SERMON 1 — Zechariah: The Song of the New Covenant
Luke 1:67–79 And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying: 68 “Blessed be the [a]Lord God of Israel, For He visited and accomplished redemption for His people, 69 And raised up a horn of salvation for us In the house of David His servant— 70 As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old— 71 [b]Salvation from our enemies, And from the hand of all who hate us, 72 To show mercy toward our fathers, And to remember His holy covenant, 73 The oath which He swore to Abraham our father, 74 To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, Might serve Him without fear, 75 In holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. 76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, For you will go on before the [c]Lord to make ready His ways, 77 To give to His people the knowledge of salvation [d]By the forgiveness of their sins, 78 Because of the tender mercy of our God, With which the Sunrise from on high will visit us, 79 To shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To direct our feet into the way of peace.”
I am departing from our ongoing sermon series as we enter the Christmas season. Every year I try to think of some new way to present some part of the Christmas story. Well, I was inspired when we went to the HOKSBA annual Christmas party this week. Kelly Randolph, our new DOM, presented a message about a Christmas song.
But it wasn’t your usual Christmas songs. Christmas songs fill the air every December, and in them we sing about every topic imaginable. Some are about snowflakes, Santa Claus, reindeer, fireplaces, winter romance, family gatherings, chestnuts roasting, Christmas trees, jingling bells, presents, holiday shopping, sleigh rides, mistletoe, snowmen, and dreams of a white Christmas.
And I don’t know about you, I’m kind of a cynic when it comes to Christmas music, but as every year passes, I find it more and more difficult to get excited about snowflakes, yule logs, or somebody’s front teeth. I would rather sing Christmas hymns like the ones that are rich in theology and meaning like “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” and “What Child Is This?”
But there is one kind of Christmas song that I really enjoy; the Biblical kind. And I mean by that the songs of Christmas that come right out of the Bible. The Bible tells the story of Christmas, but it also has its own songs of Christmas. There are four songs in the Gospel of Luke around the Christmas story. I am going to deliver a sermon about each of them through the weeks of December. You might know them by their Latin names:
These four songs are more than ancient poetry; they are windows into the heart of Christmas, showing us what God was doing then…and what He is still doing now.
And I look forward to all that God would show us concerning songs to get excited about this Christmas season.
Opening Prayer
Father in heaven, we thank You for this season of joy and singing. We thank you for the moments of happiness and laughter that it brings us each year. But, we pray Lord that today, and each Sunday, you will direct our hearts away from the earthly plane on which we live, to the songs that came down from the heavenly plane. Help us to sing of Christmas with a new heart this year. We ask this in the name of Jesus, our Sunrise from on high. Amen.
Zechariah and the Song of the New Covenant
This morning we’re in Luke 1, as we open the Bible around the stories of the Christmas season. And this morning we are looking at one of the characters in the Christmas story named Zechariah. Zechariah spoke one of the 4 songs that we are going to study this Christmas season. It has been traditionally given a Latin name Benedictus because that is the first word Zechariah says in the Latin translation of the gospel of Luke. He began by saying, “Blessed be the Lord.” And this song, inspired by the Holy Spirit really gives us a fresh perspective on the Christmas story, for Zechariah and for us.
But before we look at the song itself, let me refresh your memory about who Zechariah was and where he falls in the Bible. Let’s start by going back to the end of the Old Testament.
The Old Testament ended with the book of Malachi written about 460 to 430 B.C. And the thing that is unique about the book of Malachi is that it ended with a promise that the Messiah would one day come and deliver Israel. Israel, at this time, was living under the rule of the Persian Empire. But they longed for a day when God would fulfill His promise to send the Messiah and restore Israel and it’s self-rule. But after the last verse of Malachi was penned, 400 silent years followed. Before we get to the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, 400 years with no prophet, no miracle, no angelic visitation, no fresh Word from God, and certainly no Messiah. It was a bleak time for Israel.
Well into that long darkness steps Zechariah, an aged Jewish priest whose story becomes the spark that breaks the silence. Luke opens his gospel with two miraculous conceptions, the first being the conception of Zechariah and Elizabeth’s long-awaited son, John the Baptist.
