The title of my message is a horn of salvation a horn of salvation coming from the song of Zechariah and Just four points this morning. If you're taking notes, the first point is the preparer has been born The preparer has been born verses 57 and 58. Look at those verses again now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth and she bore a son and and her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her." Now, there's nothing surprising about that, is there? When women have children, their friends, their relatives rejoice with them. That's not unusual, that's not uncommon. We all rejoice when a child has come into the world. Our families had lots of reasons to do that this year as well. And of course, in her case, she's rather old, isn't she? And so is Zachariah. And so there's all the more reason to rejoice. They didn't think that this family was ever going to have children. And God has given them a son. So there's every reason for rejoicing. But did you notice the way that Luke describes this? He doesn't say that her neighbors and relatives heard that she'd had a child and rejoiced with her. What does Luke say? Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her. Do you see the difference? It's not just that she's had a child. It's not just a matter of chance or biology. This is the Lord's doing, and they're rejoicing in that. The Lord is the one who's given her a son. Their joy is rooted in recognition of the Lord's providence and his goodness and his kindness and his mercy. So the preparer, John the Baptist, has been born. Number two, the priest has believed, verses 59 to 64. Let's look at that again. And on the eighth day after the child was born, they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father. But his mother answered, no, he shall be called John. And they said to her, none of your relatives is called by this name. And they made signs to his father inquiring what he wanted him to be called. And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, his name is John. They all wondered and immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed and he spoke blessing God. It's a great story, isn't it? We're familiar with this. We know we know the story they've gathered here for the circumcision as the Jews did on the eighth day That means that the boy who is going to be called John He is he's eight days old now and and it seems like they're going to name him at the time of the circumcision and Seems like they haven't named him yet. And now that wasn't part of the Old Testament law Old Testament law didn't require you to name your child at the circumcision but apparently was a custom that they were following and the people all gathered for this this rite of circumcision and They assumed the boy was going to be named Probably after his father and so they're preparing to to name him, you know, Zachariah jr You know and Elizabeth says no his name is going to be John. And the feedback from these people immediately is, Elizabeth, Elizabeth, there's nobody in your family named John. Nobody. You can go back 20 generations, you're not going to find anybody named John. You don't have any cousins named John. Your father's not named John. Your husband's father's not named John. There's no Johns in your family. And so they turned to Zachariah, not content with her answer. They turned to Zachariah. I love this part. They start making signs to him. We're not exactly sure why we know that Zechariah is mute because of his Faithlessness from the angels messaged him earlier in chapter 1 Some have speculated that Zechariah may have also been deaf Not only mute but deaf because of the fact they were making signs to him. We don't know for sure But they're making signs to him and he calls them to give him something to write on, give him a writing tablet, and he writes out on this tablet, his name is John. And we see something of God's kindness here, don't we, in dealing with Zechariah. Because through that long ordeal of silence that he's gone through, Zechariah's faith in God's Word has obviously grown. And now he displays not doubt, but faith in God's promise. And immediately the Bible says, the Lord releases his tongue. He's no longer mute. And the first thing that comes out of his mouth is a beautiful blessing and praise and prophecy, a song to the Lord. And we'll get to that in just a moment. Third point. The people are buzzing. The people are buzzing. Look at verse 63 and then 65 and 66 again. So the child is born. What's the result of this child being born? What's the result of Elizabeth and Zachariah together being absolutely clear to everyone gathered, the name of this child is gonna be the name given to them by the angel, and that name is John. What's the result of that? Everyone is amazed verse 63 they all wondered and then down in verse 65 and fear came on all their neighbors and All these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts saying What then shall this child be? And for the hand of the Lord was with him so the result of all of this is this birth of John, the naming of John. The result of all this is that everybody is focused on the question of who will this child be? Who will He be? What will He become? And that's exactly what God intended to do. Focus everyone on the question of who is this child going to be and what is He going to do? God wants to focus their attention on this child because this child is going to focus their attention on another child, right? from his, remember, his prophetic leap in the womb, John the Baptist, to his exit from the womb, John is pointing people to Jesus. That's what he's going to do his whole life. The people are buzzing. And then fourthly, and this is where we'll spend the bulk of our time this morning, notice the powerful one is blessed. The powerful one is blessed, from verse 67 through the end of chapter 1. Zechariah's mouth is loosed and he immediately comes out with this wonderful song that's recorded here in chapter one. