Call to Worship Joel 2:27
Hymn JBC # 227 Up Calv’ry’s mountain
The Lord’s Prayer
Offering
Scripture
Prayer
Sermon “Tender mercy of our God”
https://youtu.be/dE2q27l4a0g
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 554 All the way my Saviour leads me
Doxology JBC # 673
Benediction
Today's Bible passage is the words of Zechariah, the father of John, who was later called "John the Baptist" and worked to prepare in advance the way for the gospel ministry of Jesus Christ.
As a subheading of this passage, the Japanese Bible says "Zechariah's prophecy" (prophecy: to receive God's word and convey it to others). In contrast, the English Bible says "Zechariah's song".
Zechariah and his wife Elisabeth, although they were too old, were given a child by God's plan and guidance.
And contrary to the custom of the time that a child was to be named after his father or a relative, Elisabeth and Zechariah named the child "John" (meaning "God is gracious"), as the angel of the Lord had told Zechariah.
In today's passage, Zechariah is "filled with the Holy Spirit" and praises God for the great work the God has done and the great work He is about to do.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. When people are filled with the Spirit of God, they praise the true God and sing praises of thanksgiving and joy for His work, as we can see from today's passage.
When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we will be convinced of God's great works and His sure presence. The filling of the Holy Spirit is not just a heightened emotional state or an uplifted mood.
We may experience such heightened emotions and uplifted moods when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, but the important thing is to confirm that the Lord God is indeed present, and out of that assurance (faith) overflow thanksgiving and praise.
From the words of today's scripture, Zechariah’s praising God, I hope that we will also praise the Lord God, the Creator of the world and our Savior, together.
In the verse 68, Zechariah says as follows.
“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
The One whom Zechariah praised here and whom we also praise now is the Lord, the God of Israel. The Lord, the God of Israel, is the true God what the Bible tells us.
When hearing the "God of Israel", it may sound like a God who has nothing to do with other people than those of Israel.
But of course, this is not so. God, the Maker of the world, chose the nation of Israel and its people and revealed Himself through them.
The main content of the Old Testament is how God revealed Himself to the Israelites and how He was involved in their history.
And that story of God's involvement with the Israelites, as a story and word of faith, carries and speaks God's message to us today.
God first revealed Himself to the people of Israel, but the God of the Bible is, of course, the God of all people, including peoples and nations outside of Israel.
And the God of Israel is the God who "visited his people and delivered (released) them. Historically speaking, the God of the Bible delivered the Israelites from Egypt where they were in the state of slavery for 400 years. The event of Exodus.
As described in detail from the end of the “Genesis” to “Exodus” in the Old Testament, the Israelites lived in slavery in Egypt for about 400 years.
They had long hoped to be rescued from their being slavery. Eventually, the Lord chose a man named Moses and used him as a leader and prophet to deliver the Israelites from Egypt.
It was through the Lord God's mercy that He delivered the Israelites from Egypt. When the Lord first appeared to Moses, the Lord God said to Moses as follows.
The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.
8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9
And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.
(Exodus 3:7~9)
God was seeing the Israelites suffering in Egypt. He heard their cries. He knew their pain.
That is the figure of God as the Bible tells us. The God of the Bible is a God who sees our suffering, hears our cries, and knows our pain.
And God himself will visit his people and set them free. Isn’t a four hundred years of slavery in Egypt far too long a period of time? Why didn't God free the Israelites more earlier?
During the course of the 400 years, was God turning a blind eye to the suffering of the Israelites? Did God ignore them? It never was so.
That fact “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering" means that God surely knew the suffering of the Israelites as his own pain and he was with them throughout the 400 years.
God is a God who is with us still now. So when we suffer now, when we grieve and ache, we can believe that "God sees me, hears my cries, and knows my pain.”
And if it is the plan and will of the Lord God, we can have hope that He will deliver us from our suffering in the best way and at the best timing.
It has been more than three years since the Corona crisis began. Three years ago, I could not have imagined that this situation would continue for such a long time. It is not over yet, but it looks like many circumstances are finally changing.
I have learned and am still learning so much through the Corona crisis. It is not only about me, but I think we are learning a lot as a church.
How much have we prayed during this time? How much have we prayed with the confidence that God hears us when we pray? How much have we prayed not only for ourselves but also for others?
If there are those who think, "I have not been able to pray that much," please pray now. Please pray by yourself, and please pray with others at worship services and at prayer meetings.
And how much have we listened to each other's opinions and thoughts, and tried to put ourselves in the other person's shoes? Such an attitude and effort will always be required of us in the future, too.
Let us pray for each other caring for each other’s circumstance and together let’s try to find the best path for us (which God has prepared for us).
And the Lord God whom Zechariah praises in today's passage is the God who takes away our fears.
From the verse 74 to 75 says as follows.
74 (*As God of Israel swore to Abraham) to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
When it is said here that we "serve the Lord without fear," it means that our sins are forgiven and we are freed from the power of sin that binds us.
Because we have sins, we cannot approach God as we are. But the One who forgives our sins, the Son of God, who has no sin at all, came into our world and took (bore) our sins upon Himself.
Zechariah’s song in today’s scripture tells us that the event of the forgiveness of sins is realized through Jesus Christ.
Although the word "Jesus Christ" is not directly mentioned here, "salvation through the forgiveness of sins" in verse 77 refers to the forgiveness of our sins by Jesus Christ that will eventually be given.
We have been forgiven of our sins through Jesus Christ, and through Him we have access to the Lord God. We are now able to go to the Lord God through Jesus Christ, who has become for us the way to God.
I believe that we can know that the Lord God certainly knew the pain of the Israelites suffering in Egypt, from the figure of Jesus Christ on the cross, too.
When we look up at Jesus Christ on the cross, we see Christ suffering there. For whom is that suffering for? It is surely for us.
That Jesus is the figure that tells us that our God still knows our suffering and pain, and that He shares in our suffering and pain.
The history of faith that the Bible tells us is a history that the merciful God was hearing the cries of people in pain.
The history of faith that the Bible tells us is a history that God never left His suffering people alone, but God himself suffered and ached with them.
And the history of faith that the Bible tells us is a history that God forgave the sins of His suffering people and saved them, and that the forgiven people received hope and strength to walk again and live their new lives.
We are now made alive in the continuation of such a history of salvation and faith in God. Therefore, I hope that we live each day with hope of faith, confident that we are always protected by God.
And let us ourselves proclaim that there is indeed salvation through the forgiveness of sins by Jesus Christ.
Because we, Christians are given such a privilege to live and rejoice in salvation through the forgiveness of sins, and to share that joy with others.
