Deo Gloria
Sermon for January 2, 2022
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: Luke 1:68-75
Theme: Praise God for Remembering!
- He has redeemed his people
- That we might serve him without fear
It’s embarrassing when you forget something, isn’t it? When you run into an old friend from high school or college and they remember your name but you don’t remember theirs, it’s embarrassing. You feel terrible. When you forget to send a birthday card to a close friend of yours and you end up sending a belated card instead, it’s embarrassing. You feel awful inside. When you forget about your son’s soccer game after school or your daughter’s dance recital, it’s embarrassing. You feel like a heel.
This morning in the verses of our text Zechariah praises God for having a good memory. Zechariah praises God for not forgetting the promises he had made, but for keeping his promise and sending a Savior. This morning we join Zechariah in his song of praise. Like Zechariah we too praise the Lord our God for remembering. As we heard again a little over a week ago, God did send a Savior. He redeemed his people just as he had promised. And as a result you and I are able to serve him without fear. Praise God for remembering!
Sometimes you and I have a short memory, don’t we? We make an appointment and then we forget to keep it. We go shopping at the mall and then we forget where we parked. We buy a Christmas present for our kids and we hide it in a really good hiding place and then we forget where we put it. My grandma had troubles like that. She often would put something on the stove or in the oven and then go out and work in the garden and completely forget about it. She burnt more suppers that way. God is different. He doesn’t have a short memory the way we so often do. When God makes a promise, he keeps that promise. He never, ever forgets. But God’s people, including people like Zechariah, may have begun to wonder about that. You see, they were still waiting for God’s promise to come true.
God had made a promise, a very special promise: that one day he was going to send a Savior. God had spoken about that Savior through his prophets of long ago. Through the prophet Isaiah, for example, he foretold that the Savior would be born of a virgin. Through the prophet Micah he foretold that the Savior would be born in the city of Bethlehem. Through the prophet Nathan he foretold that the Savior would come from David’s house and would rule on his throne forever. As noted by Zechariah in v. 73, God had even sworn an oath, an oath to their forefather Abraham: that through his offspring all nations on earth would be blessed.(Gen. 22:18)
But that had been so many years ago—700 years since the time of Isaiah, a thousand years since the time of David, over 2,000 years since the time of Abraham. Had God perhaps forgotten? In the meantime there had been that dark period in their history known as the Babylonian Captivity, when their country had been conquered by the Babylonians and the people taken away into exile. Yes, they had been permitted to return from exile and were once again living in the Promised Land, but they had to wonder: Had their sinfulness and disobedience nullified God’s promise? Had their unfaithfulness to God caused God to turn his back on them and forget about his promise?
Absolutely not! And Zechariah was one of the first to see that, to see the promises of God coming true. In his arms Zechariah was holding a baby, a very special baby. As announced by the angel Gabriel, their son was going to be the forerunner, the one who would prepare the way for the Messiah. And if the forerunner was already here, then the Savior himself could not be far behind. The waiting was over. God had not forgotten his promise. Praise God for remembering! Praise God for sending a Savior, a Savior to redeem his people.
The word redeem has the idea of paying a price to set someone free. Picture a hostage, someone who was kidnapped and being held for ransom. The kidnappers demand $500,000 for his release or maybe a million dollars. Back in October, for example, a Haitian gang kidnapped 16 Americans and 1 Canadian working for a Christian aid minisry and were demanding a million dollars per person for their release. Actually, you and I don’t have to imagine something like that. We were hostages, held captive by Satan and sin and death. And in order to set us free God had to pay a price, a ransom price—not $1 million or $10 million or even $100 million. The price he had to pay was the life of his own Son. Jesus, our Savior, paid that price, the ultimate price on the cross. He redeemed us not with gold and silver but with his holy, precious blood and his innocent suffering and death. And by his death he set us free—free from Satan, free from sin and free from death. God has sent a Savior. God has redeemed his people. Praise God for remembering!
