Luke 2026

K.

We're gonna read verse one to 25, and then we're gonna skip over to 57 and read through to 80. So verse one. Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. In the time of king Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah.

Sorry. 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 blamelessly. But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old. 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.

And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshippers were praying outside. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him, do not be afraid, Zechariah. Your prayer has been heard.

Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, 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 of 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.

Zechariah asked the angel, How can I be sure of this? I am an old man, and my wife is well along in years. 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 be able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.

Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realised he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them, but remained unable to speak. When his time of service was completed, he returned home. After this, his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion.

The Lord has done this for me, she said. In these days he has shown favour and taken away my disgrace among the people. If you turn to verse 57, read through to the end. When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.

On the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father, Zechariah. But his mother spoke up and said, no, he is to be called John. They said to her, There is no one among your relatives who has that name. Then they made signs to his father to find out what he would like to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone's astonishment he wrote, His name is John.

Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to speak praising God. All the neighbours 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, when then is this child going to what then is this child going to be? For the Lord's hand was with him. His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them.

He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. And he said through his holy prophets of long ago, salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to show mercy to our ancestors and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham, to rescue us from the hand of our enemies and enable us to serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the most high. For you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins because of the tender mercy 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, and to guide our feet into the path of peace. And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel.

Thank you, Madea. And if you can please keep that passage open in front of you. My name is Tom. I'm one of the pastors here. Lovely to have you both here.

And if you're joining online, welcome to you. Let's pray together as we look at this amazing story. Heavenly father, we do thank you that you know every single one of us here in this room. You know our anxieties, the things that are worrying us at the moment, you know the things that disappoint us, you know the things we're sad about, you know the burdens that we carry, you know the joys and encouragements that we experience too, And we thank you that through all of that, in all of that, you love us dearly in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we thank you for your Holy Spirit whose job it is and whose delight it is to point us to Jesus.

And we pray that you would please show us more of him this morning. And speak to every single one of us we pray. In Jesus name. Amen. As Pete said a moment ago we started a new series in the Gospel of Luke last week and we were thinking last week about Luke the writer, the man Luke, the man who has put this gospel together and we saw that he is not a man who is just interested in vague and religious stories and tales and religious myths.

This is a man interested in careful eyewitness testimony. He's investigated this thing. He's put together an orderly account so that you and I might know the certainty of the things contained in his gospel. And if you don't know, it's worth just pausing on that again because that is one of the things that makes the New Testament gospel so unique and so special. I don't know if you've ever tried to read other religious books in your life.

Whether you've had a go at reading the Quran perhaps. It's interesting just to notice that. When you read it or try to read it, you find a collection of religious sayings about certain people, some of whom you may have heard of but it's just not clear where was that said? And when was that said? And was that said before that or after that?

And who is this guy? It's very hard to actually work that out. But when you open up the pages of God's word, the Bible, what do you find? You find ancestry. You find genealogy.

You ever tried to look at the Old Testament. You thought, why on earth? There's pages and pages of names because god cares about genealogy and history and you find geography and you find political context and you provide real biographies and people. All of this matters greatly to god and to Luke because we are dealing with real events that happened at real times with real people. That's what Luke is.

And this morning, as we come away from his introduction and into verse five, we see him starting to apply his own method. And so have a look with me at verse five, and we're going to consider this whole reading this morning under two points. The first point or the first scene if you like is called the pain and the promise. That's scene one. The pain and the promise.

Look with me at verse five. In the time of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah. His wife, Elizabeth, was also a descendant of Aaron. You see how he locates us in history. In the time of Herod, which Herod is he talking about?

Herod, king of Judea. There was a man named Zechariah. Well, I guess there was a number of those. So, which one is he talking about? Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah.

His wife, Elizabeth, well, I guess there was a number of them kicking around at the time as well. Which Elizabeth does he mean? Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. You see how he gives us so much detail to help Earth what he's about to tell us in real history. Luke told us he was going to research it well and he did and he has and just look at what he discovered in his investigation into this couple.

