Luke's Gospel

My name is Pete Woodcock. I'm the pastor of church. Really good to have you, and we've got some visitors really, really nice to have you. From contagious. This is terrific.

And, we started a series last week in Luke's Gossport. And this is a series that actually the Fight Club, which is our sort of Preacher's group are gonna be taking on and and I've been given the first 2. I don't know why. I think Fight were too scared of these passages for some reason. I have no idea.

Let's pray. Father help us now as we look at this precious word and help us to see truths in it. Perhaps we haven't seen before and by your spirit, impress them on our on our hearts and our minds and our actions. And, creating us more trust in you. We pray in Jesus' name, our Now I'm sure you've heard of the the sort of phrases, it's darkest before the dawn or the darkest hour is just before the dawn.

I mean, it isn't true, but you know what those phrases are, they're sort of great English expressions that are meant to cheer us up when life is going bad. You know, you're having such a bad life. The circumstances couldn't be worse, and someone says the darkest hour is before the dawn. And and what they mean is cheer up light lights coming. Warmth is on its way.

There's a new day coming. It's been a dark long period But if you listen very carefully, you'll hear the birds begin to sing the dawn chorus and the sun is is about to rise. So that's what it what it means. The darkest hour is before the dawn. And that's the sort of imagery that is used of the birth of this bloke that we're looking at called John, that we call John the Baptist.

I mean, his name was John, and, we sort of put these other 2 names on it, John the Baptist. If you just have a look at some verses, we didn't read about John. Just have a look at verse, 76 to 79. And what you'll hear here is that the father of John is singing a song about the event. And, in these verses, he says and you, my child, will be called a prophet of the most high for you will go on before the law to prepare the way for him.

To give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins. Because of the tender mercies of our god, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness. And in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the path of peace. The darkest hour is before the dawn. These people had been waiting in darkness for 400 years 400 years in darkness.

The old testament part of the Bible, if you just went back to the old testament, if you went back to Mark to Luke, from Luke to Mark to Matthew. And then the next book in the old testament is called Malachi. There's a 400 year gap in that 1 page. 400 years. And Malachi had promised that this messenger would come before the lord who would suddenly come to the temple.

And that was 400 years before this event that we're looking at in Luke chapter 1. God had spoken from Mala through Malachi. And he says there's 1 coming who will prepare the way for the lord who will visit the temple himself. And that was 400 years they had to wait. Some of us here are old enough to remember when we had to wait for the last Harry Potter book.

Do you remember do you remember that? Those of us that were into that. Do you remember? You know, we'd read read all the books. We knew there was a great battle sort of brewing up, and yet the last book hadn't been published yet.

And it was very straight in. And we waited and we waited for the last Harry Potter book just wanting to know how it end ended. Well, that's the sort of thing that's going on here, except it was 400 years for the last installment to happen. 400 years of silence. 400 years where no Bible had been written.

No profit had spoken. And some of the people in the nation felt that god had just abandoned them. Is there ever gonna be a last book? Is there ever gonna be the conclusion to the promises? And many of them then started walking not in the light but moving into the darkness and living like they shouldn't have lived and not living like they should have lived.

And 400 years And even those that were devoted to the promises and devoted to the scriptures were beginning to sort of do their religious duties rather staley and in an automatic sort of way. 400 years waiting for the next installment and people were beginning to sort of wonder whether it was ever gonna happen. And then we read these words in verse 5. In the time of. I just love those words because when you hear that, you you you think, okay, something's gonna happen.

In the time of. It's got that feeling of of a story and Luke who gathered the real material, the truthful material, the these eyewitness accounts is writing it like a story because he he wants an orderly account because he wants us to to get into this and see that this is really very exciting in the time of. It's got the sense of a storyline, isn't it? Something's going to happen in the time 400 years, darkness, you know, in the time of. So let's take this up.

Let's have a think of it like a sort of drama. 1 then. Act 1 that that Luke is writing here in the time of herod. The darkest hour is just before the dawn. And this is dark because herod was a ruthless man in the time of herod, king of judea.

He had come to power and he was ruling the Jews under the Romans. Herrod, this is the 1 that had all the baby boys to and under killed slaughtered in Bethlehem in that area. He's thought he's not a nice this is dark days in the time of herod, king of judea. He was a man that had those kids killed because he didn't want the prophecy of the coming king coming true. He was a man that was guilty of brutal acts.

