The dawn of a new day
‘Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
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 ancestors
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.
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.’Luke 1:68–79 (NIVUK)
As we edge nearer to the end of 2024, some of you might be starting to think about the year that has been and the new year that is about to begin. When the year is about to tick over, there is a certain optimism in the air about what next year could bring, how it could be better.
If we allow ourselves the time and the space, we can go through a similar thing with each day. Not everyone is a morning person, but I would say that my favourite time of day is the dawn. Most people and much of the world around us is still asleep. It’s a fresh start, a new day, a clean slate. There’s a peaceful optimism in the air. Some of you are even crazy enough to rug up and go for a walk at that time of day.
If you’ve had the experience of bringing a newborn baby into the world, or even if you come to the end of your shift just as the sun is about to rise, the dawn can bring hope.
During long nights with a baby that just won’t sleep, it can be difficult to see the end of it. But, when the dawn starts to break, there is hope that it’ll all be OK. There will still be a new day in front of us. There will be a tomorrow, and there is a chance it’ll be better than today was.
This is the kind of hope that Jesus brings into the world. Let’s pray…
Lord Jesus, Light of the world,
give us hope in our struggles,
and light in our darkness.
Through your Spirit,
shine on us
with the light of your gospel.
Amen.
God has kept His promise
“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them” (Lk. 1:68). Zechariah speaks as a man who is seeing the sun rise after a long, dark night. He also speaks as a man who managed to hold onto the hope that God would give the world what He had promised long ago: that He would send someone “to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve Him without fear” (v. 74).
God hadn’t even delivered on that promise yet—the promise of Jesus—but He had triggered the start of the chain reaction by giving them John. He was the last prophet, the one who would prepare the way for the Lord and usher Him into the world. By giving them John, God was signaling that His greatest promise was about to be fulfilled. Just like the light of the sun glows in the sky before it rises fully, John’s arrival anticipates the true Light that was coming into the world.
Malachi was one of the prophets who had told of a messenger to prepare the way for the Messiah. In chapter 3, which we heard from this morning, he gives a description of what Jesus’ ministry would be like:
But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness.
Malachi 3:2–3 (NIVUK)
The sun is a beautiful thing to watch as it rises and as it sets, but the middle part can be lethal. The sun can burn, it can scorch, and it can even blind. It’s beautiful, but it’s also powerful.
Malachi foresees that Jesus will not just come to take away our sin in a painless kind of way. Because our sin is less like dirt on the body and more like an infection, we need more than just a gentle wash. We need to be purified, neutralized, cleansed in a very deep way.
But this is what makes Jesus unlike any other prophet, priest, or king: He can do it. He will do it. He does do it. This purifying work will hurt because our sin is deep, but the final product will be a sight to behold.
As he did the Thessalonians, Paul encourages the Philippians to be “holy and blameless” as we wait for Jesus to return in judgment. We can only live in this way as His forgiven people, having received “the fruit of His righteousness” and not our own. We can’t make ourselves pure, clean, or holy, but He can and He does.
Praise God that He keeps His promises.
Jesus is the dawn in a dark world
…the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death…
Luke 1:78b–79a (NIVUK)
As we wait for Jesus to return to complete all things, we know a little of what it would’ve been like to be in Zechariah’s position. He, and his people and his nation, had been waiting for and expecting their Messiah for centuries. The prophets had gone on about it and those prophecies were read, re-read, and learned by rote. After so many generations coming and going, you wouldn’t blame them for giving up hope.
It's the same for us today. We look around and see sin everywhere—not just in the war, violence, and poverty we see on a global scale, but even in our own town, our own churches, our own relationships. If we’re honest, we’re not so pure ourselves. And, regardless of how you live your life, we all live in the shadow of death.
Last week, we talked about being ready for Jesus’ return and keeping our eyes set on eternity. The people of Israel were also tasked with being ready for Jesus to come into the world—He gave them John to do just that. How did John prepare the way for the Lord? How did he help people to be ready for Jesus to come?
He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Luke 3:3 (NIVUK)
Repentance is what prepares us for the Light of the world to come. John (the gospel writer, not the Baptist) tells us why:
This is the verdict: light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
John 3:19–21 (NIVUK)
Repentance is what makes the dawn good news and not bad news. If we are unaware of our sin or fully aware but don’t want to turn away from it, the dawn is bad news. In the light of day, you’ll be exposed, found out, uncovered. But we, who are saved from sin by the blood of the Lamb, are set free from our sin. We look forward to the dawn because we are people of the light, not of darkness.
John the Baptist was also talking about repentance when he preached about making crooked roads straight. The road to salvation in Christ is impossible for us to walk alone and in sin. But, through the Word, the Spirit helps us to see the things that are blocking the road ahead: the sin in our life. It’s then Jesus who removes those things for us by His own work and effort—all we need to do is let Him.
To let Jesus remove our sin is what it means to repent. Repenting is not just apologising—it’s letting go. That’s what makes the road straight for us.
So, through the gift of repentance, Jesus makes our road straight. When He comes into the world, His Light dawns on us and shows us the way to His salvation.
We walk in peace together
Finally, Zechariah says that Jesus shines on those living in darkness “to guide our feet into the way of peace” (v. 79).
Through Christ, God has come to his people and redeemed them (v. 68). His redemption is not just personal or individual. By forgiving our sin, He guides our feet into the way of peace: peace with God, peace with ourselves, and peace with each other.
St Paul gives us a pretty good description of what living in peace looks like:
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
Philippians 1:9–11 (NIVUK)
Because God has come to us in Christ and redeemed us through His blood, we have peace with each other. If God has forgiven you, why shouldn’t I? If God has forgiven me my worst thoughts, words, and actions, why should I hold any of those things against other people?
Instead, Paul’s prayer for the Philippians is that they delve into the Word to learn more and more about Christ, and that they think deeply about what is best for Christians to do and say in preparation for the day of Christ’s return.
There is a thoroughness about what Paul is describing. Don’t just take God’s Word for granted—test it, examine it, tell each other what you understand it to say and then be willing to be corrected. If we get busy doing that together, there isn’t much time for issues between each other. When our attention is on Christ and getting on with His work, we will find that there will be a lot more peace between ourselves. Our disagreements or issues between one another become small and unimportant in comparison to the vastness of Christ’s work which we are privileged to participate in together.
When we come to God in repentance, He forgives. When He forgives, we are free from sin. When we are free from sin, we can live in peace. When we live in peace, we love one another. What a vision for the Church that is.
The night is dark, but I am not forsaken
For by my side, the Savior, He will stay.
I labour on in weakness and rejoicing,
for in my need, His power is displayed.Yet not I but through Christ in me, CityAlight
May we labour on, even in our weakness, knowing that our God will guide us in His peace. May that peace be yours today. Amen.
