Latest / Scripture Central / PART 2 Come Follow Me Insights (Jan 2 - Jan 8) Luke 1

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PART 2 Come Follow Me Insights (Jan 2 - Jan 8) Luke 1 · Scripture Central

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Hello everyone. Thanks for listening to come.
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Follow me, insights with Taylor and Tyler, presented by
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scripture Central. We use a lot of visuals in our
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videos. So if you want to see the
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visuals, we invite you to find us on YouTube.
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Thanks for listening and enjoy. I'm Taylor and I'm Tyler.
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This is scripture Central's. Come follow me insights this
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episode. The second part of Matthew 1 and
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Luke one will focus on Luke one, the story of Mary and the birth
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of Jesus. So, as we talked about in the
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first episode with Matthew, he's focusing more on the, the Jewish
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perspective on the men's perspective on Joseph story and
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his genealogy. Now, for the second episode, we
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shift our Focus to Luke who is a gentile convert.
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He wasn't a, a Jewish disciple of Christ during his ministry
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traveling with him as one of his Apostles.
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And so, you'll notice as he opens his gospel, he gives us a
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little bit of a background as As to who he is, as well as who is
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audiences. So we begin in verse 14, as much
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as many have taken in hand to set forth in order.
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A declaration of those things which are most surely believed
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Among Us. In other words, he translate
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that into Modern English, he's saying a lot of people have
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written a lot of things about Jesus, but even as they
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delivered them unto us which from the beginning were
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eyewitnesses and Ministers of the word.
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So these people Who saw these stories.
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They were eyewitnesses and they were Ministers of the word.
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They've delivered these stories and we've read their writings.
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They're delivered to us, Luke comes to a conclusion.
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In verse 3 is seemed good to me. Also, having had perfect
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understanding of all things from the very first to write unto
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thee in order. Most excellent Theophilus.
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What a great name. Theo is God and fight.
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Loose or phyllo comes from the root for love or friendship.
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So a friend of God, or a lover of God or a friend of God, is
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his audience is probably, it could be Luke's benefactor.
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It could be the the master because Luke is a physician,
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which doesn't mean he's gone to medical school and now he's
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making millions of dollars as a physician.
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It means he's a servant whose Master sent him off to.
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Some training to come home into the household of that Master, to
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provide some, some help when people get sick.
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So a physician back then isn't a very high-end prestigious
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occupation. It just means he's he's been
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trained to heal and to help people with, with physical
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ailments. And so, whoever Theophilus is
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seems to to be benefiting Luke and he's writing his gospel
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specifically to him and consequently, he's writing it in
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a way where he's going to expound a little bit on some of
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the Jewish culture on some of the practices that you're going
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to read about in the, in the gospel where somebody who isn't
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an Insider in Jewish culture might be saying, wait, what is
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that all about Luke is going to give you a very balanced gospel
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where he's explaining things He's focusing a lot on, not just
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the story, but on people who often get overlooked and the
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margins of society, often in their cultures, the women, the
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children, the sick, The Afflicted, the oppressed, the
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the shepherd's, the servants people who others aren't even,
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going to pay any attention to their going to get some, some
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serious attention from Luke who has gathered his information
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from all these sources eyewitness accounts as well as.
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As books. And so, you're really going to
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love reading Luke's gospel. If you want to see a very
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approachable and kind, and gentle, healing loving,
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forgiving Jesus, you're going to feel that perspective coming
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from Luke's gospel. As he sharing this story with
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Theophilus, Luke, like Matthew is trying to convince people
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through words about who Jesus is that he is One who's come to
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save and we get part of this. And in verse 4, it says
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Theophilus. I Lu Kim writing that thou
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mightest know the certainty of those things.
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Wherein, the husband instructed. So, imagine Theophilus is
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somebody who's received the missionaries, had an oral
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presentation already about Jesus.
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And perhaps the awfullest is somebody of who has some means
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or resources to hire. Somebody educated like Luke
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Look, who's had access to the eyewitnesses and Luke.
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Now takes the time to write this e.
