JESUS, THE HORN OF SALVATION
Luke 1:57-80
Key verse 1:68-69
“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.”
Have you ever seen the horns of a bull? They are sharp and strong and when the bull charges and points its horns, the object that it is charging at has little hope for survival. In all likelihood it will be pierced with a fatal stab from the bulls horns. There are some animals who have horns such as the deer, ram, elk and rhinocerous, just to name a few. These horns are used to defend itself as well as to charge and hurt the other creature. The strength of these animals are in its horns. I heard of a story last month of a hunter who cornered a deer. The deer attacked him with its horns and bruised and broke his ribs.
In today’s passage, Jesus is called the horn of salvation. This is because in Jesus is the mighty strength of God to attack and defeat all our enemies and to give each of us personal salvation. This morning let us find out why and how Jesus is the horn of salvation.
Part 1. The Birth of John the Baptist (57-66)
Look at verses 57-58, “When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.” The son that was promised to Zechariah and Elizabeth was born just as the angel Gabriel had promised. Everyone saw God’s hand of mercy on an old and barren woman. She was no longer a disgraceful woman, but was now known as the “Miracle Woman of Judea” They said, “Did you see old lady Liz? She has a baby!! It is a miracle from God!” If there would have been a Guineas Book of World Records at that time, she would have been included as the oldest woman who ever had given birth.
Look at verses 59-60, “On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, but his mother spoke up and said, ‘No! He is to be called John.’” Following the law, the baby was to be circumcised on the eighth day. This was a sign that he was God’s people and that his parent’s believed the promises of God. That day was also the traditional day to publicly declare the name of the child. It was a great day of celebration, a big party and much, much laughing and talking. All the relatives and neighbors joined in to witness these two events.
Everyone expected them to name their new son after the father, Zechariah. “Here is Zechariah, Jr. But we will call him Zach.” It was tradition to name the first born son after the father. Since this would probably be the only son they had, it was even more logical to name him after the father. But Elizabeth did not think so. She wanted to name him John, which means “gracious gift of God”, which is the name the angel had given. It was a great surprise that Elizabeth even said this. So they said to her in verse 61, “There is no one among your relatives who has that name.”
Perhaps they thought she was acting strange because of the biological changes that occur after a woman gives birth. Then they made signs to Zechariah to find out what he would like to name the child. At this time, Zechariah could not speak and also he could not hear. He was both deaf and dumb (v.62). Zechariah had been like this over nine months by now. It was indeed a “quiet time” for him. He had nine months of silence to brood and ponder and meditate on his Bible, the Old Testament. Remember that God had rebuked him through the angel Gabriel for not believing his words that Elizabeth would have a son because of her advanced age (1:20). God had given him deaf and dumb training for over nine months now.
During those nine months what do you think Zechariah might have been thinking? He probably groaned under God’s rebuke and questioned himself, “Why didn’t I believe the word of God? Why was I so skeptical? What a fool I was!” But during those silent times, Zechariah could also come to know the grace of God and spend time listening to God. When he could not converse with anyone, Zechariah began to see what was happening. It began to sink in his head and in his heart that what was about to come, were great things of God that the prophets had spoken about.
When we doubt God’s word, we easily stumble and lose the way and can’t find meaning in anything. God wants us to believe the absoluteness of his word, that his word does not change and that he will fulfill all his words. Then when we do, we really come to know who God is. Now we know that Christmas is coming upon us. Yet many people try to ignore the great event in human history and do not say “Merry Christmas!” because they do not want offend people who do not want to believe. They only permit to say, “Happy Holiday!” They even become disturbed if they see something that relates to Christmas, even a Christmas tree. So they don’t want to call it a Christmas tree anymore. Instead, they want to call it a “Holiday Tree.” I guess those Christmas cookies aren’t going to taste the same if you call them “holiday cookies.” These people try to deny that the great event of Jesus’ birth is really great at all. They just want to mix it up with buying gifts and doing a lot of shopping which leaves many people anxious and exhausted and clogs the roads with too many cars.
So by the time Christmas really comes, people are exhausted and grumpy. In this Christmas time we should believe the absoluteness of God’s word in the Bible and believe the event of Jesus’ birth as the good news of great joy. Look at verses 63-64, “He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s amazement he wrote, ‘His name is John.’ Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God.” Zechariah did not lose this opportunity to restore himself and show to God and to others that he had learned his lesson. He wrote that his new sons name would be John. He did not doubt God’s word anymore. He had witnessed with his own eyes what God had done. Now he praised God because he saw God’s work before his own eyes in the form of his son John. He praised God for his new son and testified about his struggle for nine months.
God turned his doubt to words that were full of praise. Now let us see in part 2 what Zechariah specifically praised God about.
