The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 1: Answer to Prayers

Episode Date: November 26, 2017

Well, Merry Christmas, everybody. Wow, that was stunning. We are still in our Thanksgiving coma, huh? Everybody, we can do that again. Merry Christmas. All right. Way to go. This week, today, we are kicking off our Christmas series, our Advent series, called He is.

And the big question, the big thing that we're going to be looking at and asking is, who is Jesus? Who is he? He is. and we're going to do this by looking at some of the stories that come around the events of Jesus's birth. Now, this is a little simpler. It's not easy. It's just a little simpler whenever the story in the account centers around Jesus explicitly, like it says the name of Jesus, or tells the events coming leading to the birth of Jesus.

But the story we're going to look at today in Luke chapter 1, if you have a Bible, you can go ahead and get there in your notes, find this thing. but this one's a little trickier because it doesn't actually mention the name of Jesus. It happens before the birth of Jesus is announced, and it centers on another couple, a couple named Zachariah and Elizabeth, and it's about the story of their birth of their son named John. And I was just thinking, like, this is sort of our life, isn't it? Like, it's easy to keep our focus on Jesus and to say,

he is this when we gather up in a place like this. This is why it's so wonderful to gather together at church. But you find yourself in the rest of your days where it isn't always the name of Jesus at the center explicitly of every conversation or at every job you do or being in the carpool line or go into the grocery store and you find yourself thinking, well, how do I keep this about him? Like how does this moment, this relationship, this job,

this thing that I'm doing really tell me who he is because like we've been saying for years he is before all things and all things hold together in Jesus which means everything in our lives points to Jesus somehow some way but it's really hard in most of our daily lives now I have this Bible it's a storybook Bible it's called the Jesus storybook Bible and I love this we have worn this thing out it is taped up I think we're on our second or third edition with our kids. And if you don't have one of these, whether you have kids or not, you ought to get one. Go out to the new gen or out in the lobby, and we have a bunch of them that we would love to get into your hands. But the reason that I love this, Sally Lloyd-Jones wrote it, and this is the introduction that she writes in the storybook Bible, Jesus' story-bubbub Bible. From Noah to Moses to the great King David, every story points to a child, the one upon whom everything. would depend. There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one big story, the story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them. Because the Bible, listen to this,

the Bible isn't a book of rules or a book of heroes. The Bible is most of all a story. At the center of that story is a baby. And in every single story in the Bible, it whispers his name. that every story from beginning to end in the scriptures is always pointing at Jesus. It's always asking, who is he, he is, or he will be this. And so as we jump into Luke chapter one, the question to ask as we read through this is, is who does this say that Jesus is? Who is he? And so Luke begins the gospel of Luke by doing a little bit of background. he'll tell you why he wrote this story, this account, and he'll dive in to tell you he did research on it all.

And then in Luke chapter 1, verse 5, here's what he says. In the days of Herod, the king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statues of the Lord. but they had no child because Elizabeth was barren and both were advanced in years. Like that's nice Bible talk for. She's just old, all right? They're old. Now, while he was serving as a priest before God when this division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by a lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense.

And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. and there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. Picture this. This is not normal, okay? This is, like, we read this and we can think, oh, it's the Bible, it's talking about it. This is not a common experience. And so this angel shows up, and he's right there. And Zachariah, arrogant as Bible speak, right? And Zachariah was troubled.

If an angel shows up, you don't get just trouble. troubled. Like he is scared out of his mind. So Zachariah was troubled, scared when he saw him, and fear fell on him. And the angels said to him, do not be afraid, Zachariah. You know why angels have to say, don't be afraid? Because every time they show up, people want to, they lose their mind. They are so afraid. These guys are not cute little telitubbies and diapers floating on clouds. playing harps. Like they are mass, they are otherworldly

creatures. Where one of them shows up, they wipe out legions of people. So this pastor is doing his deal. This once in a lifetime chance. And this otherworldly

messenger of God shows up and he just melts. And the angel tells him, hey, listen, don't be afraid. And listen to this, for your prayer has been heard. Like, just, this isn't the point of this thing, but Zachary and Elizabeth had been praying a long, long, long, long time. I imagine they thought, well, God must not be hearing my prayers.