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This biography about Jesus to convince the awfullest about the
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gospel. This is important to know about
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the gospels. The underlined word gospel does
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mean, the good news. It's related to the word for
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Angel. Somebody who's a messenger, who
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tells you? These amazing things, this Joy
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of Salvation, it turns out that the the structure or the
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narrative style, The gospels used, primarily Matthew, Mark,
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and Luke is a biography but not a biography in the way we
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consider it biographies. Today are these like, massive
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large books of every little detail in somebody's life.
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Ancient Lee. Biographies were much shorter
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and they typically would only start around the public career
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of some famous or compelling individual.
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So can consider the gospel of Mark, we don't hear Anything
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about Jesus until he gets baptized Matthew, Luke are the
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only ones that tell us about the birth.
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And then they essentially skip over much of Jesus life and get
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right to his public Ministry. So, these biographies are
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written to highlight around clustered themes about the
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character of Jesus. So, when G, when Luke says, I am
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going to write in order, he means I'm going to use a
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thematic, structured approach to collect these stories about
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Jesus and present them to you. To convince you, that Jesus is
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the one who has come to save and our hope is that we can get the
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same message. Sure.
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Sometimes there's details. That might be a little confusing
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as we read the New Testament, it's an ancient time ancient
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culture, But ultimately, these texts have been preserved to
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also, convince us that we too can believe and know that Jesus
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is the Christ, the one who comes to safe.
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So as you say that, Look at the name once again, you have this,
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this man who is the recipient of this letter or this gospel
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rather that Luke is writing and his name.
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Remember is a lover of God or a friend of God if you take what,
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Taylor just said, oh my heavens. I'm in Luke's audience, Luke.
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I get it. Luke was writing to an
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individual in his day named Theophilus.
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Symbolically metaphorically. Luke is writing to you.
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You're taking time to study the Life of Christ.
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You are a Theophilus, you are a friend of God, a lover of God.
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And so you can take this. This gospel very personally, you
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can see Luke telling you these stories even though you're not
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that individual guy back in the first century.
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The principles the same. He's trying to convince you,
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that Jesus is the Christ, even if you feel like you're on the
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margins of society, overlooked forgotten not talked about.
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So his prologue finishes in verse 1 through 4 and now he
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jumps into the actual story verse 5, there was in the days
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of Herod. The king, a certain priest named
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Zacharias of the course of ABIA. And his Wife was of the
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daughters of Aaron and her name was Elizabeth.
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So he opens his story trying to convince the awfullest.
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Love. This lover of God, maybe a new
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convert, maybe somebody who's, who's a friend of the church at
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the time, trying to figure out if he's going to become a
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Christian, he, he's trying to teach him that Jesus is the
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Christ and he starts not with Jesus story, but with a Side
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Story with Zacharias and Elizabeth to Who quite frankly
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would be very easy to overlook for a couple of reasons.
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Zacharias is old. He's a priest.
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You have 24 Priestly families. At the time in the first century
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and they are given the assignment for two weeks to go
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into the temple and perform all of the Priestly functions of the
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temple. And then when your two weeks are
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done the next family group of priests comes in and they
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perform all of those ordinances. Some of you are thinking
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yourself, wait, 24 will For two weeks each that's only 48 but
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there are 52 weeks in the year. So how does that work?
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They did that on purpose, so that these families would keep
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cycling through. So that the same families
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wouldn't always keep getting the Feast of the Passover and the
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Feast of the pent Pentecost and the Feast of the Tabernacles,
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the big events. So they would just keep cycling
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their way through all these. These different groups Zacharias
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is in that group of this one family, that for two weeks, has
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the assignment. But he's old and his wife,
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Elizabeth is beyond the childbearing years and she is
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Barren. Notice what he says in verse 6,
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because being Baron in the ancient world.
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If you didn't have children, people assumed that was a
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punishment from God. You must be a bad person and
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notice that before. Luke indicates that there Baron,
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he says, they were, they walked in all the Commandments and
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ordinances of the Lord and that they were blameless.
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So, They were not Barren because of anything they had done.
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So he's providing some context within the culture.
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These were godly people and God was going to work through them
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in a way that caught people's attention because it was
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different than what people would expect you do not expect an old
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couple to have a child. Sounds like other stories we've
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seen in the scripture. Absolutely seen that a few times
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in the Old Testament and keep in mind from Luke's perspective, in
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a Greco-Roman culture that have fully Adopted.
