A New Normal • Luke 1:57-80

1:01:02 Teaching begins

Notes

Today we see a change in the fabric of life.

The normal is, things stay the same or get worse. The same old same old that we’re used to. The world is a Monday morning every day. It’s normal.

But today a new normal arrives. It’s the way things are going to be forever.

This is astonishing and scary because people are not used to change. We know what that person is like; we’ve known him all our lives. We have our ways of living and that’s how we do that. What is going on?

A new way of living has arrived with power and hope and joy.

This new normal is God with us.

I’m reading in Luke 1 from verse 57.

1. As we pick up the account we notice that the word of God is fulfilled, vv. 57-58.

A. An angel appeared to Zacharias as he was in the temple and told him his wife Elizabeth would conceive and bear a son in her old age. She did!

B. As the angel said, the birth would bring joy and gladness to many. She was rejoicing during the pregnancy. And now the relatives and neighbours are rejoicing at the baby’s birth.

C. As the angel said, the baby was filled with the Holy Spirit while still in the womb.

D. One thing not fulfilled upon the birth was Zacharias voice restored.

1. The angel said, “You shall be silent and unable to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time.

2. The baby has been born, and yet for the first eight days Zacharias is still not able to speak.

3. Evidently there is a point God is going to make with the naming of the baby. What happens is not the usual thing. This is different, this is a new normal.

2. The relatives and neighbours carry on as they have always carried on, vv. 59-67.

A. They’re happy about the baby but haven’t learned this baby’s significance.

1. Nobody has told them. Zacharias can’t speak but he could have written and he didn’t. Elizabeth could have said something, but she didn’t. Who would believe her?

2. I think they both thought, this is up to God. It’s His work. Let Him do what is right in His sight.

B. The relatives and neighbours come to circumcise the baby and they’re going to name him.

1. The context shows that they considered it normal, whatever we might think. This is how you do things.

2. They think Zacharias is a great name for the baby. People will hear the name and say, yeah, Zacharias, what a great guy. It’s like your name is going to live on in this baby, a great tribute to you. That’s your son’s purpose, to be your legacy, to receive what you have handed down to him. It points to you.

3. But contrary to custom and tradition both Elizabeth and Zacharias resist the relatives and neighbours.

A. Elizabeth says absolutely not! His name is John!

B. Look at their reaction: “What? There’s no one by that name in your family.” That’s not our custom, that’s different to who we are. Why would you make the child different?”

C. And they go over her head to Zacharias. “C’mon, you want the baby to have your name, right?” They expect him to nod his head, of course. Crazy woman, what’s she thinking?

D. But he is just as intense as Elizabeth. He takes the tablet and writes His name is John.

E. And they all are astonished. This is not the usual, this is different.

F. Zacharias has named the baby with the name God said to use. Now everything about the birth has been fulfilled, and Zacharias is filled with the Holy Spirit and can suddenly speak.

4. Zacharias is gripped with intense joy because God is fulfilling His promises right now, that is, the Lord Himself is coming, vv. 67-80.

A. He’s had nine months to think about these events and what they mean—God is good, He is fulfilling His word in my lifetime. But then the Holy Spirit comes upon him and he receives heightened knowledge and understanding and the words pour out of him with tremendous force. Zacharias is prophesying, he is speaking forth a message from God.

B. He’s speaking about it as though it has already happened. It’s that certain. God has written His covenants with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Moses, and David. This is all through the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms. The promise must be fulfilled. No word of God shall ever fail. It’s happening now!

C. All the promises and covenants of God are fulfilled by one person with the power of God.

1. Zacharias says God has raised up a horn of salvation in the house of David. A horn is an Old Testament symbol of power. That’s why altars are made with horns on the four corners, it symbolises here is where you sacrifice effectively. Even the altar of prayer in the temple had horns on its four corners. This is where you pray effectively. A horn of salvation is a power for effective salvation.

2. That power is a person from the family of David, according to that covenant with David, 2 Samuel 7. One of his descendants would rule from his throne forever.

3. But you notice in verse 76, this person is the Highest. John will go before the Lord to prepare His ways. This person with the power of salvation is man and He is God.

5. Why do you need God to come as a man with salvation, redemption and power? Because of Israel’s enemies, their sin, and their darkness.

A. Israel has always had enemies hating them and wanting to destroy them completely.

1. One thing you learn as you read the Old Testament history is nearly everyone hates them. They have been ruled over by harsh oppressors. Even now they have to resist total destruction to this very hour.

2. Their ultimate enemy is the devil. Israel is a testimony to the existence of God, they are His people that He chose out of the world. The source of anti-Semitism is the devil who opposes God, therefore he opposes God’s people and seeks to destroy their testimony to God.

3. The devil is not just against the Jews, he is against all men everywhere because every man is made in the image of God. He wants to destroy all people everywhere. You have the devil as your enemy.