Part 2. Zechariah’s Song (67-80)
Zechariah was so filled with joy that all he could do is sing. He was full of the Holy Spirit and began to prophecy. You would think that he would praise God about his son and only talk about his son, morning noon and night. Anyone, who had a son or daughter will only talk about them because of the joy of the new life and new addition to the family. But when we realize who he prophesied about, we see it wasn’t about his son John, but about the Savior Jesus to come.
Let’s read verses 68-69, “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.” First, Zechariah praises the Lord the God of Israel because he has come. Zechariah’s heart was filled with joy as he praised God. He saw that through the coming birth of Jesus that God had come. This means that God has come to visit his people. God has come in the incarnate Christ. Jesus is God with us, “Immanuel.” For centuries the Jewish people had languished under the conviction that God had withdrawn: the spirit of prophecy had ceased and Israel had fallen into the hands of Rome. All the godly in Israel were waiting for God to come to them.
Luke tells us in 2:25 that a devout man named Simeon was looking for the consolation of Israel. In Luke 2:38 the prayerful Anna was looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. These were the days of great expectation. Days of hoping and waiting. Even Zechariah was also waiting and hoping. Now the long awaited visitation of God was about to happen. It would happen through the birth of Mary’s baby into the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, God with us, “Immanuel” as the prophet Isaiah spoke almost 700 years before the birth of Jesus. Imagine that. What good news to praise God that he was coming to his own people and to the world. Imagine President Bush personally coming to your home one evening to have dinner with you or even to this worship service. How excited you would be to actually see someone of such importance face to face. You would feel pretty privileged by this event.
Why did the Lord come? He came to redeem his people. Redeem means to set free at a price or cost. These words “he has redeemed his people” show that we are all enslaved and held bondage by something. That something is sin and Satan or the devil himself. These are things that we are too weak to free ourselves from. In the OT, God uses the word to “redeem” as a way to describe himself. God’s desire is to redeem his people and set them free. In Isaiah 47:4 he is called “Our Redeemer---the Lord Almighty is his name---is the Holy One of Israel.” He is the “Redeemer” with a capital “R” He specializes in redeeming people. Those people are you and me. In Exodus 6:6 God said to his people who were in slavery held under the bondage of the cruel Egyptians for over 430 years, he said, “I am the Lord, I will bring you out from under the burden of the Egyptians and I will deliver you from their bondage and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.” The Lord Jesus is our only redeemer. He took our place on the cross. He came to suffer for our sins and die in our place on the cross. What a great cost!! The cost of his life, he gave for us!! Isaiah 53:5 says about Jesus the redeemer, “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
Look at verse 69, “he has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.” Zechariah sees Jesus as a “horn of salvation.” This is an image from the OT. Here, the footnote for verse 69 says that the horn symbolizes strength. The strength of an animal with horns is in its horns. A bull without horns is big, but it is nothing without its horns. With its horns it becomes angry, it becomes a ferocious animal that can not be stopped.
In the OT we some verses about a horn that means strength and salvation and points to God Almighty himself as the source of our strength and salvation. A good example is found in Psalm 18. This Psalm is actually also found in 2 Samuel 22. It is the song that David sang when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of King Saul who was chasing after him all throughout the countryside in order to kill him in his jealous anger.
David said in Psalm 18:2, “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation….” In the OT we always get the conviction that God is the one who fights for Israel he is the one who is strong and who gets the victory over the enemies of his people. To David, God was his defense (shield) and his offense, that is his deadly and powerful horn of his salvation.
Jesus is this horn of salvation from the house of David, that is David’s line. Psalm 132:17 says, “Here I will make a horn grow for David and set up a lamp for my anointed one.” Zechariah was full of joy to see that Jesus, the horn of salvation was a fulfillment of the promises of God, verse 70, and God being faithful to keep his covenant and oath he swore from the time of Abraham (verses 72-73). This is why Jesus, is the horn of salvation. He was promised by God and he came just as God said he would. God is truly faithful to his word.
But how is Jesus the horn of salvation? In verses 71 and 74 we see that Jesus came to give us salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us and to rescue us from the hand of our enemies. The enemy here is not the Duke University basketball team, or the Dallas Cowboys or Al-Quida or any terrorists as we might think they are. Our enemy is not flesh and blood (Eph.6:10-12) The enemy is the devil or Satan. 1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” In Revelations chapter 12 the devil is described as an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns that leads the whole world astray. He is really nasty and ugly! The Apostle Paul describes him in 2 Timothy 2:26 as one traps people and makes them captive to do the devil’s. The devil is also called the “god of this age who has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they can not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is God himself” (2 Cor.4:4) The enemy the devil hates us, accuses us (Job 1:6) wants to condemn us, deceive us and destroy us.
