Word of Salvation – Vol.52 No.45 – December 2007
Promises, Promises
Sermon by Rev. Dr. Steve Voorwinde on Luke 1:67-80
Scripture Readings: Luke 1:5-25; 57-80
Introduction
One of the sad facts of life is that we live in a world of broken promises. Just recently (2006) there was another state election in Victoria. Before we went to the polls we were literally bombarded with promises. Every time we went to the letter box it was stuffed with promises from political hopefuls wanting our vote. And yet very few of us believed them. Promises, promises and more promises, but we didn’t take them seriously. Why not?
Maybe because we have memories. Remember when the premier promised us that the Scoresby Freeway would never be tolled? What happened? Years before it was due to be completed the name was changed to Eastlink. And guess what? It’s going to be a toll road.
And many of us will remember the days before GST. We were told it would never be introduced. It was far too unpopular with the voters. Well the rest of the story is history. Australia has now had GST for the past seven years.
But even closer to home we all live with broken promises. Your husband promises he will buy a carton of milk on the way home from work. But he forgets. So someone will have to get up early and go to the milk bar before breakfast. It’s a minor inconvenience and everyone can live with it. But there are also bigger promises that can be broken. A spouse walks out on you ignoring the solemn marriage vows that were made before God and man. There is separation and heartbreak. A family is in tatters and there are young lives that may never recover. A big promise has been broken and the consequences just break your heart.
So wherever we look today – whether in the world of politics or big business or even the family – there are broken promises and broken lives. It’s almost as if promises were made to be broken. And it’s into this sad state of affairs that God enters the picture. He comes with a message of hope and his promises can never be broken. And let me say that quite categorically at the beginning of this sermon – God never breaks his promises.
Politicians may break their promises.
Bankers may break their promises.
Husbands and wives may break their promises.
But God never ever breaks his promises.
And how can I say that? Because that’s what the song of Zechariah is all about; that’s what the message of Christmas is all about; that’s what the Bible is all about. God is as good as his word. God always keeps faith. God will never let you down. Isn’t that a great message? And that’s the message that I’m privileged to bring you this morning. That’s what Zechariah could sing about, and if we share his faith we can do the same.
So let’s have a good look at Zechariah’s song. And I’d like us to do so in terms of the two main characters that feature in this song:
First, there is the Lord God of Israel, who takes centre stage in the first part of Zechariah’s song (vv. 68-75)
Second, there is John the Baptist who features so prominently in the rest of the song, in vv. 76-79.
When we come to Zechariah’s song we have to admit that this old man was not an original composer. There is hardly an original thought in it. Here we don’t meet an original mind. But we do meet a mind that is just steeped and soaked and marinated in the OT. Zechariah doesn’t actually quote whole verses, but he echoes more than a dozen passages, especially from the Psalms. You could almost say that his song is the 151st Psalm. The first stanza is vv. 68-75 which is all about God and what he has done.
The opening note is taken straight from the Psalter: “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel.” This line comes from the end of Psalm 72. It comes at the end of David’s prayer for a successor whose name will endure forever and continue as long as the sun and through whom all the nations will be blessed (v. 17). Zechariah knows that David’s prayer is about to be answered in a wonderful way. So “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel.” These words can also be found at the end of Psalm 41 and Psalm 106 where the Psalmist prays that God will deliver his people from their enemies. Zechariah knows that this prayer will also be answered.
And how does Zechariah know that? He tells us. It is “because God has come and has redeemed his people.” But has he? When Zechariah composed this song had God already redeemed his people? Well in a sense he had, if you think for example of the exodus from Egypt. But is that what Zechariah is thinking of? I’m not sure he is – not completely anyway. He is thinking of something far bigger than that. Remember he’s prophesying. And in biblical prophecies language is sometimes used in a funny way. You use the past tense to predict the future. You are so sure that God is going to do what he says, that it’s as good as done. That’s what Zechariah is doing here. He is so sure that God is going to keep his promise that he sees it as already happened. There’s no doubting God’s promises now!
But what does it mean that God comes to redeem his people? To redeem means to rescue at a high price. When God redeemed the Israelites from Egypt, that price was the life of thousands of Passover lambs. But we know now what we can’t expect Zechariah to have known. When God redeems us from sin the price was even higher, it was the life of the great Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ. God was prepared to pay that ransom price for us. The price he paid was the greatest redemption price that has ever been paid in the history of the human race. But why? Why would God go to such lengths to redeem the likes of you and me? As you read on there’s a simple reason. No matter what it takes, God does not go back on his word. He always keeps his promises. In the next verses Zechariah focuses on two of the really big ones in the OT – first the promise to David and then the promise to Abraham.
