Transcript for THE RESCUE (Captioned)

The Second Sunday of Christmas

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Let us rise for

the reading of this morning's Sermon Text recorded for us

in Luke's Gospel where we read from Chapter 1,

beginning with Verse 68:

"PRAISE BE TO THE LORD, THE GOD OF ISRAEL, BECAUSE HE HAS

COME AND HAS REDEEMED HIS PEOPLE.

HE HAS RAISED UP A HORN OF SALVATION

FOR US IN THE HOUSE OF HIS SERVANT DAVID.

(AS HE SAID THROUGH HIS HOLY PROPHETS OF LONG AGO),

SALVATION FROM OUR ENEMIES AND FROM THE HAND

OF ALL WHO HATE US --

TO SHOW MERCY TO OUR FATHERS AND TO REMEMBER

HIS HOLY COVENANT, THE OATH HE SWORE TO OUR

FATHER ABRAHAM: TO RESCUE US FROM THE HAND

OF OUR ENEMIES, AND TO ENABLE US

TO SERVE HIM WITHOUT FEAR

IN HOLINESS AND RIGHTEOUSNESS BEFORE HIM ALL OUR DAYS."

This is the Word of our Lord; Let us pray:

This is the day that the Lord has made.

Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Amen.

The congregation is seated

as Pastor Dave motions

for them to do so.

Dear Followers of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I find the person of

Zechariah, to be one of the most interesting

people who prepared the way for God's Son

to come into the world.

I can't wait to have that opportunity in heaven

to meet him and to discuss with him,

because I think he had a most interesting

challenge in his life.

When the angel came to him and said:

Your wife is going to have a son ...

It just astounded him!

It shocked him.

And in his disbelief,

God said to him: You're not going to speak.

You're not going to speak until

I ... allow you to.

And Zechariah when he left that most Holy

of Holy places, was left without

the instruments to share the news

of what had happened to him.

Imagine witnessing an angel

of God appearing to you and giving you

such tremendous news,

and the thing that you have always used to

communicate with your family and friends and co-workers ...

doesn't work.

I wonder what people thought of Zechariah as he

tried to convey to them

what had happened. But when he went home

to his wife, who was also going to be

a part of the angel's message ...

to share that message with Elizabeth.

To convey to her ...

what was of utmost importance.

And then when that child is born and everyone

is standing there wondering what they're going to name the

child; what they're going to call the child ... Zechariah

scribbles on a tablet ...

John!

And his conveyance is returned to him.

That instrument that God had

taken from him is restored.

And he gets out the news.

The words that he had been

wanting to express for months

come pouring out: Praise be to the God of

Israel. He has accomplished

His salvation. He has remembered

what He promised to the forefathers of Israel.

He has been mindful of that Covenant that

He made with Abraham. When He came to Abraham as well

and said: You and Sarah are going to

have a child.

Remember Sarah laughed.

She giggled. But yet God kept His Word.

And kept His promise and she held in her son Isaac ...

she held in her arms,

her son, Isaac ...

knowing that God KEEPS His promises,

and DOES what He says He WILL.

As He PROMISED to Abraham that he would become

a great nation. And that One of his descendents would

bless all of the peoples of the world.

And now Zechariah's son

was going to be the forerunner of

that Messiah. The One who was going to come and

Zechariah could not help but praise God's Name!

Because the Messiah

was going to deliver His people from

all of their enemies and was going to allow

His people to serve Him in blessedness and holiness.

And we remind ourselves of

that fact today. That that

same Savior has come to us.

That that same Savior has fought

the battles that we COULD NOT fight against the greatest

enemies that we have ever had.

The enemies of sin, death and Satan himself.

Adam and Eve were no match for Satan

and his guile, when he said:

Look to the tree and they did.

And they ate.

We're no match for Satan either ... because he comes

to us with the same lies. And you and I

fall for them each and every day.

Look! That will be good for you. And we run

after it ... thinking this is what we need

when it's the exact opposite

of what God has said to us.

He's (Satan's) always there, putting doubts in our heads,

putting fear into our lives.

And we can't fight him on our own.

We know that because we fall into his temptations.

And we willingly disobey God, but

God's Son did not do that.

He came into this world and

stood with Satan face-to-face

each and every moment of every day and withstood

his temptations. Would not believe his lies.

Did not give in to Satan, even

when Satan tried to convince Him

to throw Himself off of the top of the temple ...

because God would protect Him.

Or that he would give Him the entire world

if Jesus would just bow down and worship him.

