Sounds like y'all have the same thing I got. It's like babies coughing, babies coughing, babies coughing. All right kids, I realize that sometimes at church we use pretty big words that a lot of grownups, let alone you kids, don't understand. But I bet that even though you might not know the words we're using, you do know and believe the ideas that the big words are trying to communicate. So let's give it a shot. Raise your hands if you believe, kids, Jesus died for your sins. Good. Well, you believe in the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement. Bet you didn't know you believed that, did you? How many of you believed that of all the people in the whole wide world, God chose to save little old you? Raise your hand. Okay, we've got some Arminians in here. Those of you that raised your hand believe in the doctrine of election. How many of you believe you are a part of God's family and that he gave you his name in baptism? Okay. You believe in the doctrine of adoption. Now maybe you didn't know those big fancy words, but that's okay because I think sometimes we can use big words and miss out on the big truths that God is trying to pack into them. As you grow up, I'm sure that you're going to learn those big words, but I want to encourage you to never replace loving the truth of the big word for the big word. I think sometimes we Christians, especially us really smart, reformed people, can use big words and forget the majestic, glorious, wonderful truths God inspired those words to communicate. And we forget that when we forget that there are bigger truths behind those big words, we grownups can say and do some really silly things. I know some grownups who think that just because you kids don't know those big words means that you don't believe the truths behind them, but you just proved them wrong, didn't you? You know God loves you. You know that he sent Jesus to save you by living for you and dying for you and rising again for you. And you know, unless someone teaches you otherwise, that as God's child, you should love him and obey him. This morning, I want us all, kids and grownups alike, to revisit a few little theologically rich ideas from an old song, Zechariah's Benedictus. And I want us all to consider and rejoice in the beauty of the truths that we find there, even if a couple of the specific words might seem to be missing. The simple and yet glorious little words, grace, justice, and mercy. Now there's much more behind each word than this, but when I first became a Christian, my pastor helped me start to understand these words like this. Justice is when God gives us what we deserve. Grace is when God gives us what we don't deserve, and mercy is when God doesn't give us what we do deserve. When we were raising our kids, we tried to build the basics of those words into our daily life. When we ate ice cream, we prayed and rejoiced at God's gracious gift and asking that we would be thankful for this gracious gift and even more thankful for the most gracious gift of his son. When they got a spanking. We explained this was kind of like a little bit of justice for their sin. And then we thanked God that Jesus received all of God's justice so that they could receive God's mercy, not giving us the full justice that our sins deserve. I remember when it clicked for one kid that mercy was not getting what they deserved. As we were talking about what they had done and how they knew it was going to result in them getting a spanking, that kid, who was probably not any older than two or three, asked, Daddy, are you going to be just or merciful today? Well, that day I was merciful. And so we thanked God for not giving us what we deserved and knowing that they now understood the basics, we moved on to teaching them that even in God giving us discipline, God was being merciful. But today we're just going to stick to the basics of grace, justice, and mercy. Now again, those words are far deeper and more glorious than those basic definitions, and they are interwoven into one another in ways that will take us an eternity to appreciate. But it's those three simple words I want you to keep in the back of your minds today as we go through our story and are reminded of how God is all of those things for his people, even when it might not feel like it. To help us do that, we need to not just remember what was going on when Zechariah sang the song, but what was going on when and therefore why Luke and Luke alone chose to record this song. If you've been with us for the last year or so, some of this will be old news to you, but we've picked up quite a few travelers along the way, and so it'll do us well to remember that Luke and Paul partnered to write this gospel somewhere in the 50s, maybe early 60s. Probably not too long after Jesus' resurrection and ascension, Matthew and the Apostle James partnered up to write a gospel to help the people of God see that Jesus was a new Israel and a better Moses who had come to usher in a new covenant. Toward the end of that first gospel, Jesus prophesied that he would return to that generation and judge the apostate Jewish leaders who would not only dare to put Israel's Messiah to death, but who would turn on his bride. Well, fast forward about a decade or so into the mid 40s, and people were starting to wonder what was going on. The early church was being persecuted. James had just been killed and it had literally taken a miracle for Peter to be delivered from prison. So had all authority in heaven and on earth really been given to Jesus? Was he indeed the kind of king who would vindicate his subjects or would the movement bearing his name die out now that their leader was gone? So to reassure the people of God, the apostle Peter teams up with Mark to write another gospel, this time structuring it and including details to remind the people that Jesus was not only greater than Moses, he was the truer and better David, the kingly son of God who was able to make quick work of all of his and therefore their enemies. And yes, he had in fact promised to come back and judge that generation. But then about 10 or 15 more years went by, and things didn't seem to be getting all that much better. In fact, they seemed to be getting worse. By this time, the Jews had almost completely hardened themselves against the gospel of David's son and Lord. The church was beginning to be filled up with Gentile believers now, and they too were being persecuted and wondering if pledging allegiance to the Jewish Lord Jesus was all that great of an idea. Was this Jesus really the Savior to the Gentiles too? And so commissioned by a wealthy nobleman, Theophilus, whose name means God lover, Luke, investigates the various accounts of Jesus. And with the help of Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, he reports back with this gospel. So that Theophilus and all the other God lovers at the time could be certain what they had heard about Jesus was true. He did in fact promise to be the King of Jubilee for Jew and Gentile alike. And he would in fact visit that generation with either mercy or justice. That's the lived context of the initial recipients of the gospel. And so Luke structures this gospel accordingly. He assures the God lover that everything he writes is either first or second hand testimony and he begins the gospel by giving the readers characters they can relate to. Characters that were in a similar situation with similar fears and asking similar questions. Would Herod and the wicked priests and foreign nations always oppress the people of God? Would God hear their cries for deliverance? Would he remember his promises? Would God be gracious and merciful to forgive them of all their sins? Luke's audience has been asking these questions for almost 30 years. And so Luke begins his gospel by reminding them that the same kinds of questions were being asked by a people who had been waiting far longer than that for God's justice and mercy to come. By introducing Theophilus, and by way of extension us, to two other faithful, patient God lovers, Zechariah and Elizabeth, and then describing how God was gracious and merciful to give them a son, Luke is laying a foundation that will only become more glorious as his gospel comes to a climax in the grace and mercy and justice of God all coming together in the person and work of the Son who would come after the Son. Now it's hidden a bit. But if you know your Bibles really well, you may have recognized some of the words in Zechariah's song or from the prophet Malachi, the last prophet God had sent to speak to Israel. In Malachi 2 through 4, we hear about the Lord's messenger. In prophesying against a hard-hearted, having ears but unwilling to hear kind of people, Malachi says, You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, how have we wearied him? By saying, everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them. Or by asking, where is the God of justice? Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight. Behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. Your words have been hard against me, says the Lord. But you say, how have we spoken against you? You've said it's vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper, but they put God to the test and they escape. Upon hearing these words, Malachi records that not everyone stopped up their ears. There were some faithful God lovers who feared the Lord and who esteemed his name and we are told that the Lord heard them. He paid attention to them and he wrote a book of remembrance so that when he came to judge his people, he would spare the faithful among them and make them that esteemed his name his treasured possession. And then silence. No more prophecy, no more divine speech from God for 400 years until Luke 1. Now, it's not as though God wasn't at work or still preparing to do great things, but in a sense, he was silent. And so when Luke sets the stage, essentially by telling Theophilus a story about a faithful old priest still praying, still earnestly seeking the Lord in the temple, and then God's messenger suddenly appearing in the temple to declare God was indeed coming and that he was going to send Zechariah a son to prepare his way, well, Malachi 3 and 4 are in the backdrop. Just because God hadn't been speaking didn't mean God had stopped listening or that he had forgotten his promise to be merciful and gracious to his people. God had been at work the whole time and he'd been involved in even the most minute of details in the lives of his people, including when the parents of this priest and his wife named their little babies. He's still so involved in the details, so gracious. God not only gives them a baby, but he gives their baby a name too. Zechariah and Elizabeth are the parents. In Hebrew, Zechariah means Yahweh remembers. Elizabeth means my God promises. And their baby John means Yahweh is gracious. 