Luke (Session 1) Chapter 1

well we're going to explore the book of luke but we're going to start with a story that i think you'll find provocative it's a true story a story of troy and she was a 12 year old girl in 1835 the bible society here published 100 copies of the gospel of luke in mari and we still have copies of that of course and in 1836 missionaries gave one of these to a young maori girl tarori at a mission school near matamata and she read it to her father the chief of the waikato tribe and we're on the waikato river as we record here she kept her treasured copy of this gospel of luke under her pillow when she slept well under the threat of a neighboring warring rotorua tribe the mission school was in the process of relocating to taranga and in on october 19th of 1836 at the marrery falls a raiding party killed the 12 year old girl and took the treasured object from under her pillow later unable to read the rotorua chief discarded it until a slave boy who had learned to read revealed its contents to the fascinated listeners the chief was convicted by the contents of the gospel of luke and resolved to become a christian the rotorua chief resolved to seek out the father of the murdered girl and beg for his forgiveness and when finally confronting the father the chief of the waikato tribe and risking the customary tribal response of revenge the father of the murdered girl forgave him and thus began a peaceful relationship between the two previously warring tribes this is a true story and it's distributed to school children as part of their mari heritage a young girl murdered a devastated father refusing to seek revenge a murderer transformed through the gospel he stole from his victim and then forgiveness given and peace achieved the story of this young maori girl and her copy of the gospel of luke became the key to the conversion of many maury tribes and when missionaries visited both the north and the south islands they discovered that many of the mari tribes had already converted to christ due to the story of terrori and her copy of the gospel of luke making its rounds well on february 6th of 1840 the nation of new zealand was born by the signing of the treaty of waitangi with the maori tribes while primarily dealing with land rights and other issues the foundational document obligates the crown of the united kingdom to safeguard and protect the mari's rights of worship since a significant portion of the maori tribes have previously been converted to christianity the government is legally committed to protect christianity in new zealand there are bibles in schools homeschooling is encouraged and many christian schools receive significant government support it seemed appropriate to record this exposition of the gospel of luke here in new zealand where it as such it has had such a unique and special impact so we're in luke chapter one we'll have a little prologue we'll give a little general background and i want to talk a little bit about the design structure of all four gospels then we'll encounter the announcement uh to zechariah the annunciation to jesus and the response the magnificat that mary expounds from there then the announcement of birth the birth of john the baptist and the benedictus of zechariah and then we'll add a little agenda of a legend of elijah's mantle and uh comments on jesus birthday a little background first of all luke was a gentile most of the writers of the bible of course were jewish but luke is an exception to that a gentile by a background and he he's only named three times in the new testament he was not an eyewitness and minister of the word from the beginning as he makes mentions in the early verses but he he did it by research he is known as the beloved physician he has used in his writings more medical terms than you'll find in hippocrates the father of medicine he probably was a physician in troas he did not accompany paul after his release in his missionary journey at that time but we meet luke again as paul's third visit to philippi he probably spent seven or eight intervening years there then he was on the ship with paul during the shipwreck on the way to uh rome posing as a slave probably reappears on paul's trip to rome and accompanies him all the way to rome in acts 27 and he there he remains until the end of paul's first imprisonment we need to realize that luke was chosen by the holy spirit to write and his greek is the highest greek in the new testament it's the best of any new testament writer his writings are regarded as one of the finest pieces of historical writing in ancient literature sir william ramsey set out to discredit luke to disprove him but after a very extensive and careful investigation he concluded that luke had not made one historical inaccuracy and so luke's gospel is regarded as the most accurate historically but as for the four gospels it's they're designed each with a different perspective some say it's a quadrophonic design matthew focuses on jesus as the messiah mark focuses on on him as the suffering servant predicted in the old testament luke focuses on jesus as the son of man he focuses on on his humanity that's probably one reason that luke is so popular among so many of us for that very reason john focuses on jesus deity as the son of god now every detail of each of those four gospels support their specific design objective let me give you an example matthew presents him as the messiah mark as a servant luke is the son of man john is the son of god therefore matthew starts his genealogy from the first jew from abraham and he carries his genealogy in the family tree all the way to the legal father of jesus namely joseph of course mark focusing on his servanthood is not interested in his pedigree he's the one that has no genealogy luke will focus on on the uh jesus the son of man and so he starts from adam the first man and carries through carries through the bloodline to mary i'll show you what that means uh we'll get really into that in chapter three of course john focuses on jesus the son of god and there