Because God is apparently not listening. He just must not be doing anything. And that's a really dangerous place to get when we think this, lack of apparent progress equals God's lack of work in our life or lack of care. And the angel says, no, your prayer has been heard. Silence doesn't equal absence. And your wife Elizabeth, now listen to, watch all the wills in here. This is stunning. And your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John, and you will have joy and glad. And you will have joy and glad. and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord.

And he must not drink wine or strong drink, which is a bummer, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and the power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to turn. to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just and to make ready for the Lord a people prepared. So when Luke is writing this, Luke is a doctor, Luke is a physician, but he also kind of has a side hustle. He's a historian. And so he's writing this. And when Luke writes this, he's writing it in a certain way using certain words to get the people who would read this. And we're sitting 2,000 years in another time and another place and another culture. But the people that were there, they would have heard these certain words.

They would have heard this certain story. And it would have triggered things in their mind from the past. It would have triggered things that had happened in the Old Testament scriptures. Like Luke says, okay, hey, this happened in the days of Herod. And when they heard Herod, Luke could have said this just happened in X date. but he writes Herod to them and when they heard Herod what they hear in their mind is

oppressive foreign dictator that has his boot on the neck of the people of the God enslaving them for generations and they instantly would have thought oh I remember there was a Pharaoh

in Egypt that enslaved his people and I remember God promised he would free his people from that. And it would have triggered something in their mind. And he writes things like, Zachariah is a priest,

and Elizabeth comes from the line of Aaron. He didn't have to tell you what line, what the lineage of Elizabeth was, but when he does that, he's trying to trigger a memory. And they all would have gone, oh, the tribes of Israel, and Aaron and Moses.

Like when God freed the people out of, that slavery. And God was bringing them through the wilderness and promised there would be a promised land. Oh, God said he would deliver his people and he wouldn't just do it once. He would send a deliverer that would come once for all to deliver all of his people for all time. Or he says Elizabeth was barren and they were both advanced in years. Like they're just old. And everybody that heard that would have gone, oh yeah, I remember. remember another old couple, another barren couple, Abraham and Sarah. And I remember when God had said, I will bless you, I will make you a great nation, and you will be blessed to be a blessing

to all the rest of the world. And that from there, another Savior would come. That would actually bless the entire world. And then he writes all of those promises that he makes in there, the angel makes. All of the wills. Those all come from an Old Testament book. It's actually the last book in the Old Testament in Malachi. I know you're like, oh yeah, of course. Malachi. I read that all time. Sure. Yeah. Got that one. But he's quoting, he quotes Malachi, which is 400 years before this happens, and then it just goes silent. But this is what he's quoting in Malachi chapter 3. Behold, I will send my messenger. And he will prepare the way before me. and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come into his temple,

and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight. Behold, he is, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. And then Malachi chapter 4 verse 5, 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 their fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers lest I come. come and strike the land with a decree of utter and destruction. Everything that Luke is recording, he's recording it in a certain way to point back to all of

these promises that God had made in the past. And what he's saying is, here is who he is. He is a promise keeper. Like, he makes a bunch of promises, and he always keeps all of his promises. I remember, some of my elementary school years in Nashville, Tennessee. and I had an aunt and uncle that lived there also, and it was Annie Cake and Uncle Sugar. So that's a cool name for an Uncle, Uncle Shug, right?

And I feel like I'm in a rap video whenever I talk to the guy. But he was awesome. And one day I was about six years old. I was out in his garage playing, I guess it was after dinner or something like that. And I found in his garage, they had a normal car, and then he had this old car tucked back in the corner of his garage. And it was a 1960-something, I don't know, 63, 66, gold Cadillac, a 1966 goal. You guys are not impressed with that. It was an amazing car. Listen, you could seat like 10 people comfortably in this thing. Two doors, 10 people, two giant bench seats in it. And I remember going inside and being like, hey, Shug, what is up with this car? And he's like, oh, that's an old gold. He's like, when you turn 16, I'll give it to you.

