Lst wk. I spoke about the kindness of King David to the Son of Jonathan whose name was Mephebosheth

God our Father is also a kind hearted king, who out of his kindness he gave us his Son, so that you & I can live in heaven for eternity

The O.T contains all of the history of what God started from creation and calling a nation & a people to bring Gods Son to this earth

The O.T. Starts with Genesis & ends with the book of Malachi that gives warnings of coming tribulation and then ends

for the next 400 yrs, God did not speak to anyone on earth, these have been called the silent yrs

God did not raise up or speak through a prophet or priest although God didn’t move visibly or audibly for those 400 yrs, there was still allot going on

Israel had come under Persian rule, but were actually doing very well under them, they had freedom to go to Jerusalem & build a temple

it was during this time that they established the law & Scribes & Pharisees became powerful Jewish leaders

Alexander the Great brought an end to – Persian rule which brought the Jews under the Greeks, many Jews were immersed into the Greek culture & became Hellenist

there were many battles after the death of Alexander from the Ptolemies, Seleucids, to the Maccabean , Hasmoneaons, & finally the Jews came under Roman rule & still God had not spoken one word through any human being

400 yrs later, God finally speaks, but its not through any human, but instead he sends an Angel with a message

Lk. 1: 1-4

Luke gives us the background as well as the births of both John – Baptist & Jesus & theres 2 words that are important in these verses

1st Eyewitness – Greek word for this is autoptai = to see for yourself, in english we get the word autopsy

Luke is saying that he was a eyewitness or that he saw for himself, he made an autopsy of what we believe to be true

2nd is ministers, Greek is: huperatai = under rower on a boat in English = intern

So what we have here in the Greek to English translation is: Dr. Luke who is a physician and a scholar has made an autopsy of the records of those who have been eyewitness’s

Eyewitness’s of what? The birth, life, death & resurrection of Jesus Christ

these 1st 4 verses are giving us a tremendous testimony that we can be certain & assured about the Lord Jesus Christ

vs:4 that we can know with certainty

how much assurance do you have? Do you know for certain that you are a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ?

Do you know for certain that if you died today that you would go to heaven?

Do you know for certain that the bible is the Word of God?

We should feel sorry for those who aren’t certain, what a terrible place to be to say your a Christian & not be certain of what your faith is built on

we need to understand that faith cometh by hearing & hearing by the Word of God

so if you really know the Word of God, then you would believe it

those who are ignorant of Gods Word are the ones who aren’t sure if their saved or not

the problem isn’t with the bible or with Jesus, the problem is with us because of our ignorance of Gods Word

vs:5

  • name Zacharias = God remembers
  • name Elisabeth = his oath

God had made an oath & a covenant with king David that his seed & his throne would endure forever

and 400 yrs after the close of the O.T. God remembers his oath & Elisabeth is a daughter from Aaron who was a the lineage of David & the Lord Jesus

Vs: 6-12

Zach & Elisabeth are righteous people and serving God in the temple when suddenly a Angel appears with a message

I think Zach must have been one cool dude, it says he was serving when he saw someone standing next to – alter

it says he was troubled & then he got afraid

let me tell you, if I’m by myself & all of a sudden someone is standing there, I’m having a heart attack!

I would be screaming like a little girl!!

Angels have been greatly used from creation to today in serving God

they’ve been used as protectors, as warriors, as ministers, some refer to these ministering Angels as Guardian Angels,

if I had my own personal Guardian Angel, then mines been out to lunch allot

But God does send Angels at times to minister to us in times of crisis

Larry spoke about this a bit last week in Sunday School, but the bible says that you will never know it

That we entertain them unaware

vs;13

both Zach & Elisabeth was praying for a son, now how do I know it was for a son?

Because the Angel said your prayer has been heard & you will have a son!

& you’ll name him John

A daughter named John doesn’t sound right, so we know it was a boy!

Vs;18

this is really kind of funny here, this couple is praying for a son, an Angel shows up & says your going to have one & Zach says, how can this be true, I’m married to an old woman!

Well why then was he praying for a son?? dah??

have you ever prayed like that? You pray for something but really don’t believe it will happen?

But this is the reason why we don’t receive answers to our prayers, we don’t have faith

Bible says we are to pray with faith & believe that God answers

but lets be honest, we all pray like Zach at times, he’s human & so are we

and I like the Angels response to Zach

Vs; 19

Gabe says: hey dude, I’m here telling you something straight from God, don’t question me

I think he sounds just a bit indignant here

and then look at what he does

Vs;20

Gabe says since you didn’t want to believe me oh ye of little faith, you ain’t gonna speak to anyone until your son is born take that!

I know one thing, I never want to tick off an Angel

400 yrs of silence from heaven & now God is on the move, he sends Gabe with a first message & now he’s going to send a second message

Vs; 26-34

Mary also questions the Angel Gabriel, apparently she didn’t know who she was dealing with, an Angel with an attitude

of course Zach couldn’t call her & warn her either!

But the facts are: Zachariah was struck speechless because he didn’t believe a direct message from God & he was a priest who should have had faith

but Mary had faith, she didn’t say this is impossible: she asked how is this going to happen

Vs:35

Gabe explains to her how this was going to happen

Gabriel gives Mary a message that through her the Son of God was going to be born

Last week I spoke about the kind heartedness of king David

but now God the Father was sending the kind hearted King of Kings Jesus Christ

No man had anything to do with the birth of Jesus Christ

Mary is not bringing a sinner into the world, she is bearing someone who is holy, who is without sin

when a human man & woman have a child, they bring in a child with a sin nature

king David said that he was shapen in iniquity and in sin did his mother concieve him

but the virgin birth was the only way God could bring his holy child into the human family

people deny the virgin birth and its during this month that unbelievers attack Christmas

but why would we expect anything different, if they are unbelieving sinners, they certainly wouldn’t believe in what we do

let them attack, let them remove nativity scenes, let them remove the word Christmas, let them remove God

it doesn’t change the truth, it doesn’t change the virgin birth, it doesn’t change Christmas, it doesn’t remove our God they can attack, they can remove, they can deny

but one day, every knee will bow before a virgin born King, and they will confess that Jesus Christ was born on earth that he died and was raised from the dead

and throughout eternity as they will look into heaven according to Luke 16

from the pit of hell and they’ll wish they hadn’t denied the King of Kings

Vs; 39-41

what we are dealing with here is miraculous, and there is no use in trying to offer up some natural explanation

you either believe it, or you don’t

so many try to explain away the miracles in the bible, but to be a true child of God

one has to believe in miracles that the bible tells us about we serve the King of Kings, a miracle maker, & out of his kindness, he sent us our Savior