The worst Christmas I ever had was the Christmas of 1997. My paternal grandfather died Christmas morning. To make matters worse, my maternal grandmother had died just a few months earlier. My poor mom had had enough. She sent us kids to the movies, packed up and put away all the Christmas decorations, and canceled Christmas. Death hovered over Christmas that year, so my mom tried to cancel it. The problem is that none of us can cancel death. In fact, our passage this morning tells us that the reason God was sending His Son into the world is because we all—every last one of us—live under the shadow of death. God was sending His Son into the world to give light to those who sit in the shadow of death (v. 79). No amount of packing up and putting it out of our minds can cancel the reality that death, and then God’s judgment, is coming for all of us.

Death didn’t just hover over my worst Christmas. Death hovers over all of us. However, the opening words of our passage signal that there is hope. Luke 1:57: “Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son.” There is a lot in those simple words. We learned a couple of weeks ago that Elizabeth’s son John was to be no ordinary child. Several hundred years before Elizabeth gave birth to her son John, the prophet Malachi promised that a forerunner would be born to prepare God’s people for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Malachi foretold that the promised time of salvation would begin when this forerunner—Elizabeth’s son, John—was born.

There is a lot in the phrase, “Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son.” That’s why, when Zechariah held his son John in his hands, he said, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he…has raised up a horn of salvation for us.” Yes, death hovers over us all, but the wonderful news of John’s birth—and the big idea of our passage—is this: The promised time of salvation has come.

When Luke says, “the time came for Elizabeth to give birth,” we should hear, “The promised time of salvation has come.” How should we respond? Two primary ways. I’ll preview them and then we’ll take them one at a time: (1) Behold the wonder (1:57–66) and (2) Bless God (1:67–80).

BEHOLD THE WONDER

There is nothing quite like the wonder on people’s faces when they witness or hear a surprising birth story. Our family has one of those. On the day that my daughter was born, my wife and I were driving down Kelly Drive toward Pennsylvania Hospital when my wife started yelling, “Matt, the baby is coming.” This wasn’t our first child—we had been through this before—so I was quite sure that the baby was not actually coming. Well, by the time we stopped at the light at Broad and Arch, it was clear that the baby was, in fact, coming. My wife gave birth to my daughter on the front seat of our car while we were at the stoplight.

Now, the wonder on the faces of those of you who have never heard that story before is the kind of wonder that Zechariah and Elizabeth’s relatives experienced when John was born. However, the wonder they experienced wasn’t over the location of the birth or even the age of the parents. Their wonder was over the name that Zechariah and Elizabeth gave to their son. The wonder was about the name. Let’s pick up the narrative.

Luke 1:59–64: “And on the eighth day 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.’ And they all wondered. And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God.”

In the Old Testament, the circumcision of a baby boy and his naming on the eighth day was a huge deal. Circumcision was a physical sign indicating that this boy was part of God’s old covenant people, descending from Abraham. Traditionally, the baby would have been given a family name, perhaps after his father or grandfather. However, to everyone’s shock, in a significant break from tradition, Elizabeth said that the boy should be called John. This was such a break from tradition that they made signs to Zechariah, inquiring what the boy should be named. Zechariah—who was apparently deaf as well as mute—wrote on a tablet that the boy’s name should, in fact, be John. Everyone present was full of wonder. Something unique was happening. This was no ordinary birth. John is the forerunner for Christ, the horn of salvation. The promised time of salvation has come!

Let’s begin to take the wonder of all this personally. The true wonder revealed in the naming of the child is the wonder that Zechariah has changed. He has changed. You may remember that about nine months earlier, Zechariah was serving in the temple because he was a godly priest. While in the temple, the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Zechariah, your prayers have been answered, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.” You may also remember that Zechariah did not believe the word from God’s messenger, and God disciplined him for it. Even a godly man can, at times, respond to God’s word with unbelief and disobedience—and God disciplined him for it. For nine months, Zechariah was unable to hear or speak.