I was like, I mean, even at six, I was thinking, this is the greatest thing ever. So 10 years goes by, my 16th birthday, I pick up the phone, I call Uncle Sugar. And I was like, hey, Uncle Sugar, how are you doing? He's like, happy birthday, Adam. I'm like, yes, it is. It's my 16th birthday. You're about to make it super sweet. You're about to give me old gold, and it just got silent on the other hand.

into the phone. He's like, oh, yeah, sorry, I sold that a few years ago. Click? Like, nope, you know, I don't know. But we make promises all the time. Like, we are great promise makers. We're just terrible promise keepers. But God, he's making, he makes these lavish promises, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of promises. And then he keeps every single one of his promises. Every time I do a wedding, I'll stand like right here with a couple that faces each other. And I'll tell them to look at each other. Look how handsome and beautiful they are. And then I'll say, you know what? The day will come when both of you won't look that handsome and beautiful. You won't always keep this promise to each other. Or you'll make amazing vows to one another and you'll mean

every single one of them. Come on, married people. I mean, no sooner does the reception end than you've, like, honor, cherish. Like, we mean well, we want to keep our promises. We're just not promise keepers, period. And the Apostle Paul writes in 2nd Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 20, he says, in all of God's promises, all of them. Every single one of God's promises is yes in Jesus Christ. meaning that in Jesus, God never forgets a promise, and he never breaks a single promise.

He keeps every single one of his promises. If you go back and look in the Old Testament, there are kind of conservative estimates is that there's about 300 promises about the coming of the Messiah, the coming of Jesus, and what he would be like. Now, if you take all of those and kind of boil them down, they end up being about 48 different kinds of promises.

You can lump all the similar ones together into 48 different kinds of promises. And there was a mathematics professor at a university, and he spent 12 semesters with 12 different classes, hundreds and hundreds of his math students. And he said, I want you to figure out the probability that any one person could fulfill all, not just the 300, just the 48 promises. And they went to work and they couldn't figure out mathematically how one person could keep all 48 of these promises.

It was too hard to even calculate that number. It was too big. So he kept working it down, smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller until he got to where they could actually calculate the probability. And they calculated the probability of one person of Jesus fulfilling eight, just eight of the promises. Pick any of the eight you want. and he said the probability of Jesus just filling one of any of the eight promises about who he would be is one in ten to the 157th power. That's one in ten and then 157 zeros after it.

I don't even know what that number is. And the probability, it's astounding. It is so small. yet God keeps every single one of his promises. And think about that. What does that do to your soul to know that God is sovereign? That he is seated on his throne, that nothing comes as a surprise,

that everything that happens passes through his hands, and that every single promise that God has ever, made. They are all yes in Jesus Christ. I got a text message from a friend yesterday and she was taking her teenage daughter to meet the teenage daughter's birth mother for the first time. Think about the emotion that is going on. Think about what that does inside of you. The fear, the anxiety, the hopes, the desires, And then you lay on top of that, God's promises, every single one of them are yes in Jesus Christ. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you.

And you take that, whatever your thing is, and you lay on top of it that Jesus Christ is the yes to all of God's promises. and God's promises are all good, and he keeps every single one of them, no matter what our circumstances look like. That puts peace inside your soul at a level that you can't even begin to explain. And so when you and I are celebrating Christmas, like our kids, right?

It's five in the morning. Your kids lose their mind at 5 a.m. on Christmas morning. They come tearing in to your living room, and they just rip every present open, right? Just, ah, Tasmanian devils. Things flying everywhere. And at 506, you're done. Tapped out.

You're like, I got nothing. And you're looking, you're like, well, the movie theater doesn't open for six more hours. What are we going to do? But when you're in the middle of that fury, think about this. Just in the middle of like, with all your energy and all your passion, you're ripping open all of these presents. What you're actually celebrating is that God has kept every one of his, promises. Like every gift you tear open. It's a celebration. It is you declaring that God is actually a

promise keeper of every single one of his promises. So this angel tells him these amazing promises. And then in verse 18, Zacharias said to the angel, well, how shall I know this? Now before we like jump on his case too much, because we're going to jump on it in a second. But come on. I mean, this is us, isn't it? But God makes these wild promises. And then we just want to go, well, I mean, how shall I know this? He says, for I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years.