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, verse 68, for he has visited and redeemed his people. Now if you know anything about church history, you know that this song is traditionally called the Benedictus. And that's how it begins in the Latin translation of the New Testament. And so that's why this is called the Benedictus. Now in this verse, in verse 68, notice three pretty remarkable things as he gets started. First, nine months earlier, Zachariah couldn't believe that his wife was going to have a son. Now, filled with the Holy Spirit, he is so confident of God's redeeming work in the coming Messiah that he puts it in the past tense as though it's already happened. God has visited and redeemed, even though Jesus was not yet born. You see that faith there that this is sometimes what we call the prophetic past tense the way the prophets spoke with Confidence that this is going to happen So so we're so certain that what the Lord says is going to happen that we speak about it as if it's already done Now second notice the coming of the Messiah is a visitation of God to our world the God of Israel has visited and redeemed Remember that for centuries, the people of Israel thought that God had forsaken them. Prophecy had ceased for nearly 400 years since Malachi. Israel had fallen into the hands of Rome. And all the godly people who were still in Israel are waiting for the visitation of God. Luke tells us in chapter two, down in verse 25, that Simeon, who was in the temple, the devout Simeon, was waiting for the consolation of Israel. He's waiting. And in Luke 2.38, we know the prayerful prophetess Anna was also waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. These were days of great expectation. Now, Zachariah says, the long-awaited visitation of God is about to happen. Third, he's coming to redeem, to visit and to redeem. Now, don't read into this all that we know of redemption from the New Testament, from the Apostle Paul's particularly. Zachariah probably never dreamed that the Messiah would have to die in order to accomplish redemption. It took Jesus years to get this fact into the heads of his own disciples. But what Zechariah probably had in mind when he said God had visited and redeemed his people Probably the same thing that Moses had in mind when he quoted God back in Exodus chapter 6 and verse 6 when Moses said I am the Lord and I will bring you out from under the burden of the Egyptians and I will deliver you from slavery to them and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. Zechariah, no doubt, is hoping that the Israel of his day will be delivered. Delivered from the oppressive Romans and that the Messiah will reign, sit on his throne and vanquish all their enemies. And what has not been revealed to Zechariah at this point is that this deliverance that he's hoping for and the Jews were hoping for is not going to come at the first coming. Not going to come at the first coming of the Messiah. It's going to come later at his second coming. And that is the way Zechariah begins his song in verse 68. The Lord God of Israel has visited and redeemed his people. Look at verse 69. Now he tells us how this is going to happen. God has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant. David now, that's the clue that we know that Zechariah is not describing his own son John the Baptist Because John was not of the house of David. He was not of the tribe of Judah he was of the tribe of Levi and so Zechariah is not talking about his newborn son here and In fact, there are three covenants that Zechariah refers to in this song, this prophecy. Some scholars have found up to 33 direct uses of the Old Testament in this one song. There's a lot of Scripture packed in here. It's saturated with Scripture. The oldest covenant that's referenced here is found in verses 72 and 73, where he says, "...to show the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant, the oath that He swore to our father Abraham." This is a 2,000-year-old covenant promise made by God to Abraham all the way back in Genesis 12. Do you remember the promise that God made? He was gonna give Abraham land and seed, meaning children, and blessing. He promises Israel a specific land, and through Abraham, a specific people, a nation, and a specific blessing that would bless all the families of the earth. Now in verse 69 here, Zechariah refers to the covenant of God made to David in 2 Samuel 7. So God when God gave that promise to Abraham later, he expanded that covenant to David by telling David through the prophet Nathan that this nation that was promised to Abraham is going to become an Everlasting kingdom and that there would be a king after David who would reign forever So if you haven't got the message by now Zachariah is not talking about his Very important baby boy. He's talking about Jesus, the one still to come. Jesus is the horn of salvation. The kind of horn that's meant here, it's not a musical instrument like a French horn or a trombone or trumpet or any horn like that. It's talking about the deadly weapon that grows on the head of the wild ox, that kind of horn. This is the only place in the New Testament, by the way, where Jesus is called a horn. So, to understand it, we have to go back to the Old Testament and see what it has to tell us, where Zechariah got this picture that he uses in this song. The horn is a sign of strength, and it's also a means of victory. Back in Micah 4, verse 13, God says to Jerusalem, Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, for I