“The Case for Christ - Zacharias’ Prophecy” - (part 8)

If you have your Bibles with you, open them to Luke chapter one, please.

We will continue looking at our Lord Jesus Christ and the fact of His Incarnation through the prophecy given in vs 69-80, by Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist.

Tonight, I would like to concentrate particularly on the first part of what Zacharias prophesied in vs 68-75 and, then, next week, Lord willing, we will look at the remaining part.

In actuality, it is easy to overlook this prophecy; in fact, although it is recorded along with the birth of Christ, it is not always linked with it.

All things connected with Christ ought to command our attention and excite our wonder, and this portion of prophecy is certainly no exception.

His coming from the throne of God as part of the Godhead, coming as the promise of ‘God with us’, coming after the herald appointed by God to prepare the way are all sublimely important and deserve our consideration.

All the prophets all along had given witness to Christ: He had been long promised.

When the early Christians looked back on Christ’s Incarnation, they saw Him as the One in Whom Israel’s hopes had been fulfilled.

He - in His life, in His death, and in His resurrection - was the turning point of all history.

He was the One Who was to complete God’s purpose in salvation, the One by Whom men were to be delivered.

In the light of Christ, history was a sequence of events, each eternal in meaning.

And each leads up to the time when His rule over all will be acknowledged by all of the universe.

When we keep that in mind, then, we can see that  Zacharias’ prophecy served as a transitional divine utterance in the progression of God’s salvation history.

Of course, since Zacharias was a temple priest, he was aware of God’s promise of a Redeemer Who would come from Zion and of the Redeemer’s forerunner who would prepare His way. 

But - in spite of his religious background, in spite of the knowledge of the Scriptures that every well-trained priest had, in spite of attending to his duties in the temple of God day after day, year after year, in spite of the unusual visitation he had from God, in spite of the divine promise God gave him, Zacharias had trouble trusting God at His Word, even though the Word was coming from the mouth of a divinely-sent messenger.

So, because he did not believe the angel’s announcement of he and his wife becoming parents through God’s intervention, the angel’s visit with him in the temple concluded on a bittersweet note. 

Zacharias was striken mute, in verses 19 and 20: ‘And the angel...said...I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent unto thee...and, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not be able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.’

‘Thou believest not my words!’ What a sad commentary for one who knew of the things of God!

The seriousness of unbelief is highlighted later on when Jesus could no longer work among His own people because of their unbelief.

Notice that in Mt 13:58: ‘And He [Jesus] did not many works there, [Nazareth] because of their unbelief.’

They rejected His good news of God’s grace; unbelief - because of unbelief, they were deprived of His favor.

‘Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.’ (Heb 3:12)

This is how the Lord looks upon unbelief, as coming from an evil heart.

Thus, unbelief of the things of God in Christ is not a small matter! 

It stands as unrighteousness before God and thus, Zacharias, in his doubting, was not exempted from correction in his heart attitude toward the things of God.

So from that day forward, because of his unbelief, God dealt with him.

The Lord kept him in seclusion for the next nine months wherein he had ample opportunity for honest contemplation before the Lord - a time to see what his heart held and to acknowledge his unbelief before Him.
 
How blessed he was to have the time for that - how very blessed he was, to face the Lord within his own heart, for he was being brought to a new place in God, to new light in Him.

Listen - such a time of quietness and reflection before the Lord produces something.

What was it in Zacharias’ case?  What was the effect of his time of distress? Look at vs 68 and 69.

When his impotence was over, the first thing he did was to praise God in a celebration of the acts of God.

He said: ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel: for He hath visited and redeemed His people, and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David.’

Blessed be the Lord God - praise be to Him - ‘I laud, honor, esteem, and extol the Lord God Almighty!’ 

Praises, real heartfelt, honest praises streamed from his innermost being!

His doubting was gone - it ceased to exist! His faith is enlarged!

His reaction was coming from a heart affected so only after the wondrous working of God within.

His implicit trust in God was strengthened and solidified - he could now utter the divine oracle, not only with confidence, but with the utmost assurance that God was able to perform that which He had promised.

As Abraham, he ‘...staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that, what He had promised, he was also able to perform.’ 

He could now be certain that since the promise was fulfilled in regard to the birth of his son, John, so also the promise of salvation through the coming Deliverer was just as certain of fulfillment.

His response was definitely not like that of Ahaz who we considered last time.

Of him, it is said in 2 Chronicles 28:22: ‘And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the Lord: this is King Ahaz.’

But, Zacharias, instead, yielded in his spirit to God and was given illumination - illumination that was beyond the immediate situation into seeing God’s work.

He was ‘...filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied...’
(v 67).

The Holy Spirit was giving him a vision of what was happening: a deliverance from enemies and God’s mercy acting in accordance with His promised covenant and oath.

