The Rising Son

This is Darren Kuhn with the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we search the ancient paths to find ways that God brings light into a dark world and helps set men free from the struggles that we all face on a day-to-day basis. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it.

Share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Do you feel like you're on a religious treadmill? Do you feel like Christianity is just a system of rules and regulations?

I can do this, but I can't do that. Do you feel like your efforts to reach God, find God, and please God are futile? Do you feel like your faith is dead or alive? Today, Pastor Russ Andrews will walk us through Scripture to answer these questions. Join us on Finding Purpose, a local triangle ministry glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living.

For more information and to connect with Russ Andrews and Finding Purpose, you can visit us online at findingpurpose.net or connect with us on Facebook. Now let's listen to Russ Andrews as he teaches us how to be a Christian without being religious. Take your Bible and open up to Luke chapter 1. This is going to be our last night in Luke 1. We'll move on to Luke chapter 2 next week. So I've entitled tonight's message, The Rising Sun.

The Rising Sun. The year was 2 B.C., the year that scholars believed Jesus was born. The Jews were living in captivity under the oppressive rule of the Romans. For 400 long years, there had been no word from God, only silence. According to the Scriptures, the people of Israel had been walking in darkness, living in the land of the shadow of death, like a ship at sea on a moonless and starless night with no shore in sight and no light to guide them.

Let me ask you something. Have you ever felt like that all alone, perhaps at night? Doesn't it hit you more at night when the light is gone and you're consumed with dark thoughts? Maybe you found yourself in a place of dark depression and all you wanted to see or feel was light. You just wanted to escape to a place of freedom where you could find peace and joy. I personally have been there. I remember a time of darkness in my own life, a time where I was in depression.

I mean, when I think back at my life, I've been shocked if you'd ever told me I'd ever go through a time of depression, but I did, and I could not seem to be set free from it. Have you ever been there? So you know what I did? I cried out to God, and gradually the sun began to rise in my heart and the darkness fled. This is the way the Jews felt 2,000 years ago. They were in a very dark place, crying out to God for help. Not only, you know, they hadn't heard a word from God in 400 years. Where are you, God? Have you forgotten about us? Not only had God heard their prayers, but He remembered His promises.

Listen, if there's one thing that you should take away with you tonight is this. God never forgets His promises. When He says something, He means it, and when God gives His word, He will deliver on it. Already this year we have read several of God's promises from the Old Testament. Through the prophet Malachi, God promised to raise a man one day who announced to the world that the Savior had come. Malachi chapter 4 verse 5 says, again God speaking through Malachi says, See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He, this man that's coming, will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to the fathers. Remember when Gabriel the angel sent from God appeared to Zechariah and told him that his wife Elizabeth would give birth to a son? And he told him to name him John, and then he prophesied about this man. Many of the people, this is what Gabriel said to Zechariah when he was in the temple. Many of the people of Israel will he bring, talking about John the Baptist, his son, many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God in the spirit and the power of Elijah. To turn the hearts of the fathers to their children.

Didn't we just hear that? And the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. When I think about that, I have the greatest privilege. I get to prepare the people to be ready for the Lord, and I don't deserve to be up here. You see Gabriel was quoting Malachi who lived 400 years before the birth of Christ. God had not forgotten his promises. He never does. In 2 Samuel chapter 7, Nathan prophesied that a savior would come from the line of King David who would establish his throne for how long?

Forever. In 2 Samuel chapter 7 verses 12 and 13, Nathan said to David, because David had the desire in his heart to build a temple for God. This was at the zenith of David's power. He was wealthy beyond measure, and he wanted to do something for his God who had been with him since he took care of the sheep and since he slew Goliath. He knew that God was a promise keeper, and Nathan said to David, when your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you who will come from your own body. And I will establish his kingdom.

He wasn't talking about Solomon. He is the one who will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Do you want to be part of that kingdom?