is a genealogy of sorts in the first three verses where he has the equivalent of a genealogy for the pre-existent one the creator of the universe himself so matthew focused on what jesus said mark on what he did luke on what he felt were going to feel his humanity in the gospel of luke and john who he actually was and the first miracle in each one supports this the the first miracle in matthew is a leper cleansed a very jewish kind of emphasis both mark and luke as gentile focuses speak of demons being expelled john is really looking at it mystically with the water into wine the first miracle in the series matthew ends with the resurrection a very jewish emphasis mark with his ascension luke ends with the promise of the giving of the holy spirit i'll explain why in a minute and then john the promise of his return because both luke and john set themselves up for a sequel luke volume 2 of luke will be the book of acts and of course the climax for john is the book the the unveiling the book of revelation and so their style is different matthew groups things in support of his thing mark gives you snapshots it's like a shooting script luke is actually a narrative quite a very his normal historical narrative and john has supernatural aspects to his the way the gospel is structured i will try to get into all that here so matthew mark and luke are very similar they're called the synoptic gospels where john is distinctive the synoptics focus on jesus ministry in the galilee john will focus on the later part down in judea in fact most of his book will deal with the last week of that ministry luke gives us many features omitted by matthew and mark an obstetrical account of the virgin birth twenty miracles six of which are in no other gospel there are 23 parables 18 of which show up in none of the other gospels so we're very indebted to luke for things that we would miss otherwise the emmaus road and other details of the resurrection are emphasized in luke the religion of israel could only produce a pharisee the power of rome could only produce a caesar the philosophy of greece could only produce an alexander an infinite heart it was to this greek mind that luke wrote he presents jesus christ as the perfect man the universal man the very person that the greeks were looking for i owe that perspective from h.a ironside's writing i had to include it i thought he'd it's very unique perspective the first four verses of luke are considered by many as the most elegantly styled sentence in the entire greek new testament so let's jump in luke chapter 1 verse 1. luke says for as much as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us that's the beginning of his phrase he's writing to a guy by the name of theophilus who is some kind of very senior roman dignity that's the address and he he is a believer we've discovered there are other gospels in circulation but luke felt called to add his perspective here his gospel even though it's not an eyewitness account is a very early document and he identifies himself obviously as a believer and he apparently joined paul in the book of acts roughly about acts 16. so they the other gospels are written by eyewitness and luke doesn't claim to be that and so this is he he says they were eyewitnesses and the term he uses the greek term from which we get the term autopsy by the way but they were ministers they were under rowers which is the term for a clerical assistant who who could who knew shorthand so luke goes on it seemed good to me also having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first to right unto thee in order most excellent theophilus so luke is an investigator not an eyewitness he demonstrates diligence and thoroughness throughout his writings he is a skilled historian now who is this guy theophilus well the word means lover of god and it was a common name in the first century interestingly enough he probably was the direct recipient of luke's gospel who then passed it on to put it in circulation in the early church the most excellent which is what the word means it's an official of some kind and so we get to verse 4 that thou mayest know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed so that's his motive here now there are many uh scholars that believe that luke and acts together are actually trial documents luke and x may have been to document we know we do know that roman law required historical background of a case to precede appeal to caesar and so such an undertaking to pull together those facts and document them was expensive and theophilus may have been paul's sponsor for all of that there are it to as a result this comes from not missing two things about luke's writings we notice all through his writings in acts as well as look that the uprisings that disturb the roman mind were un invariably the fault of paul's jewish adversaries we also notice in both luke and acts that centurions are always the good guys and i think that's colorful to notice well we're now going to get into that phase about the birth of john the baptist luke compares john's birth and maturation with jesus's birth and maturation it's organized for that purpose in both cases the parents who are introduced an angel appears a sign was given and a woman who had no previous children became pregnant so let's go to verse 5. there was in the days of herod the king of ju harry the king of judea a certain priest named zacharias of the course of abijah and his wife was of the daughters of aaron and her name was elizabeth now so john by lineage was one who who would become a priest because he's going to be his father was zacharias a priest and the priests were organized into courses his parents lived when herod the great ruled the king of judah at judea between 37 bc to uh to 4 bc now of the course of obama what is that all about back in chronicles david organizes all the entire priesthood into 24 groups 24 courses and so he was eighth of 24 courses or divisions of the priests and you'll find all that in first chronicles 24. there are 24 courses he's in the eighth course