Are you in a season like the one Zechariah experienced? Are you in a season in which you are reaping what you sowed? God’s word came to Zechariah; he did not believe it or obey it, and God brought him into a season of discipline. Are you in a season like that?

God’s word says to go into your closet and pray to your Father in secret, but you’ve neglected to pray to your Father in heaven, and now He’s disciplining you with a season of spiritual dryness or doubt.

God’s word says to work hard as unto the Lord and not to men, but you’ve been slothful, and now God is disciplining you with a difficult or unfruitful season at work.

God’s word says to love your wife as Christ loved the church and to submit to your husband as the church submits to Christ, but you’ve disobeyed God’s word, and He’s disciplining you with a difficult season of marriage.

God says not to exasperate or provoke your children, but to raise them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. But you’ve been selfish, and God is disciplining you with a difficult season with your children.

God says to honor Him with your wealth and the firstfruits of your income, but you’ve kept it back, and now God is disciplining you.

Community

Many of us are in seasons of discipline. Dear friends, I have good news for you. The birth of John means that the promised time of salvation has come. And if you’ve received salvation through faith in Christ, then God’s discipline of you is like that of a loving Father—just as He disciplined Zechariah. “The Lord disciplines those He loves, as a father the son in whom he delights” (Prov. 3:12). He’s disciplining you because He loves you, and He’s doing it for your good.

Hebrews 12:11: “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” The promised time of salvation has come. Behold the wonder: He disciplines you not to destroy you, but because He loves you and is seeking to produce the peaceful fruit of righteousness in you.

Dear friends, beholding the wonder that the time of salvation has come looks like doing what Zechariah did. He named him John. Receive your season of discipline as a gift, not as condemnation, and turn back to the Lord because you know that He will be gracious to you. Turn back to Him in the exact places where His discipline has fallen on you. Turn back to Jesus Christ, your Savior, for forgiveness, renewal, and strength to begin walking in obedience again. He will be gracious to you because the promised time of salvation has come.

May the words of J.C. Ryle encourage all of us who are in seasons of discipline to turn back to the Lord in the exact places where discipline has fallen. He writes:

“We see in the conduct of Zacharias in this passage a striking example of the benefit of affliction… He shows that his nine months’ dumbness had not been inflicted on him in vain. He is no longer faithless, but believing. He now believes every word that Gabriel had spoken to him, and every word of his message shall be obeyed. We need not doubt that the past nine months had been a most profitable time for the soul of Zacharias. He had learned probably more about his own heart and about God than he ever knew before. His conduct shows it… But in the time of our trouble, let us make earnest prayer that we may hear the rod and Him who has appointed it, that we may learn wisdom by the rod and not harden our hearts against God.”

The birth of John means that the promised time of salvation has come. Behold the wonder of grace and second chances, and turn to the Lord for mercy and help in your time of need. That’s the first way we respond to the wonderful news that the promised time of salvation has come. The second is…

BLESS GOD

As soon as Zechariah turned from his unbelief and named their son John, just as God’s messenger commanded, God graciously forgave Zechariah, opened his mouth, and loosed his tongue. And Zechariah used his newly opened mouth and loosed tongue to bless God. Since the promised time of salvation has come, we should use our mouths and tongues to do the same. Zechariah’s hymn shows us three ways to bless God in response to the wonderful news that the promised time of salvation has come.

First, bless God to God. Notice how the prophetic hymn begins. Zechariah says, “Blessed be the Lord God…” (Luke 1:68). It may sound funny to hear someone say, “Blessed be God.” Isn’t God already blessed? Doesn’t God possess all things? How can we bless Him? To bless God is to joyfully speak of who He is and what He has done for us in Christ. And the first thing we learn from Zechariah is to bless God to God. We do that through prayers of adoration and songs of praise, both individually and as a church family.

Now, why does Zechariah bless God to God? You might be tempted to think that Zechariah blessed God because God gave him a son. But that’s not the heart of it, and that’s not where Zechariah began. Don’t miss this: Zechariah is holding his son, but in the first half of his song he’s not blessing God for his son. He’s holding his son, but he’s talking about God’s Son. He’s blessing God while holding his son because Zechariah’s son means that God’s Son is coming.

