Luke 1:67–80

[Music] [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Applause] so [Music] hey hey welcome to coffee and devotions this sunday morning august i can miss where every weekday morning at 9 00 a.m and on the weekends before my kids wake up you and i we get together we have a little bit of coffee we get into god's word and we grow in our love for the lord together and this year 2020 we'll make it through all the gospels well this morning we are at luke chapter 1 beginning at verse 67 and we'll go all the way down to verse 80. so why don't we go ahead and jump into god's word well but first we'll have some coffee we'll pray and then we'll read let's pray lord we thank you so much for this day we thank you for your word father we pray now as as we read your word that you would apply these things to our hearts that we would be in awe of who you are that we would sit at your feet and stare with amazement in our eyes how wonderful you are open our eyes lord to your majesty in jesus name amen all right here we go luke chapter 1 beginning at verse 67 now his father zacharias was filled with the holy spirit and prophesied the same blessed is the lord god of israel for he has visited and redeemed his people he has raised up a horn of salvation for us and the house of david his servant and sorry as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets who have been since the world began that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant the oath which she 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 the days of our life and you child will be called the prophet of the highest for you will go before the face of the lord to prepare his ways to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of their sins through the tender mercies of our god which with which the dayspring from on high has visited us to give light to those who sit in darkness in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace so the child grew and became strong in spirit and was in the desert to the day until the day of his manifestation to israel well what a beautiful passage we have for us today i imagine uh zacharias as he holds little john in his hands and he and he both closes his eyes and he receives word from the holy spirit he speaks them to john i can imagine him at this last part when he gets down to verse 76 i can imagine him whispering it into baby john's ears and you child will be called the prophet of the highest i mean it's so cool i mean this is such an amazing passage what is this passage about well the new king james version gives it the title zechariah's prophesies of john's ministry i think that there's two parts to this and so i'm actually going to split this up and i'm going to so i'm going to use a compound sentence maybe i'm going to say uh zechariah prophesies of god's covenant faithfulness and john's ministry so the first part why i say that is verses 68 down through verse 75 is all about how god is going to fulfill his promise that he had made to abraham and what was his promise made to abraham verse 73 the oath which he swore to our father abraham to grant us being delivered from the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear and holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life god is going to bring about the fulfillment of this promise that he had made to abraham that he would be his god and they would be his people that god would multiply abraham's seed that they would be more numerous in the stars of the sky than the sand of the seashore and that and they would be able to serve god with all their heart that they would be able to love the lord with all their soul and with all their strength that they would serve him all the days of their life and this is what the promise of the covenant was that he would be their god and they would be his people and john sees this the holy spirit makes it clear that somehow he is going to use this little child somehow he is going to use this child named john yahweh's grace he's going to use this child to bring about this promise and what is the promise that he whispers in the child's ear you'll be called the prophet of the highest you will go before the face of the lord and prepare his ways now it's interesting you will go before the face of the lord prepare his ways whose way was he preparing but it was jesus christ he was the one who went into the desert he was the one who went to prepare prepare the way of the lord that one greater than he was coming and what does he talk about with salvation here to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace it is jesus christ who is that way of peace it is jesus christ who brings us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light who brings us out from the condemnation and curse of the law and death and sin and into true eternal life in in our father this is a beautiful passage in which zachariah somehow he's able to understand and and tell this little child john as he speaks to him as he prophesies to him of this ministry this blessed ministry he's going to have in in giving or preparing a way for the lord to come and fulfill his covenant promises and so yes the book of luke is about all those things pertaining to jesus christ and his kingdom but the gospel starts here with john it's tying together of the old and the new it's it's taking all the old covenant promises and showing how they're going to be fulfilled and expanded in the new covenant of jesus christ that god is finally going to bring about his promises to abraham and so in my bible i am going to underline oh this is going to be tough i'm going to cheat here again i've been really cheating at luke but he packed so much in i'm going to highlight for 78 and 79 is what i think is some of the best verses maybe you would underline or highlight 77. i also think that 73 through 75 i'm gonna highlight as well and you might say brian you're going highlighter crazy lately that's okay all right but i think if i was to flip open my physical bible and i was a look at this i would remember oh here's here's the heart of what of what luke is getting at here's here's the poor right the covenant promises and the life that's going to come from it and so what would you underline maybe you disagree with me that's okay what would you underline in your bible or highlight in your bible as the best verses to summarize this section well last we need to ask ourselves c calling what are we called to do in response to these words well this morning i'm called to remember that god is faithful to his promises that god has brought forth his seed from abraham galatians is clear that the promise was made to abraham and to his seed singular one and that seed is jesus christ and it's by jesus christ that i have hope it's in jesus christ that i am made righteous it is in jesus christ that we are able to serve god all the days of our lives so let me ask you are you serving the lord your god with all your heart mind soul and strength do you love him do you serve him do you long to see his promises fulfilled his covenant come to fruition are you praying that his kingdom won't come here on earth as it is in heaven brothers and sisters god is calling us this morning in many ways i don't know what this means for your life how are you serving the kingdom how are you looking to this and finding hope and remembering that these promises were fulfilled maybe you need to pray today and just thank god for his faithfulness maybe you are just needing to go to church and to sing your heart out and to pray and to sit at god's feet and just hear from his word and to have your soul enriched and and to see god's people and have fellowship as we grow as a covenant family i don't know exactly what it is in your life i'd love to hear your thoughts and in my life i'm going to be going and i'm going to be preaching from ephesians chapter 4 in a little bit all about how the holy spirit is creating a people to to be his own and to live his way and so i'm really excited to do that i don't know what you're feeling called to do in response to these words i'd love for you to let me know feel free to let me know down in the comments or send me a message well as always if this is a helpful service to you if you find coffee and devotions valuable if i've earned the like feel free to hit that if not that's fine but if you really find or if you can think of someone that this would be helpful for also feel free to share it let's go ahead and pray lord we thank you so much for your word and we thank you for the grace it is to worship you to love you lord we thank you that you have fulfilled your promises in jesus christ god we pray that you would bless us this morning that you would care for us lord we pray that we would fix our eyes upon jesus the author and finisher of our faith we thank you for preparing his way and john the baptist to teach of the remission of sins lord we thank you that our sins truly have been cleansed by the faithful one jesus christ care for us to stay in jesus name amen well may you go today in grace and peace knowing that if you confess your sins he is faithful and righteous to forgive you of your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness