The Spirit of Christmas: Hope

The Spirit of Christmas: Hope

These words of Zacharias we are going to read this morning in Luke 1 verse 68. He says, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He hath visited and redeemed His people and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David. As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have been since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His covenant, the oath which He swore to our Father Abraham that He would grant us or unto us that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life. And thou child shall be called the prophet of the highest, speaking of His Son, John, for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways to give knowledge of salvation unto His people by the remission of their sins through the tender mercy of our God whereby the day spring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace and the child grew and waxed strong in spirit and was in the deserts till the day of His showing unto Israel.

Please mark your Bibles to that passage in Luke chapter 1 with me this morning and thank you that we have in our hands your word. We know that there are times even in the history of the English-speaking language where people would do just about anything to be able to see a copy of your word or to have a page from it because it was so rare to have your own copy of the Bible in those days. And Lord, now we have so many, Lord, we pray that we would not take it for granted, that we would understand as we read these words, that these are indeed the true words you have given us through the messengers that you had to write down your words and you preserved them for us so that we might have truth, we might have light, we might have understanding, we might not be lost in the thick dark fog of sin and without hope in this world, we thank you for that, we thank you that your word is the lamp to our feet, it's a light to our path. We pray Lord that as we get into the message in just a little bit, Lord, that you would help us to understand and apply the things that we've read. We pray for those this morning that we would like to have been here but were unable because of sickness or we're thankful for those that could come and we just pray that you bless our time together in Jesus’ name, amen.

We notice in this passage this morning, Zacharias is speaking with great joy, speaking with great excitement in his voice because all the things that have been promised by the prophets to the fathers are coming to pass. It is not yet come to pass but he has seen an angel, in fact, we haven't gotten to this point in our study of the gospels yet but he has just been in the holy place. He was one of 24 orders of priests that would serve in the temple. Each one of those orders would serve for a week twice in the year. Their time would come up twice in the year and we saw that he was well up in age and he was finally selected by lot to serve as the one who would go into the holy place on this particular time where he would offer the frankincense on the altar of incense in the holy place. And remember as we saw just Wednesday night when the angel appeared to him, Gabriel, and told him, look, you and your wife are going to have a son and he is going to be, in so many words, the forerunner of Jesus the Messiah. His name is going to be John. And Zacharias said, how can I know this is the truth, in so many words? How can I know this is going to happen? And Gabriel said, I stand in the presence of God. Is that not enough for you? I'm the angel sent from the Lord. I stand in the presence of God to tell you this message and you ask, how can I know this is going to happen? God sent the messenger directly to you to tell you that you're going to have a son.

Well, this is very unusual. Zacharias and Elizabeth were very likely at least in their 70s. They're well up in age. We are not told the exact age, but they were past child-bearing years, well past those years. And now Zacharias is given again. His mouth is opened. He's able to speak. And these are the words he has to say. He's had nine months to think about what he's going to say. Now he's given the ability, once again, to speak.

Jesus Christ came to this earth in his first coming according to the promise that was made. And Zacharias is acknowledging that. This child who is coming, who my son, John, is going to foretell and go ahead of him and prepare the way for him. He's been prophesied by the prophets for years, the centuries, to our fathers. We've received Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, have received the covenants of promise, David, have received the covenants of promise. And in those covenants of promise, it was said that there would be one that was going to come, to sit upon the throne, he's one who's going to come and save, one who's going to come and deliver. Well, Isaiah had prophesied that the arm of the Lord would bring salvation, right? Remember that? The arm of the Lord would bring salvation. He would save us people, this strong arm of the Lord would do the work. And he said, who had believed in our report? When he comes, it's going to be like a tender plant. It's not going to be any beauty that people would desire him, but nonetheless, he's going to come. Every one of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has laid on him this suffering Savior, has laid on him, the iniquity of all of us, of us all. God had promised that to Isaiah that a virgin would conceive and bear a son and his name would be called Emmanuel, God with us, he prophesied, he promised through Isaiah that prophecy.