He killed his wife. He killed 3 of his own sons. He killed 300 of his best military men and it goes on. These were dark days, the darkest hour just before the dawn. Do you get it?

Dark days. But and here's how God can twist all these things. But in the days of this diabolical monster, he got herod to rebuild the temple. The funny thing is, herod wanted to get rid of the the coming king and stop the prophecies and yet he built rebuilt a temple which none of the prophecies would have been fulfilled without the temple. So it's it's just amazing.

In the dark days in the times of herod King of Jude, you hear the little bird tweet. 1 little bird. You know, the dawn chorus is starting because this wicked man rebuilt the temple. But more birds begin to tweet if we're gonna take that sort of uh-uh pick and there seems to be just a little flash of light on the horizon that's gonna say a new day is dawn. Look at verse 5 again.

In the time of King herod of Judea, There was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abayager. His wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were righteous in the sight of god observing all the lord's commands and decrees blameless in the time of King herod these dark days, he rebuilt the temple, tweet. And now there's this couple introduced. In these days of silence, there's a couple in introduce.

Zechariah, his name means God or Yahweh has remembered Elizabeth, her name means God is absolutely reliable. In the dark days, this couple God has remembered. God is reliable. This upright couple in the sight of god observing the commandments. Following blameless.

It doesn't mean to say they were they weren't sinners. It doesn't mean to say they didn't do anything wrong, but they followed blamelessly. When they when they had sinned, they went to the place the temple for forgiveness and they knew all of the about the sacrifices and stuff like that. But their character is good, is blameless, is righteous, Zachariah was a priest, and Elizabeth we're told was a descendant of Aaron, the very first priest to go right back to Moses time. So in many ways, these are the very best of the Jewish nation.

A priest Sacariah. He's representing the people and he's a good man. Very, very different to King herod. Do you see that? In the days of herod.

King of the of Judea. There was this couple born. You see, I love the way Luke does this. He does it as a a story. And, there's sort of a ray of light.

There's a some some, dawn chorus of the birds tweeting to, to say the sun is gonna rise. And then he twists it again. But look at verse 7, but they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old. There's a part here. I mean, this this was emotionally devastating for them as a couple, particularly in those days.

It was financially disastrous for them because you needed a sun when you were old to sort of pay for you and look after you. But on top of that, if you go to verse 25, you see that it was a disgrace on Elizabeth as if something had gone wrong with Elizabeth, and it was her fault. So do you see what's going on here in this first act? You have 2 opposites, herod representing the worst of Israel and the worst of Israel leaders but producing a temple so that the prophecies could be fulfilled in. And then Zechariah and Elizabeth representing the best of Israel, but they can't fulfill any prophecies.

Because they're too old and barren. Acts 1. Got it? That's the scene. Luke has investigated and he's writing in an orderly way to get our attention with act to them.

First 8, once. This is to see how he's telling the story. It's it's true. I witness accounts, but he's doing it as a story to get us in once. Doesn't that sound like a story?

Once. When Zechariah's division was on duty, and he was serving as priest before god, he was chosen by lot. According to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the lord and burn incense. Now, apparently, at this time, there were 18000 priests in Israel, 18000, and they were subdivided into 24 groups. So it's 750 priests each group.

And what happened is each division, because there were so many priests, each division would go up to Jerusalem, the very holy place where the temple was, and they would serve 2 1 week sessions in the entire year. So we're told that Zacharias division was on duty. So it was 1 of their weeks that they were on duty. They were on duty for 1 week at a time, but only 2 weeks. Do you know what I'm saying?

Over the over the whole year. And then what happened was that the 750 priests then all sort of, took lots or threw a dice, that sort of thing. To find out who was gonna do the top job Yeah. And the top job was to go I mean, and every priest wanted this, but it was very unlikely would happen because it was 750 of you. Was to go into the temple, into the holy place next to the holy of holies where god's presence was pictured as being and burn incense.

And so the lots were going around. The dice was thrown or whatever however they did it. And it fell on Zechariah. This is true. He's just a country priest, but it fell on him.