Verse six, both of them were righteous in the sight of god observing all the lord's commands and decrees blamelessly. Now, as we're about to see, that does not mean that they were sinless but Luke discovered that the general pattern of the life of this couple was one of faith and obedience and service to the lord. You can imagine him perhaps getting his microphone and going to interview a few people about Zechariah and Elizabeth. Tell us, what did you know about them? They they were a shining ministry couple.

He goes to another person. What what did you think of Zechariah? Well, he wasn't perfect but actually from everything I saw of him that the character and the tenor of his life was one of faith and service and love. Luke's investigating and he's discovered this about them. They were righteous and blameless in the things of god and yet in Luke's research, he also found out something else about them.

Verse seven, but they were childless. Because Elizabeth was not able to conceive and they were both very old. For those who've been reading along in Genesis this month, we've seen together how this particular pain has haunted so many of God's people. Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Rebecca and then Jacob and Rachel and then on in the Old Testament, Hannah in one Samuel and here again, we find a ministry minded, servant hearted, godly couple who have been hit with a lifelong disappointment. That's what Luke discovered in his investigations.

And at this time, particularly, although really at every time, you you can see what this meant especially to Elizabeth. Notice what she says at the end of the first part of the reading in verse 25. This is now after the angel has spoken. 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.

That's quite something, isn't it? You imagine some of the conversations that might have been going on around her and about her. Oh, it's interesting, isn't it? Have you noticed how they're still struggling in that area? Maybe they're not as righteous as we've been led to believe.

You know, the old thing, disappointment in the life must mean sin in the heart. Can imagine them, can't you? Every day, feeling this sense of disgrace and reproach among the people. Now, whether or not she was actually being taunted in that way, what we learn here is that Elizabeth had feelings of disgrace about something which was beyond her control. So, one thing, isn't it?

To embarrass yourself with some immoral action and to feel a sense of disgrace. But to feel it for something you have no control over. And so we are to imagine this couple lifelong servants of the temple and of the lord but with a sadness that is outside of their power. Sometimes, for reasons that are really hard to know, godly and ministry minded people pray for good things for a long time. And it never happens.

Zechariah and Elizabeth knew that. Luke wants us to know that his history is not just cold facts. This is the history of real people. Real people who lived and served and suffered as we do. That's his history.

But it looks like there was another layer of disappointment here for them that they were facing. Because at the time of Luke chapter one, it has now been four hundred years since god last spoke to his people. Now, to qualify that, there's a sense in which every time they went to the temple and had the scriptures read, they heard the voice of god speaking through his word. So, he was speaking to them but it had been four hundred years since the close of the Old Testament. Since Malachi announced the coming of this golden age of the Messiah and the one who would come before the Messiah.

Have a look at the prophecy on the on the screen, Steve. If you wouldn't mind, his Malachi chapter four. See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the great and dreadful day of the lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the hearts of the children to their parents or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction. And then the Old Testament closes.

But where is this? Where is this one who would come in the spirit and the power of Elijah to prepare us for the Messiah, to bring judgement on our enemies, and to usher in this golden age of the kingdom of god. Four hundred years. That's 1626. That's a long time ago, isn't it?

In 1626, there was no AI in Claude. They they'd only just invented things like the slide rule and the telescope. You know, it's a long time ago. And things seem to be getting worse. Verse five, who's on the throne?

In the time of Herod, king of Judea. He's a immoral, nasty man. He's on the throne. And on the bigger throne is Rome. Sitting in control and so you can imagine for Zechariah and Elizabeth, they had both a personal disappointment and that they couldn't have children and then they shared a national disappointment which is where is god?

Where is this promise? Where is this Messiah that we've been expecting for four hundred years? And so in verse eight, I think we can imagine Zechariah going up to the temple with these twin disappointments in his heart. A disappointment and a longing for something more in his own family. And a disappointment and a longing for something more for his nation.

And just look at the way God is going to weave together these two disappointments. Have a look at verse eight. 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 and when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside. Now, it's worth knowing a bit of information about this. At the time, there is only one temple.

There are 24 divisions of priests and there are quite a number of priests in each of those divisions. The division of Abijah was the eighth division and today, Zechariah gets chosen to do something that some priests would never have the opportunity to do and even if your lot was chosen, you would do it once in your lifetime. This is a the pinnacle of his priestly career. This is a once in a lifetime moment and experience for him. The lot falls to the division of Abijah and within that to him.