We mentioned, I mentioned at the end of the Christmas program this past Sunday, that passage in John 14, verse 3 where Jesus said, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also. Actually, I was sharing the passage, talks about no man has ascended to heaven, but the Son of Man that has descended from heaven. He descended from heaven, but why did you descend from heaven? To die for our sins, the Lamb of God, but then he did what? He rose again and he ascended. He ascended and he says, I'm going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, what is he going to do? Come again. He's promised, he's going to come again. Peter tells us that as we get closer to that coming, he says it's going to be like it was in the days of Noah. There will be scoffers, there will be mockers that will say, where is the promise of this coming? Everything continues as it always has been. They're going to mock, they're going to scoff and say, y'all are a bunch of religious fanatics, a bunch of fools. Why are you wasting your time? When we see that men are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, lovers of their own selves, look up. The Lord could come back. Why not say, and He will come back in our lifetime, but Jesus Christ very well may come back in our lifetime. Paul believed that. Paul was looking forward in his lifetime. We don't know the day or the hour. It's not our business to know the day or the hour, but the promise.

Look how many people were looking for Jesus when he showed up on earth the first time: few shepherds, wise men, the magi coming from the east, you have Anna, Simeon. I mean, there were others besides those. Those that looked for redemption in Jerusalem, those that were looking, but the scribes and the Pharisees weren't looking for him to come. Were they? They were not looking for him to arrive. They even knew the scripture. They knew what the Bible said. They knew what Micah prophesied and they didn't bother themselves to go down to little Bethlehem six miles away and check it out. Nope. They were quite contented in their religion, weren't they? They were quite contented in their dead religion, their self-worship. Remember how the Pharisee prayed? He prayed thus with himself. I thank thee God that I'm not like other people are, you know, extortioner or, you know, I haven't done all of these bad things. What did the publican do? He wouldn't even lift up his eyes, but he smote his breast and said, God be merciful to me, a sinner, humble, not proud was the spirit of the publican.

But when we look back at all those promises that have been made, he's coming, he's coming, he's coming, the prophets kept saying it, rising up early and often. The Lord brought them to bring this message of hope. A Savior is coming. The arm of the Lord will bring him salvation. Well, we've gone these many years now with Zachariah and Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph, all of these still haven't seen the Savior, still haven't seen them come, but they had a promise. They had a promise that had been given many times over many years. We don't have recorded in Scripture anything in that kind of silent period. They were hanging on to the promises that had been made some 400 years plus earlier about the coming of Messiah and then He came.

Have you ever had somebody promise you something? I know you have, I mean, but think about when someone promised you something, have you ever said these words? You got my hopes up when you promised me something. I've said that. I've experienced that. We've all, I'm sure, experienced it. My hopes were up when you told me that so and so was going to happen. Maybe you said that to the meteorologist, right? I was hoping it was going to be sunny today or I was hoping that we would get snow or whatever the case may be. It might have been something far more serious than that. I was hoping that you would show up for Christmas or I was hoping that this payment would come through or something would happen that was really depending on that happening and it didn't happen.

Well, Zacharias and Elizabeth had been waiting a long time for a son and it seemed like they weren't going to have one, right? They've been waiting a long time for the coming of, and their fathers had, and their fathers had been waiting for the coming of this salvation and He had not yet come. But remember what David said? Look in Psalm 119 verse 49. Verse 49 says, remember the word, remember the word unto thy servant. This is a prayer. Lord, remember the word unto thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope. Remember what you said, Lord. Remember what you promised. Don't forget what you've told me. Fulfill it.

Well, we can pray that in our own lives, folks. Lord, we must base our hope upon His promises. We must base our hope. Because you know what? When people lose hope in life, whether we're talking about eternal hope or not, or just hope of, you know, people get terminal illnesses and they lose hope and they sometimes commit suicide because they don't see if there's any more hope for them. We've got to have hope to live. Well, David saw some pretty low places in life. He said, he even thought, surely one day I will be slain by Saul. He's going to kill me. He's been chasing me all these years and one day he's going to get it right. He'd never died by the hand of Saul, but he thought he was going to. And yet he had to constantly keep turning his heart and mind back to the Lord. Lord, remember your promises to me. To literally be my strong fortress and tower. Help me when I'm in this very low place. He would say that he cried unto the Lord and the Lord brought him out of his distress into a large place, a wide place. The Lord delivered him from all his fears because he had many of them. He said, what time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. He hoped in God and his hopes were built upon the promises of God's Word to him.