This is privilege. This is real privilege. He's got the top job and he's gonna go into the temple with this incense to burn on the on the hot coals that are at there. And he was chosen. Now, that's a massive privilege.

That's going on there. See how Luke's telling this story? There seems to be disaster in their life. It's in the time of darkness. Now you've got this righteous couple and he's chosen to go into the very presence of god in the temple and burn the incense.

And what was the incense burning all about? Well, when you look at the Bible, the it's a picture. You put this incense on the burning coals and the smoke goes all into into the building and it would go through into the very holy place. An incense when you look at the Bible was sort of like a picture of praying. And actually, there was a prayer that he would pray when he burnt this incense.

In the holy place, which was god send your Messiah, send the rescuer. So here he was in the holy place, in the presence of god, burning incense. Asking god to answer the prayer that the rescuer would come. Yeah? They've been doing that for 400 years.

And nothing had happened, but he's doing it. And then after the priest did that, You see that Zechariah represents the people because he would then come out and bring the blessings of god. Look at verse 10. See number 10? It says, and when the time for burning incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.

So they're waiting for the priest. And in this case, Sacariah, to come out and give the blessing and say, yes, god hears our prayers. God hears our prayers. Now according to sort of Jewish tradition, the priest would try would go in and out pretty quickly because they didn't wanna do anything wrong in the holy place in case they got struck down by god. So it was quite a quick event.

So the people are waiting outside. It's not gonna take too long because most people are in and out very quickly. Chocolate in well, not chuck it on. Place it on properly. Allow the smoke to go and get out quick.

Make a retreat in case god does something. Because you're in the presence of god. That's the sort of thing that's going on. And I guess Zachariah was thinking of doing the same thing, even though was a very, very honorable thing to do. Get out quickly.

But before Zechariah could leave, something happened. Look at verse 11. That an angel of the lord appeared to him standing at the right side of the altar of incense That's right next to the Holy of Holis. So where's he come from? When Zechariah saw him, He was startled and gripped with fear.

Sacariah's carrying on his duties And suddenly, why? Where did you come from? Where did he come from? People have been doing this job for hundreds of years. And no voice.

Nothing like this had happened for 400 years. You you know what it's like. Don't you know exactly what it's like when you do a job that you've done again and again and again. And you just get on and you're concentrating on the work. You're trying to do it properly.

You're trying to do it quickly. Your mind's taken up. You've done it perhaps loads of times and no one's ever been there, so you're not expecting anyone, and then suddenly someone standing by you. I came up to Carl. He was he been up early.

It had his headphones on. I came in. He was doing something. I came and said, hello, Carl. He didn't hear me.

And I went, hello, anyway. He just jumped out of his in. Just headphone like this. That's what's happening. Here is Zacharias getting on with the job, doing it quickly.

It's a very important job. He wants to get it right. He's concentrating. He's wanting to back out quickly and suddenly. And look at the angel.

Look at verse 19. We're told who he is. The angel said to him, I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God. And I have been sent to speak to you.

Suddenly a word from 400 years to him. And I tell you this good news. Verse 13, but the angel said to him, don't be afraid Zechariah. Your prayer has been heard your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you are to call him John. You see what's going on here?

Your prayer has been heard. What prayer? What prayer? Well, the prayer that goes with the incense, which is that the Messiah, the rescuer, God's king anointed 1 would come. Yeah.

And probably his prayer that he and Elizabeth used to pray when they were had the opportunity and weren't too old to have children. Both prayers, I guess, are answered. The 1 you've given up on and the 1 you just said. It's amazing, isn't it? You pray a prayer and god answers it.

God had heard, and now he's acting, now's the answer. The dawn is nearly here. The first birds have begun to cheap, the dawn chorus, the promise will be fulfilled and you and your wife, Zacharia, are part of the great plan. I mean, it really is good news. The angel goes on.

Look at look at verse 14 to 17. Look at those words. And he, this is talking about the sun, this is talking about John, he will be a a joy and delight to you. Even though they're old, he's ever actually, even though he's gonna be in the spirit of elijah, anyone that calls their son elijah, it's gotta be nuts because, you know, the spirit of elijah is he's received you know anything about Elijah, my goodness, you know, but he's a joy and delight. A joy and delight.