I'm sure she's standing there just looking at him like, Zach? Like, come on. But this angel shows up with incredible news. This is the thing they had been praying for their entire life. And an angel shows up and he says, listen, I got great news for you. God heard your prayer and he's going to do it. And Zachariah goes, yeah, I doubt it. Like, I believe you in one sense. I believe you are God. Right? In my mind, he's a priest. Come on. He believes it. But then there's this whole other side of it. It's like, nah, I doubt it. I was about 17. I had the greatest job when I was 17 years old, 18 years old. I got to lifeguard at the beach. I mean, come on. Girls, waves, all of it in high school and college. It was awesome. And where I

lifeguarded, you rotated from the beach and then you kind of went in and worked at the pool area for a while and he went out on the beach and I got done one day and my buddy Jody was on this the late shift he was there working at the pool late that afternoon and so I was all dressed I had on like my flip-flops my shorts I had my shirt on my glasses hat my backpack with my car keys and I'd say cell phone but it was in ancient of days and we didn't have those things then and I was standing with Jody and I'm standing on the pool and I've got one foot on the pool deck and I've got one foot in the gutter right where there's just that little bit of water, like two inches of water. And we're just talking, and I'm kind of kicking the water as we're talking.

And then out of the corner of my eye, I see, after the 9 o'clock I was corrected, the second most beautiful woman in the world. You get that, right? And I see her out of the corner of my eye, and the, like, look, goes to a linger. And then I'm like, ooh, and I take one step, and I go right in the pool. like packed pool deck has anybody ever asked you like what is your most embarrassing moment that was it like fully dressed staring at a girl thinking i was awesome as a lifeguard and because i had one foot in one place and one foot in the other the minute i sort of took my eyes off my friend and went uh and then

right in that's what doubt is like doubt is putting your foot in two different places and this is Zachariah, like mentally he gets it. But in his gut, he's just like, ah. And he stands in two places at one time with God. And then the angel answered him, verse 19. I'm Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God. And I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news, literally this gospel. Now, what's interesting is, It's a little bit hard here to tell whether he's saying, was the good news what he just told him about the birth of his son? Or is the good news what he's about to tell him? And I would argue that it's both.

It's what he just said and the good news is what he's about to tell him. And you have to remember that it's good news. Verse 20, and behold, you will be silent and unable to speak. until the day that these things take place because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time. And the people were waiting for Zachariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple. And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them. And they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute.

and then when the time of his service was ended, he went to his home. So this angel shows up and he goes, listen, I got good news for Zachariah, you've been praying for a child. Guess what? One is coming. And he says, I kind of doubt that. And then the angel says, you know what? You need to go in time out for a little bit.

Do you remember, like, if things went down at my house really, really, really well, I may have gotten a timeout. As an adult, think about this. In timeout as a kid, your mom or your dad would say, hey, listen, I want you to go to your room by yourself for an extended period of time and just think about the events that unfolded. That's not punishment. That's heaven.

Like, as an adult, come on, moms. Don't you wish somebody would look at you and go, hey, why don't you just take a little bit of time in your room by yourself? Just a little bit of time to think about some things. Consider the events of the day. All alone for a while. You just go be alone. What He's doing, what God is doing right here is not a punishment.

He is not punishing Zachariah. He's disciplining him. And there are two totally different things. and God is putting Zachariah in this time out, a little bit of quiet time, and it's good news for him. It's not punishment. The word discipline and the word disciple come from the same place. And what God is doing with Zachariah here is that he's actually discipling him. He's going to look at him and say, hey, listen, on the biggest matter of your life, your trust in me, Zachariah,

I'm just not satisfied. I'm not mad at you, but I'm just not satisfied to leave you with one foot on believing and one foot on not believing. And so he's going to disciple him. He's going to move him along. He's going to discipline and disciple this disbelief out of him so that he'll stand in one place, single-hearted and single-minded and trust before God. because not only is he, he is the promise keeper, but he's also, he is a loving discipller. He's a loving discipleer. The book of Hebrews in chapter 12, the author of the book of Hebrews quotes Proverbs chapter 3. And this is how he says it. He says, my son, do not regard lightly the dead.

discipline of the Lord. Don't run away. Don't just brush it off as something that's not a big deal. Don't regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him. For those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines that your discipline is actually a sign. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, the discipline that happens. in your life is actually a sign of God's love towards you,

that God would disciple you, he would not be satisfied with leaving you in multiple places, but would want to conform you and shepherd you and bring you along so that you would look and live more like his son, Jesus Christ. That is love from the Father towards you. And he scourges every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you endure. The reason God disciples and disciplines us in our faith is that he wants us to endure to the end in our faith.