The Lord through the prophet Jeremiah said that he spake unto you rising early and speaking, but ye heard not. And I called you, but you answered not. That's what he said to Israel through the prophet Jeremiah. Look in Jeremiah 17, verse 7, though. The Lord spoke early. He spoke often through the prophets, but in Jeremiah 17 and verse number 7, I want to read these words. He says, blessed, blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is. There's a song that we sung before, not as a church, but that song before, have hope my soul for the Lord's in control. He will right all the wrong and truth will reign with the song. Have hope my soul. We sing that Christmas hymn, don't we? 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. Israel's strength and consolation. Hope of all the earth thou art. Dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart.

What does Zacharias say in our text here? He says, blessed be the Lord God of Israel. Praise his name. Blessed's name because he has visited and redeemed his people. God is with us in Messiah, in Jesus. Blessed be the Lord. Praise his name because he's kept his promises. One day the faith will be sight. Hope that is seen is not hope, and that’s what the scripture says. Hope that is seen is not hope because if we see that which we are hoping for, then why do we need to hope for it? Because we already see it, right? Even here, Zacharias, when he first saw that angel in the holy place, was kind of like Thomas. He said, Thomas who said, I will not believe unless I see, unless I reach my hand in your side and feel, I won't believe. Zacharias said, well, how can I know this is the case? Well, the angel Gabriel sent from the Almighty ever-living one. The true God has come and appeared to you to bring you this message. What more evidence do you need? What more proof do you need?

Well, Zacharias blessed the name of the Lord because of the fact that he had kept his promise. And yet think about this. He's basing it on that encounter with that angel. He's not yet seen the Messiah. He's not yet even seen his own, well, he has seen his own son now, but he hasn't seen the Messiah. He hasn't seen the hope of Israel, but he takes this token of the son being born that was promised to come as a forerunner of Messiah that the Messiah is coming very soon. He took that and is rejoicing in it. You know, as we begin to see God working in our own lives, we might—Jesus Christ has not come back yet, but as we see God working in our lives and we see Him fulfilling His promises to us in our own lives. It builds that hope and that anticipation. And when we say hope as Christians, we're not talking about, well, I wish this would happen kind of thing. No, we're talking about an expectation. If someone, a friend, says, I'll be at your house at so and so a time, well, you're looking out for him, right? You're expecting them to come. Well, the Lord hasn't told us the exact day or the hour he's coming, but he's coming. And that's all we need to know. Could be morning. It could be night or noon.

Well, remember Simeon. When he, look over with me, we're already here in Luke, but look in chapter two, verse 28, what did he say there? He says this, then he took Him, Simeon took Him, Jesus, baby Jesus, just like a week old, eight days. So what is it? Up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word. For my eyes have seen thy salvation. I've seen Him. That which I've hoped for and longed for has become sight. He says, and which thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light, a light to lighten the Gentiles. This is in fulfillment of Isaiah chapter nine, verse two, a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel. This is the light of the Gentiles that you've promised would come and he is here. He is, I'm holding Him in my arms. A son is given, a child is born. He's the Prince of Peace. He's Emmanuel, God with us. Simeon recognized that Jesus' arrival was the fulfillment of all the promises that have been made through the prophets.

Look back in verse 25 of Luke 2, what did it say about Him a little bit earlier on? It was, this was his attitude. Behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon. What was he doing? What can we say about him? And the same man was just, he was righteous and devout. He really served God, righteously saved, served God. He did serve God. He loved God. He lived for God, waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Ghost was upon him. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel. The word in the Greek here, the word has the idea of looking for something. I'm looking for, I'm looking for it in anticipation of something or someone that's going to come. I'm waiting, some people were waiting for the latest iPhone to come out. And they'll stand in lines for it. Some people are waiting for, well, Black Friday is not as much of a thing in the stores as it used to be, but I remember people would camp out. They would put their tent out in front of what was the Best Buy that was here. And they would wait for the doors to open that next morning. They were looking for it. David would say that his soul waited on the Lord more than those that watch for the morning.

I share with you one time about how there is this man that photographed every sunrise. He’d get up every morning before sunrise. He photographed the sunrise because that was just, I can understand how that was the desirable thing. I like to photograph sunrise. It's not every morning, but I'd like to do it. And he said even more than those that watch for the morning, I watch for the Lord. And so we see that Simeon in that same spirit was looking. Continually, he was looking. He was waiting. He was anticipating the coming of the consolation of Israel. And he was overjoyed. Zacharias was overjoyed when this hope was about to be fulfilled. He was overjoyed. Zacharias was overjoyed. Because he knew he was living right on the cusp, right on the precipice, right at the time when Messiah was about to come on the scene.