Remember that Zechariah and Elizabeth were old, probably in their 70’s or 80’s and the angel Gabriel appeared to him when he was performing his priestly duties in the temple, and told him that they would have a son, and that son would be the forerunner of the Messiah. a child granted in their old age by divine intervention, destined to be the final Old Testament prophet and the forerunner of Christ. This was monumental. 400 years of silence, then suddenly we have 2 miraculous conceptions, angelic appearances, new prophetic word from God, and the promise of the greatest event in all the world.
But remember that Zechariah didn’t believe the angel Gabriel and because of that he was made mute. Remember these words?
19 The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. 20 And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”
Well, in the meantime, that same angel also goes to Mary, Zechariah and Elizabeth’s relative, and tells her that she will become with child by the Holy Spirit; a virgin conception, and that her Child will be the long-anticipated Messiah. She goes to visit Zechariah and Elizabeth for 3 months.
Zecharias has now, not only heard from the angel, been struck mute, seen that his old wife actually got pregnant, and now heard from Mary about her angelic appearance and virgin conception, he also cannot speak. Can you imagine, the greatest event in his life. Not just that he is having a son after giving up on being a parent years before. But that his son would be the forerunner of Messiah, and the mother pregnant with that Messiah is in his home. And even more than that. He knows what it means that the Messiah has finally come. All the blessings promised to Abraham, to David, for salvation, were finally going to come.
Now, do you remember what Zechariah’s profession was? He was one of the priests who served in his local community. Outside of his sacrificial duties, He would have been very much like a preacher today. His job was to teach and preach God’s Word. Now listen to this, here he had the greatest events in world history happening in his own home, and he is mute. he can’t talk about it. He was reduced to signing, or writing on a wax tablet. What’s worse, he had to let his wife do all his talking for him, which is a special kind of suffering. But, after 9 months, finally his boy is born.
And you remember that when the baby was born, they asked Elizabeth what his name was going to be. She said John. That’s the name the angel had told Zechariah. The women said, “none of your relatives are named John, so they turn to Zechariah to see what name he would say. And Zechariah wrote “His name is John.” And in that moment, having not spoken a word in 9 months. God loosed his tongue. And boy did he have a lot to say. Scripture says that he was filled with the Holy Spirit. What was he going to say after 9 months of silence?
Remember, he is a preacher who hasn’t been able to preach. And for 9 months he has had a lot of time to think. And I know what he is thinking about. He knows the Old Testament Scripture. He now knows and believes that God is fulfilling and keeping the greatest promises from the Old Testament. God made a covenant with David, with Abraham, God promised a new covenant in Jeremiah, and I know that for 9 months he had to be pouring over those Scriptures, refreshing his mind as to what was coming. Then, suddenly he can speak, and the Holy Spirit takes over his tongue, and all that theology comes pouring out. So, let’s look at what he said. He speaks of the fulfillment of 3 covenants.
Three major covenants tied directly to God’s saving plan appear in Zechariah’s hymn: the Abrahamic Covenant promising a land, nation, and blessing, the Davidic Covenant promising a king and kingdom, and the New Covenant promising forgiveness of sins and transformed hearts. As a priest steeped in Scripture, Zechariah sees that with the birth of his son and the coming Messiah in Mary’s womb, all three covenants are beginning to unfold.
The Abrahamic covenant.
Watch what he says in verses 72–75:
68 “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
“…to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, the oath that He swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.”
Here’s what the Abrahamic covenant was
God made a covenant with Abraham, 2000 years before, in Genesis 12, promising him
And Yahweh said to Abram, “[a]Go forth from your land, And from your kin And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; (a land) 2 And I will make you a great nation, (descendants) And I will bless you, And make your name great; (rich blessing) And so [b]you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who [c]curses you I will [d]curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
The Abrahamic covenant was unilateral, unconditional, irrevocable, and sealed in blood, guaranteeing that Israel will one day inherit all the promised land, live in righteousness and peace, and become a blessing to the whole world. Zechariah understood that clearly, rejoicing that God is now remembering the covenant and the oath He swore to Abraham. He understood that Once the Messiah comes and delivers them from their enemies (that’s the Davidic side), they will be able to serve the Lord without fear, in holiness and righteousness all their days (that’s the Abrahamic side).
In Zechariah’s day, they lived under the boot of cruel Roman rule. They served a local tyrant named Herod. But now this angel tells him that his son will announce the One who will
to show mercy to our ancestors 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
That was a whale of a Christmas present, and though he is old, I think Zechariah was probably doing the math, thinking that he might live to see it.