their tour of duty was one week and they did that twice a year there are 8 000 priests in the land there are 300 in each course 56 are chosen each to serve at each day so this when we're going to encounter zacharias it's a big day a big deal for him to be on duty so we get to very sick and uh anyway uh zacharias elizabeth we're both righteous before god walking in all commandments and ordinances of the lord blameless that's quite a statement the word zacharias means god remembers elizabeth means his oath since the two are one in in the flesh that together god remembers his oath and their their life is going to be a fulfillment of the prophecy in isaiah so the nation of israel now at the time we're looking at here had no prophetic word for 400 years malachi closes the old testament with the promise of the coming of elijah in the last few verses of chapter 4 of the of elijah john the baptist will be presented in that he came in the spirit and power of elijah you'll do that in verse 17 in this chapter something that isn't clear yet but we're going to make the point later the old testament closes with john not malachi john the baptist he's the last of the old testament that'll become clear when we get to luke chapter 16. let's move to verse 7. and they had no child that's elizabeth in zechariah they had no child because elizabeth was barren and they were both now well stricken in years now baroness was a shame in that culture and so this was an embarrassment to elizabeth as will be evident when you get to verse 25. god allowed several old testament women to experience baroness the mothers of isaac samson and samuel were all in that condition that they gave birth very late in their lives and it came to pass that while he executed the priest's office before god now this is back to zacharias he's on duty in the holy place not only of holies just outside in the holy place while he executed the priest's office before god in the order of his course according to the custom of the priest's office his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple that's incense that's done at the golden altar which stands just in front of the veil that seals off the holy place and the ark of the covenant and the mercy seat so he's just he's the golden altar is associated with the ark government but it's just outside the veil so it could be tendered so he was chosen by lot to be the priest who offered incense and of course god is sovereign over a lot so god has obviously got his fingerprints all over this thing and the whole multitude of the people were praying without that is outside at the time of incense so he's on duty he's on the spot outside people are praying conscious of what his duties are and what he's doing and so he's tending the golden altar just outside the veil only the high priest would enter that veil and only once a year on the day of atomi on yom kippur after great ceremonial preparation the golden altar was just outside that veil and it was separated from the holy holies by this veil the alder incense represents the prayers of the nation so outside people are praying while inside zacharias is offering incense at the altar incidentally the ark of the covenant was not in the temple in those days many people don't realize it was not in the second temple but the altar that zechariah is tended and it was tending is believed to be the original altar incidentally that'll be important later at that particular moment zacharias was the focal point of the entire nation in concept of course and then verse 11 and there appeared unto him an angel of the lord standing at the right side of the altar of incense and that must have astonished him imagine his he's in he's on duty and here this strange event occurs by the way luke mentions angels 24 times in his gospel this is going to come up a lot now when zechariah saw him that is the angel he was troubled and fear fell upon him in fact he was gripped with fears what the language says and this is a normal response by the way fear or awe when confronted with mighty acts of the god and that's all through luke by the way not just the bible all through luke but the angel said and fear not fear not zacharias for thy prayer is heard and thy wife elizabeth shall bear thee a son and thou shalt call his name john now fear not will occur seven times in this gospel and you can almost partition it that way if you choose to the angel implies by the way that zacharias asked for a son along with his prayers for the nation the angel told zacharias what to name his son and this will also be the case with mary the angel tell mary what to name her son the word john really means you're eva the unpronounceable name of god is gracious or yah that we will reveal here seven aspects of john's character verse 14 thou shalt have joy and gladness and many shall rejoice at his birth and the if so the first of these seven aspects is that he will be a joy and a delight now in luke joy is closely linked with salvation be three times just in chapter 15 when we get there his ministry brought joy to the israelites who believed his message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins for he shall be great in the sight of the lord and he shall drink neither wine nor strong drink and he shall be filled with the holy ghost even from his mother's womb wow so the next thing we learn he'll be a great messiah the lord how great he will be so great that jesus will say the following that no man born of woman is greater than john you'll say that in chapter 7 wow that puts john above all old testament heroes no man born of woman is greater than john that's a staggering statement it'll have a surprising qualifier when we get there but we'll deal with that in chapter seven the expression in the sight of appears thirty-five times in luke and acts excuse just one other time in john but let's move on here he third thing is he has never to take wine or fermented drink it appears that john the baptist took a lifetime nazarite vow as described in number six he will be filled with the holy spirit