Luke 1:13–17

Luke 1:13-17 

English Standard Version 

  Who knows how long Zechariah and Elizabeth have been praying for... but can you imagine that the scope of their prayer would've reached this far?  Here they are, two small people, and their story is woven into the grand story of the redemption of God's people.

  It's a reminder to us -- our stories matter.  We think of ourselves as small, and we are, and yet our stories matter to God, and we are part of the larger narrative as well.  God weaves us in, using our lives and our testimonies to tell a larger story, and the world comes to know Christ as King and Christ as Savior through us.  

  So let us, too, have joy and gladness.  For great is our God!

Luke 1:8–12

Luke 1:8-12 

English Standard Version 

  When Rachel and I were first married, I would startle her all the time.  I'd walk into a room and she'd jump, because she wasn't used to having someone else around all the time.  I'd always joke and remind her that I lived there, too.  

  It's funny to me that Zechariah is so shocked to see an angel here -- he was walking into the temple of the Lord -- what did he expect to see?  The reality is that he didn't expect that God would really show up!  He was simply doing his job, but in the midst of it, God showed up!  Zechariah was rightly afraid, as I'm sure we'd all be at the sight of an angel.  

  God came to deliver a message, and I love the imagery of the whole multitude of people praying outside.  What would it look like to do that for one another?  I wonder about that -- maybe it's by text message, or some other means, but wouldn't it be great for us to know that when we were facing something big, the whole multitude was praying for us in that moment?

Luke 1:5–7

Luke 1:5-7 

English Standard Version 

  It's easy to look at some people and assume that everything is easy, that they don't have scars.  Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous people, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord.  But they carried a deep wound, as they were aged and had no children.  This was a hard thing for them.

  It's a reminder for us that even the strongest Christians carry wounds, even if we cannot see them.  Our faith depends not on our strength, thankfully, but on the strength of Christ.  This is why the Apostle Paul was able to say that even in his weakness, he found strength.  He had wounds, just as Zechariah and Elizabeth did, just as you and I do, and he looked to Christ for his strength.

  God is at work in their lives, just as God is at work in our lives, despite our wounds and fears and weakness.  That is not an obstacle for God.

Luke 1:1-4

Luke 1:1-4 

English Standard Version 

  The Gospel of Luke was written by a companion of Paul who was a physician.  The Gospel of Luke emphasizes God's concern for the poor, the outcast, and the marginalized.  The role of women and the work of the Holy Spirit is emphasized throughout.  We start with the announcement of John the Baptist's birth and move forward.      

  It's easy to assume that earlier people were more likely to believe in magic.  We think of them as less scientific.  But just like us, they wanted to know the truth.  Luke didn't simply take everything he heard about Jesus for granted.  He investigated.  He interviewed.  He wanted to give Theophilus an accurate telling of the Gospel, so he found the eyewitnesses and recorded these things, that Theophilus might have certainty.  People were making life-altering decisions based on what Luke was writing, and Luke didn't want them to be uncertain as to the truth of the matter.  

  It reminds us that our lives of faith are not built on rumors or guesses, but on trustworthy eyewitness testimony.  This was tested.  All of Scripture has been tested.  We can have confidence just as early believers had confidence.  Remember that many of those early believers had a very real life or death decision to make, and based on the evidence, they chose something that led many of them to death.  They didn't choose this lightly, and that gives us comfort in knowing that the faith we share with those early believers was researched and built upon a strong foundation.