It's the only one that's going to last. All the other kingdoms are going to vanish. So this savior who was coming into the world would come from the house of who?

David. In Genesis chapter 12 verses 1 through 3, God made a, I want you to catch this now, a unilateral, unconditional promise to Abraham known as a covenant. It was a one-sided promise. Abraham didn't have to do anything.

It was unconditional. And God told Abraham to leave his country and go to a faraway land, and he said, I will show you the way. I will lead you there. And once you get there, Abraham, and actually once he did arrive there, because Abraham immediately obeyed God and went all the way to what is now the nation of Israel. He was the promised land. And once there, God promised to bless him.

It's kind of a three-fold promise. He said, I'm going to make you into a great nation. I'm going to make your name great, and I will bless those who bless you, Abraham, and those who curse you, I will curse. And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you, through your seed, singular seed.

In other words, a seed one day would arise who would bless the entire world. So what was God promising to Abraham? He was promising to bring forth from Abraham's lineage the Messiah, the Savior of the world.

And Abraham, it says in Genesis 15, 6, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. You see, that's all God wants from any of us, from the entire world. He just wants to be believed. He wants us to believe in him. He wants us to believe his word. He wants us to trust his word, and that's why we study it.

We study this Bible right here because it is the living word. It's a supernatural book. There's no other book in the world like it. It's the only book that has fulfilled prophecy, and it's filled with God's promises. Some of those promises are for the nation of Israel, and a lot of these promises, probably most of them, are for you and me. So when I pick up this Bible, I'm seeing what God is promising me, Russ Andrews, in 2021. That's the way I read it, and that's the way you should read it. By the way, it says that Abraham believed God. In other words, he believed that God... Abraham, we learned from the New Testament, I think it's in Galatians, that Abraham actually understood the gospel the same way we do. And so Abraham actually believed that what God was telling him is, one day, I'm going to bring the Savior from your lineage. And Abraham said, I believe you, God. And when God saw faith in his heart, he said, he declared him righteous. And that's what it means to be saved.

It has nothing to do with anything you do except for one thing. That's to believe God. And just like the thief on the cross, the moment he sees that you believe him, he declares you righteous.

And you're holy in that moment, whether you feel like it or not. And to make sure Abraham knew that he meant what he said in Genesis 15, God repeats this promise. And to make triply sure that Abraham believed it, he repeated it a third time in Genesis 22. God once again repeats his promise to Abraham, but this time, he confirms it with an oath. He actually swears to Abraham. Listen to what it says in Genesis 22, verses 16 through 18.

Listen to your outline if you've got it. God says, I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son. Remember, he asked Abraham to take Isaac up to Mount Moriah and sacrifice him and Abraham obeyed him.

Could you have done that? And right when he was ready to bring the knife down, the angel of the Lord stopped him and then provided a lamb in a bush. Do you see the symbolism there? The lamb took Isaac's place, just like the lamb of God takes our place on the cross.

And here's what he said. Because you have done this, Abraham, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. And through your offspring, all nations on earth will be blessed because you obeyed me. That's why in Revelation it says that there are people in heaven from every nation, tongue, tribe, people.

You know what that tells you? The gospel is going to the extent of the earth, to the ends of the earth. Because there will be a representative from every nation and every tribe and every tongue. By the way, this is the only time in Scripture where God confirms His promise with an oath. God does not forget His promises. When Gabriel announced the coming birth of John the Baptist, it had been about 2,000 years since God gave His word to Abraham to send a Savior into the world. And now the time had arrived. A ray of light was beginning to shine on a people living in darkness. The sun was about to rise. And that brings us to Luke chapter 1, where we read about the birth of John the Baptist.

I'm not going to read those verses, but just let me summarize it. To everyone's amazement, Elizabeth, remember she was old and barren. She gave birth to a son and then she announced to everyone that his name would be called what? John, even though there was nobody in their family lineage who had that name. And everyone questioned her.

