Luke's Gospel

Would like to turn to page 1026 in the church Bibles. Luke chapter 1 and Kerry is going to read that for us. Thank you. When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the lord had shown her great mercy and they shared her joy.

On the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah. But his mother spoke up and said, no, he is to be called John. They said to her, there's no 1 among your relatives who has that name. Then they made signs to his father. To find out what he would like to name the child.

He asked for a writing tablet and to everyone's astonishment, he wrote his name is John. Immediately, his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to speak praising god. All the neighbors were filled with awe and throughout the hill country of Judea, people were talking about all these things Everyone who heard this wondered about it asking, what then is this child going to be? For the lord's hand was with him. His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, praise be to the lord the god of Israel because he has come to his people and redeemed them.

He has raised up a horn of salvation for us, in the house of his servant David, as he said, through his holy prophets of long ago. Salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to show mercy to our ancestors and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore our father, Abraham, to rescue us from the hand of our enemies and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days, and you my child will be called a profit of the most high for you will go on before the lord to prepare the way for him to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins because of the tender mercy of our god by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the path peace. And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel. Thanks, Kerry. And, good evening, everyone.

Good evening. Good evening. I just wanna add my welcome. My name is, Ben. I'm a member here of Cornerstone Church.

And we've been going through the book of Luke. And 1 of the joys, even though it's coming up to Christmas now, is that we've we've we're reading it, but not really with a kind of Christmas angle. We've just been looking at it anyway. And there's been all sorts of stuff that has come out and I've learned and we've seen as we've been looking at these verses, which has been great. And that's what we're carrying on tonight.

So keep the Bible open in front of you. We're gonna be looking at it. And let me just pray for god's help as we start. Finally, we thank you, for your word that you are a speaking god, and you've given us, the scriptures in your word there's they're just rich and full of of your treasures and truths. So I pray, please tonight that you would show us some new things in Jesus name are men.

So I wonder if any of you here ever feel as if maybe you shouldn't have responsibility for something. You know, that whatever it is you're in charge of, do you ever have that fear where you think, oh, I shouldn't really be responsible for this. Am I, you know, am I really good enough to be doing this? It for me, it was some time after I graduated uni. I sort of mid twenties and I had a mortgage and I had a car and car insurance and life insurance and I I looked to myself and I was like, Should should I be having this much responsibility?

Really, you know, am I I'm not sure I'm really up for this. And we can get this feeling at work, which apparently is called impostor syndrome. Don't know if you've ever heard of impostor syndrome. It's apparently where the individual doubts their accomplishments and has persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a fraud. So you you kind of you think yourself that you're actually not qualified for the job that you're in, but somehow through chance and luck or maybe someone along the road wasn't paying attention and you've got to where you are.

And at any moment someone's gonna figure out that actually you shouldn't be doing what you're doing and they're gonna expose you and sort of show you the world that you actually used to afford. The closest I came to this in my workplace was using, an email service, platform called Mailchimp, than if you know about Mailchimp, It's basically an online sort of website that you can build and sort of customize branded emails. And you can upload data lists into Mailchimp, and then you can email people these really nice emails that you've designed. And it used to be. They changed it now, thankfully, but it used to be once you've done thing and you prepared the, email and you got the list ready and you were ready to send it, you'd be on the send page and it would have this big red button in the middle of the page.

Kinda like a nuclear bomb, like do not press this button button. And it had a cartoon monkey hovering over this button. It was called Mailchimp. So the the monkey's like the the, I don't know, the logo. And he's he's hovering over this button and he's shaking.

And he's like this. And it makes you be like, well, do I really want to send this email? And the monkey's sweating, and then your fingers over the mouse, and you're sweating, and you're like, I don't know if I want it, and it'll sometimes thousands of people are sending this email and I was like, should should I really have this responsibility? And then it would give you a high 5 when you save and you felt amazing. So it was really good.