Let’s start with David in verses 69-71:
69 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David
70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
71 salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us–
The way these verses are put together again shows a wonderful knowledge of the OT. The Lord has raised up a horn of salvation. The horn of course is a symbol of strength. For many animals their strength is in their horns. But it’s not animal strength that is being described here. It is divine strength. In Psalm 18 David said, “The Lord is the horn of my salvation.” But here the “horn of salvation” is distinct from the Lord. It is the Lord who raises up this horn of salvation in the house of his servant David. So if the horn is not the Lord, but still divine, then who is it?
It can only be one person, and that is the Messiah the great descendant of David. And that is indeed what the prophets said long ago. Remember what the prophet Nathan said to King David, “Your house and your kingdom will endure forever; your throne will be established forever.” (2 Sam 7:16).
In Jesus God keeps his promise to David. But God also keeps his promise to Abraham. As we read in vv. 72-75:
72 to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
Now notice the strong language here. And I mean that quite literally. This is very strong language. God does something that he seldom does. He swears. God did more than predict. God did more than promise. He actually swore an oath to Abraham. Now let me give you a little Bible quiz. When did God swear to Abraham? And what was the oath that he made? The answer is in Gen 22. After Abraham had shown he was willing to sacrifice Isaac this is what he was told:
‘I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son,
17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies,
18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.’
Now how had God kept his oath over the years? What were some of the highlights in Israel’s history? The exodus out of Egypt has to be one and the return from exile in Babylon had to be another. When all seemed bleak and black God has come through for his people in a big way (Psalm 106). But it is as though Zechariah is saying, “You ain’t seen nothing yet!” Now God is going to come through for his people like never before. This next redemption will leave the exodus and the return from exile in the shade. This is going to be the biggest by far. God is going to do what Abraham didn’t have to do. He is going to sacrifice his Son, his only Son. God will keep his oath even if it hurts (Psalm 15). If that’s what it takes to keep the promise to Abraham, then that’s what it takes. God won’t waver. He always keeps his word.
But now comes an important question. How did Zechariah understand all this? What did he mean by “salvation from our enemies and the hand of all who hate us” (v. 71)? How does he expect God to rescue his people from their enemies (v. 74)? Was it all political? Was this all some Jewish patriotic dream of being set free from the tyranny of Rome? In Zechariah’s day that seems to have been the common Jewish understanding. For many Jews the expected Messiah was a worldly ruler whose great task was to free the people from the Roman yoke. They had a very earthly and material view of the redemption that God had promised. For them the Messiah would be a political liberator and a national hero. Is that the kind of thing that Zechariah had in mind? Was this just a political prophecy and a patriotic dream? Was he just another first century Jew wanting to be free from Rome? Was he simply a child of his time and giving expression to the great Jewish dream of his day? The rest of his song will give a very clear answer to that question.
In verse 76 the attention turns to John the Baptist. This is what Zechariah has to say about his infant son:
A. 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,
77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins,
Does this sound like a political agenda? Does this sound like a manifesto against Roman occupation? This child will not be a political hero or a military leader. He will simply be a prophet. But what a prophet he will be! He will prepare the way of the Lord. He will be the last of the OT prophets. Later Jesus will call him the greatest of the OT prophets. Unlike all of his predecessors he will have the immense privilege of introducing the people to Jesus, their Messiah. And how does he do that? By “giving his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of sins.” And that is the issue. The Romans weren’t the problem. The Gentiles weren’t the problem. The problem wasn’t out there. The problem was in here. It was in the hearts and lives of the people themselves. The problem was their own sin. That’s the great message that John came to bring – the knowledge of salvation and the forgiveness of sins. Come to think of it, that’s still the message of the Gospel today. That’s still humanity’s greatest need and it was that need that Jesus came to address.
B. And that’s precisely the note on which Zechariah’s song comes to an end in vv. 78 & 79:
78 because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
79 to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.’
That rising sun was none other than Jesus Christ the long-awaited Messiah. He came to deal with that deeper darkness – not the Roman oppressor but the darkness of the sinful human heart. And once again, I must say, Zechariah is echoing the words of the OT, this time from the prophet Isaiah:
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. (Isaiah 9:2)
In the gospel of Matthew this verse is quoted when Jesus begins his ministry in Galilee. Once again God keeps his promise. He is true to his word, to the very letter. In Jesus all the great promises of the OT are fulfilled. You would have to say that God is the greatest Promise-Keeper of all time.
C. So when Jesus came why did the people reject him? Why did the Jewish leaders who were steeped in the teachings of the OT fail to recognize him for who he was? Because they had misunderstood the promises of God.
They read the same OT as Zechariah, but for them the kingdom of God was an earthly kingdom, a political kingdom, a militaristic kingdom. No wonder John the Baptist needed to come to set the record straight. He reminded them that their deepest needs were not material or political but spiritual. What they needed above all else was the knowledge of salvation and the forgiveness of sins. That’s what the promises of God were all about. And that’s what the message of Jesus was all about. It was a spiritual message of salvation and forgiveness.
