Christmas Carols week 2: Zechariah’s Song Luke 1:57-80

INTRO> On January 12th 2007 a man wearing normal close and dressed in a baseball hat, opened his violin case in a Subway in Washington DC. As he played 1,070 people walked by him, only 3 people stopped and listened to him and a total of $32 was put into his violin case. Why does this matter? The guy was Joshua Bell, arguably the wordless greatest violinist who makes $1,000 a minute in concerts. The violin he was playing was a 1713 violin handcrafted by Stradivari worth $4 Million dollars. It was an experiment put on by the Washington Post and the article won a Pulitzer prize, “ Something about incognito stories grabs your attention: greatness unnoticed, talent ignored, fame overlooked.”

CONTEXT> Why does that story matter for today? Well it is very similar to today. In today’s passage we see a greatness a greatness that is often overlooked. We look at the song of Zachariah. Who is this? He was a priest in the temple and was married to Elizabeth. They where old and where promised a child from God but not just any child.

• • “But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.” Luke 1:13.
  • What’s significant about this, 400 years earlier God promised a forerunner to the Savior. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” Malachi 4:5-6
  • Again, what is so great about John? Well Jesus of all people describes John’s greatness…”I tell you, amount those born of women no is greater than John..” Luke 7:28
  • What does all of this mean? When we look at Johns life and the true greatness of it all God is always at the center of it.

Big Idea> Christmas teaches us that a truly great life is a radically God centered life.

APP> What does a God centered life look like? (*Shout out to Mark Driscolls sermon for helping my outline)

1. An influence of godly parents.

• • “And they were both righteous  before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statues of the Lord.” Luke 1:6 APP> I didn’t say that they where perfect parents, Zach is silent for nine months. Being a Godly parent doesn’t mean you’re a perfect parent.
  • v67 “Zachariah filled with the Holy Spirit..” Do you see what Luke is showing us here?

APP> Biblical parenting is the process of pointing our kids to Jesus. *ILL> John Tillotson was the archbishop of Canterbury and an Anglican priest. He has a young and growing congregation, he said this to his parents. “To give children good instruction, and a bad example, is but beckoning to them with the head to show them the way to heaven, while we take them by the hand and lead them to hell.”

2) A filling of the Holy Spirit. v66

• • “ v66What then will this child be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him.” That a way of saying that the Holy Spirit was with him.
  • “for he will be great before the Lord. And must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mothers womb.” Luke 1:15

APP> Now, we need to do some work here… Many of you grew up with two great error with the idea of being “filled with the Holy Spirit.” APP> To be filled with the Spirit of God is to live a life empowered by God. We often forget this, this is what makes people great in the Bible. What makes people great IS GOD “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23

3) A deep love for Jesus. v76

• • “for you will go before the Lord and prepare his ways..” John had a particular call on his life and it was to prepare the people for Jesus arrival. But John had a great love for Jesus.
  • “You yourselves bear witness, that I said, “I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.” John 3:28
  • “He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30

APP> Humility is the proper response to Jesus.

*ILL> Many of you know the Name Billy Graham, but many of you may not know the name Cliff Barrows. Cliff Barrows was the keynote singer at everyone one of Billy Grahams crusades, he would always sing before Billy preached and after he preached. What many people don’t know is that he was more famous than Billy when he joined the team. He talked about how it was a struggle to sit in the second chair, “Bill, you know the struggle we’ve had about whether we join your team, and the Lord has given us peace in our hearts. As long as you want us to, I’ll be content to be you song leader, carry your bag, go anywhere, do anything you want me to do.”  *ILL> Selfies stick vs Foam Finger.

4) A passion to expand God’s Kingdom.v77-79

APP> How do we do this? What does this look like?

1. Giving knowledge about salvation. v77
2. Bringing light into darkness. v79
3. Showing a path to peace. v79b

Close> I internally left off the last part of what Jesus said about John, “I tell you, amount those born of women no is greater than John, Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” Luke 7:28 *ILL> Parker’s story.

Big Idea> Christmas teaches us that a truly great life is a radically God centered life.