SNAPSHOTS OF JESUS (Luke 1:67-79) INTRODUCTION On Facebook I receive many pictures or snapshots each day of friends, their children, their pets, and other things. We love to send snapshots of those we love to others. In fact I sent a snapshot of each of our two older daughters, Patricia and Paula, this month because it was their birthday. In our passage this morning we have some snapshots of Jesus as sent to us by Zacharias, John the Baptist s father. The setting is the circumcision of Zacharias son, John. He was eight days old and it was time to circumcise him and to give him a name. Zacharias couldn t speak until the naming of John because when the angel Gabriel announced to him that he and Elizabeth would have a son to go before the Lord, out of unbelief Zacharias asked for a sign. Gabriel saw his unbelief and gave him a sign by making him mute until the naming of John. Now his tongue was loosed and he began praising God in a hymn of praise. The focus of his praise was how God was remembering his promise to His people in the coming of the Messiah to bring salvation. As Zacharias praises God he gives us snapshots of Jesus. Let s look at these snapshots and let us praise God for remembering His promises in sending Jesus. OK? HE IS YOUR REDEEMER The first snapshot of Jesus is that He has come as our Redeemer. Zacharias begins in verse 68: Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has visited and provided redemption for His people. In the Old Testament redemption has to do with freeing slaves. Redemption means freedom through the payment of a price. The greatest illustration of redemption in the OT is when God delivered Israel from Egyptian slavery and bondage through His mighty power. God makes his purposes known to Moses. Exodus 6:6 HCSB "Therefore tell the Israelites: I am Yahweh, and I will deliver you from the forced labor of the Egyptians December 23, 2018 Corntassel CP Church Page 1
and free you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and great acts of judgment. Jesus has come to be our Redeemer. We are in slavery to sin, to our hostility towards God, and to our self-centered fleshy desires. Jesus has come to free us. He frees us by His mighty power, like God s great power of overcoming the gods of Egypt by the plagues of Egypt, and by the Passover Lamb. Jesus frees us by the power of the Cross. As we sing, There is Power in the Blood, wonder working power in the blood of the Lamb. Would you be free from your burden of sin? Jesus came to be your Redeemer. Come to Jesus and Praise God for Jesus our Redeemer. HE IS THE HORN OF OUR SALVATION Next Zacharias calls the Messiah the horn of our salvation Verses 69-71 HCSB He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, (70) just as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets in ancient times; (71) salvation from our enemies and from the clutches of those who hate us. In the Old Testament a horn was the symbol of strength for an animal. The strength of an animal was focused in his horn. If a bull gets after you, what do you fear the most? His horns. Think of a rhinoceros. It only has one horn, but it is powerful. It can root and stab and hook anything and remove it from its way. Jesus is our strength. The strength of God s salvation is focused in Jesus. He is the horn of our salvation. He can root out sin and remove it from our lives. Another way of looking at the Horn of our salvation is to connect it to the horns on the altar at the tabernacle/temple. The horns of the altar in Jerusalem provided a refuge for fugitives and those who were deserving death. Those who caught hold of the horns of the altar were granted asylum, as Adonijah did after he tried to proclaim himself king in the days following David s death. When Solomon was pronounced king Adonijah was afraid of Solomon and went to the altar of burnt offering and grabbed the horns of the altar for safety and protection. (1 Kings 1:50-53). This could be what was in Zacharias mind when he says that God raised up a horn of salvation for us in the Messiah. When we need refuge and forgiveness because of our sin we need to come to Jesus as the Horn of our salvation. We need to come to Jesus for refuge, forgiveness, protection. We need to grab hold of Jesus by faith and not let go! December 23, 2018 Corntassel CP Church Page 2
What a great picture of Jesus. Look at Jesus and run to Him for your salvation, your spiritual Safety, Protection, and Strength. HE IS THE FULFILLMENT OF GOD S COVENANT Another picture of Jesus is that He is the fulfillment of God s covenant promises with His people. Zacharias mentions explicitly the Abrahamic covenant in verses 72 and 73. Luke 1:72-73 HCSB He has dealt mercifully with our fathers and remembered His holy covenant (73) the oath that He swore to our father Abraham. What is the oath that God swore to Abraham? In Genesis 12:1-3 we have God s promise to Abraham. Genesis 12:1-3 HCSB The LORD said to Abram: Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father's house to the land that I will show you. (2) I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. (3) I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who treat you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you. God promised Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation. He promised him a special blessing. And he promised him that all the earth would be blessed through him. Abraham believed God, but he needed something to strengthen His faith in God s promises. Therefore God gave an oath to Abraham through a Covenant ritual which established a covenant relationship with God. This is recorded in Genesis 15. A covenant relationship is one which God makes with us based on His promise of being our God and we His people. We are bound to God through His covenant which is sealed with blood. Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant. Paul argues this point in Galatians 3 Galatians 3:16 HCSB Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say "and to seeds," as though referring to many, but referring to one, and to your seed, who is Christ. Then in 3:28-29: December 23, 2018 Corntassel CP Church Page 3