D. I have had a very disturbing thought. If first-century Jews could get the promises of God so very wrong, then what about 21st century Christians? Could it be true that we have misunderstood God’s promises as well? When you think about it there are some very uncomfortable parallels. The Jews politicized the promises of God. Christians today secularise the promises of God. Think of the messages that come through the Christian media or popular Christian literature. Today’s gospel includes promises that go something like this:
If you are a Christian, you will be healthy.
If you are a Christian you will be prosperous.
If you are a Christian you will be psychologically well adjusted.
If you are a Christian you will have a successful career.
If you are a Christian you will have a fulfilling family life.
If you are a Christian you will have a wonderful sense of self-esteem.
If you are a Christian, I guess you could say that you are in the best possible position of living the Australian dream, or the American dream, or whatever the case may be.
E. But, brothers and sisters, I ask you: Is that the Gospel? Today more and more we are hearing a gospel that addresses the effects of sin rather than sin itself. That sounds very much like what a lot of Jews were doing in the first century. They had identified the promises of God with the great Jewish dream. Today it is all too easy to equate the promises of God with the great Australian dream. But that’s not what God promised. What God promises is salvation and the forgiveness of sins. What Jesus preached was a spiritual gospel. But we have secularised the gospel. We have psychologised the Gospel. We have turned the promises of God into something that they were never meant to be:
If you are a Christian you will be healthy. Try telling that to someone suffering the effects of a stroke, or cancer or diabetes.
If you are a Christian you will be wealthy. That may work okay for Christians in Australia and America, but what about Christians in Zambia who seldom have three meals a day?
If you are a Christian you will be psychologically well adjusted. Imagine how that makes a Christian feel who’s a schizophrenic or struggling with bipolar disorder.
If you are a Christian you will have a great family life. How do you tell that to a single mother or to a recent divorcee who was left for a younger and prettier woman?
If you are a Christian you will have a wonderful sense of self-esteem. What does that do to those of us who are plagued with self-doubt and who are always questioning ourselves?
You see, the bottom line is that to be a Christian is not synonymous with being a successful middle class Australian who has it all together. Some of the greatest Christians in the past would not have fit that mould at all. Martin Luther was probably a manic depressive. John Bunyan who wrote Pilgrim’s Progress and the great Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon both suffered from serious bouts of depression. The hymn writer William Cowper went through several “dark nights of the soul”. Does all of this mean that God didn’t keep his promises? Did he go back on his word after all?
Again, let’s be clear on this. God never breaks a promise, but we cannot hold God to promises that he never made. If we do, we are bound to be disappointed. Not so long ago, my wife and I were discussing some disappointments in the Christian life. And I admitted to her that I was disappointed because God hadn’t done A, B and C for me. And she came back with a very wise reply, “But where in the Bible does God promise that he will do these things for you?” How right she was! But I protested and said, “Yes, but if God really loved me he would do these things for me.” But that’s not the point. God can love me in the way that he thinks best. All I can hold him to are the promises that he has made – not the ones I would like him to have made.
Conclusion
And what are the promises that God has made? He has promised us the knowledge of salvation and the forgiveness of sins. No more and certainly no less. And keeping that promise has come at a very high price to God himself. It cost him the life of his own dear Son. Surely that has to be the greatest Christmas gift of all time. That baby in the manger came into the world to bring salvation and the forgiveness of sins. But if you have no sense of sin, if you don’t think you need to be forgiven, then you won’t appreciate this gift. You won’t value the Gospel – not the real Gospel anyway. But if you have any idea of your spiritual state, any appreciation of where you stand with God, you will know that there is no better gift than the forgiveness of sins. There is really nothing better in this whole wide world than to know for sure that your sins have been forgiven and that you’re on your way to heaven.
There was once a man who had just finished serving a term in prison. His crime had brought great shame to the family. Now that he had served his time he was wondering whether his family had forgiven him. Before he returned home he decided to write them a letter. The prison was a long way away and the only way this man could afford to return home was by train. As it turned out, the family home backed onto the railway line. In the backyard there was a big tree. So he asked the family that, if they had forgiven him, could they please hang a while cloth on that tree. If there was a white cloth on the tree he would get off the train and come home. If not, he would just stay on the train and keep going. As the train approached his home town, the man became more and more nervous. So he told his story to the passenger sitting beside him. Could that other passenger please look for the white cloth. When the time came the ex-prisoner sat with his head between his knees, too afraid to look out. His heart began thumping louder and louder, and his brain started racing. Would the tree have a white cloth? Would the tree have the white cloth? Would the tree have the white cloth? Then suddenly the other passenger exclaimed, “The tree is just covered with white cloth!”
In a huge city cemetery in New York there is a tombstone that has an epitaph with just one word: FORGIVEN. Are you?