from the womb and that's pretty we'll get to that too in a minute and many of the children of israel shall he turn to the lord their god in other words his ministry is going to be fruitful so his fifth thing is many of the children will he bring back to god and there were crowds of israelites that did turn to the lord during john's ministry and we'll explore that as we go verse 17 and he shall go before him in the spirit and power of elias or elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just and to make ready a people prepared for the lord that's his job to be an advanced man so he would adopt the manner and dress of elijah in some surprising ways by the way and another way he emphasized the urgency of his message was to dress act and even eat like elijah the prophets that's described in second kings one and so forth and finally he would be the messiah's forerunner advanced man that's what isaiah predicted in isaiah 40 verse 3 and alluded too many times when people say how was jesus different from any other religious leader one of the distinctives is that he had one come ahead to prepare the the way for him and so he had advanced what we would call an advanced man prepare the way well zechariah says to the angel whereby shall i know this for i am an old man and my wife well stricken in years wow zechariah he was not an atheist he was a priest and a righteous man he's offering prayer in the temple he is fully aware that this messenger was supernatural but his doubt that he expresses here results in a confirming sign we don't want to miss the angel said unto him i am gabriel that stand in the presence of god and am sent to speak unto thee and to show thee these glad tidings there are two angels that we see named in the scripture they each have very specific job descriptions gabriel is always on an errand of enunciation to daniel or whoever all through the bible he is always announcing something having to do with the messiah the other one is michael who is a warrior he's the head of the lord's host in the military sense so two named angels gabriel and michael and gabriel's always on a messianic announcement mission he appears twice to daniel he also gave daniel instruction and understanding and we infer that he did the same thing with zacharias but he continues here in verse 20 and behold thou shalt be dumb and not able to speak until the day that these things shall be performed because thou believers not my words which shall be fulfilled in their season so gabriel is responding to zechariah's doubt it says so so there's a first sign that zechariah will be struck dumb and incidentally we also will learn in verse 62 that he probably was also deaf and well many people don't realize that but this was partially a punishment for his unbelief but it was also a sign of confirmation here elizabeth browning said something which is one without faith should be silent which i think is a colorful response but let's move on verse 21 and the people waited for zacharias and marveled that he tarried so long in the temple in other words he was due to come out and this is causing a delay they're starting to buzz about and when he came out he could not speak unto them and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple for he beckoned unto them and remained speechless and it came to pass that as soon as the days of his administration were accomplished in other words he's on duty for a week for until shabbat they changed every shabbat when his when the days of his administration were accomplished he departed unto his own house and after those days his wife elizabeth conceived and hid herself five months saying thus half the lord dealt with me in the days where he looked on me to take away my reproach among men see to be barren was regarded in that culture's uh reproach a shame so she remained in seclusion now mary is her cousin and she may have been mary may been the first person to know the news which the angel had delivered we'll infer that in verse 36. now luke doesn't say this but zacharias may have told her in writing about her son's destiny because she knew before zacharias could speak that his name was to be john so they're obviously communicating probably with a writing tablet of some kind in the sixth month the angel gabriel was sent from god unto the city of galilee named nazareth different vision come a different visit coming up here galilee by the way was a somewhat gentile area that whole region up there nazareth was a town with an undesirable reputation nazareth was not considered kosher in a sense matthew makes the note that jesus subsequent association with nazareth was also prophetic that he shall be called a nazarene but there's a pun involved there because that word can also mean a sprout or a branch so anyway to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was joseph of the house of david and the virgin's name was of course mary that's in luke 27. mary is a nobody in a nothing town in the middle of nowhere is the flavor of the situation but both mary and joseph were of the house of david and the book of ruth in the old testament is the linkage between david the house of david and the place called bethlehem and so we'll go on here dr luke gives us the most extensive account of the virgin birth luke calls her a virgin and the word in the greek is clearly just that some people quibble with the hebrew of matthew luke nails it down with a precision of greek and she had not yet had sexual contact with the man is what the word means he notes that she was pledged to joseph and in the prophecy of isaiah 7 14 the greek translation three centuries earlier that was translated into greek three centuries early uses that an unambiguous term she was indeed a virgin people who make a quibble about that haven't done their linguistic homework now you also need to understand that the jewish betrothal it's actually a pledge a man and a woman pledged to each other for a period of time before the actual consummation of marriage it was binding much stronger than what we think of as an engagement