And and many will rejoice because of his birth for he will be great in the sight of the lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring back many of the people to Israel to the lord their god, and he will go on before the lord. In the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the lord. These are wonderful, wonderful things that this John is going to do.

There's a child who is the fulfillment of 400 year prophecy. In the spirit of Elijah, it means he's got guts. He's gonna strong. You know, he'll stand up even though everybody else will deny the lord, not Elijah. He's gonna stand up you know, on his own if he if he has to.

But the message he's gonna bring is wonderful. He's calling people back to god. He's bringing the family of god back together. He's bringing unwise people into righteousness and wisdom. He's getting people prepared This is like this is like the the man who's preparing everybody for the wedding day.

The wonderful wedding when the Lord will come and take his bride up. That's sort of picture you've got on here. He's a leader who is not a drunkard because a drunkard will lead you away from god but this is a a man who's not gonna drink alcohol, but he's full of the holy spirit who lead you into rightness. This is good. Good, good news.

Okay? That's where Luke takes us. Now, if this was a play, That's where the curtain comes down and you have the interval. Yeah. You're left on a high.

Yeah. I used to work in a theater. I used to love that bit. I used to my job was to bring bring the curtain down in the the theater Royal Windsor. Had to it was an old fashioned yet to wind this curtain down.

And, the interval happens. Yeah. And so there's an interval. And you you're chatting over the drinks. Wow.

Good news. New day. Birds are tweeting. You know? We've had the darkest hour just the door and I heard a few birds tweeting.

Very excited. Third act. You're coming in. You take your seat. It's all looking good.

We have a priest who's committed and devoted to god who's morally upright. We know that his name means Yahway has remembered. God has remembered. He's in the temple of god, in the presence of god. He's in the middle of a ceremony that reminds him to pray that the Messiah would come.

An angel comes and, from the presence of god and quotes Malachi to him, the fulfillment of this 400 year prophecy His prayers are answered. His wife's gonna have a child. A prophet's gonna be born. And, people are still waiting outside. Remember, and he's gonna go out there with this terrific news and say a voice.

A voice has happened. We've heard a voice after 400 years. But, yeah, look at verse 18 to 20. Zachariah asked the angel. How can I be sure of this?

I'm an old man and my wife is well on in years. Now that sounds a very reasonable thing to say. But clearly, it wasn't. Clearly, he's coming from unbelief here because look at verse 19, The angel said to him, I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of god, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news, and now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this has happened because you did not believe my word, which will come true at their appointed time.

So this isn't just Zachariah said, my goodness. That's amazing. This is Zachariah really not believing the word. Now it's amazing because Zechariah is a priest. He would know the scriptures, the Bible.

He would know and would have told in his Sunday schools or Sabbath schools, and he would have taught about the 1 of the great fathers of his whole faith, the father, father Abraham and Sarah and how god in their extreme old age. Abraham was a hundred. His wife Sarah was 90. And they've not had any children. And Abraham means father of nations.

Yeah? And god had said to Abraham. It's alright. You're a hundred years old. Your wife's 90, but you're gonna have children.

And then just to make it even more difficult, he circumcised Abraham. There you go. Must have been hard enough for a hundred year old man. With his 90 year old woman, but let's make it even more difficult. Yeah?

But they did. They did have children. And Zechariah is 1 of the great great great great great great great great. Grandchildren. So he knows the truth of that story.

And it's almost as if Zachariah is saying, look, I believe those stories. That happened in the past, but that was other people. It doesn't happen to me, does it? I I know that god intervenes in comes into people's lives, but not my life. Not me.

I can't be included here. You see the twist in the story? The dawn seems to be broken. We've got these 2 characters And suddenly, they're not believing, or he's not believing. It's a bit like if you're queuing up for the Harry Potter book.

I mean, people did, you know, really did. That would mean there were there were long queues for many days when it was gonna come out. And they always sort of bring it out at midnight But imagine you you're excited by the Harry Potter book. Did you queue up? Yeah.

I thought you would. Yeah. And, you're excited, but imagine it. And JK Rowling herself is signing the last book and you'll just wanna get hold of it. And you're queuing up.

And you get there and she signs the book and says, what's your name? Oh, Laura. Yeah. Go, Laura. That's what what were you then?

