Study in Luke’s Gospel

1. Study in Luke’s Gospel Presentation 06

2. Benedictus Chap 1v67-80 Presentation 06

3. 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

4. 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. Presentation 06

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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. Presentation 06

8. 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

9. 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. Presentation 06

10. 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. Presentation 06

11. 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. Presentation 06

12. 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. Presentation 06

13. 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’. Presentation 06

14. 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. Presentation 06

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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... Presentation 06

18. 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. Presentation 06

19. 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? Presentation 06

20. 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. Presentation 06

21. 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". Presentation 06

22. 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. Presentation 06

23. 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. Presentation 06