He wants us to come to the end of our days and to say, I fought the good fight. And I look more like Jesus now than I ever have in the rest of my life. And God is disciplining us along in that. God deals with you as with sons. for what son is there whom his father does not discipline but listen to this if you are without discipline of which all have become bar takers

then you are illegitimate children and not sons the discipline of God if you are a follower of Jesus Christ the discipline the disciplining of God on your life is actually proof that you are a child of God that's good news it means you can stare down

tough things, hard things, painful things, and say all of these are just confirming the fact that God is my father and that he loves me. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them. Shall we not much rather be subject to the father of spirits and live? for they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but He, God, disciplines us for our good. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, man, you're being disciplined by God. You're being disciples by God. It's for your good.

God wants good for you all the days of your life. and he will discipline and he will disciple his followers so that they'd have that. He disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness. He disciplines us so that our life looks more like Jesus. He's conforming us and molding us and shaping us so that our lives as followers of Christ would more reflect who Christ is to the rest of this world. All discipline for the moment. It seems not to be joyful, but so.

sorrowful. Yet to those who have been trained by it afterwards, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. When God disciplines us, he wants it to do it so that fruit bears in our life. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. That's why he's doing those things. And what you'll see, just to give away the end of the the story here. At the end of this thing, at the end of his little bit of time out, at the end of his discipling, Zachariah is going to do two things. One, he's going to obey the father, just like Jesus obeyed the father. And he's going to worship the father. That the discipline and the discipling of Zachariah brought him to live and look a whole lot more like Jesus and to just love and

put his eyes on his father and worship him. And so if you're a follower of Jesus, if you are a Christian, the pain you are going through right now, it is not payback. It's not karma. It's not penance. It's not punishment. It's not. And here's why I can stand here today and with a shadow of a doubt tell you there may be consequences, but it is not punishment from

God, the pain that you were going through, is because Jesus Christ bore all of your punishment at the cross. He took it all. When they beat him before he was strung up on the cross, those lashes that he took, those were your punishment and my punishment laid on him. And when he went up on the cross, he bore all of our sin on himself. He had no sin to be punished for. And he took all of our sin, he who knew no sin, became sin that we might become and joy the fruit of the righteousness of God. And when Jesus said it is finished, he didn't mean most of it, but you'll get a little bit later. He meant all of it. All of your punishment is finished in Jesus Christ, which means the pain, the hardship, the hardship.

the uncomfortable things, the disciplining, they are not payback. They are not punishment. They're not what goes around, comes around. It is discipline and disciplining of your Heavenly Father. And so it means, think about this, that when you're going through, I mean you had those times in your life

where they are hard and they're painful, and then you get some distance on them. I've told you this before. Kristen and I, Kristen lost our first child while she was pregnant with him. That was, it was one of the most painful, heartbreaking, excruciating things in our life. In 15 years, 20 years later, I look back on that and I would never want to go through that again. Like I would never wish that on my worst enemy. But with time now, I wouldn't trade it for a minute.

Because left up to myself, I am so driven. Like, if you could see all my test scores, it's like I just have blinders on, and I am like going after this thing that is put before me. I can live my life just so driven. And when that happened, and oftentimes people can kind of almost seem like they get in the way. It's a terrible thing inside of me. And when that happened, it's like God just ground some, not the drive out, but he just pressed in some empathy into me. That I don't think I ever would have learned if I had not been in that situation.

