All throughout the Old Testament, an ever growing groan was emerging.
Adam and Even were in the garden, they sinned and were removed.
The curse was upon us.
It wouldn’t be long before their groans would be heard. They would stand over the grave of their son Abel, and the first groans would be let go.
Psalms 6:3
“And my soul is greatly dismayed; But You, O LORD — how long?”
From time to time these groans would once again be voiced.
400 years of slavery under the iron hand of Egypt, and God’s people would once again voice that same familiar groan.
Psalms 6:3
“And my soul is greatly dismayed; But You, O LORD — how long?”
40 years in the wilderness following a blunder of blunders, and you could once again hear the groan begin to rise.
Psalms 6:3
“And my soul is greatly dismayed; But You, O LORD — how long?”
Later after claiming the promised land, oppression from neighboring kingdoms would bring God’s people to groan again.
Psalms 6:3
“And my soul is greatly dismayed; But You, O LORD — how long?”
You could hear the groans of David as Saul sought his life, and later his son would revolt against him.
Psalms 6:3
“And my soul is greatly dismayed; But You, O LORD — how long?”
You could hear the groan of Solomon as he realized the futility of life.
Psalms 6:3
“And my soul is greatly dismayed; But You, O LORD — how long?”
There was the continual groaning of the prophets as they delivered God’s message to a people who loved sin too much to forsake it.
Psalms 6:3
“And my soul is greatly dismayed; But You, O LORD — how long?”
Perhaps the loudest of groans would be heard as God’s people were led barefoot into Babylon to endure 70 years of ridicule and shame.
Psalms 6:3
“And my soul is greatly dismayed; But You, O LORD — how long?”
They would later groan the rule of Greece, and even the rule of Rome.
You could hear the groan.
People would look at the effects of the curse…
People would look at the effects of sin…
People would look at the gloom that had spread upon the earth…
AND CRY…
HOW LONG?
Psalms 13:1-2 (Of David)
“How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?”
Psalms 74:10
“How long, O God, will the adversary revile, And the enemy spurn Your name forever?”
Psalms 79:1-5 (When Jerusalem fell to Babylon)
“O God, the nations have invaded Your inheritance; They have defiled Your holy temple; They have laid Jerusalem in ruins. They have given the dead bodies of Your servants for food to the birds of the heavens, The flesh of Your godly ones to the beasts of the earth. They have poured out their blood like water round about Jerusalem; And there was no one to bury them. We have become a reproach to our neighbors, A scoffing and derision to those around us. How long, O LORD? Will You be angry forever? Will Your jealousy burn like fire?”
Psalms 94:1-3
“O LORD, God of vengeance, God of vengeance, shine forth! Rise up, O Judge of the earth, Render recompense to the proud. How long shall the wicked, O LORD, How long shall the wicked exult?”
Habakkuk 1:2-3
“How long, O LORD, will I call for help, And You will not hear? I cry out to You, “Violence!” Yet You do not save. Why do You make me see iniquity, And cause me to look on wickedness? Yes, destruction and violence are before me; Strife exists and contention arises.”
Their cries were continuous, their cries were all the same.
They were a people trapped in darkness.
They were a people trapped in dismay.
They were a people trapped in oppression.
And their only hope was that some day God would come and deliver them.
And as we have talked about, that day was promised.
To those in slavery in Egypt God had promised…
Genesis 15:13-14
“God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. “But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions.”
To David God had promised…
2 Samuel 7:12-17
“When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. “He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. “I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.”‘” In accordance with all these words and all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David.”
To those in Babylon God had promised…
Jeremiah 29:10-14
“For thus says the LORD, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. ‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. ‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. ‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. ‘I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’”
Even in the midst of their darkness, God had promised a better day.
Isaiah 9:6-7
“For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.”
The only question that remained was:
Psalms 6:3
“And my soul is greatly dismayed; But You, O LORD — how long?”
And then, all of a sudden, the answer came!
And it came at a perfect time.
There was a man named Zacharias. He was a priest, and he was chosen to do what priests do.
He was working in that futile life of a Jewish priest. Sacrifice after Sacrifice, offering after offering. He of all people must have realized the dreadful state of his nation.
He of all people must have realized they were in desperate need for God to come.
And all of a sudden…
Luke 1:8-17
“Now it happened that while he was performing his priestly service before God in the appointed order of his division, according to the custom of the priestly office, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were in prayer outside at the hour of the incense offering. And an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense. Zacharias was troubled when he saw the angel, and fear gripped him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John. “You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. “For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb. “And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God. “It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, TO TURN THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS BACK TO THE CHILDREN, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
What a promise God just made to Zacharias.