Holds work. Or something. Laura Holsworth. Yes. And she gives you the book and you say, I don't believe it's you.

I don't believe this is the real book. I'm not having any of it and you walk off. That's what's going on here. That Zechariah, they've been waiting for 400 years for a word, and now he's saying, I don't believe it. This response is devastatingly sinful even from a blameless righteous man.

It denies the very ritual that he's just been doing. His burning insult in incense is a burning insult. Because he's just prayed that the Messiah would come and he won't believe it. Now for a private person, not to believe the word of god from this messenger, this angel is is amazing. But someone who's representing the people of Israel as a priest, this is disgraceful.

He's denying the very gospel that his job is a picture of. Here's 1 commentator. He puts it so well. He says this, here was Zechariah refusing to believe this particular gospel message on grounds that would deny the very basis of the gospel in its entirety. If god could not restore the processes of nature in Elizabeth's body.

What hope was there that creation itself could ever be delivered from its bondage to corruption. If god could not revive Elizabeth's aging and dying body How should he ever rise from the tomb, raised from the tomb, the body of Jesus already 3 days dead? And if that resurrection were impossible, no re resurrection would ever be possible. Listen to this. This is what he says.

The grounds which Zachariah gave for his disbelief were without his knowing it utterly subversive to the entire gospel. Powerful words to describe his disbelief. Look at verse 20, and now you'll be silent and not be able to speak until the day this happens because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time. The angel struck him dumb. 400 years, no voice and still for the people outside, no voice.

No voice. John the Baptist who will be called a voice crying in the wilderness, who is called the voice. Well, his father has no voice to pronounce him. No voice because he'd be an utter hypocrite, wouldn't he? If he goes out and gives a blessing to the people that god has heard his prayer and he doesn't believe it, He'd be an utter hypocrite and god in his kindness stops him doing that.

No voice. If Zechariah can't believe this angel, then how dare he carry on his formal religion in front of other people, and say a blessing when he doesn't even believe it. So verse 21, 22. Look. Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple, what we now know When he came out, he could not speak to them.

They realized that he had seen a vision in the temple for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak. Something had happened. They knew this. Something had happened. They knew but still no voice You see the draw in 1 sense is even bigger now.

A voice, but no voice. They haven't heard the people haven't heard a voice yet. Because of unbelief. Act 4. We're nearly there.

It's only another 17 acts. Act 4. Despite the unbelief, even of the very best representatives of Israel. God fulfills his plan. Look at verse 23.

When his time of service was complete, he returned home. It's only a week. Alright? He's straight home and he's straight up to Elizabeth. After after this, He's been away for a week, of course.

After this, his wife Elizabeth became pregnant. And for 5 months, remain in seclusion. The lord has done this for me, she said. In these days, he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people. Elizabeth is pregnant.

The impossible has happened, just like Abraham and Sarah, She's pregnant. I I I just I imagine I've I've been up at Kingston hospital every day this week. And it's just interesting when you go into the hospital. I I can imagine Elizabeth going into Kingston hospital to go into the reception area and there's always very nice elderly person. With a big sort of sash around them here to help those, you know, those people?

They're lovely. Lovely. All volunteers here to help Elizabeth goes in Can I help you? Here to help? Yes.

You could help me. Can you tell me where the maternity? Oh, yeah. Of course. Yeah.

You're in the wrong place. You go you go out of reception and just turn right. There's another building there. Oh, thank you very much. Is it is it for your granddaughter?

How lovely? No. No. No. No.

For me. Alright. Do you wanna just take a seat there? Because I'll just ring a I you probably need the psychiatric ward because she's an old woman in a zimmer frame. She's way too old to have her.

What are you talking about? God brings a dead womb alive. That's his gospel. He brings life from death. That's his gospel.

Look at verse. Go to verse 57 to to the end of our little passage, but verse 57, look. When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, She gave birth to a son. There we go. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the lord had shown a great mercy, and they shared her joy.

On the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child. You do that in the temple, by the way. So they're back into the temple. They came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father, Zechariah, but his mother spoke and said, no. Remember his dad can't speak?

No. He's to be called John. They said to her, there is no 1 among your relatives who has that name. Now, it was a very important thing to keep the name of family going. And it was therefore a disaster and a disgrace if Zechariah didn't have a son to keep the name going.