But that's just in the workplace. I wonder, actually, do any of us ever feel like we shouldn't have spiritual responsibility? You know, maybe in the family or with your friends or in the church, you know, are you involved in some kind of ministry or service? Perhaps even where you're teaching the Bible, do you ever feel, inadequate to the task at hand? More than that, actually, sometimes do you feel like it's actually inappropriate for you to have the responsibility that you have.

It's it's not really just impostor syndrome that we have as Christians, is it? The fear of not being good enough or qualified to do the job. I mean, really, we are impostors because we're not qualified. We're not really good enough to do the job. And a couple of weeks ago, we saw this in Zechariah who though he was a righteous and obedient priest performing the highest spiritual act, He was exposed as inadequate, and he was rebuked by the angel Gabriel for his unbelief in god's salvation plan.

So as a quick recap back in chapter 1, early in chapter 1, we see this this guy Zechariah midway through his priestly duty. He's burning incense in the temple and he's praying that god would send his rescuer when suddenly the the angel of the lord Gabriel appears at the right hand side of the altar and he's got some good news. And he says this. Do not be afraid Zechariah. Your prayer has been heard.

Your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son and you are to call him John, and he will go on before the lord. To which Zechariah doubt the legitimacy of this message from the angel. And he replies, how can how can I be sure of this? I'm an old man and my wife is is well along in years. In other words, he was saying, I don't actually really believe this message that you've got for me.

Or at least I can't play the part in it that you think I I'm gonna play it because I don't know if you know how human sort of things work, but biologically, this this can't happen it. And this response from Zechariah is actually, it's actually quite disgraceful for him because firstly, he was a priest So he he should have known how god had caused Abraham and his wife Sarah to have had children even in their old age. But secondly, his disbelief actually denies the power of the gospel. Because if god can't even restore and bring life to a dead womb, then how is the lord Jesus gonna rise from the dead? And how is he gonna bring life to people who are dead in sins.

If god can't even do this, how is he gonna restore a decaying world? So ultimately, he actually what he what's happening is he's denying the very ritual that he's performing with his unbelief. On the 1 hand, he's praying for a miracle in this temple. But he doesn't actually have the faith that god can do it. And the severity of this is is confirmed to us by Gabriel's response who rebukes him and he says this, you will be silent, and you will not be able to speak until the day this happens.

Because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time. So after this encounter with the angel, Zachariah merges from the standpoint. He's unable to speak. And people kinda conclude that he's seen some kind of vision because he's making signs. Trying to I don't really know what he did, but they conclude they've seen a vision.

But essentially what happens to him next over the next week or so, he finishes his priestly duties And then he does go home to his wife Elizabeth who sure enough miraculously becomes pregnant. As the angel said, but he's still unable to say a word. And that is where we left poor old Zechariah in the story, and it goes on to Mary. But in this passage tonight, we pick him up again dust him off. And we see tonight the glory of our salvation through the lord Jesus in him.

Firstly, we see the mercy of god that he does not give Zechariah what he deserves. And secondly, we see the grace of god. That he blesses Zechariah and he would use him even as a fallen sinful man for his purposes. And as we see god's mercy and grace in Zechariah's life, my prayer really is that we would see that same mercy and that same grace in our lives today. So let's look at what happens then starting in verse 57.

So this is where we come to the naming of this child. So verse 57, when it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy and they shared her joy. On the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, but his mother spoke up and said, no. He is to be called John. We need we need to understand the magnitude of this moment that's just happened.

So Elizabeth and Zechariah have been unable to have children their entire lives. And they faced they face public disgrace for not being able to continue their family name and their duties. So earlier in verse 25, if you wanna flick back, just after Elizabeth became pregnant, she said this. The lord has done this for me. In these days, he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace from among the people.

So after a lifetime of disgrace among the people, they're finally shown mercy with a son It's like someone's, finally handed them a towel to kind of cover themselves and make themselves decent in public, in society. And this is why their relatives and their neighbors and people they know share their joy when she becomes pregnant. It's it's like a relief. It's like finally, we've been praying for this for such a long time. They're gonna have their own little Zack now to carry on their name and their duties.

