah. Isaiah said in those famous
verses in Isaiah 9:1-2,
“…in the latter time he has
made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the
nations. 2 The people who
walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep
darkness, on them has light shined.”
In the last chapter of the last of the minor prophets,
right before announcing the ministry of the one who would be a voice in the
wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord, Malachi says.
But for you who fear my name, the sun of
righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping
like calves from the stall. 3
And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of
your feet, on the day when I act… (Mal 4:2,3).
A rising sun, light shining in darkness, bringing healing and
deliverance. Zechariah will allude to these ideas in this Spirit-inspired
prophecy. The song of Zechariah will express his realization that the age of
the Messiah was at hand, and his recognition that his son John would be a
prophet of God, a prophet coming in the spirit and power of Elijah, who would
prepare the way of the Lord. He expresses joy in the realization, as
certain as if it was past and completed action, that “The Lord has
visited and redeemed His people…” The fulness of time had come, and soon,
God would send forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem
those who were under the Law…
Context: After Zechariah confirmed that their child was named John, immediately his
tongue was loosed, he was filled with the Spirit and he prophesied, giving
praise to God. Zechariah’s song, The Benedictus, gives us some of the
details.
The Big Idea: God has mercifully saved us to serve Him, that the light of
the Gospel might go out in the world to the glory of God.
I. The Plan of Salvation: In fulfillment of prophecy God came
among us in Christ to redeem His people (67-71).
67 And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy
Spirit and prophesied, saying, 68
"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his
people 69 and has raised up a
horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, 70 as he spoke by the mouth of his
holy prophets from of old, 71
that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate
us;
We want to pause
a moment at verse 67, as Luke gives us a couple of details before relating the
Song of Zechariah. First, we are told that Zechariah was “filled with the Holy
Spirit.” This is the third time this phrase has been used in Luke (see 1:15-17,
41-42). Here, Zechariah is “…filled with the Holy Spirit…” and then
prophesies, as he expresses praise to God. Later we’ll see the Spirit descend
on Jesus at His baptism, after John had predicted the coming Spirit-baptizing
ministry of the Messiah. Then, starting in Acts 2, we see the believers “filled
with the Holy Spirit” as they are readied to carry out the Missio Dei. This
is the age of the Spirit! The permanent presence of the Holy Spirit in
believers began on the Day of Pentecost as the New Testament church was born,
and will continue through this age. Every believer, the moment they believe is
baptized and indwelt by the Spirit. And yet in this age as well Paul can say “…do
not be drunk with wine… but be filled with the Spirit…” (Eph 5:18). The
fact that this imperative, a command, is given, indicates that being “filled”
with the Spirit is not identical with being indwelt by the Spirit. Every
believer has the Spirit, but does the Spirit have us? In other words, are we
yielded to Him, trusting Him to empower and guide us? Walk in the Spirit!
Excursus:
By the way, the text says that Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and
prophesied. Even so, some commentators suggest that he was mistaken in
expecting God, through the Messiah, to deliver Israel from her physical
enemies. I’ve got two immediate problems with that: 1) He was filled with the
Spirit; and 2) He prophesied! Luke presents this as a positive and true
statement. If he was mistaken, we would be saying he was a false prophet… that
doesn’t fit what we see here. The explanation is pretty straight forward:
ultimately Israel will be victorious, when Jesus establishes His kingdom on earth
and rules from Jerusalem. Zechariah is expressing a premillenial
expectation. The issue is that God had not yet revealed clearly the
two-phased deliverance that the Lord would bring about, first in the redemption
he accomplishes in the Cross and Resurrection, and then later in His return in
power and millennial reign.
“God has visited …His people…” This
speaks to the miracle of Christmas… God has visited… the idea is not simply
that God dropped in to say hello as we used to do with each other more freely
“pre-COVID.” Notice that Zechariah’s speech is bracketed by references to
divine “visitation” in v.68 and v.78. The word is used to express God’s
concern for His people, and His coming to act for their good. The word first
appears in the LXX (Septuagint) of Genesis 21:1. After His promise that Sarah
would conceive and bear a son in her old age, we read,
“The LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as
he had promised.” Joseph in his
old age tells his brothers in Egypt that God will “visit” them, and when He
does, they should carry his bones back to the promised land (Gen 50:24,25). God
tells Moses that He has “visited” the people, looking on them with compassion
in their bondage (Ex 3:16; 4:31). This idea of caring, compassionate presence carries
through. It anticipates Jesus approaching Jerusalem that final week, when he is
moved with compassion, since the people are “…harassed and helpless, like
sheep without a shepherd…” (Mt 9:36). The context here in Luke 1 makes it
clear that Zechariah is speaking of God visiting His people, in sending Messiah
into the world. Jesus is the presence of God, and he came with mercy, to save.
Luke 1:67-69 67
And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied,
saying, 68 "Blessed be
the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his
people 69 and has raised
up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David…
Notice the verbs are all cast in the
past tense, as though the action has already happened, the work is already
done. This seems to imply that though the Cross is still future, indeed the
birth of the Messiah is still months away, John’s birth as the forerunner of
Christ, and the miraculous conception of the Messiah means the events are set
in motion and God’s plan will come to pass—it is as good as done.
“…and redeemed…” Psalm 111:9 similarly focuses on what
God has done for His people: “He has sent redemption to His people; He has
commanded His covenant forever: Holy and awesome is His name.” Redemption implies
paying a price to set someone free. Zechariah probably did not have a
foreshadowing of the Cross, but he correctly said more than he understood. God
would visit humans, Emanuel, God with us, as Jesus, Yaweh saves,
to be sacrificed as our substitute, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins
of the world…” Salvation is free to us, but it came at a cost!
“…and raised up a horn of salvation…” A ‘horn’ speaks of strength and power. John
would point the world to Jesus, the Rescuer, the One who is mighty to save.
“…that we should be saved from our
enemies…” At a future time there will be peace on earth and He will rule
the nations with a rod of iron. In the meantime, we have victory over our greatest
enemy, the devil, Satan. Read Ephesians 2:1-3 to see what we were, and then 2:4-10
to see what we are, and whose we are, because of Jesus. We are
set free, free to serve, no longer in bondage to sin and to Satan. That’s the
Big Idea: God has mercifully saved us to serve Him, that the light of the
Gospel might go out in the world to the glory of God. So we see 1) The Plan of
Salvation, and…
II. The Purpose of Salvation: By God’s mercy those who believe
are saved to serve without fear (72-75). These verses make it clear that He
saved us on purpose, for a purpose. Jesus came…
72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to
remember his holy covenant, 73
the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us 74 that we, being delivered from
the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, 75 in holiness and righteousness
before him all our days.
In recounting Paul’s experience before Agrippa, Luke writes
of the commission Jesus had directly given him to preach to the gentiles in
Acts 26:18…
“…to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from
the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a
place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.”
Bringing the light of the Gospel to those walking in darkness!
Luke 1:72 begins, “…to show the mercy
promised to the fathers…” The mercy of God carries through this
second half of chapter 1, the word is repeated 5 times, life a refrain echoing
in our ears in every paragraph. God
made a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15, a covenant based on the grace and
mercy of God, not the accomplishments of humans. You remember that as Abraham slept, a flaming
torch and a smoking firepot, God in theophany, passed through the divided
pieces of the sacrifice. He said HE would do it. There is no “if” in those
verses that I can see. God gave his word, and Abraham believed Him, so can we.
That is Israel, what about us? He would have been just in simply judging us for
our sin, we were by nature children of wrath. We deserved hell because we were
born as self-centered rebels! But God is rich in mercy… and He did for us what
we couldn’t do for ourselves. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,
“…that we being delivered might serve Him without fear…” This is a big
point that we don’t want to miss: he saved us to serve, and not only that, but
we can serve without fear. We have seen in the Christmas story, angels telling humans not to be afraid.
We see the disciples fearful in the gospels, fearful when they see his divine
power as He is walking on the water, fearful when he is arrested and they all
scatter. Fearful when he is dead and buried and they are huddled behind closed
doors. But then after the resurrection, and after the pouring out of the Spirit
on Pentecost, these same men are preaching boldly in the streets! The explanation?