But now he has a son. So the name of Zaka, all the relatives are really happy or you're the name's gonna continue. So we're gonna name him Zaka right? No. It's gotta be called John.

John means the gift of god. The gift Zacharias, Zachariya means Yahway has remembered. God has remembered. You put those together and you've got the whole scene. You've got the name of the play if you like.

God has remembered the gift. God has remembered the gift. He never forgot it, but he's remembered it and he sent it. And all the relatives are sort of mad. You can't call him John.

You can't call him the gift of god. You gotta call him Zechariah. And, and and then in verse, 62. Look what it says. Then they made signs to his which actually only goes to show that he wasn't only dumb, unable to speak.

He must have been deaf because they're making signs to him. Why would you make a sign and he could hear. So he seems to be deaf and dumb. Yeah. And, they made signs to the father to find out what he would like to name the child.

And Zachariah says he asked to for a writing tablet in verse of the 63 and everyone was astonished. He wrote, his name is John. And immediately, his mouth was opened and his tongue was set free and he began to speak praising god. 9 months late, actually. Because remember he was to come out of the temple and speak the blessings of god to the people Now he's in the temple with with the actual baby boy and he's speaking the blessings of God.

Yeah? But the voice is there. The voice, the gift of god, the voice has spoken. And now this child is born and out of the silence, has spoken. And then verse 65, all the neighbors were filled with awe.

And throughout the hill country of Judea, people were talking about all these things. Everyone who heard this wondered about it asking, what then is this child going to be for the lord's hand was with him? Suddenly, there is a dawning of a new day. God has spoken. The the person who's going to introduced the son of righteousness is here.

We're waiting for the warmth of the midday sun, but the day has come. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing? Act 5 them. What's all this about?

Well, Luke is writing this. We saw last week, and if you you didn't hear last week, you probably need to have a listen. We saw that Luke is a meticulous historian. He goes to the eyewitnesses. These things are absolutely true.

You can be certain of, he says. You can be certain of. We saw last week that Luke is about the fulfillment of prophecies. All of these prophecies that seem to be in great doubt have been fulfilled. God's word is true.

We see that Luke writes an orderly account. He's done this like a story because it is a story. It's god's story. It's a story to get us in to see how dynamic it is, to see the shifts and shades and unbelief and belief and the things that are going on, and yet god will do what he's planned to do. Luke showing us all of this.

You can see these wonderful things. He's telling us that there's a voice in the darkness. There's a light coming. He's showing us that it is possible to be a very good religious person to be an upright person like Zechariah, a devoted person, but still have unbelief. It's extraordinary, isn't it?

Someone who's a good person, the best Israel could have produced, but still have unbelief. It's almost as if you can believe these stories and you believe the Bible, but it happens for other people, but not for me. We see that in Zechariah that god breaking into my life, changing my life intervening in my life? Could I believe it? I believe it for everybody else?

That this good news could be for me. He's writing this to give us to think about that. He's writing us to see the good news. In repentance. So John the Baptist was a voice that preached repent and believe And we hate the word repentance.

We hate the idea that I'm been wrong and doing going the wrong way, and I need to stop and pull myself together. You've you almost gotta you you almost could say to anyone in Kingston, you're going the wrong way, and they'll hate you for it. Even when they're driving the wrong way up the road, sometimes you beat them and hoot them and say, oh, you go the wrong way. Yeah? I know.

That people hate things, don't they? They're driving badly. They cut you up. They're on their phone. You pull pull up to them and say, mate, you're on your phone.

It's very dangerous. It's amazing and yet you're trying to help them to repent so that they won't die or kill a load of people. And yet there's good news in repentance. There's joy and rejoicing and delight You see that? And that we'll be brought back to god and that we ourselves could have something of the spirit of elijah in ourselves, we don't go the way of everybody.

We don't go the way of everybody. We go the way of righteousness and wisdom. And obedience. As we prepare our hearts for the lord Jesus Christ, all of him points to Jesus. And that's what Luke is trying to get us to do.

Father god, you know each 1 of us here and how these true eyewitness stories hit us. Let me pray, please, that you would help us to learn from this remarkable passage about Sakariah and Elizabeth help us in Jesus' name, amen.