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These Greek philosophies, that Taylor was talking about you,
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there's Divine disfavor going on here you've you've displeased
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one or more of the Gods and so, they're punishing you.
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I wonder if in our culture today, there are still some of
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these these remnants of the Greek philosophies that are
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alive. And well where if bad things
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happen to you or to your loved ones, if we sometimes don't
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instantly jump to the what did I do?
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Ooh wrong or what should I have done better or who?
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How could I have prevented this? And in some cases the answer is
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there are some things that we could have done.
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But often as is the case with Zacharias and Elizabeth, it's
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not a sign of divine disfavor, it's part of life.
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In this case is part of the Lord's plan.
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So he's executing the priests office as part of his job.
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He it was his lot. He had been chosen in his life.
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Family, a group of priests there to officiate the ordinances of
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the temple for that two-week period.
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He had received the lot to be the one to go in at The Hour of
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Prayer and to burn incense to take some incense off of the
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table of showbread and put it on the altar of incense.
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So the smoke could Ascend in front of the veil.
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Now as you look at this beautiful 3D rendition of the
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Holy place inside of the temple, you can you can picture as you
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look back towards the people out there beyond the court of the
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priests out, in the court of the Israelite men and through the
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nicanor gate, out into the court of the women, you can picture
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every morning and every afternoon, the people Gathering
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and their prayers are ascending to heaven.
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And now we turn and look into the holy place and walk-in
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towards that beautiful veil up to the altar of incense, with
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the menorah on our left and the table of showbread on our right.
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You can picture Zacharias walking in here.
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When the following happens verse 10, says, the whole multitude of
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the people were praying without it.
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The time of incense and there appeared unto Zacharias, an
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angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of
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incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he
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was troubled and fear fell upon him.
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This is a pretty typical reaction that you would expect
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in the ancient world. People are seeing a Divine
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messenger, ER usually it was there's a bit of like shocked
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and surprised I learned this from our colleague carry
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milstein an interesting thing from Greek Theater, is that
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Messengers who came in from the right side of the stage were
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seen as good news. If a messenger came in on from
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the left, it was bad or foreboding news.
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So, it's interesting, this little detail that Luke
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provides, I mean, we would think, does it really matter, is
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he in front of the altar, behind the altar left or right?
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But from a cultural context for the Here's of Luke's gospel.
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He's already signaling to them. This is a messenger who's going
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to provide really good news. So the message of the Angel is
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verse 13. Fear.
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Not Zacharias for thy prayer is heard and thy wife.
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Elizabeth shall bear thee a son and thou shalt call his name,
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John. Now, there's a lot that we don't
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know. The question could be asked
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here, wait a minute. Did Zacharias that morning
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before coming into the temple to perform this Priestly function
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or as he's coming into the temple, is he praying?
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Heavenly Father? Please bless me.
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And my wife with a son with a child?
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Is that possible? I guess it's possible, but I
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don't know how probable it is. That Zacharias is praying for a
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son because we were already told in verse 7 that they were now.
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We'll stricken in years. Well, it Advanced, they're old
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and coming from a physician like Luke, it's almost a signal from
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him to say. Yeah, it's impossible.
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The childbearing years have passed for Elizabeth, it's not
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going to happen. Which now brings up the question
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from verse 13. When the angel says, to him for
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thy prayer is heard and my wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son?
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What prayer is he talking about? Is he talking about a prayer
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that warning or is he talking about the a deep heartfelt
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prayer that has been a part of Zacharias and Elizabeth life for
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decades. Before from the time, they got
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married until the the childbearing years ended.
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I would imagine there were countless prayers.
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Countless tears on their pillow at night when, when they
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realized we're not Able to have children for whatever reason and
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their culture was telling them you must be really bad and
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they're wrestling with these cultural struggles as well as
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internal sense of inadequacy or self-doubt and the Lord didn't
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see fit at any of those times to take that barrenness away.
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And now that the time has passed, the angel says to them
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or to him, thy prayer is heard. Brothers and sisters.
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It's my belief that every single prayer is heard and God gives us
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the very best case scenario answer.