We don’t bless God ultimately because He’s merely improved our temporary circumstances, as important as that is. No, we bless God because the promised time of salvation has come and He has saved us from our enemies. Luke 1:68–71: “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 in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.”

When Zechariah lifted his voice to bless God, God’s people Israel were under Rome’s thumb. They were subjugated under a merciless hand. However, the birth of John indicated that the Messiah was coming and that the promised time of salvation from their enemies was upon them. And the Messiah—the Lord Jesus—did come. Rome is no more. Jesus Christ lived, died, and rose again to save all who trust Him from our worst enemies: the world, our flesh, and the devil. Jesus Christ is coming again to put all these enemies eternally under His feet.

The promised time of salvation has come. Final fulfillment is coming. And as we wait, we bless God because at the cross of Christ the death blow was dealt to our enemies. The promised time of salvation has come. Lift your hands and your voice, and with exuberance that matches the great news, bless God to God.

Second, bless God to other people. Luke 1:72–75: “to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.”

We need to slow down here. Zechariah blesses God because the birth of his son means that Christ is coming—the promised time of salvation has come. But if you look closely, Zechariah is saying that he blesses God for saving them from their enemies so that they can serve Him without fear. What does it mean to serve God without fear?

You probably noticed the name Abraham. Way back in the first book of the Bible, God made this promise to Abraham, the father of Israel. Genesis 26:3–4: “Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.”

What is Zechariah saying? He’s saying that Abraham’s true offspring, Jesus Christ, is coming so that God’s people can now fulfill their mission and extend God’s blessing to all nations. Let’s piece it together. The promised time of salvation has come. Jesus Christ has saved us from our enemies. And if you’ve received that wonderful news, you should share it with others. You should bless God—speak of who He is and what He has done in Christ—to others.

At Citylight Church, we often talk about having your three: three people who live in the Philly area who aren’t part of a Bible-believing church and whom you pray for, love, invite, and speak to about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Who could your three be? How can you pray for them, love them, invite them, and speak to them about salvation in Christ?

But this message isn’t meant to remain contained among us; it’s meant for the nations. The whole earth and all peoples belong to our God. He deserves more worship among the nations than He is receiving right now. That’s why cross-cultural missions exist. As John Piper says, “Missions exist because worship doesn’t.” Friends, we who have received so great a salvation must spread it to the nations.

All Christians are called to missions. Some send and others go, but everyone participates. For those who stay, we must pray, give generously to the church so that she can support her missionaries, and encourage those who go. But some of you are feeling the tug to go. Don’t ignore that. Talk to a pastor. Write it on your card. We’ll help you. The covenant to Abraham has been fulfilled. We are God’s people in Christ, and we must bless God to others in evangelism and missions.

Finally, bless God by receiving His merciful salvation. At the end of Zechariah’s prophetic hymn, he finally turns his attention to the baby in his arms—his own child. Luke 1:76–79: “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, 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.”

Part of the reason why Christmas 1997 was so awful is because none of us had any certain, sturdy hope beyond the shadow of death. None of us were truly Christian. We did not know that the promised time of salvation began when John the Baptist was born and Zechariah held him in his arms. We did not know that John was the prophet of the Most High who went before the Lord Jesus Christ to prepare His way.

We had not received nor were we resting in Jesus Christ’s sinless life, sin-atoning death, and victorious resurrection for the forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life instead of eternal judgment. We did not know the tender mercy of God that was shown when John was born to prepare the way for Jesus Christ—the Light of the world—who alone can rescue us from the darkness of sin and the eternal sting of death. We had not received His merciful salvation, so the best we could do was go to the movies and distract ourselves.

But you can only distract yourself from death for so long; its shadow hangs over all of us. But God has done what we cannot do for ourselves. He sent His Son to die so that all who receive His salvation will not be forever swallowed up in death and judgment. Bless God by receiving His merciful salvation in Christ. The promised time of salvation has come. Behold the wonder of second chances, and bless God for His mercy.