4. Ephesians 2:2 says the devil is the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 1 John 5:19 We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. When you’re in the hand of the enemy, you’re in his power.

5. The devil is a spirit, he has great power, he never gets tired. How are you going to fight the devil when you are lying in his power?

B. The reason the devil has power is because of sin. That’s in verse 77.

1. Sin is disobeying God’s laws. He is the author of life, He has the authority to determine what is the right way to live with Him and with all men. But everyone has sinned against God and disobeyed Him. You have lied, cheated, stolen, you’ve disobeyed your parents, you have thought and said blasphemous things.

2. Sin makes a man the enemy of God. If we flee from God, throw away His laws and say He doesn’t exist, He doesn’t go away. He will judge each person in righteousness. The wages of sin is death. There’s no way a man can win that fight.

3. You find how deep sin and disobedience goes in you when you think, I need to change this or that about me. You find you can’t even obey yourself. You are not in control and you can’t change that.

4. Jeremiah 17:1-2 The sin of Judah is written down with an iron stylus; with a diamond point it is engraved upon the tablet of their heart and on the horns of their altars, as they remember their children, so they remember their altars and their Asherim by green trees on the high hills.

5. Jeremiah 13:23 “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then you also can do good who are accustomed to doing evil.”

6. Ephesians 2:1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins. You have no power against death.

C. The third reason you need the power of salvation is the darkness that you live in.

1. Verse 79 is quoted from Isaiah 9. What comes before that shows what the darkness means. Isaiah 8:19-22 When they say to you, “Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter,” should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. They will pass through the land hard-pressed and famished, and it will turn out that when they are hungry, they will be enraged and curse their king and their God as they face upward. Then they will look to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be driven away into darkness.

2. Isaiah says people look to spirits of the dead for answers. People still look to other spiritual sources of power rather than the one true living God. But nowadays people also look to scientists and doctors for answers. Their answers don’t solve anything but increase the darkness, make worse problems.

3. One popular solution is to say your present gender is a mistake, if you transition you will find your fulfilment and satisfaction. But the pushers never mention that transitioning is superficial and doesn’t work. It doesn’t solve suicidal feelings. There’s no satisfaction. Plus you have mutilated and sterilised your body and it can’t be fixed.

4. Jeremiah 6:13-14 For from the least of them even to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for gain, and from the prophet even to the priest everyone deals falsely. “They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ but there is no peace.” “You have a brain tumour. Here’s a paracetamol.” Pain is not the issue, a deadly growth is the issue. You can’t deal only with the symptoms of an illness, you have to deal with the cause of the illness.

5. Zacharias is gripped with joy and prophesies because God is here to deal with the cause of all our problems in power.

A. The cause is we are dead in transgressions against God. Sin means no relationship with God. The only solution is to restore relationship with God.

B. But before any of this can happen you have to know your sin.

1. You have to understand it’s not because I’m from an oppressed ethnic group, it’s not because I identify as another gender, it’s not because I’m ADHD.

2. I’m an enemy against God. I’m dead to God in my sins and transgressions. My sins have separated me from my God so that He will not hear me.

C. If you understand you have sinned against God, then you are ready to know salvation by the forgiveness of sins. You’re ready to know God’s tender mercy. You’re ready to have the Dayspring from on high give you light and guide your feet into the path of peace.

D. Jesus the Lord paid for your sins by dying for them. He rose from the dead in power. He gives new life and His Spirit in power.

6. That’s why this baby is not the usual baby, and why we’re not going to name him Zacharias.

It’s not about Zacharias. This baby is about God is saving us and drawing us to Himself. He is a gift from God. That’s what John means.

7. So what?

A. The old normal is life in a rut. You live, you work, you die. Nothing changes. We do things like we’ve always done. Governments come and go. Wars, economic problems. Solutions that are superficial and don’t work. Religion is okay if that is your thing, but there’s nothing in it, just going through the motions, there’s no power in it. Sin, no relationship with God, the power of the devil, and darkness.

B. This is the new normal: God with us, the light of life, serving God in holiness and righteousness all our days, and joy. There’s power because God is here with us.

C. One of the names God gave to Jesus is Immanuel, God with us. Jesus is God who came to be with us, to live in us. When you receive Him He makes a new normal of living by His power, so that we can honestly say, I can do all things through Christ who lives in me.

D. If you haven’t received Jesus, receive Him today. Let Him remove your sins and give you His Spirit to renew you. Let Him give you light in your darkness and guide your feet into His path of peace. Let Him put the devil out of business in your life.

E. If you have received Jesus, beware going back to a life lived without Jesus.  You making the decisions. You trying to satisfy yourself. Life far from Jesus. Life from here on in is lived with Jesus. He is the Lord. You present yourself to Him and say, “Here I am. Anything You want, you can have it.” You say “Yes” to Jesus. That is your normal.

Let’s pray.