The presence and empowerment of the Holy Spirit. They were changed, and so are
we who know Him! We too are saved to serve without fear…
“…in holiness and righteousness all of
our days…” This is not talking about our positional righteousness,
the fact that we are declared righteous because Jesus took our punishment and
His righteousness was reckoned to our account. That is justification. It is our
standing before God. But what this is talking about is our sanctification, the
fact that we are transformed, progressively, over time, becoming more like
Jesus. God has mercifully saved us to serve Him, that the light of the Gospel
might go out in the world to the glory of God. So we see the Plan of Salvation,
the Purpose and Salvation, and finally…
III. The Promise of Salvation: As God promised in His Word, He mercifully
came to save us from our sin and give us peace (76-80).
76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the
Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, 77 to give knowledge of salvation
to his people in the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the
sunrise shall visit us from on high 79
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide
our feet into the way of peace." 80
And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness
until the day of his public appearance to Israel.
Zechariah turns to his son, perhaps holding
him in his arms as he speaks, acknowledging his special calling in announcing
the Messiah and holding forth the Word of Life and Light. John is to be forerunner
of Messiah and the prophet of God. As John the apostle would later write, “He
was not the Light, but came to bear witness about the Light…” (John 1:8). Among
other verses, Zechariah alludes to Isaiah 40:3, and the prophet who would
prepare the way of the Lord. Later Isaiah writes,
“For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick
darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be
seen upon you. 3 And nations
shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising…” (Isa
60:2-3).
Likewise, in Malachi 3:1 the Lord says through the prophet, “Behold,
I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me.” Then, in 4:2 we
read, “But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise
with healing in its wings.” The allusion to light shining in the darkness,
and deliverance from the valley of the shadow of death also evokes the famous
verses in Isaiah 9:2, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great
light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.”
Zechariah, filled with the Holy Spirit is prophesying, and he is using the
language of the prophets to say that the time is at hand, the Messiah would
soon arrive, and his son John would grow up to announce his coming to rescue
his people. But Zechariah also has insight into the greatest aspect of that
rescue…
“To give the knowledge of
salvation in the forgiveness of their sins.”
“…to give light …in darkness… to guide… in the way of
peace… Psalm 119:105 comes to mind, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and
a light to my path.” The Word was made flesh, the Light shined in the
darkness, He came that we might have peace, shalom, restored, as we are
saved, by grace through faith, we have peace with God. And we have the peace of
God guarding our hearts, even as we live as pilgrims in a fallen world.
What is God saying to me in this passage? The Benedictus is a Spirit inspired
prophecy that shows God’s 1) Plan of Salvation, to send the Son to redeem us, 2)
the Purpose of Salvation, we’re saved to serve to God’s glory, and 3) the
Promise of Salvation, to bring the long-awaited light in the darkness, to make
possible “peace,” peace with God, and the peace of God… Shalom restored! That
is the Big Idea: God has mercifully saved us to serve Him, that the light of
the Gospel might go out in the world to the glory of God.
What would God have me to do in response to this
passage? The
Christmas lights are coming down (or soon will be), and the trees will soon be
fed to the goats… or the wood-chippers… or if your tree is like ours stored
away in the attic until next year…. The scenery will change, but the message
and the mission stay the same. The world is in darkness, under the shadow
of death, and Jesus, the Light of the world, has called us to shine as lights,
holding forth the Word of Life. We were reminded in 2020 of the brokenness
of the world and of the darkness in the hearts of humans. By grace, the Light
of the Gospel has shined in our hearts. Let’s resolve in this New Year to
embrace the mission that God has entrusted to us, using our gifts to encourage
one another, to build each other up, and also to pray for and be witness to the
people in our sphere of influence. You have a part in God’s mission, he
saved you on purpose, for a purpose! We don't know what 2021 will bring, but we do know that God has shown us His love and He is with us. He spared not the Son but delivered Him up for us all... In view of what God has done for us, will we be willing to embrace the mission He has entrusted to us? AMEN.
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