And it will be official when they name him on the eighth day. So when Elizabeth interrupts this ceremony and she says, no, His name is to be John. You can imagine the confusion that this caused. It's it's like the towel that she was handed to cover herself. She's just discarded it in, and she's just gonna be disgraced.

You know, the very thing that her neighbors, her relatives, and she had be prayed for, a little Zack. It's like it's just been abandoned. So you can understand why the people with her try and reason with her. And and they kind of think, what's going on? So in verse 61, look at that, they say to her.

There's no 1 among your relatives who has that name. There's not even a cousin or a dodgy uncle or a grandfather that you don't like who's got that name. Like, why? There's no 1 in your why would you do that? Surely, you have to name him after at least somewhat in your family.

But she's adamant. He is to be called John. So they turn to the father who's got authority in this matter. Maybe he will be able to see reason. Yeah.

Maybe maybe Elizabeth, she's just feeling a bit overwhelmed by the ceremony. Like, she's been here a hundred times before, but it's never been for her own child. She's always wanted her own child. Now she's here with her own child. Maybe she's just feeling a little bit heady and just a little bit a little bit out of it.

So verse 62, they made signs to his father to find out what he would like to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet and to everyone's astonishment, he wrote his name is John. Now not only the people were there, not only were they astonished at the fact that Zekar had actually agreed with her and clearly in the 9 months of her pregnancy, He'd had time to use a writing tablet or whatever to communicate to her. What had happened with the angel. His name's gotta be John.

Not only were they astonished that he agreed with her actually, it was the manner in which he agreed with her, which made it final. So Elizabeth said he is to be called John. Wasn't actually naming him. She was just saying what his name was gonna be. But here, Zechariah confirms and sets in stone what his name is fulfilling what the angel had said to him.

His name is John. And in this act, Zechariah demonstrates his submission to god and his belief in what the angel had told him. It was 9 months late, but finally, he has repented of his disbelief and he's fulfilled his part in god's plan just as the angel had said. For no word from god will ever fail, even if mankind opposes it. To begin with.

And look what happens in verse 64. Immediately, his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to speak praising God. And this, this is where we see the mercy of god. So this is my first point tonight where we see the mercy of god. In in Zechariah.

So firstly, we see god's mercy in the fact that this judgment on him of being silenced was limited. It was restrained. God did not actually treat him as his disbelief deserved. There's a guy called Manoa in the book of judges who's the right idea about this. So when he sees the angel of the lord in the book of judges, and he realizes who we've spoken to, He comes to this conclusion.

He says, we are doomed. We're gonna die. Because if you've seen god, if you make eye contact with god, then he's seen you and he's seen your imperfections. It's made worse for Zechariah for the fact that when he saw the angel of the lord, he didn't believe his words. So not only has he made eye contact with god, but then he's fallen flat on his face right in front of him.

But Psalm hundred and 18 verse 18 says this. The lord has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death. And in the same way Zechariah was inflicted. He was chastened. He was disciplined, but it was mercifully restrained.

It was localized just to his voice, and it was only until the day that this happened. It wasn't even permanent. It was temporary. God had every right to end his life then and there when he said, I don't believe you god. I don't believe this message, but god was merciful and spared his life.

That's the first way. Secondly, it was a mercy to silence him both actually for Zechariah, but also the people that he was ministering to. Because it prevented disbelieving leadership. So he was the mouthpiece to god on behalf of the people, and he was the mouthpieces of the people on behalf of god. And in both instances, it was better to shut him up to silence him than to let, let him use his words of disbelief to the people.

So James 3, talks about the dangers of the tongue. I think I've got it up on the screen. I'll read it to you. Ever doesn't come up. That's fine.

