Advent — Hope · Luke 1:67–75
The sermon text, and the reason it matters who is speaking. Zechariah asked for proof and lost his voice for nine months. These are the first words he says when he gets it back.
A man who doubted a promise spends his first sentence praising the God who keeps them. What changed in nine silent months?
Zechariah says God remembered the oath he swore to Abraham. This is that oath, spoken on a mountain to a man holding a knife.
Find the phrase in Luke 1:73 that points back to this. How old is the promise Zechariah is celebrating?
A horn of salvation in the house of David. The psalm uses the same image and tells you what a horn was for.
What does a horn stand for here — decoration, or strength? Read verse 17 twice.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving. A short psalm for a full day.
Write down three things you are thankful for that you did not earn.
Paul says Christ came to confirm the promises made to the fathers. That is Zechariah's song stated as doctrine, and it ends by calling God the God of hope.
Ask God for hope in the one area where you have quietly stopped expecting anything.
What are the Marks and the 3 Circles?
The Marks of a Disciple
Each week names one of these — the practices we are cultivating in each other.
- Daily Devotion
- Time with God every day, in the Bible and in prayer.
- Prayer
- Not only a set appointment, but a life of prayer at any hour, for anything.
- Generosity
- Giving your effort and your resources to this church and to God’s kingdom.
- Service
- Giving your time and talent to the church and its mission in the community.
- Witness
- Seeking people far from God and telling them about Jesus and about your own finding of him.
- Worship
- Weekly praise together, and a life presented daily to God’s service.
- Spiritual Disciplines
- Fasting, solitude, study, sabbath — the old practices of the faith.
The 3 Circles
How we tell someone about Jesus — simple enough to draw on a napkin. Each week names the part of it that week’s reading sits in.
- God’s Design
- The world and your life as God made them to be.
- Sin
- The arrow out. We each go our own way instead.
- Brokenness
- Where that leaves us. Ecclesiastes spends most of twelve chapters here.
- Repent & Believe
- Turning from our own way and trusting what Jesus did.
- Gospel
- Jesus lived the life we could not and died the death we deserved.
- Recover & Pursue
- The way back toward the life God designed.