We don't believe in, we don't condone those today that say they know the day and the hour Jesus is coming back. We know the signs of the times. We know the seasons. The Lord told us, you know, when the fig starts to put forth, the fig tree puts forth its bud or its leaves. You know what season it is, right? We know the times and seasons, but we would be presumptuous to say that we know the exact day and the hour because the Lord says that no man knows that. Nobody knows that time except Him. Well, that shouldn't keep us from anticipating and watching. Simeon didn’t know the hour. He didn't know the time, but he knew that he was anticipating, looking forward to it. Well, if we know what we read in our Bibles is God's Word and every word of God is pure. It's true. It's not fake. It's real. Then we don't need to live in doubt. We need to live in hope, right? We need to live in hope.

Verse 69 here in Luke 1. What does it say? And He hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant, David. Think about who's saying this, Zacharias. What is Zacharias? He's a priest, right? He's serving in the temple. What do priests do? What do they do a variety of things? It has a lot to do with blood and fire and incense and knives and ceremonial purification water. All of that is shadowing type, pointing to a coming reality: Jesus, the Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world. Look at the language he uses, though. He said, as a priest, he says in verse 69 that God hath raised up a horn of salvation. Well, what were the horns that were used in the temple worship? Well, it was the shofar, right? Yeah, the shofar, that was used for a variety of reasons. But generally speaking, the shofar would be used in association with calling to worship, right? And what did worship have to do within the Old Testament? It was always sacrifices being sacrificed. There was blood being shed, even though the ram’s horn itself came from an animal that was a sacrificial animal, right? It was an animal that was sacrificed on that altar to remind the people that they needed to be atoned for. But the blood of bulls and goats and all of these animals could never atone truly for sin. They were only in anticipation of the true atonement: Jesus, our Passover, who is sacrificed for us.

And so when we see he was thinking the horn, that horn, but there's also the horns of the altar. Remember the altar of burnt offering, the brazen altar where all those animals would be sacrificed. They had four horns, a horn on each of the corners of that altar. A horn represented strength and might, strength and power. It seemed like weakness when the Lord was crucified for us, but it was actually strength, wasn't it? When He shed His blood on the cross, He overcame death and hell and the grave. He overcame the enemy of our souls, Satan. He purged our sins and made it so that we could pass from death to life because He took death for us that we might receive His life. He took our place. He stood condemned in our place so that we might be set free. Even the typology of that, what was it, the one that was sacrificed and the other was the scapegoat that was sent out into the wilderness, typologically to carry away sin. The hand of the priest was laid on the head of that goat and he was sent out into the wilderness. The scapegoat is representative of what our Lord did for us.

Well, he thought of these horns on the altar. He thought of the horn, though, the shofar, and he said the Lord had raised up the horn of salvation. This is no longer a brazen horn, a shofar horn. This is the horn of His strength, just like we read that word arm, the arm of the Lord has brought Him salvation, strength. In strength, He has brought salvation. These are all words to describe what Jesus is doing for us. He's brought this horn, raised Him up in the house of His servant, David. He promised for centuries to do this. And finally, in the fullness of time, God sent forth His son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them, to redeem us that were under the condemnation of sin that we might be reconciled to God. We might be the family of God. We might be the sons of God. He gives power to all that believe on and receive the name, receive Jesus Christ, believe on His name to become the sons of God.

I want to, before we conclude here, look in Acts 28 with me. There is hope in Christ. He is our hope. Acts 28 verse 17, look there. What does it say? Paul says, and it came to pass that after three days, Paul called the chief of the Jews together. And when they were come together, he said unto them, here he is in Rome. He's calling the Jews together in that place and says, men and brethren, though I have committed nothing against the people or customs of our fathers, yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. Who, when they had examined me, would have let me go because there was no cause of death in me. But when the Jews spake against it, I was constrained to appeal unto Caesar. Not that I had ought to accuse my nation of, for this cause, therefore have I called to you, to see you and to speak with you because that for the hope of Israel, I am bound with this chain. Paul identifies Jesus as the hope of Israel. He says, it's for His sake, this hope of Israel, that I am called into question. He says, the message I preach is about this hope of Israel. And it's because of the message of hope that I preach, that I share everywhere I go, that I have gotten in trouble specifically, not with the Gentiles, but with the Jews. I've gotten in trouble specifically, mainly with the Jews, the religious crowd. I've gotten in trouble with them because I've told them the one that your scriptures talk about, He's here, He's come and He's ascended. Well, He's come to save us and He's ascended back to the right hand of the Father. He appeared to me on the road to Damascus. We're not any longer looking for Messiah. He's come, He's come to save, our hope. He is our hope and we ought to praise Him yet.