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Even though it may not fit our Paradigm of what the best-case
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scenario ought to be. We have to trust that the Lord
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God of the universe who holds worlds without his without
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number in his hands, he holds your world in his hand and he
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knows what's best for us. Even when it's painful even when
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it may not make sense, even when it may feel like I deserve this,
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it's a righteous desire. I'm seeing other people who
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aren't trying as hard as me being blessed with more than
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what I'm even asking for. I just want this simple thing
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and I've earned it I deserve it and still he was holds it.
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So for me the Zacharias and Elizabeth principle is one of Do
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you really trust the Lord? I can almost hear in the back of
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my mind. The voice of the Lord saying, do
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you really trust me? Will you really give me your
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whole life? Put it into my hands and then
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trust me, that I know what I'm doing when it comes to when, and
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how and in what Manner, I give you things, whether they be
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blessings and opportunities. Or trials and struggles or
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callings or relationships. And I think if Elizabeth and
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Zacharias, if they were here today, I think they would say,
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God hears and answers prayers. Not according to our timing and
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not always, according to our will that he hears and answers
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every prayer. Another great thing you can
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learn from this is the connection to the Old Testament
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where you have to really important stories of older
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couples, or people who have not been able to have children.
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So famously, you have Abraham and Sarah who's similar to
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Zacharias and his wife, Elizabeth are struggling to have
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kids and then the promised child comes so people who are hearing
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this story should be able to kind of, reflect back and say,
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Wow, this sounds like another time where God did The
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Impossible did the miraculous. Then there's an important
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connection from this new testament story back into the
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Old Testament, The Story of Hannah and her husband elkanah
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were, she couldn't have children.
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She prays to God at the Tabernacle and He blesses her
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with the son, Samuel, who is one of the greatest prophets of all
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time in Israelite history and he essentially prepares the way for
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the greatest King. In Israelite history, David.
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And so there's these clear Echoes that you're going to have
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John who's we born of this Varon couple.
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It's a lot who's going to prepare the way for the new king
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who will save his people. Just like you had Hannah, the
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baron Hannah, give birth to Samuel who prepared the way for
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King, David to also save and protect his people.
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I love those connections. And here you get Zacharias.
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Who Get some information about the baby who hasn't even been
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conceived yet. The angel Gabriel is giving him
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some information. So as Taylor already mentioned,
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at the bottom of verse 13, you're going to call his name
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John. The second thing, there are many
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who are going to Rejoice at his birth.
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Not just, you Zacharias, he mentions a Christ.
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But John's birth is going to be this miraculous birth because
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that's what Luke one's all about.
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Is to people who miraculously are going to have a child one,
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who's too old and one, who's never known a man.
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So to Impossible, births two baby boys, these close relatives
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and about six months apart, as we're going to see here, look at
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what he says in verse 15. For he shall be great in the
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sight of the Lord and shall drink.
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Neither wine nor strong drink and he shall be filled with the
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Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb, which were Going
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to see here a little bit later. So now Zacharias, initially
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didn't believe the, angel tells him, he's not going to be able
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to speak. Gives him his name until the
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baby's born. You're not gonna be able to
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speak Zacharias. So he comes out.
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Having tarried verse 21. The people waited for Zacharias
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and they marveled that he tarried so long in the temple.
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When he comes out, he's clearly they perceived that he had seen
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a vision in the temple. He's different and he can't
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communicate. He can't share what he what?
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He had experienced. And I've wondered about that
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because there are times in my life and I'm sure you can think
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of times in your own, where you experience, things of the spirit
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to such a degree where you can't put words on it, you can't
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describe it to somebody. There are certain things
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spiritual experiences that can only be experienced for
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yourself. You can talk around them, you
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can try to describe them from various angles, but at the end
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of the day, These are, these are experiences that you have to go
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through yourself to fully understand them.
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And so one element of that seems to be a play here.
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So you'll notice in verse 24, it says, after these days those
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days his wife Elizabeth conceived and hid herself.