He is going to be the one to burn incense in the temple today. And it's a solemn moment. Apparently, the one who was chosen would go into the holy place with the other priests. But at the time of the burning of the incense, the other priests would withdraw leaving him alone to do this task. We're told that all the other worshipers were outside waiting for him.

The priests have now withdrawn. Here he is by himself. It's once in a lifetime moment. Before him, rising up to the ceiling is this beautiful embroidered curtain that divides where he is from the holiest place imaginable. And it's time to burn the incense.

And then verse 11, an angel of the Lord appeared to him. Standing at the right side of the altar of incense and the text tells us that it's Gabriel. It's Gabriel. There are only two angels named in the Bible. One is Michael and one is Gabriel.

This is one who stands in the presence of god. This is a bringer of good news. This is the one who has been sent by the holy, holy, holy god to be a gospel ambassador. This is the same one who appeared five hundred years earlier in Babylon to Daniel, and he's here. And he's probably somewhere between the incense altar and the golden lampstand.

You know anything about the furnishings of the temple. Somewhere between the incense altar which stands for holiness and prayer and the golden lampstand which stands for light and for presence. And in between those two things, Gabriel arrives to meet Zechariah at the high point of his life. And the text tells us that Zechariah was startled and was gripped with fear. You wonder how it happened.

Do you imagine Zechariah alone in the temple with his eyes closed as he was praying? And as he closes his eyes, he's praying for his own disappointment, more so for the redemption of his people, and then he opens his eyes and bang. This is while they were closed, this angel had appeared. Perhaps, Zechariah came silently. Perhaps, he came with fire and noise and wind.

We don't we don't know. But Zechariah is here. Sorry, Gabriel is here and Gabriel replied, of course, Zechariah. Gabriel, Gabriel replies, do not be afraid, Zechariah. Your prayer has been heard.

And again, the question is, what prayer? What prayer? What had he been asking for? Was he asking for a child for him and his wife? Surely, he was.

But surely much more too. Praying for something bigger, not just a child for them, but for the child who would come and bring redemption for the people of God. And maybe as he was there burning incense, we can imagine him on on his lips is a prayer for the salvation of his people, and in his heart is a prayer for some miracle in his own home. And these things are gonna come together now. This prayer for the child redeemer and a child for their family, God is gonna weave together both of these things.

Just look at how Gabriel answers. It starts with what we might call the local and the personal issue. Your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son. Wow. And you are to call him John.

But you notice how Gabriel's speech carries on. It's like a it's like a stone that has gone into a lake and the load, the closest in ripple is for him and his family, but the ripples are gonna get bigger and bigger and bigger. He will be filled with the holy spirit even before he's born. Oh, that's something. That's something.

He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the lord their god. He's like, what? A son for me, great but you see how it continues to grow, the significance. And we he's going to stand in the tradition of the prophets and he will turn people back in repentance and he will prepare them for the coming of the lord and the one promised by Malachi four hundred years earlier who would come in the spirit of Elijah is about to live in your cot. Wow.

What must have they been thinking? This is a fairly ordinary ministry minded couple and Gabriel says, your prayer has been heard and yes, it's gonna involve a baby for you but I am sweeping you up into something much bigger. This baby is going to be the dawn and the in breaking of the new covenant era. And you're gonna be part of it. And as we see in all of our reading this morning, for Zechariah and Elizabeth, that is the crowning blessing in their story.

Do you notice in Zechariah's song verse 68? Have a look at verse 68 again. When Zechariah begins his song, he starts singing. But did you notice that before he mentions his own child, where does he begin? Where does his praise begin?

Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us. When he comes to sing after nine months of silence, Jesus is the crowning blessing of his story. And he loves John. And John's gonna be great for them, but Jesus is the story that thrills his heart above all others.

And so was it a wonderful moment when Elizabeth had a baby? Yeah. Yeah. But far greater in their minds was God bringing them into the story of the child. And maybe that will be a word of comfort to some of us.