will make your horn Iron and I will make your hoofs bronze You shall beat in pieces many peoples Back here in our text in verse 70 It says as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old The horn is something that comes from the prophets One of the clearest examples of such a prophecy is back in the Psalms in Psalm 132 17 God says this concerning Jerusalem There I will make a horn to sprout for David. I have prepared a lamp for my anointed. His enemies I will clothe with shame." So when a horn sprouts on an ox's head and becomes like iron, then he must be feared by all his enemies. There are only two instances in all the Bible of this phrase that Zechariah uses here. Horn of Salvation. Two times that phrase is mentioned in the Old Testament. One is in 2 Samuel 22, verse 3. And the other one is found in Psalm 18, 2. And both of these record the same thing. It's it's they're both expressions of David after God saved them I saved him from his enemy King Saul remember when King Saul was chasing David and trying to kill him and and God saved him and and here's what David said in both of those places that I mentioned the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer my God my rock in whom I take refuge my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is a horn of salvation because he uses his power to secure and protect his people. And that brings us back to verse 69. Jesus is the horn of salvation because He is a deadly weapon, and He has tremendous power, which according to verse 71, God says, we will be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. Now, primarily, Zechariah means here that the Messiah is one day literally going to destroy His enemies and gather His people into the land and rule them in peace. And that will happen when Jesus comes again. But Zachariah's words imply more than that. Go down to verse 74 and 75. because God's goal, his great redemption in raising up a horn of salvation is more than just saving us from our enemies. It's a 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. So God's plan in raising this horn of salvation is not merely to free an oppressed people. but it's to create a holy and righteous people who live in no fear because they trust Him. So when we're thinking of Jesus, this baby to be born in the manger, when we view Jesus as a horn of salvation, we're seeing Him not only as a national liberator, which He is and He will be, but more importantly for us now, we see Him as a spiritual conqueror as well. creating a holy and righteous people. So if the goal for God's redemption is going to be accomplished, the gathering of a people who are fearless and righteous and holy, then he must conquer fear and conquer unrighteousness. And the good news of Zechariah's song is that God has raised up a horn of salvation. Jesus is that great horn. Look at verses 76 and following. Zechariah gets around to answering this question that the people are buzzing about remember What is this child going to be his own child now? What role does God have for him? Here's what Zechariah answers and you child Will be called the prophet of the Most High For you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways Now Zechariah we know was already an old man when John was born And I don't know how long he lived. It's entirely possible that Zachariah didn't have the opportunity to sit his son down and train him in all of these things by the time his son had reached adulthood. It's entirely possible that John lost his father and mother in his early years. I don't know. Nobody does. We don't have the answer to that in scripture. But I do know this. When I read verses 76 to 79, I'm amazed at how the prophecy of Zechariah, given when his son was eight days old, Precisely charts his life and preaching ministry. Look at what he says You will be called the prophet of the Most High for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways So his baby John the Baptist will have the responsibility of preparing Israel for the coming of the Lord his coming in judgment, of course is what is what Zachariah is thinking and of course is coming in grace and And that means that John is going to have the responsibility of calling Israel to repentance because Israel had strayed from the Lord their God. And John is going to have the responsibility of warning Israel against God's just judgment as he is preparing the way for the Lord. But look at what else he says. Verse 77, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins. John's not just going to preach repentance. He's not just going to preach judgment. He's also going to preach forgiveness of sins and the salvation that we have because of forgiveness of sins. And then finally, if you look at verse 78, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the says a beautiful picture whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace. In other words, John's preaching of sin and repentance and forgiveness is going to be rooted in an understanding of God's mercy and the gospel of grace and of salvation. So notice those three things. There's going to be a message of repentance and preparation. He's going to prepare the people. There's going to be a message of forgiveness of sins, and there's going to be a message of God's tender mercy and grace to his people. And when you look through the pages of the New Testament of their description of John the Baptist's ministry years later, maybe more than 25 years after Zachariah says these words. You find the Zacharias prophecy is fulfilled perfectly and and kind of like the Lord Jesus all we know about the Lord Jesus's Early years is kind of summed up in one little verse in chapter 2 and all we know about John the Baptist's early years are summed up in verse 80 and The child grew and became strong in spirit and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel That's all we know about John in his early years But turn forward in your Bibles to Luke chapter 3, probably just a page to the right, and look at Luke 3 and verse 3. This is how Luke describes John the Baptist's adult ministry. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, the voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God." And notice his words of judgment against the leaders of Israel. Look down in verse 7. He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him you brood of vipers Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? So there are strong preaching against sin There's strong call for repentance and there's a preparing of the way of the Lord just as his father Had prophesied when he was eight days old But there's also a beautiful promise of the forgiveness of sins that God holds out for us in Jesus Christ. Look back at verse 3 of Luke chapter 3. He came proclaiming a baptism of repentance for what? the forgiveness of sins. And it's even better than that. You remember how the Gospel of John puts it? In the Gospel of John, when Jesus comes out into the wilderness, where John is ministering and baptizing, what does John say? Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus is that baby in the manger brothers and sisters and it's a precious and it's a beautiful scene that has been captured in nativity scenes everywhere But don't forget that the Lord Jesus also came as a horn of salvation I'm gonna invite the praise team to come back. We're gonna prepare for a final song here in just a few moments and as they're coming, just think with me a little bit more about what this means. The fact that Jesus is a horn of salvation for us is also what makes Christmas a time of good news, of great joy. It's not just great joy because it's cute. Do you know what I mean? It's not just because there's a pretty star in the sky. It probably is not a beautiful manger like we paint it. It's a place where cattle were staying. It's smelly, and it's rough, and there's no room in the inn. We know the story. But as we've painted it, and as we've captured it in story and in visuals over time, it's a pretty scene. It's a beautiful scene. And it brings us joy to think about the angels singing to the shepherds on the hillside and the wise men following. All of that is beautiful and it's joyful. But friends, perhaps the greatest joy in the Christmas story is because Jesus is the horn of our salvation. Listen to what the New Testament has to say. 1 John 3.8, the reason the Son of God appeared. was to destroy the works of the devil. Aren't you glad he's the horn of salvation? Hebrews 9.26 Christ has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Aren't you glad He's the horn of your salvation? Hebrews 2.14-15 teaches that Christ took on a human nature. That through death, He might destroy the one who has the power of death. That is, the devil. And deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. all of us who have been in slavery to our sin, who trust in Jesus, who had a fear of death. Jesus, the Horn of Salvation on the cross, dealt a death blow to the devil. Dealt a death blow to death itself. Aren't you glad Jesus is the Horn of Salvation? And through that same death, He paid the debt for our sin. so that if we turn and follow him in faith, we are freed, freed from all of our guilt. Zechariah says, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us, that we being delivered from the hand of our enemies, including Satan, might serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. Satan may be a roaring lion, and he is, seeking someone to devour. But none of those who take refuge in Christ. The horn of our salvation. Will be destroyed by him. I like how one author illustrated this point. Listen to this. If I were an artist, I would paint for my home a special painting this year. It would be one of those big oil canvases. The scene would be a distant hill. At dawn. The sun is about to rise before the hill and the rays shoot up and out of the picture. And all alone, silhouetted on the hill in the center of the picture, very dark, is a magnificent wild ox. standing with his back seven feet tall and the crown of his head nine feet tall. On both sides of his head, there is a horn curving out and up six feet long and 12 inches thick at the base. He stands there, sovereign and serene, facing the southern sky with his massive neck slightly cocked and impaled at the end of his right horn hangs a huge lion dead. Friends, on this Christmas Eve Sunday, I am happy that Jesus is my horn of salvation. Aren't you? Is he your horn of salvation? If you want to know the power of his forgiveness, We would love to help you find that salvation even this morning. In just a few moments when we've sung and our benediction has been given and this service concludes and there will be nothing else the rest of the day until tomorrow morning. There will be someone up here in the front, on your left, in the cubicle there in the corner, our prayer room, where you can go and someone will take the Bible and show you how you can begin a new life with Jesus Christ, how the horn of salvation can forgive your sins and give you the peace and the fearlessness, even in the face of death, that Christians have. Let's stand together now, brothers and sisters, and remind ourselves of this great gospel story that changed Zechariah and changed Elizabeth's life forever. And it's changing still the lives of all who trust in the great horn of our salvation, the sunrise that came to visit us from on high, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's sing our Song of the Month together because of Bethlehem.