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Five months. So she goes, she goes into
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hiding thinking. What is everybody going to
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think? Everybody knows I'm well beyond
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the childbearing years. This is this This is not normal
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and people have already been talking for decades about what's
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wrong with her. We don't know why she went into
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hiding but the implication is she just wants some some
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privacy. She wants some alone time here
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and so now we shift from Zacharias and Elizabeth to the
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birth of Christ, look at verse 26.
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And in the sixth month, the implication is it's the sixth
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month of Elizabeth's. Pregnancy.
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And you can see that over in verse 36 again that it's in that
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six month. The angel Gabriel was sent from
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God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin, a spouse
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to a man whose name was Joseph of the House of David.
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And what's her name? It's Mary.
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And notice when the angel came in unto her, he said hail thou
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that art, highly favoured. The Lord is with thee blessed
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art. Thou among women, it's
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interesting to me that every other time that the angel comes
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to people, the very first two words out of the Angel's mouth
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in every other story. Here, seems to be fear, not
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fear, not, but not with Mary. He delivers an entire message
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there, in verse 28. Before Mary seems to be more
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troubled and she's not troubled at the presence of the Angel.
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She's troubled at what the angel said.
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There's 29 when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and
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cast in her mind. What men are salutation?
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This should be. What is why am I highly favored?
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I love Mary's meekness, I love. Mary's humility.
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I love the fact that she's troubled at what he said, what
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he said is your for highly favored and the Lord is with you
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and blessed. Are you among Women.
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And she's sitting there saying he me, and then he says, to her
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fear, not Mary for thou Hast found favour with God and
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behold, Thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shall bring forth a
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son and shall call his name Jesus.
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He shall be great and shall be called the son of the highest
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and the Lord God shall give unto him the Throne of his father
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David. So we already talked about in
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Matthew chapter 1. The significance of the Throne
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of King David and being a son, son of David to fulfill those
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Messianic expectations or Prophecies of who are delivers
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going to be and here you get it in Luke's gospel as well.
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He's going to sit on the throne of his father, David.
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Can you picture being a young handmaiden in a small village in
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Northern Galilee? And this Angel comes to you.
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And by the way, you are betrothed, to be married to
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Joseph and The angel says you're going to conceive and bear a
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son. Can you picture the responsive?
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Oh good, that's wonderful because you know the cultural
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context of what's going to happen to you.
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You know how despised and rejected of all men and women
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you're going to become when you're found with child out of
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wedlock. There are few people in
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scriptures that are more christ-like than his own mother.
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Mary, did you see that she is, so highly favored of the Lord.
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So highly favored of Heaven that it's going to cause her to
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become despised and rejected of humans of people on the Earth.
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I Think Jesus is going to learn some of his first lessons about
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how to Move forward doing the right thing in the face of
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rejection. And people Miss judging, you and
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labeling, you and pointing fingers at you.
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Because you did the right things because heaven chose you to do
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things Heavens way, according to Heavens timing.
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I think the mother of Jesus, Mary is able to teach him some,
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very real lessons that are going to come in handy later on, in
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his ministry and ultimately in his atoning sacrifice.
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I love how the angel gets to this high point of the
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conversation because Mary's wondering how is this all going
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to happen? The angel has to explain.
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Listen your cousin. Elizabeth isn't also similar
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situation where in an unexpected way she is.
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Now expecting we get this very powerful verse For with God,
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nothing shall be impossible. We think in our own lives are
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their seemingly impossible situations.
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And yet, with God, he can solve everything, perhaps we can't do
27:14
it on our own and maybe not everything gets resolved, the
27:17
way we want in our time and our place, but God, ultimately can
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solve all problems. I know my own life when I have
27:28
been a very difficult circumstances.
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This verse and these stories about God.
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Doing the absolute unexpected has given me hope and
27:37
perseverance to continue to trust God, even when my Fallen
27:41
nature brain, says Taylor, here's all the evidence for why
27:45
you shouldn't trust, God, or you would think that God could not
27:48
pull off an amazing miracle and he does.
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Now, I was also say there have been times in my life, things
27:54
have not turned out the way I wanted.
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And yet, as I look back on my life, I seen that God has done
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the impossible and brought my life to a point that I could
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have never built for myself, but only he could have done.
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And I think we see this going on as well.
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But these faithful women in his new testament time period.