So not many of you should become teachers. It says, my fellow believe because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who's never at fault in what they say is perfect able to keep their whole body in check. When we put bits into the mouth of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal or take ships as an example.

Although they are so large and driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body sets the whole course of one's life on fire and is itself set on fire by hell.

All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. With the tongue, we praise our lord and father, and with it, we curse human beings. Who have been made in god's likeness out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. It's quite a long long, it's quite a long reading, but basically that's a devastating summary, isn't it, of the corruption of our tongues?

And the damage we can do with what we say. And it actually acknowledges that the tongue cannot be obtained by god. Sorry. It cannot be tamed by man. And this is why in Psalm a hundred and 41, the Psalmists praise this, set a guard over my mouth lord.

Keep watch. Over the door of my lips, because we cannot do so. We need god to intervene. And with Zechariah, god intervenes with the strongest of guards over Zechariah's mouth. You know, it was a mercy to prevent him from sin.

And to prevent god's people from being misled with unbelief. Thirdly, it was a mercy because it was intended for his good to bring him to repentance. God's mercy is tender. It says that in verse 78. And it's got a purpose as well.

Being disciplined with silence was a time of reflection for Zechariah, which ultimately concluded in his submission and repentance. So scripture says the lord disciplines those he loves. His kindness is intended to lead you to repentance, and blessed is the 1 whom the lord corrects. Actually kind of reminds me of the restrained judgment, restrained judgment God bought on Kingnebucheneza, if you know that story. So Nevba Keneza was a it's a funny guy because he he he had really bad short term memory.

He thought he was great in all this and he'd be like, look at how great I am aren't I amazing? I'm king of the world? And then god would do something and he'd be humble. He'd go, yep, god. I acknowledge.

You are above me. You're amazing. And then a few weeks later, he'd build a statue of himself and out of gold and be like, how great am I? Aren't I the best guy in all the world? And then god would humble him again.

And then he'd just be out 1 night walking and think, how great am I? And and what god does to him is he humbles him for 7 years to try and teach him this lesson, to try and give him better long term memory. So for 7 years, God humbles nebuchadnezzar and he's made to be like an animal. He's bent over. He's living in the wilderness.

He's kind of shamed and thrown out. And he's liked this for 7 years until he acknowledges that god is sovereign, that god is great, that he is not the greatest. And this judgment on nebuchadnezzar was limited. It was for 7 years only for a set time, and it was intended to teach him humility and repentance and a dependence on god. And that benefited him for the rest of his days.

So, actually, when when he learned this lesson and he and turned his eyes to heaven, and his sanity was restored. He actually became even greater than he was before. As it was with nebuchadnezzar, So it was with Zechariah. The silence on him was a kind mercy intended to bring him to repentance and faith. So god's mercy is displayed here in Zechariah and his tongue is freed and it's accomplished its goal of bringing him to repentance and to faith.

And it's interesting. What does god's mercy cause him to do? You know, what are the first words out of the mouth of a man who's not been able to say anything for 9 months, you know? Is it, oh, it's so good to be able to speak again? Or is it, like cursing god for doing this to him.

What is it? Verse 64. Immediately, his mouth was opened and his tongue set free and he began to speak praising god. God's mercy causes praise. And we see here, as we see here, god is the 1, as god is the 1 who binds tongues, as he as he kind of closes them up, he is also the 1 who opens them.

Psalm 51 says, open my lips and I will declare your praise. The lips of an unclean sinner can only be opened in praise because of god's mercy. We require god to open our lips to praise him, or else we will not at all. So at this point, I wanted to ask you, how are you using your lips Cornerstone Church. It's the mercy that god lets us use them at all in light of this story.

I was thinking why hasn't god ever silenced me? Because the damage that I've probably done over my life with the things that I've said. So it's a mercy that we can use our lips to how are we using them? Do we praise him in here? And then when we walk out those doors, do we gossip, and do we curse?