It wasn't punishment. God was just using the things in my life to conform me to look more and more like Jesus Christ. And if you are a follower of Jesus, then he is the loving, disciple. It's not God, why are you punishing me? It's God, what are you discipling in me? That's the question that we ask. And then in verse 24, after these days, his wife Elizabeth conceived. And for five months, she kept herself hidden, saying, thus the Lord has done for me. In these days when he looked on me, what she's saying is, God, look down at me. And he saw me in a situation where I could not do anything for myself.

And the Lord did for me. Do you know what that is? When the Lord sees you in a situation that you cannot do anything about and he does for you what you cannot do for yourself, that is grace. That's grace. That is pure, unearned, unmerited favor of God. And she's saying, thus, God poured out grace on me. When he looked on me, and here it is, when I read this, this just made, like, this is where study turned into worship for me. Because she said, God poured his grace out to take away my reproach among the people.

Like circle, underline, highlight, star, whatever you have to do next to those little words, take away my reproach. That word reproach literally means disgrace. Grace is the free act of God that comes through life, that leads to life. Disgrace, reproach is my sinful works that leads to death. And so what Elizabeth is saying is God poured out grace to take away my works that lead to death, that take away my sin that I can't do anything about and I can't fix on my own. No matter how hard I try, no matter how hard I clean my act up, how tight my filter is.

I can't take away my own reproach, but God takes away. Now, there's a word that we talk about all the time here that is an amazing word. It's the word propitiation. And it means a payment that satisfies. There's another word that you can lay us alongside of that word. that is another amazing, really big.

You'll impress lots of people with this Bible word, all right? Because you just throw this out at dinner tonight. I'll be like, wow. There's propitiation, which means a payment that satisfies. And then there's this word expiation, which means to take away. That's what this word is. And what Elizabeth is saying here is, my reproach, God is my expiation. God has taken away the same.

sin of my life that I could do nothing about. And when she says this, she's echoing the exact words of Leviticus 16, to which you're like, oh yeah, of course. That's exactly what I was thinking. But in Leviticus 16, that's where the day of atonement for the Jewish people is outlined. And in the day of atonement, there were two goats. There was a sacrificial goat. And that sacrificial goat, they would pray, they would have this whole ceremony, and they would symbolized the laying of the sin of the people of God on this sacrificial goat. And when the go was sacrificed, it symbolized that God would cover and pay for their sins. That was a goat of, that was propitiation. It was to symbolize that God would, in due time, fulfill all and pay for

all of the sins of the followers of Christ. And then there was this other goat called a scapegoat. and they would pray over this goat, and then they would run the goat out. And it symbolized that God was taking away their sins. God paid for their sins, and God took away their sins. Now, here's why this made my heart explode. Because I thought about God, yes, paying for my sin, but literally taking my sin away. like if this were your sin and God shows up and God says hey in Jesus let me have that and he takes it from you what do you no longer have you don't have your sin anymore now think about this here's what's so great is that

what God takes away do you think he's ever going to give you this back do you think he's oh you want your sin back here you go I'm sorry I paid for that, but I'll just give you. No, what God takes away, when God takes away our sin, he takes it forever. And when you don't have sin, you are saved. It's why you can believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that once God has taken your sin, once you are saved, you are saved forever because he took all of your sin. Your salvation is fully and finally secure because he takes away your reproach. There's such a comfort that he would be such a gracious Savior. It's like in the song that we just sang, He, Jesus, meaning God saves. He is our Savior. He is a gracious savior. Then when Jesus went to the cross, he bore all of the penalty and the payment for our sin,

and he took it away and put it on himself and he died to it all. And so the question would be, like we're in a season right now on Christmas, wherever it's like, this is what I want, this is what I want, this is what I want. Kids are making their list and checking it 20 times and doing the whole deal. Here's the question I would ask. If Jesus is your Savior, Jesus takes away the sin in your life, what do you want Jesus to take from you this Christmas? What is it that you know Jesus has paid for, but you want him to take? What is the burden? What is the sin? What is that thing that you know

he's paid the price for? And you want him to take away from you. And the question that we have to ask in this moment is what do you do? Like, what do you do with a God when he is a promise keeper? What do you do with a God when he is a loving discipliner? What do you do with a God when he is a gracious Savior? Here's the answer. You do exactly what Elizabeth and Zachariah do. You respond. If you skip over to chapter 1, verse 57, listen to how Elizabeth. Elizabeth and Zachariah respond to this. We'll get to the story that falls in between, but next week. But listen to how they respond.

Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth. And she bore a son. And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy, shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced. Like they hear that the free gift of grace has been poured out in their lives, and they just rejoice over it. And on the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zachariah after his father.

But this mother answered, no. He should be called John. And they said to her, well, none of your relatives are called by this name. Like, everybody names their kid after a relative. Why aren't you doing what everybody else does? The whole stream of cultures running off this way. Why don't you jump in that stream and run down and within it? everybody else. She goes, no, no. And they made signs to the father, inquiring what he wanted

him to be called, and he asked for a writing tablet, and he wrote, his name is John. In light of God being, this saving, promise keeping, disciplining God, what they say is no matter what all of the circumstances and no matter what everybody else is doing, the way we're going to respond is by faithfulness to that God. We don't care what everybody else says. We don't care what everybody else says. We don't care what everybody else is doing, we are going to live like our Savior lived. And they just humbly and joyfully obey. And they all wondered. And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loose. Do you get that? And he spoke blessing to God. His response is to worship. Fear came on all the neighbors and all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea. And

all who had laid them up in their hearts saying, what will this child be? For the hand of the Lord was with him. And his father, Zachariah, was filled with the Holy Spirit. And he prophesied saying, he's going to write a song. He's going to write a worship song. He's going to say, God has been this Savior, promised people, or discipling God for me. And then he says in response, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel. The first thing he's going to do is just pour out a response of worship for who God is. For he has visited and he has redeemed his people and he has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of a servant David as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old.

That we should be saved from our enemies. Namely, enemy number one is me. I am my own enemy. And God's going to save me from me and from the hand of all who hate us 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 and holiness and righteousness all of our days.

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the most high, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way. Now watch us. To give knowledge. of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins. His response to all of who God has been is to say, God, all of your grace, all of your gospel, all of your goodness, all of it is that you are giving salvation. You are forgiving us. You bore all of our sins on your son, Jesus Christ. This one who is to be born will end up being our Savior.

And I'm just going to worship him. And he says the reason that this grace and this forgiveness and this salvation comes is because of the tender mercy of God. The reason that God forgives our sins. The reason that God pours out salvation by grace through faith is not because of my good works. and it's not because of your good works. It's not because we say the right thing or do the right thing or dress the right way or act the right way. It is solely, totally, completely, utterly

because of his tender mercies. And so will you respond? Will you do what Elizabeth and Zachariah did? And maybe response is going to look different for a bunch of us. But maybe today for the first time you're feeling the spirit. You don't know what it is, but you're just like, yes, I want the forgiveness and the salvation. I want God to actually keep all of his promises for me.

And yes, God, for the first time, I'm just, I want to step away from standing in two places. And I want to squarely put all of my faith and all of my trust in you as my gracious Savior. And that you would say yes to God being. a promise keeper in keeping all of his promises as yes in Jesus Christ to you. And would you pray? Would you bow your heads right now? And if today for the first time, you want to say yes to the God who's kept all of his promises in Jesus Christ to you. And if you want to stand squarely trusting him for your salvation, that on the cross he paid for all your sin, took it away took away all of your reproach, never to give it back, that you might be forgiven and free and counted as a child of God.

Would you raise your hand right now? Yeah. Heavenly Father, thank you that you have kept all of your promises in Jesus Christ. God, thank you that no matter what our circumstances say, no matter what is going on in our life, no matter the situation, you are sure and you are sovereign and you are in control and you will never be swayed from keeping a single promise. God, some of us are really hurting and have situations that feel like they are spinning out of control. God comfort us with the promises of your gospel. Lord, some of us are just feeling the press. God, if you want to bless us, great. But if you need to break us, whatever it takes, Father. Shape us, conform us, mold us to look more like your son, Jesus Christ.

And we know it comes from a heart of love and grace of a perfect heavenly Father. And God, thank you. Thank you that Jesus Christ is our gracious Savior. That he takes away the sin of the world. And God, may we respond to that good grace. In Jesus' name, amen.