Paul would say that, well, he asked the question to the Galatians but we might say that in so many words he is saying, I've become the enemy of many because I tell the truth. I've become the enemy. Not that I was trying to become the enemy but I'm just telling them about the hope that we have. And for that, for that I am called into question but that doesn't diminish my hope. My hope is in the Lord. My hope is not in the Roman process. My hope is not in the Roman legal system. My hope is in the Lord. He's the one that came and gave Himself for me.

Well, what about hope in our lives, folks? We read in 1 John 3 that every man that hath this hope of the Lord's coming purifies himself even as He is pure. What does that mean, purifies? It's not talking about taking a bath but by faith in Christ we're set apart from this world. We're not living for this world. Our hope is not in this world system. This world is never going to be able to make us truly happy. You'll continue to seek happiness and fulfillment and we'll never find it. The only way you can find true fulfillment is in the Lord, in His hope. Zacharias and Paul were led to speak because they had hope. Simeon spoke up and praised the Lord. I have great hope. I have seen the promise fulfilled. Simeon praised the Lord. He blessed the Lord because his hope had become sight, hadn't it?

You know, because how should we say it? When I spoke to those that look for redemption in Jerusalem. What were they looking for? That's another word for the idea of hope is an expectation, right? If someone we trust, barring unforeseen circumstances or barring something that's beyond their control, if they tell us they're going to do something, well, we're expecting it, aren't we? We're expecting it to happen. We're looking forward to it. Don't we say that? You know, Brother Tim and Sister Susan have invited us to their house. We're looking forward to that. Maybe they're hopefully looking forward to what's coming. They're anticipating us coming. But we see that, you know, that's something barring, and obviously if somebody gets sick they can't come but you can't help that, but I'm just saying otherwise plan to be there, right? We'll plan to be there.

If we are daily in God's Word which is the record, Isaiah talked about who believed our report, this is the report. If we're in God's Word it's going to feed that hope, isn't it? It's going to feed that hope and it's going to feed what we talk about with people. Are we going to talk about the hope that we have? We have great hope. We're not just surviving. We can be thriving because of this hope that we have in the Lord. Yes, there's tons that's wrong in this world. This world is full of evil. It's full of fakes, it's full of hypocrites, it's full of jerks. Yes, that's true. But we have something greater to look forward to than just talking about what's going on that’s bad in the world, right? The world is full of it. It's going to be. In fact, Paul said it's going to get worse and worse. But we don't have to live in despair.

The spirit of Christmas, folks, we saw last week is one of humility. Oh, and we pointed out. But it's one of hope. Jesus, the humble Savior, brought hope into this world. He said, I'm coming again, I'm going to prepare a place for you and I'll come again. We have the words of the apostles that tell us, He's coming again. Look up. Get ready. He might come in your lifetime. And if He doesn't, when you're absent from the body, you will be present as a believer, you'll be present with the Lord. That's our hope. He's our hope.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for these thoughts that we've seen from your word this morning. We thank you that we have hope that transcends circumstances, hope that's greater than feelings, because feelings come and feelings go and feelings are deceiving. Lord, we have to keep the feelings up in order to be happy. We have to do things to stimulate that happiness. Whereas we can have an abiding hope in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that is far more stable than whatever wish so, maybe so, hope so. I feel like it's going to be a good day kind of hope that tends to control and dominate the thinking of people in this world. And sometimes, even as Christians, can affect our thinking, so Lord, help us to read your word. Help us, may our anticipation grow, our expectation of Jesus’ coming grow more and more as we think on, as we meditate on what you have promised to us, as we take it to heart. Bless now as we conclude this service with the final hymn. We pray, Lord, that you bless us as we go our separate ways today in Jesus’ name. Amen.