Do we just give him lip service and actually are our hearts far away from him? Surely, we should be praying with the psalmist that god would open our lips to declare his praise. So god is merciful to Zechariah. He does not give him what he deserves, and this causes him to praise. But actually, something more wonderful is about to happen to him.

Further to receiving mercy, Zekariah receives grace. And this is my second point. Here we see god lavish undeserved kindness. And blessings on Zechariah by his grace. Just look at verse 67.

His father, Zechariah was filled with the holy spirit and prophesied. So firstly, god feels saccharide with the holy spirit. God himself feels and indwell Zechariah gives him understanding. He gives him eyes to see the salvation plan clearly. Cause no 1 can say Jesus' lord except by the spirit because it is the spirit who is the 1 who opens our eyes to see the light of the gospel.

It's god's grace to us that he blesses us now today with the spirit so we can see the truth, of our salvation and the truth of who he is. And this is how he bless his Zechariah. He graciously fills him with the spirit. And secondly, this holy spirit understanding leads inevitably to prophecy. It's like he can't he can't help but come out with this song that he sings.

He's been filled with the with the spirit. He can see what god's doing and it just bubbles out of him. And can you can you see the grace here? I was really moved personally when I when I saw this. Right?

For 400 years, there have been no profit or prophecies to god's people, 400 years. But now the man who was silenced has been raised up to break the silence, this 400 year silence, from god to his people. The 1 who was humbled and could not speak is chosen as the 1 through whom god will speak. It's a beautiful picture of how god redeems and restores us. You know, we let him down, we don't deserve it, and then he uses us.

For his purposes. He's merciful and he's gracious to us, though we don't deserve it. And this is god's pattern through all of scripture when you read it. Matthew 23 12 says for those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Zekariah exalted himself before God when the angel said to him, this is what's gonna happen, and he said, no, it's not.

And he was humbled. And then in his humility, god exalted him. God opposes the proud, but he shows favor to the humble. And then just look at this song that he sings. It's amazing.

Verse 68, praise be to the lord, the god of Israel. Because he has come to his people and redeemed them. This is a god who comes in the flesh to rescue his people This is a god who who knows his people can't come to him. So Jesus comes into the world and he's called Emmanuel, god with us. It's not us with god.

It's god with us. And this is a god who acts, he gets involved. And he redeems us on the cross. He buys us back. From sin and from death.

It's a triumphant victory this. Look at verse 69. He's raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David. And the house of his servant David. So it's it's powerful, this salvation.

It's all sufficient. It's like a horn that goes into battle and declares victory loudly. In verse 70, as he said through his holy prophets of long ago. So Zechariah can see now with the help of the Holy Spirit, he can see how all scripture has been pointing to Jesus. This is what the prophets were talking about the whole time.

It's salvation. Salvation from our enemies. And who are our enemies? But firstly, We're it's salvation from the awful state of sin that we live in from our evil hearts. Jesus nails our sin to the cross.

So that it's not counted against us anymore. Secondly, it's it's salvation from death. We can say with Paul confidently where o death is your victory because Christ has defeated death. He said, I am the resurrection and the life, the 1 who believes in me will live even though they die. And thirdly, we have salvation from the devil who wants nothing but destruction.

Instead, crisis defeated him. He's crushed the serpent's head and 1 day he's gonna be defeated forever. So this salvation rescues us from the hands of our enemies verse 74 and this salvation also enables us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And here again is god's mercy and grace on display. Firstly, he rescues us by his mercy, does not give us what we deserve.

And secondly, he enables us to serve him without fear and in holiness and righteousness before him all his days. And this must have been an exciting thing for Zechariah, the priest to realize and to say. Because he who served god with fear and trembling. He was not righteous. He was not holy.

So he served. He served god with fear and trembling. So do you remember I don't know a few here a few weeks ago or you heard the sermon that that Pete gave? He he he was talking about Zechariah going into the temple. And burning the incense.

