Story of Jesus: December 1st

Luke Chapter 1

Luke wrote his own account of the life of Jesus Christ, to make the message of salvation understandable to those outside the Jewish world. He wrote in the form of a letter to a man named Theophilis after carefully investigating all the facts about Christ.

The story starts out with a man named Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth. They were both righteous before God and followed all of the commandments and statutes of the Lord. They had no children for Elizabeth was barren and they were both advanced in age.

When Zechariah was serving as a priest, he was chosen to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense, while all of the people were waiting outside praying at the hour of incense. An angel of the Lord appeared to him standing on the right side of the altar. When Zechariah saw the angel, he was troubled and fear fell upon him.

But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth shall bear a son, and you shall name him John. You will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. He must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.”

Zechariah questioned the angel and said, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”

The angel answered him and said, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.”

Because Zechariah had questioned this and did not believe his words, the angel made it so he would be silent and unable to speak until the day that the foretold would be fulfilled.

Meanwhile, the people were waiting out front and were wondering what was taking Zechariah so long. When he came out, he was unable to speak to them and realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. He kept making signs, but remained mute. When his week of service was complete, he returned home.

Soon after this, his wife Elizabeth conceived and went into seclusion for five months. She said, “The Lord has done this for me! In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people for having no children.”

In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to the city of Nazareth in Galilee. He was to visit a virgin named Mary who was engaged to marry a man named Joseph. He said to Mary, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”

Confused and troubled she tried to understand what the angel had meant. The angel said, “Don’t be afraid Mary, for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son you will name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will rein over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”

Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

The angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age. She used to be called barren, but now she is in the sixth month.”

Mary responded, “I am the servant of the Lord. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.

Within a few days, Mary went to the hill country of Judea to visit Elizabeth. She entered the house and greeted Elizabeth. At the sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s child leaped within her and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Elizabeth exclaimed with a loud cry, “God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed. Why am I honored that the mother of my Lord should visit me? When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.”

Mary responded with a song of praise, and stayed with Elizabeth about three months before returning to her own home.

The time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she had a son. When her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, everyone rejoiced with her.

When the baby was eight days old, they all came for the circumcision ceremony. They wanted to name him Zechariah after his father, but Mary said, “No! His name is John!”

They said, “None of your relatives have that name,” and they used gestures to ask the baby’s father what he wanted to name him. Zechariah asked for a writing tablet and to everyone’s surprise he wrote, “His name is John.”

At that moment Zechariah could speak again, and he began praising the Lord.

Fear and awe fell upon the people, and all of these things were talked about throughout all the hill country of Judea. All that heard of it laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What will this child be? For the hand of the Lord was with him.”

Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and gave a prophecy.

“Praise the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has visited and redeemed
his people.
He has sent us a mighty Savior
from the royal line of his servant David,
just as he promised
through his holy prophets long ago.
Now we will be saved from our enemies
and from all who hate us.
He has been merciful to our ancestors
by remembering his sacred covenant-
the covenant he swore with an oath
to our ancestor Abraham.
We have been rescued from our enemies
so we can serve God without fear,
in holiness and righteousness
for as long as we live.

And you, my little son,
will be called the prophet of the
Most High,
because you will prepare the way
for the Lord.
You will tell his people how to find
salvation
through forgiveness of their sins.
Because of God’s tender mercy,
the morning light from heaven is about
to break upon us,
to give light to those who sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
and to guide us to the path of peace.”

-Luke 1:68-80

John grew up and became strong in spirit. He lived in the wilderness until he began his public ministry to Israel.