The Tender Mercy of Our God

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Welcome to the Stop to Think Podcast. I'm your host, Will Dole. Thank you for listening. If you enjoy, you can rate and review in Apple Podcasts, wherever you listen. I guess this will be on YouTube as well, or you can just continue to subscribe and comment in the Substack app as well.

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What I'm reading today is the sermon I preached on Christmas Eve. Shorter sermon than I would normally preach on a typical Sunday morning. Try to be in the half hour range, 28 to 32 minutes. That fits well with the life of our congregation and our service.

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But on Christmas Eve, I try to keep it quite a bit shorter. You know, somewhere in the 10 to 15 minute range. The text that I took was Luke 1, 78, the tender mercy of our God. It was the 33rd year of Herod's reign. Though he styled himself king of the Jews, he was neither a Jew,

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he wasn't a man, nor was he a king in an absolute sense. A puppet of Rome and a political schemer, he was a ruthless man full of self-importance. His rule led to great building projects, but spiritually, it was a time of longing. There were reform movements going on in Judaism.

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Many were wondering, when would Messiah come and ransom captive Israel? In those days of longing and doubt, the angel Gabriel appeared to Zachariah, a priest who was on duty in the temple. Zachariah and his wife Elizabeth were old, and Elizabeth was barren. Gabriel told Zachariah that their long desire for a son would be answered,

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but their son would not be any ordinary child. He would be filled with the Holy Spirit even before birth. From his mother's womb, he would be filled with the Spirit, so says Luke 1.15. He would minister in the spirit of Elijah, and in doing so, he would prepare the way for the coming Lord.

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Is it any wonder then that when Zachariah, who had lost his speech because he did not believe the message of the angel, but received it again upon the birth of his child and the naming of him on the eighth day, according to the angel's instruction, naming him John, he received his speech back.

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He then prophesied over his son in Luke 1, verses 67 to 79. But in those verses, only two speak directly to or of his son. Rather, the rest of the text there is consumed not with John, but with John's younger cousin, one born not from the tribe of Levi, but from the tribe of Judah. Luke chapter 1,

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beginning in verse 67, says this, And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.

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As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham to grant us that we,

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being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people and the forgiveness of their sins,

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This prophecy is rich with Old Testament allusions and theological depth, but I want to focus on just one phrase as i mentioned at the outset it is this the tender mercy of our god it was the tender mercy of god that led to the message john would preach knowledge

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of salvation and that knowledge of salvation could only come through having a knowledge of the forgiveness of sins The other child who was coming, the son not of Elizabeth, but of Mary, was to be named Jesus, which is the Greek form of Yeshua or Joshua. Yahweh saves, the Lord is salvation.

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The tender mercy of our God was expressed in sending his son to bring salvation to a world dark with sin. The tender mercy of our God was expressed when the eternal Son took on human flesh in order to die in our place and bear the weight of our sin.

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All of those who trust in Jesus receive forgiveness and experience the mercy of our God. They receive salvation. It was the tender mercy of our God that led to him sending light into the dark. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

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The tender mercy of our God sent the sunrise from on high, the sun himself, into the world. And the tender mercy of our God is unconquerable. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Isaiah 9, verses 1 and 2 says, But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish.

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In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. But in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

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Those who dwell in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. The people of Israel had been walking in darkness. With no prophetic word for 400 years, the Lord seemed distant. But in his tender mercy, he drew near. Not only to the Jewish people, but to the Gentile nations as well.

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No longer would the light of God's word and presence be restricted to the Jews or those who came to the Lord through conversion to Judaism. Those who were far off were brought near to God through Jesus, the light of the world. He came to guide our feet in the way of peace. What kind of peace?

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Peace with God. God the Father, according to His tender mercy, sent forth the Son, the light of the world, to pay for our sins, to lead us in paths of righteousness, and to bring us peace with God. The Father is not only merciful in the judicial sense, sparing us what we deserve, He is tender in His mercy.

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He welcomes us through Christ into His family. Ascribe mercy and tenderness to God in the highest and see his tender mercy on display, wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. Hope you had a blessed Christmas. We enjoyed ours. Here is Will Dole from Stopping to Think saying, Happy New Year as well.

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May the Lord bless you and keep you. May he make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May he lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace in the year to come. Amen.