Deo Gloria
November 30, 2022
Advent Sermon
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: Luke 1:76-79
Theme: Oh, Come, Oh, Come, Emmanuel!
- The Rising Sun
Dawn—whether it’s a soldier who is standing guard at his post, an employee who is working the late shift or a mother who has been up all night with a sick child, the sight of the sun’s rays dawning on the eastern horizon is a welcome sight. It means the watch is almost over, the shift is almost done, or the fever may soon subside. It means relief to tired and bleary eyes and comfort to a heavy and anxious heart. It means rest for a weary body and hope for a better day to come.
This evening in the verses of our text we find this comforting and hope-filled picture of the dawn applied to our Savior Jesus. He is the rising sun from heaven, the one who brings light into our darkness, comfort to our hearts and hope for a better tomorrow. As we prepare our hearts for the coming of our Lord, tonight we join God’s people over the centuries and say, “Come, oh, come, Emmanuel. You are our Rising Sun from heaven.”
The words Luke records in these verses are actually part of a song sung by Zechariah after the birth of his son. As you may remember, the angel Gabriel had appeared to Zechariah while he was serving at the temple. He announced to him that he and his wife, Elizabeth, were going to have a son and their son would be the forerunner of the promised Savior. Zechariah, however, doubted the angel’s words and as a result he was rendered speechless, unable to speak at all. But all of that changed when his son was born. After making it clear that their child’s name was to be John, Zechariah’s tongue was loosed and he was able to speak again. And speak he did. He sang a song of praise to God, a song filled with praise and thanks to God for remembering his promises and showing mercy to his people, a song filled with words of prophecy both about his own son and about the coming Savior.
In the first part of our text, verses 76+77, Zechariah is speaking about his son, John, and the role he would play in preparing the way for the coming Savior. He indicates that he would “give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins”(v. 77). John did not come to give God’s people another set of laws or to urge them to do a better job of obeying God’s laws. They had plenty of laws to follow already and trying harder wouldn’t help them obtain salvation. True, John did use the law to point out people’s sins and lead them to repentance, but his primary message was to comfort God’s people by pointing ahead to the Savior who would take way their sins. This is how they would obtain the knowledge of salvation, not in what they could do to earn God’s favor, but in relying on the Savior God had promised and now was sending, the Lamb of God who would take all of their sins away.
In the second part of our text, verses 78+79, Zechariah speaks about that promised Savior. He describes him as “the rising sun” who “will come to us from heaven.” There’s that beautiful picture, the one filled with so much comfort and hope and joy. A new day is dawning. The light of the sun is filling the eastern sky. The Savior is almost here. And what is he coming to do? “To shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death”(v. 79).
It was a dark and discouraging time for God’s people back in Zechariah’s day. They lived under the heavy hand of Roman rule. The Romans ruled with both force and brutality. Rebels were tortured and crucified. You paid your taxes and kept your mouth shut. Greed and corruption were everywhere, from Caesar and the Roman Senate to the local tax collectors to the temple itself. The Romans had many different gods to worship, but most of the people didn’t bother. They were too busy, too busy with work, too busy with entertainment, too busy getting drunk at drinking parties or having sex at sex parties or engaging in sodomy. In addition to the darkness around them, there was the darkness in their own hearts, the guilt and shame that weighed on their hearts because of their own sins and their own failures. And on top of all of that was the specter of death, that dark and gloomy shadow that brought heartache and sadness to every home and every heart and from which there seemed to be no escape.
It sounds awfully familiar, doesn’t it? It sounds awfully familiar to life in 21st century America. Pay your taxes and keep your mouth shut. Greed and corruption are everywhere. People are too busy to worship God, too busy with work and entertainment, too busy with drinking and sexual immorality. Like the people back in Zechariah’s day, we too struggle with the darkness in our own hearts, the guilt and shame of our own sins. And death—death continues to cast its dark and menacing shadow over every heart and every home as it claims the life of yet another loved one, another friend, another neighbor; and there doesn’t seem to be any escape.
But don’t despair, friends. The rising sun has come. His name is Jesus. He came to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death. No, he didn’t come to free us from a corrupt or tyrannical government or remedy all the ills of a corrupt society. Many people in Zechariah’s day were looking for that kind of Savior, but that’s not the kind of Savior Jesus came to be.
As the rising Son from heaven, Jesus came to dispel the darkness from our hearts and dispel the gloomy shadows of death. And by his suffering and death on the cross and his resurrection on the third day, that’s exactly what he did. By his death on the cross he took away our sin and guilt and replaced it with forgiveness, full and free forgiveness. And by his resurrection he broke the power of death and gave us hope, real and living hope, hope for a better life to come, unending life with our Savior Jesus in his glorious home.
As Zechariah said, Jesus also came “to guide our feet into the path of peace”(v. 79). In this world of ours peace is often a rare commodity. And all too often people look for it in the wrong place: in the bottom of a bottle or in their own efforts to earn God’s favor. But it doesn’t work. It doesn’t bring them the peace they’re desperately searching for.
But Jesus does. Jesus guides us into the only path that leads to real peace, the path of God’s grace and mercy, the path of full and free forgiveness, the path of perfect pardon won by him and offered to you and to me in the gospel. It’s the peace announced by Jesus to a paralyzed man, lying on a mat: “Take heart, son, your sins are all forgiven”(Matthew 9:2). It’s the peace announced by Jesus in passages like Matthew 11:28+29: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” It’s the peace announced by Paul in Romans ch. 5: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”(v. 1).
And the thing is, the peace that we enjoy now from Jesus and the comfort we enjoy and the hope we have is just a little taste of what we will enjoy in heaven. You see, you and I are waiting for the dawning of another day, the day when our Savior Jesus will return, the day the Son from heaven will rise in all his glory and all his power and take his people to his heavenly home. On that day the darkness and gloom of sin and death will be dispelled forever. Guilt and shame, funerals and sadness will all be a thing of the past. And in its place we will enjoy perfect rest and perfect peace and perfect life with Jesus. I don’t know about you, but I can hardly wait!
Oh, come, our Dayspring from on high, and cheer us by your drawing nigh;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night and death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to you, O Israel!
Amen.