You see, might be that we feel ourselves to be somewhere in scene one. We're Christians. We're servants of the Lord. We make our way to the temple, which is now the living people of God. We want to serve him in the ways that we can, and we've been praying for good things for many years.

Whether that be a family or a relationship that we long for, maybe that be the conversion of a child or the conversion of a parent or the conversion of a brother or a sister that we have prayed for for many many years or perhaps we do come with disappointment in our hearts about the spiritual state of our nation. Why so many years without more turning of hearts to Christ? And we have these disappointments and maybe we've prayed for these things hundreds of times. And for reasons that are just not known to us, it hasn't happened. But if you are a Christian, what God has done to involve you in the story of the child in which you do become fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters and grandparents many many times over.

Is a wonderful thing You see, as far as we know, John the Baptist had no children. And as far as we know, Elizabeth and Zechariah had no other children. And so their earthly family is coming to an end quite soon. They would be parents, but they would not be grandparents. And yet in the family of the child, they are these things many times and many times over and on and on through history.

They remain part of our spiritual ancestry. And when Zechariah sings, that is the spiritual blessing which crowns every other. Friends, I hope you can see these are not just niceties. And these are not just things to make us feel a bit better. These are deep wells of joy, which God's people have found help and hope in over the generations.

You know, the name Zechariah simply means God remembers. And the name John means God is gracious. And sometimes that's all we need to hear, isn't it? God remembers and God is gracious. In the local and the national disappointments, God remembers and God is gracious.

And so in scene one, we have the pain and the promise. So let's come now to scene two and we'll see the silence and the song. The pain and the promise and then the silence and the song. Have a look with me verse 18. Before the song, and Zechariah's final response to all of this, look how he responds at first.

Verse 18, Zechariah asked the angel, how can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years. The angel said to him, I am Gabriel. And I think this is basically a do you know who I am type moment. I am Gabriel.

I'm Gabriel. And I stand in the presence of God. And I've 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 happens because you did not believe my words which will come true at their appointed time. Now, it seems to me that that response of Gabriel to Zechariah is both a kindness and a rebuke.

There is a kindness because Zechariah has said, how will I know? I need a sign and Zechariah is Gabriel has said, okay, here's a sign you'll be unable to speak but you'll be unable to speak. So, there's a mixture of kindness and rebuke in it and it may well be that with that, he was also unable to hear because you notice at the end, they're making sign language to Zechariah. They're sort of trying to make signs to tell him to do things. So, he may have been unable to hear and unable to speak and so this is going to be quite a lonely and isolating time for him.

Some of his main sensory bridges to the world, speech and hear are going be cut off for him. It's going to be a time of reflection and isolation and loneliness. And all of this again, I want us to keep sort of seeing this, is really important for Luke. These details. Because you remember, at the moment, it's just Zechariah in the temple and he's claiming to have seen an angel.

But how do we know that he really did see an angel and that he didn't just get too much incense up his nose and begin to hallucinate in some sort of way and think that he saw something which wasn't actually there. Well, Luke's ready for that objection because you see what happens? He he he has the vision and then he comes back outside and then there's a whole load of priests and worshipers who knows something weird has happened to him because of the sign. And so again, you can imagine Luke going around with his microphone saying, well, you you know, you you were were you there that day? Were you there on the day he came out?

And the priest is interviewing says, yes, I was there and Luke says, well, what did you think? And he said, well, it was a bit strange because it doesn't normally take that long to burn the incense but he took ages in there and when he came out, he wasn't able to speak and Luke saying, what do you mean he wasn't able to speak? What do you, he performed some sort of like drama to help us to know what happened. He was miming and so he was coming out and he's like, I was like, I said, You And he's performing this sort of show for them outside which would be unforgettable in the minds of the worshipers and the priests who were there and Luke wants us to know that. It didn't just happen in there.

It came out and it was seen. And so this sign is some kind of combination between a kindness and a rebuke and also it serves a historical purpose. This really happened to him. But the puzzling thing is the reason for Zechariah's unbelief. We told in the introduction that he was a godly man but if that's the case, then why was he so reluctant to trust the good news?