today the two are considered married but did not live together until the wedding it required a divorce to break the pledge if you will we've got to understand this ancient jewish ritual to fully appreciate the relationship between the bridegroom and his bride the marriage supper and so forth in fact it's a very special study to go through the entire bible and notice how god always uses the marriage to communicate his most intimate truths of the godhead itself anyway the virgin birth joseph the carpenter as we think of him now nazareth was near sephiroth a new capital that was being built joseph may have been a builder or an architect the term is tucked on and that it's a worker in wood a carpet or a jointer but it's also used in a builder any craftsman or workman and a planner that same term is used the term can include a developer or builder in our modern sense even so in a greek dominated culture non-greeks would only obtain modest roles so it may be a valid perspective that we presume here well in verse 28 the angel came in unto her and said hail thou art highly favored the lord is with the blessed art thou among women notice it's among women not above women let's keep that in mind and highly favored and the participle is related to known as karis grace she was certainly a a special recipient of god's grace and when she saw him she was troubled at a saying and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be the angel said unto her fear not mary for thou hast found favor with god see gabriel's admonition was the same as she gave as he gave to zacharias do not be afraid for you will have a son in effect again the angel gives the name of the baby in this case of course it'll be jesus behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name yeshua and that's in the hebrew and the greek recognization of that is jesus and and he shall be great and shall be called the son of the highest wow and the lord god will give unto him the throne of his father david and he shall reign over the house of jacob forever and of his kingdom there shall be no end there's a strange phrase here that we're going to make much of later on in the gospel that the lord god shall give unto him the throne of his father david that's a strange phrase for him to use who was running things in those days rome through the entire ministry of christ there was no throne of david extent and yet that is the commitment that is here expressed and it's all through the scripture there are over 1800 references to that in the old testament alone so we're going to talk more about that as we go here jesus will reign on the throne of david forever that's a long time there are five key predictions involved here he'll be great he'll be called the son of the most high in fact the septuagint often uses the term the most high and mary could not have missed the significance of that terminology the fact that her baby was to be called the son of the most high who pointed to his equality with yorevave or yahweh in semitic thought a son was considered a carbon copy of his father the phrase son of is often used to refer to someone who possesses his father's qualities the son of wickedness in psalm 89 means a wicked person so there's five key predictions he'll be great he'll be called son of the most high he'll be given the throne of his father david and jesus as david's descendant will sit on david's throne when he reigns in the millennium and the old testament is all full of that all through the old testament now this is profoundly significant the throne of david did not exist during christ's early early earthly ministry and is yet to be fulfilled literally today jesus is on his father's throne in heaven he's not on david's throne yet but he will be many churches dismiss this literal rule of christ on the earth they have a view that's called amillennialism they think the millennium is just a figure of speech and an allegory of some kind and we who take the bible really precisely and seriously have a different view and we want to show you why we hold that view as we go here and the fourth thing he will reign over the house of jacob forever from the beginning of the millennium and continuing all throughout eternity and finally his kingdom will never end now these promises must have immediately reminded mary of the promise that yoniva made to david in 2nd samuel 7 because that's the root of this from an old testament point of view david understood the prophecy was referring not only to his immediate son solomon who would build the temple but also the future son who would rule forever david stated that yorivavi had spoken of the distant future in second samuel vii david acknowledges that his perspective clearly was was appropriate there the virgin birth was also literal david's throne will be literal we need to keep that in mind the resurrection of jesus christ proves the virgin birth that may seem strange to you once you can prove the resurrection of christ then everything else comes together and so his taking david's throne will usher in a new reality forthcoming mary would have understood that the angel is speaking to her of the messiah himself all five predictions deal with the greatness of the son not the greatness of the mother let's keep this in perspective verse 34 then said mary unto the angel how shall this be seeing i know not a man her question was not an indication of doubt but an inquiry of how such a thing would be accomplished the angel answered and said unto her the holy ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the son of god now the word overshadowed here is the same word overshadowed that's in the holy of holies in exodus 40. mary's womb would become a holy of holies for the son of god the holy spirit would bring out the miraculous conception and the virgin birth of christ the virgin birth why it was necessary for several reasons first of all because of christ's deity and pre-existence it also avoids the blood curse that will be pronounced that was pronounced on um jihadican or jaconiah and we're going to talk