Zachariah's Song of Salvation: The Abrahamic Covenant

Luke 1:67-80

     We return in our study of God's Word to the first chapter of Luke.  We are studying the last section of Luke chapter 1, the song of salvation which was given by Zacharias, the father of John the prophet, the forerunner to the Messiah.  The text begins in verse 67 and runs down to the end of the chapter.

     Before we look at this text, again I want to remind you that up to now we have pretty much played the role of the story teller and I have reiterated the narrative of this record that is the beginning of Luke's gospel.  Luke tells the story of Jesus.  He starts where the story really starts, he starts when God invades human history by sending an angel Gabriel to announce to an old priest by the name of Zacharias that he would go home and he and his wife would have a son.  They were barren, they were very old.  They were beyond childbearing years, as we remember.  This would be a miracle.  And indeed the angel's word came true.  This older woman, perhaps in her seventies, named Elizabeth conceived with her husband, became pregnant and brought forth a son.  The son was to be named John.  He was the forerunner of the Messiah.

     At the same time this wonderful story was going on between God, the angel Gabriel and Zacharias and Elizabeth leading to the birth of John, Gabriel was also visiting another person, a young girl about thirteen named Mary.  And there was a second conception miracle, this time without a man. She would be given a child while a virgin.  This child would not just be any prophet, but the Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior of the world.

     With these great narratives, Luke begins the saga of salvation which he tells, the story of the coming of the Messiah, the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.  We have gone through the annunciation to Zacharias, the annunciation to Mary.  We have gone through the identification of John, the identification of Jesus.  We have gone through the praise of Mary upon this wonderful reality.  We have now come in this part of the chapter to the birth of John the Baptist and starting in verse 57 down to verse 66 is the record that the child John was born.  And, of course, this is a great event because everybody in the family knows that this child is the forerunner of the Messiah.  Mary, who is to be the mother of Jesus the Son of God and the Messiah, is already pregnant and she has been three months in the house of Zacharias and Elizabeth so they know that the Messiah is already being formed in her womb.  Here is the birth of the forerunner and the birth of the Messiah in just a few months later.  Redemptive history is reaching its great high point, its great apex.

     Now you need to understand just a little bit about redemptive history by way of a sort of an overview.  We've been doing a series on creation, a series on origins and the question comes up...why did God create?  Why did God create the universe?  Why did God make the earth, the theater of the universe?  And why did he put mankind on a stage?  What is this all about?

     Well, the answer is, to put it simply, God created the universe as we know it, the physical universe as we know it, created the earth, put man on it in order that He might redeem a bride for His Son.  In order that He might bring to glory a redeemed humanity.  It was an expression of His love to give to the Son a bride, a bride who, in effect would radiate the Son's glory, would serve and praise Him and worship Him and adore Him forever and ever and ever...which is exactly what all redeemed people will do.  God will bring us to glory for the praise of His Son forever. 

     Now in order for God also in gathering a bride for His Son, to put Himself on display, God allowed sin to enter into the picture.  When creation occurred, the garden was a perfect environment, it was without sin, without corruption, without decay and without death, but into the perfection of that creation came sin.  Sin came in the form of a fallen angel by the name of Satan.  Lucifer's sin came, of course, in the case of Adam and Eve who believed the lies of Satan, disobeyed God and plunged the entire human race into depravity and sinfulness.  And thus God began to reach out and save sinners.  God created the universe to put His creative powers on display.  He created the universe to demonstrate a perfection of life and a joy that the creature could have with the creator.  He created the universe also to allow for fall and sin so that in response He could demonstrate the attributes that can only be demonstrated in an environment of sin...mercy, grace, compassion, forgiveness.  We would never know that about God if it were not for the fact that there is sin in the world.  And so, God allowed sin to come into the world and then began to put His grace and compassion and mercy and forgiveness on display and sought to redeem sinful man and to reshape sinners into a bride for His Son.

     Now obviously the apex of this whole redemptive plan is when His Son comes into the world to die in the place of sinners.  He comes into the world, first of all, to live a perfect life for 33 years so that a perfect life of righteousness which He lives could be put to your account and mine.  And then He died on the cross in our place.  So He lived a perfect life which is given to us.  He died on the cross bearing our sins.  On the cross God treated Him as if He had lived our life and by grace He treats us as if we'd lived His.