Well, I don't think it's because he didn't want to believe it. Seems to be that he could only see reasons why it couldn't come true for them. Maybe they were a bit jaded after years of disappointment. We've had no answer to this in the past. Circumstances haven't changed.

What makes us think it's gonna be different now? Maybe he was looking around and could only see the problems. Do you actually know how old we are now? Hasn't happened for us. Why don't why don't we just leave it?

Just leave it. Or maybe he was jaded by the national scene. You do know Gabriel. It's been four hundred years since god last spoke to us through a prophet. Circumstance that you know is on the throne, Herod?

Seems to be that as Zechariah looks at his circumstances, he says, because of what I see, I'm going to need more from you. Which is generally how unbelief tends to work, isn't it? We make the word of god to us smaller and less powerful than our circumstances. We come to the temple like this and we hear good news from heaven not through Gabriel but for the living word of Christ through his word speaking to us, and we hear good news. That Jesus Christ has died for all of our sins, that we can be forgiven and cleansed and put right with god by faith.

And we say, oh yeah, but my circumstances tell me that can't be true. You don't know what I've done. There's no way that that can be true. I'm gonna need a little bit more than that if I'm gonna really believe it. Or we're told here week after week that Jesus is Lord and that we are to bow the knee and trust him and repent and submit to him.

And we say, oh yeah, but my circumstances tell me that that's would be more costly. So, I need a little bit extra. If you want me to do that. All kinds of ways which we hear God speaking to us and we say, yeah, but because of my circumstance, I'm gonna need a little bit more than that. Gabriel says, 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. In other words, given who I am, where I'm from, and who sent me, I should be believed. And if that's true of an angel in the temple, how much more? For those of us who have the words of Christ. And so for Zechariah it's gonna be nine months of silence.

Don't know how his wife felt about that. Maybe she was relieved. But look at coming to an end. Verse 59. On the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child and they were going to name him after his father, Zechariah, but his mother spoke up and said, no.

He's to be called John. They said to her, you know, sort of rather patronizing that I I sense. There is no one among your relatives who has that name. Then, they made signs to his father to find out what he would like to name the child. Sort of like, she tells them and they say, yeah, let's see what the bloke has to say about it.

Yeah, not not great from the neighbors. Then, they made signs to his father to find out what he would like to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet, some kind of tablet here, and to everyone's astonishment, he wrote, his name is John. And we're supposed to sense the conviction in his writing there. His name is John.

It's not we're actually gonna wait and see how he grows before we give him a name. We just wanna give him a couple of weeks to see what sort of boy he becomes before we choose a name that fits him. None of that hesitancy. His name is John and apparently, in the original, Elizabeth is very strong when she she responds. The neighbors are trying to call him Zechariah and she basically says something like in the original, no, you don't.

No, you don't. He's called John. You know, so both of them here have got this got this conviction and I think that's the idea that for Zechariah, particularly, in the last nine months, he's gone from, how can I be sure of this to his name is John? And god has used this period of loneliness and isolation to strengthen a conviction in the word. How can I be sure?

His name is John. And with that renewed confidence in verse 64, we're told that his mouth is opened and his tongue is set free and he begins to praise the lord and what a song of praise it is. I mean, if you, we got no time to open it up, I'm afraid but if you just just scan, scan the words of his sermon song prophecy. I mean, they are they are the scope of it is remarkable. I mean, sometimes I think we we we think the gospel is is just is narrow.

You know, it's it's me and what god has done for me to legally forgive me of my sins in Christ but when Zechariah talks about the gospel, it's vast and it's scope. God visiting and staying with his people in Christ. That's the gospel. God saving us from all of our enemies in Christ. That's the gospel.

God fulfilling his ancient promises to us in Christ. There's the gospel. God shining light into our darkness like a rising sun. That's the gospel. God guiding us into the way of peace through Christ.

That's the gospel. God forgiving our sins in Christ. That's the gospel. God enabling us to serve him without fear. That's the gospel.

Don't you want that as a Christian? Enabled to serve god without fear. In Jesus. And so John the Baptist as I've already said, was an amazing gift. But how about Jesus?