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And isn't that a beautiful principle that applies to us in
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our day? This idea of let's not wait
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until God performs those miracles to then engage In
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righteous Covenant. Keeping moving forward on the
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Covenant path kinds of behaviors.
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We move forward before we see the end from the beginning,
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whether it's Elizabeth who stays true and faithful with her
28:45
husband. Zacharias through decades
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without seeing any any Real Results that they had been
28:52
hoping and praying for and then in the end the gift is given.
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Now we see it from the other side of that sequence with Mary
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where she's entering in and she's told you're going to
29:05
Sieve. So, she moves into this process
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of keeping covenants and unrighteous living without
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having an assurity that everything is going to be
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according to God's will in turn out.
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Okay, she engages in this process by submitting to the
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Lord's will in some of the most beautiful words you're ever
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going to read anywhere. So right after being told with
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God, nothing shall be impossible.
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Abel. How does this young handmaiden
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of the Lord respond? She says, behold the handmaid of
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the Lord be it unto me. According to Thy word, she
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doesn't say, wait a minute, hold on.
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She's already asked her questions about the logistics.
29:54
Wait, this is impossible but the angel says, no nothing with God
29:57
is impossible. And so now she completely
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submits herself to God's will. Do you think that a young baby
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Jesus as he grows through those childhood years?
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Do you think he learned some things about what it means to
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say, to God, not my will, but thine be done from his beloved
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mother? And he then takes those those
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teachings to a whole new infinite level in his infinite
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atonement. You'll notice that Mary doesn't
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linger in Nazareth after this experience.
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This is a condition. You do not want to be found in,
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and their culture in their day, in that setting.
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So, in verse 39, we read and Mary arose in those days and
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went into the Hill Country with haste.
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Into the city of Judah implication being she hurried.
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She left Nazareth and went down, south Judea or Judah is down
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south in the in the region round about Jerusalem.
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Bethlehem. She goes down to a city of Judah
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in the Hill Country and she entered into the house of
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Zacharias and she saluted Elizabeth.
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She greeted Elizabeth as she comes into the into her home.
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Remember this visitation from angel, Gabriel.
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Happened in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy.
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And with haste, Mary left, Galilee the region up, north
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came South, maybe a week later. She comes into the house of
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Elizabeth, we don't know for sure the timing, but it's with
31:38
haste, she hurries down there. And one of the most beautiful
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stories in all of the New Testament is right here in this,
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this little to verse sequence, when she enters into Elizabeth's
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house verse 41, says, and it came to pass that when Elizabeth
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heard the cell, Mutation of Mary, The Babe, leaped in her
31:57
womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost to remember,
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the promise that the angel Gabriel gave to Zacharias, clear
32:06
back in verse 15. That even from his mother's
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womb, John would be filled with the Holy Ghost.
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So here's a little, a little baby inside of his aged mother's
32:17
womb. Elizabeth, he's a little over
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six months along in the pregnancy.
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And in the door, walks ain't Mary with a newly conceived
32:30
Christ. Child in her womb and John
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recognizes it, and he is going to do whatever he can to Bear
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testimony and to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord.
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So what can a little 6 months old baby in a womb do?
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Can't talk. Can't can't do anything other
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than leap. And the Holy Ghost delivered,
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his testimony to an audience of one.
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His mother felt the baby leaped in the womb when Mary walks in
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the door and it was more than just.
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Whoa, my baby jumped. It was Oh, I now know who walked
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through the door. And you'll notice this this
33:17
statement to Marion verse 42 blessed, art, thou among women,
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women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb and whence, is this
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to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me, that's an
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awful. Big message to get out of a baby
33:35
leaping in your womb, which tells us the power of the Holy
33:39
Ghost to carry our Sometimes simple sometimes small efforts
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to Bear testimony of Christ. The power of the Holy Ghost to
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translate those for the recipient to get the full
33:55
message, baby leaps in the womb, and Elizabeth got them, the word
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from Heaven, here comes the mother, of the Son of God.
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Your savior and redeemer is now in the room.
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That's a profound message. Message shared between two
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women, close relatives and their little babies inside of their
34:19
wounds. I love this story because it's
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in Luke's gospel, he's focusing on people who are largely going
34:27
to be overlooked by their society of their time.