But Jesus withstood those temptations,

firmly planted in the Word

and denied Satan the thrill of

Him having succumb to sin.

He was tempted in every way

that we were tempted, yet HE DID NOT SIN.

He faced the enemy DEATH for us.

He willingly sacrificed Himself ...

placed Himself into that tomb,

so that that tomb would not be

the end of our life. And that we would not be

condemned to hell forever.

He fought that battle and He was the Victor.

He is the One who has saved us from our enemies.

Zechariah proclaimed that loudly and clearly

to all those people who were gathered there

that day reminding them that God

sent a Savior.

And He is the One who has saved us and rescued us

from everything that was out to destroy us

eternally and condemn us forever.

Zechariah praised His Name and

we do that as well.

That's our joy. That is our gladness.

That's why we as God's people are placed on this earth

as His children to return

to Him in thanks for all that He has done for us.

To praise His Holy Name.

It is what gives us great comfort in this world and

what a blessing it is,

to be able to have voices to do that.

To be able to have homes in which we are able

to gather with our families without fear,

that somebody's going to come

beating down the door and stop us.

That we can gather here in worship, bonded together

on God's Word and

sing the praises that lift up God's Holy Name.

That remind us that He keeps

His promises to us as well.

That we encourage each other

with that Word. We look at

the example of Zechariah, as the head of his household,

praising God. And fathers and men:

What a blessing for us

to be able to lead the worship in our own homes.

To take out our Bibles and sit down

with our family and read that Word

and pray together for the needs that we have as couples.

The needs that we have as families.

To be able to share that Word and praise God

for all that He has done for us.

What a tremendous opportunity we have

all of the time.

We have everything at our fingertips ...

to praise God because He has rescued us and

He keeps us secure.

He has taken us, as the Apostle Paul reminds

the Galatians in our Epistle Lesson,

as going from slaves ... to sons!

To going from people who

were encased in the shackles

of sin,

living in fear and total darkness.

Slaves to everything that was

ungodly and prone to decay.

And He BURST forth from that grave

and shattered those shackles that confined us.

We are no longer slaves but

we are the children of God.

That wonderful blessing

that Paul reminds us that we can run to God and

cry: "Daddy"! Not: "Oh, I'm afraid." And we

cower in fear and fall on the ground petrified.

But we have access

to God the Father.

That we can go to Him.

We can hear Him ...

and listen to Him,

and He comforts us with His Word.

And He reassures us of our salvation.

And He reminds us that our sins are forgiven.

And He reminds us that there is an inheritance

waiting for us that is out of this world.

That goes beyond what we can imagine.

Our heavenly home.

His home.

That He gives to us,

His children.

Out of nothing that we have done, but just because

He is the One who loves us,

and says: Here! I share

eternal life with you.

What joy that is!

What blessing that is! What a reason

for us to be shouting from the rooftops, the news

that we have. The joy that is

in our hearts. It covers over our lives.

The blessings that God has given to us

will be evident and will be seen in each

and everything we say and everything we do.

And we have to admit that that's not always easy for us.

Our human nature gets tired.

Our human nature doesn't think we're seeing results.

Our human nature just wants to have time for us.

It's like:

The 12 Days of Christmas!

Do you realize we're on Day 10 today?

That we have still two days to go in that wonderful

celebration that the ancient church

expressed for 12 days

the joy of God sending His Son.

Yet only in our lives, we think:

Oh, we gotta get that tree down. We gotta get these

decorations put away. We gotta STOP all this Christmas stuff.

The after sales-sales, after Christmas sales

have come and gone.

And so is most of our joy.

So is most of the wonder of the season.

So is most of the excitement that we had.

We can't let that happen

to our faith

and what God has done for us.

That blessing of Christ's forgiveness

comes to us new each morning.

It takes away

the sins that we commit each and every day.

It is there that we find joy.

There that we find hope and there is our reason

for thanking God for what He has done and

praising His Name. When we're tired of praising

God's Name, we need to go back and find out why.

For the blessings that God has given us

we need to dig deeper into His Word.

Because there we will be reassured

of our own salvation. We will see once again

the beauty of God's plan. All that God

did and worked for our salvation.

As Paul told the Galatians: When the time

had fully come, when God had set everything up,

He sent His Son.

And for that, we rejoice!

And for that, forever, we serve Him,

and praise His glorious Name.

Amen.

Let us rise.

Now may the peace of God that

goes beyond all of our understanding keep your

hearts and your minds, and especially your lives

in the one true faith unto life everlasting.

Amen.