     So the apex of redemptive history is the coming of Messiah.  He comes and provides a sacrifice by which righteousness can be granted to sinners at any point in redemptive history...Old Testament and New Testament, from the beginning of God's redemptive to the end.  The Savior came to live a perfect life, came to die, came to rise again to provide the sacrifice for sin and it would pay the penalty for the sins of all who would ever believe throughout the whole drama of redemption.

     Now the Jews have been waiting for the Messiah to come.  They've been waiting for Him to come and establish the Kingdom and give them their land.  They have been waiting for Him to come and show the mercy of God, bring forgiveness of sins and all of that.  Zacharias was one of those Jews who along with others, as chapter 2 verse 38 says, were looking for redemption to come, were waiting for redemption.  When was Messiah going to come?  When would God provide the final sacrifice?  When would God save His people Israel?  When would the Savior arrive?

     Here was this common, ordinary garden-variety priest who gets a visit from an angel out of the presence of God named Gabriel to tell him that not only is the Messiah coming but before the Messiah is coming a prophet to announce the arrival of the Messiah like a press agent, like a herald.  And not only that but, Zachariah, he was going to come in your life time and not only in your life time but he's going to be your son.  The angel Gabriel brings a message from God that you and your wife Elizabeth who have been barren, now in your old age God's going to allow you to conceive miraculously and your son is going to be the forerunner of the Messiah.  And Zacharias knew that.  I mean, it was spelled out in absolutely crystal-clear terms back in chapter 1 that he would come, he would be great in the sight of the Lord, he would be filled with the Holy Spirit, he would turn back many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God.  He would go as a forerunner before the Messiah in the spirit and power of Elijah and he would make a people ready for the Lord.

     So, they knew exactly who this child was.  And they knew that Mary was pregnant with the Messiah because she just spent three months with them.  Zacharias gets it.  He understands this is the high point, the apex of redemptive history.

     Now Zacharias at first didn't believe it so God miraculously made him deaf and mute. And so for nine months he hasn't been able to hear or say anything.  But upon the birth and circumcision of the son John, it says in verse 64, "At once his mouth was open and his tongue loosed and he began to speak in praise of God."  He had pent up for nine months with this desire to praise God for this incredible, incredible birth and finally when his mouth was opened he praises God.  Now there may have been other things he said, but one thing for sure he said is recorded in verse 67 and following.  This is what came out of the mouth of Zachariah.  And, folks, this is where we have to stop, we have to halt the narrative process and we find ourselves needing to just sort of build booths and stay here a while because this is really important material.  And Zacharias understood that and Luke didn't drop this passage in here whimsically, he didn't drop it in here because he thought it would make a nice balance for the narrative and slow things down a little bit.  He didn't drop it in here because he wanted to throw a hymn in the midst of the whole thing.  He put it here because it is absolutely critical material to link what's happening to the Old Testament.  Of course the accusation through the centuries of Judaism has been that Christianity is a heresy, Christianity is not true religion, Christianity is a form of false religion.  The fact of the matter is, Zacharias knew it, the Bible proves it...Christianity is the fulfillment of all Judaistic hope and promise.  The New Testament is the complete story begun in the Old Testament.  And this benedictus, this blessing, this song of praise or song of salvation by Zacharias ties to the Old Testament.  It makes the link for us.  And it is a...it is a very profound and far-reaching section of Scripture.

     I know we could read it and we could say that's nice, that's nice praise, and make a few allusions to it.  It's impossible to do that.  We have to stop and make the connection that is absolutely necessary.  This is a critical, critical moment in the history of God's salvation.  This is a critical coupling of the Old with the New.