So Zechariah's over there. He can't talk, so he's asking for a tablet. John. And as soon as he did that, he could speak. The moment that he had obedience, God loosened his mouth so that he could speak. And then it says that he began to praise God.

And everyone was amazed. They knew this was going to be a special child and that the Lord would be with him. And Zechariah, it says, was filled with the Holy Spirit and he began to sing a song that is full of prophetic utterances. And it echoes so many truths from the Old Testament.

And tonight I wish I had time to go through the whole thing with you, but we don't have time. So I'm just going to cover about five verses. And so look at verse 68. So Zechariah is singing this song and as he's singing it, God is speaking through him. And this is what God says to the world through Zechariah. Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people. He's raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke through his holy prophets from long ago 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, which we just read, to rescue us from the hand of our enemies and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him.

For how long? All of our days, even into eternity. And so from these verses, men, we see that God's plan from the very beginning of time was to send a savior into the world to save us. This was not plan B. This was plan A, to rescue us from our enemies, to redeem for himself a people to whom he would shower with his mercy and forgiveness. This word redeem, by the way, is a very important word. It literally means to pay the price to set a man free from slavery or from prison.

And this is what Jesus did when he died on the cross. He paid the price to set us free. Have you been set free?

I had some sins that I really struggled with. And you know what? I can stand here tonight and say, He has set me free. Hallelujah. Do you know I can sin now all I want to?

Because I don't want to. Did you all hear that? That's not original to me. That's from Adrian Rogers.

I thought that was a pretty good line. Listen to this from 1 Peter. It explains what God did for us. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers. But with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect, He was chosen when?

Before the creation of the world. He was revealed in these last times for your sake and my sake. Through Him you believe in God who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him. And so your faith and hope are in God. I look at so many people out there today who have so many blessings.

I mean money galore and health galore. And yet they're still searching. Their lives are empty.

They don't know what we know. I mean Satan has done a marvelous job of keeping the truth away from people. But you see this was God's plan from the beginning. All throughout the Old Testament. When you read through the Old Testament you can see this. God was promising that He was going to send a Savior into the world to redeem a people for Himself.

And this is what you must believe, men, if you want to be saved. So in our remaining time here's what I want to do. I want to answer three questions. Number one, how did God accomplish our salvation? Number two, why does God want to save us?

And number three, what is God's ultimate purpose for you and me? So question one, how did God accomplish our salvation? Answer, by His power. Look at verse 69. Zechariah says, He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, as He spoke through His holy prophets long ago. For nine months Zechariah was silent due to his unbelief. Then once he responded with faithful obedience, he became God's mouthpiece.

He experienced God's power. And God's words, men, became Zechariah's words. So when Zechariah's speaking, God is the one really speaking. In fact, when you read the Bible it says that, you know, if you go look at 1 Peter, excuse me, 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 20 and 21, it tells you that when men spoke, and I think it's okay to add, and wrote, it says they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. So the Bible we have here, although it was written by 40 different men over 1500 years, it's God's word. So when you pick the Bible up, you're talking to God, and He's talking to you.

And yet often that book just sits there collecting dust, even with us, you guys, you know, we probably don't love to just dive in there and read it just for the sake of reading it. I'm being, you know, I don't sit there sometimes, I'm sitting there reading another book rather than just reading God's word and let Him talk to me. God raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David. In the first part of this song, Zechariah is singing about this great Savior. And I want you to notice that he's singing, and this is maybe a new phrase for you. When you read it, it's in the verbs that are being used here, or in the prophetic past tense. You want me to explain that to you?

We never got this learning done in Bethel. So what it means is that Zechariah is so confident that God is going to do it that He says it like it has already happened. That's the prophetic past tense. So it says the Lord, the God of Israel, has come. The Lord, the God of Israel, has redeemed His people. The Lord, the God of Israel, has raised up a horn of salvation for us. Who is this horn of salvation? What is it? It's Jesus. Anyone familiar with Israel's history knew that the horn was symbolic of what?