more about that when we get to chapter 3. jesus would be legally identified legally identified as the son of joseph but he will be accused of being illegitimate and we'll explore that more in in the next session it's interesting that the messianic genealogy is the most distinguished family tree in history it's encrypted in the torah it is prophesied in the book of judges in the time of the judges ruth 4 it evades the blood curse on jechenia in jeremiah 22 and it fulfills the virgin birth for birth which was prophesied way back in genesis chapter 3. so you can really build a there's a whole comprehensive study on why the virgin birth and and the family tree and we'll be touching on some of that when we get to chapter three let's continue here and behold thy cousin elizabeth she have also conceived a son in her old age and this is the sixth month with her who is called barren so see mary is also given a confirming sign and that's her cousin's baroness that's going to be relieved and as luke answered with and for with god nothing shall be impossible dostoevsky the russian author ministering mark says without god nothing is impossible and he used that he twisted that phrase to refer to the depravity of humanity with god nothing shall be impossible without god nothing is impossible in the negative sense interesting echo if you will antithetical echo and if we can only grasp verse 37 if we simply embrace genesis 1 verse 1 in the beginning god created the heavenly earth if you really embrace that first sentence in the bible everything else follows very comfortably that's the key anyway it's back to mary and mary said behold the handmaid of the lord be it unto me according to thy word and the angel departed from her so she affirmed her part in the son's subsequent birth by ascending to the plan of god calling herself a duel that's a female bonsley a term she uses of herself and mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste into a city of judea susie after learning the sign she hurried to see her cousin she went to visit elizabeth the hill country of judea may have been near jerusalem the same implication would be because zechariah was a officiating priest so that's about 20 miles from nazareth that's a non-trivial trip obviously and she entered into the house of zecharias and saluted elizabeth get this now it came to pass that when elizabeth heard the salutation of mary the baby that's in in elizabeth leaped in her womb and elizabeth was filled with the holy ghost so the baby received the holy spirit first and then the mother did now when john the baptist was spirit filled notice he was about six months as a fetus so that means he was about nine inches long weighed about a pound and a half had translucent skin by then with fingerprints and footprints you would see and he would open his eyes for beef periods and gaze into the liquid darkness of the womb this is what our understanding is of that point in the process here he was capable of emotion recognizing the presence of the lord can you imagine he had the capacity to be filled with the spirit i mentioned this because of the debate about what is when his life begins at conception not at birth he was very much alive in the womb is the point and believers are filled with the holy spirit for specific tasks and elizabeth's baby leaped in the womb for joy elizabeth also was filled with the holy spirit zechariah slater will be filled with the holy spirit in verse 67. anyway so she break out with a loud voice and said blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb so mary is the most honored the most honored of all women a balanced view of mary is that she's highly honored the angels say among not above women so let's keep that in in perspective and whence is this to me that the mother of my lord shall come to me that's elizabeth talking elizabeth called her the mother of my lord she gets the picture here even though he's only a few days old as a zygote in in elizabeth's womb in luke the term lord curios often describes jesus the lord would be more important for a greek reader than would the term christ meaning messiah for the gentiles had not been anxiously awaiting the messiah so so luke's using the word curios where matthew would use the term messiah because luke's assuming a gentile reader here and on the other hand the septuagint often used the word lord curious to translate yahweh and so i'll talk more about that as we go here for lo as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears the babe leaped in my womb for joy blessed is he that believed for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the lord so elizabeth called mary blessed the word okay means really happy because she believed what god had told her mary visited joyously to confirm lord's word mary said my soul doth magnify the lord and this leads to a a poem or a song some people would call it called the magnificat and that comes from the latin from luke 34 and i won't try to mispronounce my latin here but nifiket is the term there for magnify if you will so her magnification lord is a famous passage that she utters here starting at verse 46. and megaluno make great magnifies the greek term to deem or make great or esteem highly and so forth to celebrate if you will and it consists almost entirely of old testament illusions and quotations the same is true of the songs of zechariah and simeon that will be coming later mary's recital has similarities to hannah's song in 1st samuel 2. first mary praised god for his special favor on her mary saw herself as part of a godly remnant that had served and my spirit hath rejoiced in god my savior she calls god my savior which shows an intimate acquaintance with him for he hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed so that magnificat contains eight he haths which describes god's faithfulness his power his holiness and his mercy and uh for he hath he that is mighty hath done to me great things and holy is his name his mercies on them that fear him from generation to generation he has shown strength