400 years of righteous, faithful saints wondering, will God remember? Will he keep his promises? Will he be gracious and merciful to us? So much is packed into the words. Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. God remembers. Tell your wife, Elizabeth, God has kept his promises. You will bear a son and you shall call his name John because God is about to be gracious to you. Now given that Elizabeth was past her childbearing years, you can imagine how this news was almost too good to be true and you can understand why at first Zechariah struggled to believe it. And yet, as another part of God's tenderizing mercy to Zechariah, with a sign befitting a priest called to be God's representative, Zechariah is made deaf and mute. Like the people who had stopped listening to God's word, Zechariah was made deaf. And like the people who had refused to proclaim the truth of God's word to the Gentiles, Zechariah was made mute. A promise to send the Lord's messenger followed by 400 years of silence. And now the announcement of that same child's impending birth followed by nine more months of silence. Fast forward through the nine months, the child is born and Zechariah still can't speak. It isn't until the time comes to declare the name of his son that the silence ends. Now, we think couples who are secretive about the name of their baby are making this weird power play. But in Bible times, in some Jewish culture, still the name of the baby, at least the boys, wasn't revealed until the day of their circumcision. In Leviticus 12, God told Moses that when a woman gave birth to a boy, she was to be considered unclean for seven days, but on the eighth day after he was born, The father was responsible for calling a priest or a Levite, or by this time a rabbi, usually trained in the practice to come to the family's home or village, circumcise him, wash his wounds with water, declare the promises of the covenant over him, and then announce the child's name to the family and friends who had gathered for the occasion and subsequent feast. or if you've been worshiping with us for longer than a month, that ceremony probably sounds a little familiar to you because we do something similar in our circumcision baptism naming rite when we ask, what is the Christian name of the child? And then we wash him with water without using the parent's surname into the name of the family name of God, into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And then many of you either invite your family and friends to feast or you go home and celebrate the occasion. So it's in that similar kind of context when Zechariah and Elizabeth are preparing their eight-day-old to receive the sign of the covenant that the family is asking, what's the child's name? Not believing Elizabeth that the boy should be called John, her neighbors and relatives turn to the deaf, mute Zechariah who asks for a writing tablet and writes, his name is John. Luke writes that immediately after Zechariah writes this, that his mouth was opened, his tongue was loosed, and he spoke. Blessing God, not ultimately for the birth of this son like you would think, but because his son would make God's people ready to receive all of his promises. This is obviously a Spirit-empowered song dripping from the lips of a man steeped in the Spirit-inspired Word of God. As with all glorious songs that survive the ages, the form and content of the Benedictus are masterful. If you've got your Bibles open, you can see not just the words, but the layout of the content calls us to consider the heart or the center of the passage. In verses 68 and 78 and nine, Zechariah blesses or praises God for visiting and redeeming his people. Language straight out of the Exodus and repeated through the prophets. You're familiar with the pattern. God's people experience his undeserved grace and blessing and prosperity for a time and then they get comfortable. They forsake His law, and then God brings a foreign nation to discipline them. They suffer for a while, and then one day when the suffering is almost unbearable, they cry out to God. He hears their prayers. He visits them and raises up a Savior who redeems them out of slavery by shedding the blood of their oppressors. So when God gives Zechariah and Elizabeth a child and Zechariah blesses God for being the God who visits and redeems his people, everyone knows blood is going to be shed. That's the opening and closing of the song. Coming in a little tighter, verses 69 and 77, Zechariah praises God for raising up a horn of salvation in the house of David and for saving his people, not just from their enemies, but from their sins. Little obscure, but remember, David's house was the temple. And on the four corners of the altar were horns. On the day of atonement, the priest would get two goats. The first goat would be slain for the sin offering, and the priest would take the blood from the goat, put some of it on each of the four horns of the altar, and then go lay his hands on the head of the live goat, confess the sins of the people, and then send that goat into the wilderness. In these actions that the people of God did year after year, they were reminded that God accepted the shedding of blood to cover their sins and to remove their guilt and shame. And that the blood was put on the four corners of the altar was supposed to be a reminder that one day God's grace and mercy and forgiveness would extend out of the tabernacle into the four corners of the earth. So now as a faithful priest, Zechariah