Power and strength. Hate to say this, but kind of like the wolf pack against Clemson on Saturday. Can't say I was pulling for the men in red, but you know, I was there.

I left at halftime. You think I missed the best part? Kent Hughes, the guy's a great commentator. You ought to get his commentary on Luke. I'm just reading that, and it's just incredible.

Here's what he says. African hunters of the Cape buffalo. By the way, the horn, this is a reference to the horn of the buffalo or the ox.

African hunters of the Cape buffalo tell us that when one of these great animals scuffs the ground and begins to rhythmically swing its horns back and forth, it is preparing for a deadly charge. An animal's horn is its weapon for defense and vengeance and also its ornament of beauty. The Davidic horn would be raised up in a mighty display of power in the birth of Jesus. A horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant, David.

I couldn't say it that good. Deuteronomy 33 verse 17 says, In majesty He is like a firstborn bull. His horns are the horns of a wild ox. With them He will gorge the nations, even those of the ends of the earth.

Who's that talking about? It's talking about Jesus. I can almost see Him in heaven before He was sent to this earth, swinging His horns back and forth and pawing at the ground, and then He charged into history as the horn of our salvation. See, Jesus is powerful.

Zechariah declared in the prophetic past tense, He has raised up a horn of salvation. By the way, I spent... Sorry, I didn't show up for church Sunday, but I was in my office from 7 to 3 o'clock. Do you know what I was doing?

I loved it. I was writing all these sentences out in Greek, and I wasn't doing it because I can translate English to Greek, but I have a Greek-English book. And so I just wrote them out, and then I was looking up the keywords to see what they mean. Do you know the Greek verb here from which we get the phrase raised up? It's a reference to the resurrection. The Greek word mean is referring to someone raised from the dead. And so right here Zechariah is prophesying about the resurrection.

Don't you think that's pretty cool? You don't get that in your English translation. Jesus is the horn, the power of our salvation, and He demonstrated His power when? When He arose from the grave.

And do you know somebody that's experienced God's power? I don't even know if he's here tonight. Is Craig Adams here? Craig right there. Craig buried his son.

What about... It's been a little bit more than a week, right, Craig? And I know Craig didn't want me to praise him right here, but listen. Here's a man who's sitting here tonight a week after he buried his 24-year-old son.

Do you know why? Because he's experienced the power of Jesus Christ in his life, and God has given him the strength to mourn, but not to mourn like those who have no hope. And he knows that William one day will be resurrected, just like the rest of the Adams family.

Wasn't it a TV show named the Adams family? And now Craig's son, Edward, is sitting right there. Edward wanted to turn... I'm sorry, Edward, you don't mind me talking about you, do you? Good.

I'll tell you later. Edward called me up. Was it this past summer? Or summer before last?

He and Edward wanted to get his life turned around. And so on the phone, I was at a place near the water. Somebody said, if you want to get saved in the summer, don't go to rush.

Go to Johnny Evans. I don't know what that means, but anyway... I would plan on talking about that tonight. But anyway, so Edward and Craig called me up, and right there on the phone, Edward told me he wanted to turn his life over to Jesus Christ. And so right there on the phone, he prayed to receive Christ. And then you know what he did? He sent a text out to 30 of his friends that go to NC State and told them what he had done, that he'd accepted Jesus Christ, he wants to live for Jesus Christ, and he invited them to come to a Bible study that Russ Andrews is going to be teaching. How about that? And so that was over a year ago.

So we just started back two weeks ago. Yesterday, we had 23 guys from the Kay House and the Deke House at NC State walk into that fellowship hall over there. That's the power of God. He can change a man's life. Romans 1 16 says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.

Jesus came from the house of David. He has been raised from the dead, and by His death and resurrection, all of our enemies have been defeated. Do you know what enemies He's talking about?