     Now we've been looking at the...initially looking at this benedictus by Zacharias, what he said that day.  And I mentioned to you that it basically revolves around three covenants.  In the Old Testament God made some covenants, He made some promises that He pledged to keep.  There was the Noahic Covenant, He made a promise to Noah never to drown the world again.  There was the priestly covenant, He made the promise to Israel that there would always be a perpetual priesthood given to them.  He made the Mosaic Covenant which was a prescription of law given to Moses.  But there are three covenants that had as components as salvation.  You couldn't get saved in the Noahic Covenant, the priestly covenant or the Mosaic Covenant, those provided no means of salvation, no path to salvation and no promise of salvation.  The law...the Noahic Covenant promised only that you won't drown, it didn't say anything about the fact that you might burn to death.  The priestly covenant simply said there would be an available priesthood, it didn't say anything about who would be able to take advantage of it legitimately.  And the Mosaic Covenant didn't provide salvation, it only provided condemnation because nobody could keep the law therefore everybody was cursed.

     But there were three Old Testament covenants which God made that had inherent in them saving purposes...the Davidic Covenant, the covenant God made with David, the Abrahamic Covenant, the covenant He made with Abraham and what we call the New Covenant, the covenant which God made with Israel which is recorded in Jeremiah and Ezekiel and we'll look at that New Covenant in the next session.  But for Zacharias, he realized what was going on.  All the promises of the Davidic Covenant, all the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant and all of the anticipated promises of the New Covenant which had to do with changing the heart and the internal part and forgiving sin which was the entree to the fulfillment of Abrahamic and Davidic promise, he knew it was all hinged on Messiah.  It was all dependent on the Messiah.  It was the Messiah who could come and bring the Kingdom.  It was the Messiah who then would come and free the people from bondage and give them their land and their protection and the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant.  It was the Messiah who would be the focal point of the New Covenant forgiveness that God would provide.

     So, these three covenants are the sort of the stanzas in his song of salvation.  The theme is salvation, we know from verse 68, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel."  Zacharias filled with the Holy Spirit stands up and says...  Why?  "Because He's visited us and accomplished redemption for His people."  They associated the coming of John the Baptist with the coming of Messiah, rightly so, and with the coming of Messiah would come redemption.  And then he says the Messiah is none other, verse 69, than a horn of salvation for us.  A horn being a reference to animals, the horn was used for power and even to kill.  It was the formidable strength of the animal by which the animal was able to push and to destroy.  The Messiah will come with a push that will destroy the enemies of Israel and will free them.  And that's essentially what was in the Davidic Covenant because it says in verse 69, "This Messiah will come in the house of David, His servant, as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old," and what will He bring?  "Salvation, deliverance from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us."

     Now what did we say last time when we studied the Davidic Covenant?  We said that the Davidic Covenant was a promise to David by God that a Son would come out of David's loins ultimately who would rule in Israel and would rule over the whole earth and would rule forever.  It wasn't fulfilled by Solomon.  And, of course, after that the kingdom fragmented and split and today, of course, and for centuries and millennia three has been no real king in Israel.  But there will be a king.  God promised a greater son of David, somebody out of the Davidic line of David's blood would come to reign on the throne of Israel.  And from that throne would bring peace and prosperity to Israel, would rule with a rod of iron and His rule would extend over the whole earth.  This promise, by the way, was made in 2 Samuel chapter 7, repeated in 1 Chronicles chapter 17, repeated in Psalm 89 at the beginning of the chapter and the end of the chapter.  It is alluded to over 40 times in the Old Testament.  It is referred to in the statements of Isaiah 9:6 and 7, "Unto us a child is born, a Son is given and the government shall be upon His shoulders."  This is a ruler that is coming, a king.

     Back in chapter 1 of Luke verse 31, when Gabriel was talking to Mary, told her she was going to be the mother of Messiah, verse 32 after saying you're going to bear a son name Him Jesus, He'll be the Son of the Most High, verse 32, "The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David."  So the Messiah was to be the fulfillment of Davidic Covenant promise.  He will, verse 33, reign over the house of Jacob forever and His kingdom will have no end.  So He's going to come, He's going to reign, there's going to be an eternal kingdom, a universal and eternal kingdom.  And we saw that last time, that when the Messiah was to come He was to be the King, He was to set up His Kingdom on earth and it was to be an earthly Kingdom in Jerusalem where He would reign from Jerusalem over the whole world and with a rod of iron.  At the end of that Kingdom would come the new heaven and the new earth, the eternal state, but He would rule in that as well forever and that's why it can be said that His Kingdom though it changes from being temporal to being eternal is nonetheless a forever Kingdom.</