knows the blood of bulls and goats couldn't really take away the sins of the world. And so when he blessed God that in sending the promised Messiah, he was singing by faith that God was going to provide a perfect sacrifice for the sins of his people and that he was going to extend his grace and mercy to the whole world. I told you there was a lot behind these little words. Coming in tighter, verses 70 and 76 speak of how this moment they were experiencing was the moment all the prophets had spoken of. In the birth of this boy and his cousin, all the covenant promises of God from Moses to Malachi, we're gonna find there yes and amen in him, something Jesus reinforced after his resurrection when he taught his disciples to read their Bibles with him as the interpretive lens. Tighter still. Verses 71, 74 and five, Zechariah continues to praise God for delivering his people from their enemies and from the hands of those who hate him so that they could once again serve him without fear. And then all the way down to the heart of the song is 72 and three. There this faithful, patient priest blesses God for being the God who remembers to keep his promise. to show mercy. Zechariah, God remembers. Elizabeth, God promises. John, God is gracious. And in the birth of the cousin, the Lord's Messiah, God has remembered to show mercy to his faithful, patient people who are suffering in silence. Did you catch why? Zechariah praises God for doing many things, but nestled neatly in verse 78, Zechariah sings that God does those many things for his people because of his own mercy. Why is God gracious? Why does He continually keep His promise to deliver His people? Why does He show His mercy to suffering sinners all over the world? Why? According to Zechariah's Holy Spirit-inspired words, God is merciful because He's merciful. And nowhere is his mercy more clear than in the esteemed name of his son, Jesus, which means Yahweh saves. Beloved, even when it seems like he feels silent, Even when it seems like he's not there and the enemies of Satan and sin and death feel like they're looming around every corner, read the Benedictus, sing it, he's not forgotten you. Even when his tender mercy feels more like tenderizing mercy, God is merciful and he promises to be merciful to everyone who's in Christ. He didn't cease to be merciful to his people in the 400 years of silence. He didn't cease to be merciful when Zechariah and Elizabeth were barren. He didn't cease to be merciful when Zechariah was struck deaf and dumb. And he didn't cease to be merciful when Christ's followers were being persecuted for the faith. God has been, is being, and will always be merciful to his people because it is in his nature to do so. He is full of mercy. And as recipients of our Father's mercy, we too ought to reflect that mercy to others. Now, we mustn't do what the world does and equate mercy with niceness and only niceness all the time. But we also mustn't react against all the niceness and turn into the kind of men and women that bear little to no resemblance to our God in refusing to be a people full of mercy. I know some of you are here, you men especially, because you're tired of the woke, effeminate church who doesn't know what time it is and won't stand up and preach hard truths. But make no mistake, whatever you've heard about the patriarchy out there is not what you're going to get in here. If you're here because you're tired of all the softness out there and you finally want someone to give you a reason to be whatever you think hard is, this isn't the place for you. Not unless you're willing to repent. Yes, we teach and preach that God's word is abundantly clear. Husbands and fathers are the heads of their households, and they ought to lead accordingly, even if it upsets some people. But we also teach that they are to do so while reflecting the sacrificial, life-giving love of Christ to their wives and strong, tender mercy of God the Father to their children. Men, in the way you're leading your home, Would your wife and kids be able to describe you as tender? Not weak, not fragile, not passive. Strong, reliable, assertive, but simultaneously gracious and full of mercy. Could your wife say, my husband is tender with me? Could your kids say, dad is full of grace and mercy? If not, you've got some repenting to do. After all, who do you think you are? What do you think you deserve? Do you really believe that you have sinned against the infinitely holy, almighty God of power and might, who will by no means clear the guilty? Do you really believe that he sent his son to die for your sins and to be raised for your justification? And do you really believe that God, for the sake of his son, forgives you all of your sins and has cleansed you of all your unrighteousness? Do you really believe that in Christ your Father has extended to you infinite grace and mercy? Well, if so, then how can you do anything other than go and do likewise in the way that you love and lead your family? Beloved, these wonderful truths don't just apply to fathers and husbands. If you believe, Zechariah's song is true, that the Lord of heaven and earth has visited and redeemed you, you who were once his enemies, not in shedding your blood, but in shedding the blood of his own son, well then that must change your entire life, not the least in which in how you approach everyone else. If your God has been infinitely merciful to you, how can you not be merciful to everyone