Three. Sin, death, and Satan. Sin, death, and Satan. They are our three enemies.

And let me tell you something. When God takes care of death, the last enemy, you've got nothing to worry about. Colossians 2 13 through 16 declares this truth.

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having counseled the written code. The written code is really the Ten Commandments that stands against who?

You and me. You take your life and put it beside the Ten Commandments, and is God going to declare you innocent or guilty? Guilty. So you know what God did with that law? He nailed it to the cross because it stood opposed to us. And He took it away from us. And then having disarmed the powers and authorities, Satan and all of his demonic forces, Jesus made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them where?

At the cross. And so what Satan meant for evil, God meant for good. The worst thing that's ever happened in the history of the world is actually the best thing that's ever happened in the history of the world. That's what God can do with your life. You see, it's the power of God in the gospel that can change a man's life.

If you're here tonight and this is all new to you, then just know this. God wants to demonstrate His power in your life. Question number two, why does God want to save us? Answer, because He loves us. And He wants us to find our joy and our life in Him. Look at verses 72 and 73. God has raised up a horn of salvation.

Why? To save us from our enemies, sin, death, and Satan, and to show us mercy and to remember His Holy Covenant, the oath that He swore to our spiritual father, Abraham. Remember, God promised Abraham by an oath that he would raise up one of his descendants who would be the Messiah. So not only did Jesus come from the line of David, He's also a descendant of who? Abraham. All you've got to do is go Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Jacob have 12 sons, come down to Judah. When Abraham, excuse me, when Jacob, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, when Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, was prophesying blessing his sons, when he got to Judah, he said, there will be, let's see, there will be one, I don't want to share this, I'm not prepared, but anyway, there will be one coming from you who will take the scepter from you and rule.

Jesus came from the line of Judah, from the tribe of Judah, and He's the one who took, He's taken that scepter, because He's our King, He's our Lord. It's a God-man, here's the deal. God loves us. He wants us to experience His power in our lives. He wants us to change our lives. He wants us to have peace and joy and contentment.

Jeremiah 29, 11 through 12 says, and I want you all to just act like, because it's true, Jesus is speaking this to you right now. He says, for I know the plans I have for you, each one of you. He's got a plan for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.

Plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you do what? Seek Me with all of your heart.

That's a promise. So, if you're not sure if God exists, and you want to know if He's there, all He says is seek Me. And if you seek Me, you will find Me. Being a Christian is not about being religious, but about having a dynamic, alive relationship with Jesus Christ. You've been listening to Finding Purpose with Pastor Russ Andrews, a local triangle ministry glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living. You can discover more about finding your purpose in life by checking out the resources at findingpurpose.net, or connect to Finding Purpose on Facebook. Pastor Russ would also like to extend a special invitation for you to join him and over 300 other local triangle men to study God's Word together every Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in downtown Raleigh.

Find out more at findingpurpose.net. This is the Truth Network. Say, what would you do if you were a new Christian and you didn't have a Bible? It's Michael Woolworth, by the way, from Bible League International, and you'd probably say, well, I'd hop in my car, I'd go to a Christian bookstore, or I'd have one shipped to me.

What if those weren't options? You'd say, well, I'm new to the faith. I mean, I need to know what it means to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus. You know, you would pray that someone, anyone, would bring you a Bible, and that's exactly the way it is for literally millions of Christians around the world. They're part of our spiritual family. They're new to the faith. They want to know what it means to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus, but God has them planning where it's very difficult to access a Bible, and that's why the Truth Network and Bible League have teamed up to send God's Word to 3,500 Bible-less believers around the globe. Our campaign is called, The World Needs the Word. $5 sends a Bible, $100 sends 20, every gift matched. Make your most generous gift by calling 800-YES-WORD. 800-Y-E-S-W-O-R-D. 800-YES-WORD or give at truthnetwork.com