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And if you put it into a Jewish first century context, they
34:37
wouldn't see women as valid Witnesses or valid testify.
34:41
Version of judaic court of law. For instance, if they witnessed
34:45
a crime, they couldn't testify only men could and yet who did
34:49
heven pick as the first two witnesses in the Gospel of Luke
34:54
of the coming of the Messiah. It's Mary followed by Elizabeth
34:59
these two women, both with impossible, births working their
35:04
way to fruition here in this chapter.
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Some years ago when I was a student at the BYU Jerusalem
35:10
Center, some But assured, an interesting Insight that I have
35:14
found meaningful about this connection between John and
35:17
Jesus and their births. So John is we know, was born six
35:21
months before Jesus, that's 180 days.
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If you take geometry, 180 degrees is a straight line.
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And what do we hear about John? He makes a pathway straight to
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prepare the way for Jesus. So just all these little
35:38
connections for how John fulfills his Role of being the
35:43
Forerunner, making the path straight for Jesus to come to
35:47
all of us and offer salvation. I love that.
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And and don't, you also love the fact that John is fulfilling his
35:54
Divine commission, his Divine Mission, even when he's still in
35:59
the womb, he's preparing the way for the Lord.
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He's testifying the Christ is coming.
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Make his paths straight. I love that and you'll see him
36:10
then. Continue that same Ministry of
36:13
make his paths straight and prepare the way of the Lord at
36:16
the baptism event and sending his disciples to go and follow
36:20
Jesus. And then ultimately, he's also
36:23
going to be killed by Herod about six months before.
36:28
Jesus is going to end up being crucified.
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So, he'll have an opportunity to go into the spirit world and do
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the same thing that he did hear their testimony.
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That Jesus is the Christ. Repent e, prepare the way of the
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Lord make his paths straight because he's going to be
36:46
following, he's going to be coming shortly after me.
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And that's his whole, his whole life story and it begins six
36:55
months along in this pregnancy. I love that.
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So then Mary inverse beginning in verse 46.
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She begins this song, we call it in Christianity.
37:08
That in Christianity, The Magnificat and It's very, very
37:12
significant many people in other religions, this this song where
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she says my soul, doth magnify the Lord and my spirit hath
37:22
rejoiced in God my savior for he hath regarded.
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The low esteem of his handmaiden for behold from henceforth.
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All generations shall call me blessed for he that is mighty
37:35
hath. Done to me great things and holy
37:38
is his name and so that that song of Mary is going to
37:42
continue down and you can read it all the way down through the
37:45
end of verse 55. So, in verse 56, you'll see that
37:49
Mary Abode with Elizabeth about three months and returned to her
37:52
own house and then it seems that Elizabeth's full time was come
37:57
and she delivered this sun and they were about to name him
38:01
something, but Zacharias wrote know his name is.
38:05
John Angel told me that even though we have, no, no men named
38:10
In our family. Genealogy lines, his name is
38:13
John. There's an interesting thing
38:14
here that our friend and colleague Kenneth Brown has
38:17
pointed out that in the ancient world, women often were not
38:21
literate. It's the fact that Zacharias
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can't talk. Now, it's going, nine months.
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Now imagine a marriage where you can't talk to one another for
38:29
nine months. I mean, I think it'd be quite
38:32
Difficult by the way. My wife went deaf a few years
38:36
ago, she got Cochlear implants and it's interesting.
38:39
We're like a typical a family where we have to have lots of
38:41
conversations about things and every now and then I have to
38:44
remind myself even the Cochlear implants.
38:46
My wife does not catch every word and so you think about any
38:49
typical conversation that can go wrong and now create the
38:53
situation where maybe you're missing 25% of the words we
38:56
don't really know how Zacharias and Elizabeth communicated over
39:00
nine months if she's illiterate and if he's gonna be writing
39:03
things how is she going to know? Really anything that's going on,
39:08
in terms of the relationship and communication.
39:10
So, there's some interesting way that she must have learned from
39:14
her husband, what the name is, but I think is compelling that.
39:18
They've gone through the struggle for 9 months of not
39:21
having full communication with one another.