else? How can you bear a grudge against your parents or your siblings or your co-workers when God refuses to bear a grudge against you? even though you constantly sin against Him, constantly forget His goodness, constantly choose to do the exact opposite of what you know His will is for your life. Knowing that He has been, is, and will be merciful to you, what right do you have to be anything but merciful when people sin against you? Now, sure, it might feel like evildoers are always getting the upper hand, like you're suffering in silence, and maybe even like God isn't hearing you and relieving you from whatever weight you feel crushed under. But let the weight of the words of the Benedictus remind you today and every day, God remembers. God keeps His promises. God is gracious and merciful to you. God will visit evildoers with perfect justice in His time. He promised that too. But in the meantime, as recipients of God's constant and tender mercy, you likewise be instruments of mercy. You be someone who reminds sinners, even sinners who sin against you, that God is merciful. Because in so doing, just as God's kindness led you to repentance, so too might your kindness lead them to repentance. Beloved, in a merciless world which we find ourselves in, who thinks no one deserves anything bad to happen to them ever, let us be the kind of people who, yes, preach God's justice and seek it on behalf of others, but in a world tossed to and fro, from vengeance to vengeance, let us be the kind of people God has always used to turn the world upside down. people who are eager to preach the truth in love and extend the grace and mercy of God to any and every sinner who's desperate for it. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Let's pray. That is the first word, I'm told. All you Paideia kids can check me on this, but I'm told that's the first Latin word in Zachariah's song. Is that right, Mrs. Barnard? She doesn't know? Okay, you have homework. I think that's right. Every person I read and listened to said it, so. It's on the internet, it's true. So Zechariah's song is called the benedictus because it begins with the word blessed and I think we could call Paul's opening verses in Ephesians, Paul's benedictus. And so our communion homily is from what I'm officially calling the benedictus of Paul, here God's word. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for the adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved. In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace. God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved, and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no man may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance that we should walk in them. This is the word of the Lord. Toward the end of his earthly ministry, Jesus wept tenderly over Jerusalem because she did not recognize the day of his visitation. Now, there were plenty of faithful God lovers who did rejoice and receive his grace and mercy in the forgiveness of their sins. And yet, during that same visitation of grace, there were others who writhed in anger that John or Jesus or Paul or anyone would dare imply they deserve justice and were in need of mercy. Add to that that Jesus would dare show mercy to such an undeserving bunch of sinners, and that those sinners would claim to be the true followers of God only increased their anger. Such was the cycle, day after day, year after year, and decade after decade, until Jesus did in fact visit Jerusalem again. Not to save her, but to dole out the justice they had stored up in assaulting his church. His people suffered. His people cried out, and yet he heard, he remembered, and he kept his promise just like Matthew and Mark and Luke said he would. But Jesus' visitations aren't restricted to the first century. He continued and continues to hear and remember and visit his people. Something we believe happens every Lord's Day. Something we believe is happening right now. God has visited us this morning. He has graciously promised to be merciful to us and forgive our sins. He has spoken to us and heard our prayers and now, He invites everyone whom he has called by name in the waters of baptism to esteem and celebrate the name of Jesus by partaking of this meal. As you receive bread from heaven and the cup of the new covenant in the blood of Jesus, which cleanses you of all your sins, do so by faith, trusting that you not only need God's mercy, But knowing that in Christ, God's justice and grace and mercy are all yours. And knowing that the justice of God has been met and having been nourished by his grace, go forth from here full of mercy, eager to be merciful for the glory of God and the life of the world. Amen. Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night that he was betrayed, took bread. Let us give thanks for the bread. We do not presume to come to your table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in your many and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up crumbs under your table, but you are the same Lord whose character is to have mercy. Thank you, gracious Lord, that our sinful bodies are made clean by Christ's body and our souls washed through his most precious blood so that we may evermore dwell in him and he in us. Amen. When he had given thanks, he broke it and said, take, eat, this is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. These are the gifts of God for the people of God. Receive them as such.