As long as we remain in unbelief about who Jesus is we are held under his tight grip. We are his prisoner. But Jesus is stronger than Satan. Jesus’ one powerful horn is strong enough to pierce Satan and render him powerless even though he has seven heads and ten horns! In this case seven heads is certainly not better than one. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil (1 Jn.3:8). So when Jesus came, he began to drive out evil spirits from people. He drove out over 5,000 demons from a crazy and suicidal man and made him into a gentle and fruitful evangelist for ten cities.
No one except Jesus is strong enough to defeat our enemy, the devil. Jesus used a parable in Matthew chapter 12:29 to show that he came to rescue us from the hand of Satan and free us from being held powerless as his slaves. He said in Matthew 12:29, “Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob his house.” When Jesus came as our horn of salvation and our redeemer, he entered the house of the strong man Satan, smashing down his door. Jesus was not polite, he didn’t knock at Satan’s door, but smashed it down. Then he tied Satan up and rescued us.
It was as if we were held as prisoners by someone very strong, like Shaquille O’Neil. We would need someone much stronger than him to free us. We could not do it ourselves because Shaq is well over 7 feet tall and weighs over 300 pounds. Jesus rescues us from the hand of our enemies and gives us salvation from our enemies. Now we know that we are no longer slaves of Satan. Now we know that no one, even Satan can condemn us when we are in the protection of our horn of salvation Jesus Christ. This was one good reason for Zechariah to sing such a joyful song.
But what is the reason that Jesus went through all that trouble to save us from our enemies? Why? Let’s read verses 74b-75 and find out why. “…and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.” First, it was so that we could serve him without fear. In the OT times, people served God in fear, not at all in most cases in humble reverence. This is because in the OT times, God’s character seemed more strict. If you did not attend Sunday Worship and were found to be playing video games on your X box instead, you could be stoned to death. If you were a priest and entered the Most Holy Place without first offering sacrifice for your sins, you could be killed by God. Any kind of mistake was a serious life and death matter. It was also impossible for us to approach him because of our sins.
But now because of Jesus, we can serve God without fear of being condemned by God. This is because Jesus is full of grace and truth. Because he was tempted in every way, just as we are, he understands us and is sympathetic towards us in our many weaknesses. Hebrews 4:16 then tells us, “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Once we know his grace to us and his mercy he showed through Jesus, we have no fear, but a close and loving relationship with him. We who were once slaves of fear can now call him, “Abba Father” (Ro.8:15) This means that we are sons and daughters of God. In the past I had a fear from self-condemnation if I did not feed enough sheep each week and go to campus at least three times a week. I thought that God did not love me enough if I wasn’t performing for him. I was trying to serve God with a works based attitude and I found out later that this could never please God or give me true peace. It was only later that God showed me that he loves me unconditionally because Jesus died for me, sheep or no sheep. He died for me so that I could serve him in his grace and experience real freedom from trying to please him by my works.
Secondly, Jesus saved us from our enemies so that we could grow in holiness and righteousness Verse 75. He rescues us so that we may grow happily in the likeness of his Son Jesus in words, action and thought (Ro.8:29-30) and have the promised hope of future glory. Let us now look at verses 76-79, “And you my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
Zechariah now mentions about his son, John the Baptist. John would prepare the way for Jesus through preaching a baptism for the forgiveness of sins. But once again, Zechariah praises Jesus seeing him as the rising sun from heaven. We all enjoy a beautiful sunrise. It gives us hope for the new day. The rising sun Jesus comes from heaven to give us hope for all the rest of the days of our lives whether it is cloudy, rainy, stormy or snowy. Because Jesus is the horn of our salvation, the darkness of death is truly gone and the way and path to the kingdom of heaven is very clear. Now can walk in peace; peace with God and peace with others as we deliver the message of salvation to the world.
Like Zechariah, may God help us to have real joy knowing that God in Jesus Christ has come and redeemed us. Satan may be a roaring lion seeking to devour, but none of us who take refuge in Christ, the horn of salvation, can he destroy. If I were an artist like Rebekah Koh, I would paint a special picture on one of those big oil canvasses. The scene would be of a distant hill at dawn. The sun is about to rise behind the hill and the rays shoot up and out of the picture. And all alone, silhouetted on the hill in the center of the picture, very dark, is a magnificent wild bull standing with his back held high and the crown of his head nine feet tall. On both sides of his head there is a horn curving out and up six feet long and thick at the base. He stands there sovereign and serene, facing the southern sky with his massive neck slightly cocked and impaled at the end of his right horn hangs a huge lion, dead.