And he said that it was a job that the priests went in to do and got out as quickly as possible. You went in, you did it, you got out, you didn't stick around. You're going into god's presence. You're not holy, you're not righteous. God might smite you, he might try and speak to you, he might try and do anything.

You've wanted to get in there and get out. They knew they were not holy before a holy god. They knew they were not righteous before a righteous god. And so they served in fear, but here is god's grace. That through Christ, he has made us holy, and he has made us righteous.

And because of this, we can come before him and serve him without fear. Right? There's no more need for the thick curtain of the temple which separated god's holy presence from his unclean people. It was torn down the middle by god when Jesus died on the cross. There's no more need for the endless sacrifices and rituals to make the high priest alone fit enough to go and, into the holy of holies once a year, with 1 sacrifice, god has made us all eternally fit to serve him all of our days.

So Zechariah, the priest who failed before god who suffered from impostor syndrome can return to serve him without fear or guilt but in confidence and with joy. You see how great that is. Not because of anything that he's done. He hasn't changed. It's because of what god's done for him.

So let me ask you again. Do you share Zechariah's excitement here? He's he's excited when he's saying this. Do you share his excitement that you can serve god without fear? Or do you still come before god with imposter syndrome?

Laid in with guilt and fear worried about being exposed at any minute the church or god is gonna find out what you've done, what you've said, what you've thought, and you've not been good enough. Christ died for your sins on the cross. They have been dealt with. If you have faith in him and call on his name, then he has made you holy. He has made you righteous.

Verse 77. Look at that. Salvation is through the forgiveness of sins. And why why would god do this? Verse 78 because of the tender mercy of our god again?

By which the rising sun will come first from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the path of peace. God's mercy and his grace save you. They guide you, and they enable you to serve without fear. And if this if this sounds too good to be true and it does sound too good to be true, then let's just remind ourselves whose mouth this prophecy is coming out of. Right?

God has chosen Zechariah as the instrument to declare his salvation because it is proved in the very act of him doing it. Do you see that? Zechariah could only be saying these things at all if god is a god of mercy. Because otherwise he would still be silent. There'd be no mercy he'd still be silent or worse off he'd be dead.

Zechariah is a living walking, talking testimony, an example of the salvation that he's proclaiming. And if god can do it for Zechariah, then he can do it for you too. And finally, after he he praises god and he says these amazing things about salvation, Zechariah, turns his attention to his son. And in the light of what he said about god's salvation, actually the name of the child and whether or not it should be, someone in the family just pales into insignificance. It just doesn't really, it just doesn't matter at all.

He's gonna be called something much, much more valuable than any human name. Look at verse 76, and you, my child, will be called a prophet of the most high for you will go on before the lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins. Ultimately, this child will be called a prophet of the most high. That has so much better than calling him Little Zack. So let him be called John.

John means God's gift. Let him be called that. So to finish, are you Azekariah? Have you had a fall from grace? Have you not believed God at his word?

Have you questioned his wisdom? Have you been inadequate in a place of responsibility? Because look, in 1 way or another, we are all zechariahs. I could I could ask question after question after question until every box has been ticked in this church. We are all zechariahs.

But just as there was for Zechariah, there's mercy and there is grace sufficient for you. And there is a god who generously wants to give it to you. So let's follow Zechariah's example let's repent of our sin and be humble before god. Let's leave our disbelief behind. Let's turn our eyes towards Christ.

Let's praise him and let's serve him without fear. Let's pray. Finally, we thank you for your word that we've seen tonight. We thank you for this man Zechariah who you humbled, but then also who you exalted. We thank you that you are a god of mercy.

You do not give us what we deserve. But instead, you pour out your grace and you give us what we don't deserve. Please help us to repent of our sin and our disbelief. We're sorry for when we like Zechariah, don't believe your word. Help us to submit to you.

Thank you for the cross, where your mercy and your grace are displayed in the lord Jesus. And please help us to serve him without fear and in holiness and righteousness all our days. In Jesus' name, amen.