Now, at last, he started to see how the progress of God in His salvation course of coming out of the old and going into the new was going to take place.

That had never been shown before - but, now - here it was!

He saw a new thing on the way that had part of its roots in God’s covenant with Abraham and His promise to David.

God was about to perform the mercy He had promised to David when He said through Nathan, the prophet: ‘...I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish His kingdom...forever...’.

And to Abraham, He promised: ‘...blessing, I will bless thee, and multiplying, I will multiply thee...’. (Gen 12:1-3)  

The promised seed of Abraham was soon arriving and He would bring salvation by sealing the New Covenant in the shedding of His blood for the remission of sin. (v 77)

‘That the blessing of Abraham might come...through Jesus Christ.

...now to Abraham and to his seed were the promises made. He saith not, ‘And to seeds’, as of many; but as of one, ‘and to thy seed’, which is Christ.’ (Gal 3:14,16)

John would be the forerunner to announce this transition from the old covenant to the new covenant.

Let me read vs 68-75 of Zacharias’ prophecy to see what it was that would soon unfold: 

‘...for He hath visited and redeemed His people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of David...that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;

To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant; the oath which He sware by their father, Abraham, that He would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life.’ (vs 68-75)

God’s people would be able to worship and serve Him without fear.

And, thus, under the Spirit’s inspiration, he could say in verses 74 and 75, ‘...that we, being delivered...might serve Him[God] without fear...’

How? ‘...in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life.’

This is how God would progress on His salvation course of stepping out of the old and into the new: He would bring a new kind of righteousness and holiness to the ‘delivered ones’ wherein His people would be able to serve Him without fear all the days of their lives.

Is that not breath-taking? - a righteousness and a holiness given to us whereby we need not fear as we serve and worship God.

How did He accomplish this? 

Look over to 2 Cor 5:21: ‘For He[God] hath made Him 
[Christ] to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.’

In the New Covenant, this Deliverer would be made sin for us, and in its place, He would be made righteousness for us. (1 Cor 1:30)  

And what was the view now?

And, here, we go back to Abraham, who was under similar circumstances that Zacharias was to see the results.

Look at Romans 4:18-25 and I am reading from the NIV.

‘Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him: ’So shall your offspring be.’

Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead - since he was about a hundred years old - and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.

Yet he did not waiver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised.

This is why ‘it was credited to him as righteousness.’

The words ‘it was credited to him’ were written not for him alone, but also for us who believe in Him Who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised for our justification.’

Because of their ages, Abraham and Sarah were well beyond the potential of becoming parents again, as Zacharias and Elizabeth were.

At first, when he heard the news, Abraham hesitated for one quick moment, but he did not waiver in trusting in God’s power to make good His promise.

As an expression of his trust and as a way to seal it, he went through the rite of circumcision for himself and his household before Isaac was conceived. (Gen 17:17-27)

God had the power to do what He had promised and Abraham trusted Him implicitly.

For this reason, the free gift of righteousness was credited to him.

Here, in this passage in Luke, God had demonstrated that same power again to Zacharias and, now, Zacharias perceived his righteousness in Christ, for the ‘righteousness of God...is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.’ (Rom 3:22)

That free Gift would come by grace, ‘...by one man, Jesus Christ,...’ and they ‘...which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness - the gift of righteousness - shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ...unto justification of life...that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.’ (Rom 5:15-21)

The Gift of righteousness and holiness would be revealed in this Deliverer Who was soon to be born.

What an extraordinary insight Zacharias was granted!  

Of Israel, it was said: ’...they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. 

What knowledge of God was needful?

For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.’ (Rom 10:2-4)  

Look at Paul: he desired with all his heart to be found in Christ when he would meet Him on the final day.

He hungered to be judged as having been in vital, living union with Christ.

For he said: ‘And being found in Him, not having mine own righteousness...but that which is through faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith...’ (Phil 3:9)

Of course, Zacharias could not see all that Paul saw, but he was seeing the new covenant being installed.

It was an illumination well worth the few months of distress wherein the word of ‘thou believest not my words’ was exchanged for a new place and new light in God!

Christ was about to be born and in His righteousness and holiness, the service and worship of God was about to be wondrously changed in Him.

I would like to stop here for tonight and we will continue next week, Lord willing.

But - will you take the following verses to carry with you this week.

Lock them into your heart and let the Holy Spirit minister their truth to you in a new and living way - would you?

This is it: it is found in Rom 6:13 and 22. 

‘...Now - yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God...now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.’ 

The Gift of Christ is the Gift of God’s righteousness and the Gift of God’s righteousness is the Gift of Christ.

Take this as your own and live fully in it this week.

May the Lord bless you in this.   Amen.

Let us pray.