Galatians 3:28-29 HCSB There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (29) And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, heirs according to the promise. What a great picture of Jesus Zacharias is giving us. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant and if we believe in Jesus we become part of that great nation God promised to Abraham, we receive the blessing of salvation, we receive the promise of an eternal inheritance that Abraham was looking forward to (Hebrew 11:16). What a beautiful picture of Jesus. Come to Jesus and be part of God s people and receive all the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant and also the New Covenant in Christ. HE IS THE ONE WE ARE TO SERVE Zacharias is not through yet in his snapshots of Jesus. He mentions that the purpose of Jesus being our Redeemer, our Strength, and the fulfillment of the Covenants. Jesus is our Master, the One whom we may serve without fear. Verse 74 & 75: Luke 1:73-75 HCSB... He has given us the privilege, (74) since we have been rescued from our enemies' clutches, to serve Him without fear (75) in holiness and righteousness in His presence all our days. We are saved to serve! We have been rescued to serve Him. This is so important in understanding the Gospel. As our Redeemer Jesus has freed us from the slavery of sin and self-centered fleshly desires, and our hostility towards God. If the Son makes you free, you are free indeed. But our freedom is not just free from something, it is freedom to or for something. It is freedom to serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness in His presence all our days. Wow what a Savior! What a privilege it is to be able to serve the Lord without fear all our days in His presence. What does it mean to serve the Lord without fear? I believe that the idea is that we are to serve the Lord out of love for Him, Who He is and for what He has done. Our motivation for service is our love and devotion for Him, not out of fear of punishment, because Jesus has taken our punishment. I ran across a funny story about fear that may fit here. December 23, 2018 Corntassel CP Church Page 4
One time two little boys were went to the local cemetery to pick up pecans. They gather a bunch and were setting behind a headstone counting them out. One for you, one for me. About that time another boy came by and only heard them counting. One for you and one for me. His eyes got big and he ran back to the local store to tell someone. He saw this older gentleman and said, Do you know what I heard? I was down at the cemetery and heard God and Satan counting out souls, One for you and one for me. The older gentleman, said, Ok, let me go see. He went and as he got closer, he began to hear the words, One of you and one for me. He turned to the little boy with him and said, You re right! and he outran him back. The point is that fear motivates us to do things we don t think that we can do. But God wants us to serve him without fear. We are to serve God not out of fear, but out of joy and love for Him. We can only serve God without fear when we know Jesus as our Redeemer, Strength, and Fulfillment of God s Covenant. HE IS DAYSPRING FROM ON HIGH Zacharias now comes to mention his son John and what his place in God s plan would be and he gives one last snap-shot of Jesus. Luke 1:76-79 HCSB And child, you will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare His ways, (77) to give His people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins. (78) Because of our God's merciful compassion, the Dawn from on high will visit us (79) to shine on those who live in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. John was the prophet sent by God to prepare the way of the Lord. He prepared the way of the Lord by preaching a message of repentance and forgiveness. When we come to know the Jesus that Zacharias talks about, and then we will be like John and want to Go shout it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born. Zacharias gives us one more snap-shot of Jesus. He is the Dawn from on High. The KJV says Dayspring. Zacharias is probably alluding to Malachi 4:2 December 23, 2018 Corntassel CP Church Page 5
Malachi 4:2 HCSB But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and playfully jump like calves from the stall. The Dawn from on High or Dayspring is the sun. Jesus is the Sun, the Light of the World and He has come to shine on those who live in darkness and the shadow of death. We live in a place where death s shadow is creeping upon us. We need Jesus, the Dayspring from on High to come and shine upon us. This is a fitting end of Zacharias message to us. Jesus is the light of the world, the Dayspring from on high because He is all the other things that Zacharias tell us about Him. We could apply the country song You are my Sunshine, my only sunshine to Jesus because He is our only sunshine. CONCLUSION This week I encourage you to look at the snapshots of Jesus given to us in this passage and run to Him for your Redemption, grab hold of Him as Your Refuge, trust in Him for all the promises of God, live for Him, walk in the light of His sunshine. If you are willing to do this, then you will be experiencing the greatest Christmas you ve ever had. Amen? Amen! December 23, 2018 Corntassel CP Church Page 6