39:24
So, in some ways, Elizabeth was cut off from her husband, not be
39:29
able to hear him for nine months.
39:32
And I just think that must have been a trial that she To endure
39:36
with faith and also for him to build not communicate with his
39:39
wife. So there's just these background
39:41
possibilities that are just passed over very quickly in
39:44
these verses that I get me a tablet and I'll identify that
39:47
his name is John and in that is nine months, that they may not
39:51
have had any real full-on conversations as a couple.
39:55
So at that point, his speaking abilities were stored and you
40:02
can see what happens verse 67, Zacharias was filled with the
40:05
Holy Ghost and he prophesied of hope that he's not been able to
40:10
speak for nine months, he can now speak.
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And what does he begin with? He begins with this beautiful
40:16
prophecy. This beautiful song.
40:17
If you will, in verse 68 down through the end of this chapter,
40:23
almost saying things like, Like blessed, be the Lord God of
40:27
Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people.
40:32
I love how Zacharias is speaking in a past tense sense, even
40:36
though it it hasn't happened yet, that's How firm his faith
40:40
is in God. That's how much he trusts God,
40:43
he has redeemed. His people even though the
40:46
Redeemer is still six months away from being born from from
40:51
Mary, and he talks about Abraham, Come and the oath that
40:58
was given to Father, Abraham how our child John is going to help
41:04
fulfill that promise. These are really important
41:07
versus the Old Testament is centered among other things on
41:11
two really important covenants. The first being God's
41:15
Everlasting unbreakable Covenant that he made to Abraham that
41:19
through Abraham that Abraham would have posterity, Prosperity
41:24
priesthood property. Tea and that all the families of
41:27
the earth. Be blessed.
41:28
Hey, this is unbreakable Covenant.
41:29
This is God's promise to Abraham and one of the purposes of the
41:33
Old Testament is to show how God in all of his Everlasting.
41:37
Mercy has been unfailingly loyal to that promise that he made.
41:43
And of course at Mount Sinai, we have the Revelation given to us
41:47
of what God expects of us and we'll see in the New Testament.
41:50
How the updated by by Jesus. What's interesting here is that
41:54
these Jews. Understand that God had
41:57
obligated himself to provide salvation to the people in
42:01
Zacharias is now making this totally clear that Jesus is
42:05
coming as a fulfillment of a promise that God made centuries
42:09
ago to our forefather Abraham, that salvation would come and we
42:14
hope that as you're reading the scriptures you remember these
42:17
core themes and Concepts that God is a covenant.
42:20
Oh God. He wants to be in relationship
42:21
with us. He made these covenants from a
42:23
long time ago and He will do everything to fulfill his end of
42:28
the bargain. Zechariah Witnesses of this
42:31
verse 72, God will perform the mercy promised to our fathers
42:37
and to remember His Holy Covenant, the oath, which he
42:40
sware, to Our Father, Abraham if ever you have wondered about
42:44
God's qualities, Mercy is probably the most important
42:48
defining factor and that promise that God made to Abraham that is
42:52
now available to all of us. It's all about Mercy that God in
42:57
his Mercy, sends someone to save us.
43:01
And that person is named with the name of Salvation, it is
43:04
Jesus. So, as we conclude our study
43:08
here of Luke chapter one eye, it is our hope that you will be
43:14
able to hear the voice of Elizabeth combined was Zacharias
43:19
and add to those to the voice of marry.
43:23
Their testimonies coming into your mind and into your heart
43:26
through through time and space reminding you that with God,
43:33
nothing shall be impossible. Possible if Will if will say to
43:38
him as Mary said, behold the handmaid of the Lord be it unto
43:43
me. According to Thy word, if we're
43:45
willing to put our life, our future everything that we have
43:51
everything that we hope to become into the hands of he who
43:55
holds world without number and those hands and trust him and
44:01
move forward in faith like a never before on the Covenant
44:05
path seeking to become even more.
44:08
So true and faithful child of that Covenant.
44:13
Then it is our testimony that he will shape you.
44:17
He will bless you and he will guide your future as he has the
44:22
past he lives, and he loves you and we leave that with you in
44:26
the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
44:30
We hope you know how much you're loved.