But how does this potentially change our perspective on Christmas? We are not inheriting a land, the land of Israel. God has not promised us that we will be a great nation. But we do have a part in the Abrahamic covenant that was fulfilled at Christmas. God promised Abraham that “in him all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
“All the families of the earth” That’s us. How was that going to happen. Well, it already has. Through the line of Abraham we got the Bible. We got God’s law. We got the prophecies, and mostly, we got the Savior of the world. And we are not just some orphaned children thrown bread from God’s house. Listen to what Paul says,
Galatians 3: 6 So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”[c]7 Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham.
14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Brothers and sisters, through faith in Christ we are the spiritual sons and daughters of Abraham. This Christmas we have a connectedness across the globe with all the spiritual children of Abraham. We can all celebrate with Zechariah that God fulfilled His promise to Abraham by bringing blessing to the world. But what about those promises of a land in Israel, and a Jewish nation?
Zechariah also blesses God for the fulfillment of a second covenant.
67 His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: 68 “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them. (the time of keeping promises has come) 69 He has raised up a horn[c] of salvation for us in the house of his servant David
70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
He is praising God that finally the promises made in covenant to David are going to be fulfilled. Well, what were those promises? Do you remember the story? 1000 years before Zechariah.
In 2 Samuel 7—King David of Israel wants to build a temple/house for God, but God tells him no. He tells David that his hands are too bloody from war for him to be the one to build God’s temple. But, God commends him for his desire to build a temple, and makes an astounding promise with David. He makes a covenant with David. He says, you are not going to build my temple, but your son will. Your son will sit on your throne. But He goes even further than that.
10 And I will appoint a place for My people Israel and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place and not be disturbed again; and the [b]unrighteous will not afflict them any more as formerly, ....Yahweh also declares to you that Yahweh will make a house for you. 12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up one of your seed after you, who will come forth from [c]your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. ....16 And your house and your kingdom shall [d]endure before [e]Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.”’”
God promised David that not only would his immediate heir sit on his throne and build a temple, but one of his later descendants would rise as King. And not only king, but the eternal King. This Son of David would sit on the throne in Jerusalem, rule Israel as their rightful King, and extend His sovereign rule over the entire earth. And His kingdom would be eternal, it would never end. God promised that a descendent of David would sit on the throne of Jerusalem over a worldwide kingdom of peace and prosperity. That’s what Zechariah is glorifying God for; for Zechariah, the time was come. Look at how he describes it. “68 “Blessed be the [ar]Lord God of Israel, For He visited and accomplished redemption for His people, 69 And raised up a horn of salvation for us
In the house of David His servant—
“Horn of salvation” is a picture of strength and power—a strong deliverer. The Old Testament often used the idea of a strong animal with horns, pushing and goring as an analogy for the strength of a kingdom. Zechariah is saying: God is visiting His people to bring redemption, and He is doing it by raising up a powerful Savior in the line of David who will push off Israels enemies.
So, when Zechariah speaks of a horn of salvation in the house of David, he is recognizing that Messiah the King is about to appear. He anticipates the day when Israel, long oppressed and dominated by pagan empires—Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and now Rome—will finally be free. He sees the coming of Messiah as the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant: a sovereign King, a sovereign nation, and eventually a kingdom that covers the entire globe, and maybe he would see it’s beginnings.
So, how does Zechariah’s blessing God here concerning the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant effect our Christmas celebration? We are not looking for the coming of Christ. It is a past event for us. But, we, like Zechariah do look for the coming Davidic Kingdom. Jesus came the first time as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, but He is coming a second time as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Root of David. We are not looking for His first coming, but we are looking for His second coming.
It has been said that in the shadow of the manger of Jesus was the cross of Calvary, and that is true, but also in the shadow of the manger and Christmas is the glorious return and reign of Christ. And we can rejoice with Zechariah that God has raised up a horn of salvation for us. It’s the same anticipatory glorious praise of God for fulfilling His covenant to David, the promise of an eternal kingdom over all the world. So, at Christmas our perspective can be changed by remembering that we are the sons and heirs of Abraham, but also that we are looking for a Second coming kingdom of Christ.
You might say, “Well, thinking about the 2nd coming of Christ doesn’t seem very Christmasy.” Here’s a Christmas song for you. Joy to the World. Can’t get more Christmasy than that can you?