with his arm he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts so mary also praised god for his special favor to israel through the child that she was to bear god was being merciful to abraham and his descendants all of our blessings and opportunities even as gentiles derived from the abrahamic covenant through our relationship through with the son of david that's important to understand the significance of abrahamic covenant even to us as gentiles the links to abraham are the title used by gabriel here here but also in genesis 14 that was from an episode before abraham was promised the land of israel in genesis 15 and before he was circumcised in genesis 17. that's the title early if you will he had put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them of low degree he hath filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty he has hope in his servant israel in remembrance of his mercy and he spake to our fathers to abraham and to his seed forever so mary abode with her about three months and returned to her own house verse 56. so mary stayed with elizabeth probably until john was actually born now essentially the greek words for her own home indicate that we she was still a virgin and was not yet married to joseph because they weren't living together yet she went back to her own home but by now of course the tongues would be begun to wag and and by now uh god has also given the good news to joseph and instructed him what to do not for him to get shook up but to follow through properly here now elizabeth full time came that she should be delivered and she brought forth a son and the record of john's birth in luke is given a single verse with friends sharing the joy the birth of jesus will occupy an entire chapter the next chapter forthcoming let's continue here and her neighbors and her cousins heard how the lord had showed great mercy upon her and they rejoiced with her and it came to pass that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child and they called him zacharias after the name of his father now several verses here are going to folk emphasize the obedience of both zacharias and elizabeth the old couple were very careful to follow the law in the circumcision of the boy but anyways they assume that they're going to name him zechariah his mother elizabeth says answered and said no not so but he shall be called john which means she knew what the angel had told her husband and they said unto her there is none of thy kindred that is called by this name and they made signs to his father how he would have them called it's interesting he was deaf apparently still not just dumb but and they made signs as to how he what's his choice how he how should he be called because he has the deciding vote obviously being the father so zacharias was apparently definitely some and he asked for a writing table and he wrote saying his name is john and they marveled all and his mouth was open immediately and his tongue loosed and he spake and praised god and uh see the fact that he spoke immediately amazed the crowd because he obviously had been non-communicative for the duration of that pregnancy nine months huh so zecharias and everybody everybody else praised god and fear came on all that dwelt around them and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout the hill country of judea and all they that heard them laid up in their hearts saying what manner of child shall this be and the hand of the lord was with him what expectations were rampant amazing now the word spread through the whole hill country obviously because this was an unusual child and people continue to note that god's hand was upon him 30 years later when when john began his preaching ministry many went out from his this district who no doubt remembered the amazing events surrounding his birth and uh priests generally a priest always served from the age 30 to 50. that was their time of of of being being an active priest john and jesus both began their ministries at the age of 30 as a priest would now there what follows now is a statement or a song as they call it of zechariah's they call it the benedictus and it too just like mary's this two will be full of um uh old testament quotes and illusions as father zacharias filled with the holy ghost and prophesied saying blessed be the lord god of israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant david so the old testament illusions he would be a jew he would be from the tribe of judah he would be from the family of david and he would be born in bethlehem in fact that authority will be sought by the wise men when we in in the book of uh that matthew records of course coming later he continues and he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets which had been since the world began that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant the oath which he swear to our father abraham that he would grant unto us that being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life and thou child shall be called the prophet of the highest for thou shalt go before the face of the lord to prepare his ways to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins through the tender mercy of our god whereby the day spring from on high hath visited us to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace wow he got the message he understood this zacharias benedictus has expounded four basic ideas an exhortation to praise god in verse 68 the reason god should be praised that he has come to redeem his people in verse 68. the deliverance of israel through their messiah verses 69 through 75 that the messiah was to be israel's horn of salvation in verse 69. the horn of an animal is an uh idiom for power and it's a common symbol used in ancient literature thus the desire that thus the messiah would be strong and would deliver the nations from their enemies is the thought there and again the mentions of god's holy covenant the oath god swore to abraham it's interesting that that oath that was sworn to abraham was sworn in genesis 22 on the