Starting at v. 69 Zechariah describes what God has done in a little different way. He says, “He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David…salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us”(vv. 69+71). An animal like a bull or a deer uses its horns to defend itself and to fight off its enemies. So in ancient Israel a horn became a symbol of power and strength and courage. In sending a Savior, God had raised up a horn of salvation for his people, a strong and mighty warrior to defend his people and rescue them from their enemies, from all those who hate them. The people of Israel may have thought of enemies like the Babylonians or the Romans. You and I might think of Islamic terrorists. But the enemies from whom God intended to rescue us were of a different kind, enemies who hate us even more than Muslim extremists, enemies who not only would like to destroy our lives and our country but would like to destroy our souls in hell. God raised up a horn of salvation for us, a mighty warrior who took on these evil enemies of ours, who locked horns with the devil and all the powers of hell and who defeated them and rescued us from their power. Praise God for remembering!
In v. 72 Zechariah describes what God has done in yet another way. He says, “…to show mercy to our fathers.” Mercy is what you feel toward those who are helpless. Mercy is the attitude you display when you try to help someone who can not help himself. We were lost. We were helpless. We were a lot like the people in Mayfield, KY following that terrible tornado: our lives shattered, our homes destroyed, surrounded by death and destruction, struggling to survive and hoping someone would come to our aid. And someone did. In his mercy God sent someone to help us, someone to clear away the rubble of sin in our lives, someone to rescue us from all of the death and destruction, someone to lift our spirits with his love and give us eternal hope and security and peace. God has had mercy on us. He has sent a Savior. Praise God for remembering!
And what was the reason God did all of this? What was his purpose in sending a Savior and redeeming his people? Zechariah tells us in v. 74: “…to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.” That’s what you and I were designed to do, what we were created to do: to serve our Maker, to serve God. And we will never be happy until we do. Yes, we may find temporary happiness in toys and treasures and material things; but the happiness doesn’t last. Where are the toys and treasures and material things that we received a year ago for Christmas, the things that brought us so much joy and happiness at the time? Do they still bring us joy and happiness today? Do we still use them and enjoy them the way we did at first or are they collecting dust somewhere in the back of our closet or at the bottom of the toy box? That’s the way it is with earthly things. They can never make us truly happy. The only way we can find true and lasting happiness is to find our purpose in life and fulfill that purpose: to serve the God who made us.
The problem is you and I cannot do that on our own. By nature we do not love God; nor do we want to serve him. By nature we are alienated from God. By nature we are afraid of God because of our sins. Our conscience convicts us of our sinfulness. It reminds us that we have broken God’s commands and violated his will. It makes us feel guilty and afraid. Oh sure, we may try to serve God in our lives. We may try to obey his law and keep his commandments the way we’re supposed to; but we do so only in fear, afraid that he will punish us if we don’t, afraid that no matter what we do it isn’t good enough, afraid that when all is said and done and we stand before his judgment throne, we still will be condemned.
But through the Savior he has sent, God has taken away that fear. He cleansed us from our sins through our Savior’s precious blood. He has made us holy and righteous in his sight, covered in the robe of our Savior’s righteousness. He has declared us to be “not guilty” for Jesus’ sake and promised us eternal life in heaven. And as a result you and I can serve him without fear. We can serve him with a glad and thankful heart. We can strive to obey his commands without the threat of punishment or having to try to earn his favor. We can strive to live our lives for him, with the confidence and assurance that what we do is good and pleasing and acceptable in his sight because it comes from a heart of faith instead of a heart of fear. Through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior, you and I can do what we could never do on our own: we can serve God without fear.
Whenever we come to his house and worship him, we are serving him. When we teach his Word to our children or our grandchildren, we are serving him. When we obey our parents and our teachers, we are serving him. When we do our best in school, when we stand up for what’s right and for the truth of his Word even though we might face ridicule or rejection, we are serving him. When we teach God’s Word to the children in our Sunday School class, we are serving him. When we carry out our duties as an elder or a trustee or a member of the Church Council, we are serving him. When we help someone in need or comfort someone who is hurting or encourage someone who is struggling, we are serving him. We are serving him without fear, with glad and willing hearts because God has made it possible for us to do so through the Savior he has sent. Praise God for remembering!
You and I–we may forget at times. We may forget about a doctor’s appointment. We may forget about a friend’s birthday. We may forget about the rolls we put in the oven. But thankfully the Lord our God does not forget. He sent a Savior just as he had promised, a Savior to redeem his people. And because of him you and I are able to serve God without fear all our days. Praise God for remembering! Amen.