How about Jesus? See how the story goes? From pain to promise, to silence to song. Pain promise, silence song. And so to wrap up for us, Christians here, let me say again that it might be that some of us here feel feel like we're very much inside the life of Zechariah and Elizabeth and there's been there has been disappointments and there has been what feels like unanswered prayer and maybe there has been unbelief and cynicism in our own hearts.

And in all of that, Luke is not wanting us to give a simple promise that we're gonna receive everything we want. But he is saying to us, Zechariah, God remembers. John, God is gracious. Elizabeth's name means God is my promise. God remembers, God is gracious, God is my promise, and he's wanting to say, behold Jesus.

Behold Jesus. And maybe if we're here this morning and we wouldn't call ourselves Christians, there is something here for you to consider as well. You see, you notice what was going to be the heart of John's ministry. What was he all about, John? What was he all about?

Why did god send him? To prepare a people for the lord. To turn the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous. That's what he came. That's what Luke wants us to know.

That if you're not a Christian, it is time to get yourself prepared for the lord. By turning away from your own unbelief and cynicism. And by trusting in the Christ who came to bring light and life and forgiveness to you. Turn from the ways of the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous. That's what John is all about.

Let's take a moment of quiet and think over the story and the details of the story, the truths that we've learned this morning and then I'll hand over for for Pete. Thanks. Let's pray. Zechariah filled with the Holy Spirit prophesied this song. Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them.

Father God, what, what a, what a God. You've had your eye on us. You've seen us in our foolishness. You've seen us in our rebellion. You've seen us in our arrogance and pride.

You've seen us broken and disappointed. But you're a God that's always wanting the best. You're a God who's come to redeem us from ourselves and from the world and from Satan. And from death and hell. You're a God that loves to redeem.

We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, the redeemer who came. The one who paid the price with his life and his blood. The one who rose again for our justification. The one who sent the Holy Spirit to make a people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us.

We thank you that there's a horn, there's a strength in the salvation of the Lord. A strength to pull us from our own sin. Bring us into the family of the living God, into the house of David. Or rather the house of the king, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus. He has shown mercy to our ancestors.

We thank you for those of us that have had people in the past that have come to know you. They've gloriously been saved. We think of our own country here. The many people even right round this area who came to know you. Even on the ground that we're standing on.

You worked, you raised up Bible translators on this very ground. You raised up Thomas Dennis in this little room next to us here and caused him to preach the gospel and even give his life for preaching the gospel to people at Kingston. You are one that has shown mercy to our ancestors. Thank you for those that told us the gospel and thank you for the ones that told them the gospel and the ones that told them the gospel and we can go right the way back. You have been merciful to so many generations to bring us to see the Lord Jesus Christ.

And you rescue us from the hands of our enemy. Father, sometimes we look around and we see the pain and we see the enemy and we see the lies of this world and the destruction and the false teaching and we wonder what's going to happen but absolutely you've saved us from the hand of them. They will not have the last word upon us. Our trials and our pains will not have the last word upon us. Our enemies will not have the last word upon us.

The liars and the false teachers will not have the last word upon us. You're king. You're risen again. You ascended to heaven. And you'll come back to bring us into that plan of the new creation where there is glory and glory forevermore.

We praise you for these things. And we thank you for raising up John the Baptist. And we thank you for raising up the Lord Jesus. And we thank you for salvation. Father we look around at this world and we pray for it.

So many delusions. People think that they can save this planet and people think that they can destroy this planet. And they don't even give regard to you. The God who will wrap it up one day. And bring all things to an end but start afresh in the new kingdom of God.

Help us to look to you. We pray for this nation. In all of our discussions and all of our hardships and all of the things people say and all of the wisdom that they look to. Please help us to point to the Lord Jesus Christ and the rescuer. We pray for our brothers and sisters in lands that are suffering.

We think of North Korea and our brothers and sisters there hiding away. Just knowing a joy of a sentence that they might pick up from the radio of the Bible. And rejoicing in Jesus. And those secret groups that are meeting together and daring to say something about the Lord Jesus. Lord bless them.

May they be encouraged. May they know that through the pain there's this promise and that through the silence that they may feel sometimes there's a song coming. There's a song coming. And so help us we pray with these things. We ask you these things in the name of Jesus.

Amen.