very site of the crucifixion so it was not only a prophecy of the crucifixion and abraham knew that and that's why he names that place that way it is the very the literal site that 2000 years later another father would offer his son so it's a very important study in genesis 22. the title set of the most high is not uniquely jewish by the way melchizedek used that title prior to the institution of circumcision it and he was not levitical he's not a levitical priest and that major that's in psalm 110 and the writer in hebrews makes a big point of that nebuchadnezzar the king of babylon called daniel's god the most high he was a gentile but he did write one of the chapters in the bible chapter 4 of daniel so zechariah has been expounded four ids i've mentioned three of them he describes john's ministry zacharias describes his ministry in advance john would prepare the way for the messiah that's exactly what isaiah predicts in isaiah 40 verse 3 and also malachi chapter 3 verse 1. now this verse we're dealing with here may also refer to the lord rather than to john but it works either way because john did preach the same message of forgiveness as jesus of course did continuing then the child grew and waxed strong in the spirit and was in the deserts until the day of his showing unto israel interesting because of his special mission even though he's destined to be a priest he knew his mission from an early age and he chose to follow the role of isaiah by living in a desolate area he had no use for the temple the son time priest would begin his ministry at the age 30 but in the wilderness and i want to tell you though before we finish about a legend that is not scriptural it's just a provocative legend that circulates among certain scholars but it's a legend the legend is that when elisha remember elisha followed elijah when elijah was translated his mantle fell upon elisha when elisha died the legend is that his mantle was placed inside the golden altar this this this little stand about uh three feet high or less than a meter high and uh and about a foot uh on a side the golden altar apparently was like a little cupboard and and apparently the legend is that that uh when elisha died elijah's mantle that he had his wearing was placed inside the golden altar inside the holy holies the altar of what they call the altar of incense okay and that when when zechariah received the visit of the angels the legend is that he was told take go in there and take that mantle with them and so this the legend is that this may have been the very mantle that elijah that john the baptist would be wearing 30 years later after he was born that enlightened your won back during his ministry and now interestingly enough there is some evidence that the original golden altar in the second temple uh it was the original golden alder from before there's some evidence of that so from that point of view this could it's pot this could be possible it's just a legend it's kind of colorful that when john was preaching at bethebara people would travel 20 miles from jerusalem across the windy desert road to hear john preach at the jordan 20 miles on foot in fact so many people did that uh uh because at the temple that the temple actually sent an inquiry team to find out what's going on there there's a cr that's such a crowd being drawn from jerusalem to the jordan the scripture tells us he was preaching in the spirit and power of elijah the conjecture of the legend is that he may actually have been wearing the literal mantle of elijah colorful it's it's just a thought something else about this that dervs deserve just a casual mention we celebrate jesus birthday on december 25th typically we know from scholarship that it couldn't have been in december it had to be in the in the the see the the the records of the announcement and births of john and jesus are arranged by luke in a very parallel fashion but the emphasis will of course be on the birth of jesus which will be ascribed in even greater detail than the birth of john forthcoming but a strong case from all the details that were in this passage because of zechariah serving in the eighth course and all that a case can be made that jesus actual birthday is not december 25th it was september 29th of 2bc it happens to be the feast of trumpets then that all comes about because we know which course was officiating when jerusalem fell in 70 a.d and you can from that calculate back and do so if it gets complicated but a strong case not a convincing a conclusive case but a suggestive case can be made of september 29th to bc we know the flocks were in the fields which means it couldn't be in winter they were out in the fields typically after october the roman registration would not have been may occurred in winter because most of that region was not passable that registration would be more likely in the summer or fall and john the baptist probably was born on april 19th or 20th which was passover of that particular year so those are just some thoughts in passing um don't confuse our traditions with the biblical reality most traditions that aren't provable from the scripture are probably incorrect they're simply traditions so we've been through luke chapter one we've had a little background in the design we've talked about the announcement of zechariah the announcement to mary on the birth of john the baptist and we've had a little it done to here now next time for next season's thing i want you to study luke chapter 2 carefully but i also want you if you can to read a little four chapter book called the book of ruth in the old testament it's a precious book because it brings us many many insights not just linking the house of david to bethlehem which is part of the reason but also it's a prophetic model that will illuminate much of the new testament very important little piece of background for you and with that let you and i stand for closing prayer

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Length: 57min 54sec (3474 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 15 2020