He would have a son. That in itself was a great thing.
His son would be a great preaching. That in itself was a great thing.
BUT HIS SON WAS THE FORERUNNER
That meant Messiah was on His way!
HOW LONG O LORD? – “I’d say about a year”
WOW!
And that leads us to the text I want us to see tonight.
Of course if you read on in the story, you will see Zacharias doubted what he was told, and for proof, God made him mute until John would be born.
But after John would be born, Zacharias broke out in words of praise.
And it is very fitting.
You won’t find him rejoicing over how cute his newborn son is.
You won’t find him rejoicing that the shame of his wife was taken away.
You won’t find him saying, “He has your eyes…”
Zacharias knew this was a bigger day!
READ LUKE 1:67-75
Zacharias knew that the day had come!
And this meant four things.
Quickly tonight, we’ll look at these four things.
#1 It Meant A THRONE RECLAIMED
Luke 1:68-69
Every since the days of Jeremiah, Israel had been without a King.
The line was seemingly broken.
At the present time, the man who had the right to the throne was working as a carpenter. He was so poor that when his son was born, he had to offer the poor man’s offering to God.
The kingdom was broken, the throne was unoccupied.
But Zacharias knew this was destined to change.
God’s King was coming!
God’s King would be here soon, and he knew it because Mary was starting to blossom.
The throne would soon be reclaimed!
The Kingdom would rise!
#2 It Meant PROPHECIES REALIZED
Luke 1:70-71
God had made promise after promise of a day when His King would reign, and that day was finally here.
The One who would set the captives free was about to celebrate His first birthday.
The One who break the yoke of the oppressor was presently being formed in the womb.
God’s prophecies were about to be fulfilled.
#3 It Meant A COVENANT REMEMBERED
Luke 1:72-73
God had promised Abraham that his descendants would be like the sand of the sea shore.
He also promised that those who blessed him would be blessed, and those who cursed him would be cursed.
Yet for about 700 years Israel had been kicked in the teeth. It had been all cursing and no blessing.
But the One about to be born would be the One to change all that.
God was about to complete that covenant.
#4 It Meant A PEOPLE RESCUED
Luke 1:74-75
That God’s people would no longer be the scum of the earth, but were about to experience a sudden shift in status.
They were about to be exalted.
No longer would men spit on Israel, their King was about to come.
Can you imagine that Anticipation?
It wasn’t just a future promise, they could look at Mary’s belly and see the promise on His way.
BUT THEN SOMETHING DREADFUL HAPPENED!
The people failed to see their biggest problem, and so they failed to see their redeemer. Had they known their biggest problem was sin and not Rome, they would have understood why their Savior was humble and not a warrior.
Isaiah 53:1-3
“Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”
And so their fulfillment had come, and they pushed it away.
Instead of allowing the morning to dawn, they determined to remain in the darkness.
Here is what that means.
It has left us all in anticipation of the 2nd Coming of Christmas.
Psalms 90:13-17
“Do return, O LORD; how long will it be? And be sorry for Your servants. O satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness, That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days You have afflicted us, And the years we have seen evil. Let Your work appear to Your servants And Your majesty to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us; And confirm for us the work of our hands; Yes, confirm the work of our hands.”
Revelation 6:9-11
“When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also.”
The people had a chance to rejoice, and now they once again cry “How Long?”
You see that is us.
We are literally in the night before Christmas.
Oh sure we’ve had a taste. In a sense we know what to expect, because we have a few appetizers, but we live in anticipation of the big day.
2 Peter 1:19
“So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.”
Imagine how Zacharias must have felt…
Imagine how Mary and Joseph must have felt as they got settled in to that stable, knowing the King would be here any minute.
That is the anticipation we are called to live in.
Only, unlike the Jews, we are to be ready for Him.
Don’t be caught sleeping through Christmas Morning.
We are literally in the night waiting for the morning.
We live in the time of darkness where Satan is the god of this world, and our world is subjected to decay and rot.
We long for the morning to come, when Christ returns, and sin and death are forever abolished.
Psalms 46:4-5
“There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, The holy dwelling places of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns.”
And so let us approach life with the spirit of Christmas.
It is literally the night before Christmas, but our salvation will be here in the morning!
SING
“Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus”
“He Is Exalted”
“Heaven Came Down”
“Go Tell It On The Mountain”