Do you know the Christmas song, Joy to the World is one of the most famous Christmas hymns ever written, but surprisingly—it was not originally written as a Christmas song. It began as a meditation on Psalm 98, written in 1719 by the prolific English hymn writer Isaac Watts. Watts believed that the psalms should be paraphrased in ways that Christians could clearly see Christ in them. When he came to Psalm 98—“Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth”—he imagined what it would sound like for the whole creation to rejoice when Christ comes to reign.
Watts wrote the text describing the second coming of Christ more than the first. Listen to the lyrics with a new ear.
Joy to the world! the Lord is come; Let earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare him room,
And heaven and nature sing, And heaven and nature sing, And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.
Joy to the world! the Saviour reigns; Let men their songs employ; While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains Repeat the sounding joy,
No more let sins and sorrows grow, Nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow Far as the curse is found,
He rules the world with truth and grace, And makes the nations prove The glories of His righteousness, And wonders of His love,
New Covenant
There’s a third covenant that Zechariah blesses God for; the New Covenant. You can see Zechariah holding his new baby boy, who he has just declared to be named “John.” And saying,
76 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, 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.”
Now before I get to that, I want you to remember that Zechariah refers to 3 covenants from the Old Testament; the Abrahamic, the Davidic, and the New Covenant. But there are actually 6 named covenants in the Old Testament. Why did he only bless God for these 3 at this time? What were the other covenants? There’s the Noahic. The covenant with Noah was where God promised that He wouldn’t destroy the earth by a flood again. There was the priestly covenant. It was the promise of the priestly line continuing. And there was the Mosaic covenant. It was the covenant of law given to Israel. So, why didn’t Zechariah mention anything about these? Because the three he mentioned were promises of salvation. The others weren’t. The covenant with Noah simply said, I won’t kill you all with a flood. I could do it with a fiery meteor, but not with a flood. The priestly covenant did not save, because Hebrews 10:4 tells us that the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin. The Mosaic covenant was not a salvation covenant. It simply said, obey these laws and I will bless you, disobey them and I will curse you. And I believe that Zechariah was a part of a remnant in Israel who understood the futility of trying to be saved by keeping the law. He understood
Psalm 130 “If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, who could stand?”
So, Zechariah longed for the fulfillment of the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants, but more than even those he longed for the covenant would give him a new heart. Look at what he said.
76 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, 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.”
There are many allusions to Old Testament passages here, but let me hone in on the covenant ones.
Jeremiah 31: 31 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to[d] them,[e]” declares the Lord. 33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
Zechariah spoke of God giving people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of sins. Not, obey the law and live, disobey and die.
And he also referenced Malachi 4
4 [a]“Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. 2 But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays.
It portrays the coming Messiah as the Sun rising up over the horizon at dawn, bringing healing to land after the long dark bitter night. And the shoots of grass springing up out of the ground because of the sun’s life-giving power.
Zechariah looked at his own baby John, and He looked at a pregnant Mary, and He saw the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant of a land, and the Davidic covenant of a kingdom, and the New Covenant of Salvation by Spiritual transformation.
Let me close with this, Zechariah’s Benedictus is a Christmas song. Let me tell you the story of another Christmas song that I believe has the same tone as Zechariah’s.
Hymn Story: Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus
Written by Charles Wesley (1744)
Charles Wesley—author of over 6,000 hymns—was walking through the streets of London in the winter of 1744 when he was struck by the overwhelming poverty around him. The city was bursting with orphans, abandoned children, and families crushed under the weight of hunger, disease, and injustice. Newspapers were filled with headlines about children freezing in the streets and families living in squalor. Wesley, a man known for his tender heart and deep compassion, felt the ache of a world that seemed to be groaning for redemption. At the same time, he had been meditating on Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah and on the second coming of Christ. He saw the suffering around him and recognized a truth that still rings through every generation: the world cannot fix itself. It needs a Savior.
Out of this burdened heart, Wesley penned a prayer—a plea for the Messiah to come:
“Come, Thou long-expected Jesus, born to set Thy people free; from our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in Thee.”
I pray we can gain a new perspective this Christmas, the perspective of blessing our God for His fulfilled covenants of salvation, and the longing for the Coming Christ who will complete His work in some Christmas future.