Good Morning Everybody,
I still haven't decided when I'm going to be posting these but here's the first one.
Luke 1
Introduction
1Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled[a] among us, 2just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
The Birth of John the Baptist Foretold
5In 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. 6Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commandments and regulations blamelessly. 7But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well along in years.
8Once when Zechariah's division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, 9he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.
11Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. 13But 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 give him the name John. 14He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15for 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 from birth.[b] 16Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. 17And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
18Zechariah asked the angel, "How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years."
19The angel answered, "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. 20And 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 proper time."
21Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. 22When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak.
23When his time of service was completed, he returned home. 24After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. 25"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."
The Birth of Jesus Foretold
26In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. 28The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."
29Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."
34"How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?"
35The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[c] the Son of God. 36Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. 37For nothing is impossible with God."
38"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her.
Mary Visits Elizabeth
39At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. 41When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42In a loud voice she exclaimed: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!"
Mary's Song
46And Mary said:
"My soul glorifies the Lord
47and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
50His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
51He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
54He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
55to Abraham and his descendants forever,
even as he said to our fathers."
56Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.
The Birth of John the Baptist
57When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. 58Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.
59On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, 60but his mother spoke up and said, "No! He is to be called John."
61They said to her, "There is no one among your relatives who has that name."
62Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. 63He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone's astonishment he wrote, "His name is John." 64Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God. 65The neighbors were all filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. 66Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, "What then is this child going to be?" For the Lord's hand was with him.
Zechariah's Song
67His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:
68"Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come and has redeemed his people.
69He has raised up a horn[d] of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David
70(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
71salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us—
72to show mercy to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant,
73the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
74to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear
75in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76And 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,
77to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
78because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
79to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace."
80And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hey all.
ReplyDelete- Steve, Thank you so much for setting this up. Kim and I woke up this morning, read Luke 1 and are now talking about it. Its wonderful. Thank you.
- In verse 3 Luke talks about how he has done this careful investigation to learn all that he could about Jesus and then to give an account to others so that they can understand their faith. I'm thankful that Luke has done this and it is also sort of what we are doing now. We are reading this book together as a community so that we can learn more about who this Jesus is.
-The story of Jesus (and John the Baptist) begins with God using two people that probably had the least power and influence in their own world. Elizabeth was a Jew (oppressed) in the Roman Empire, who couldn't have children. She had provided no children for her family. This unfortunately was a shameful thing in her society. God gives her a son, and this will be the son who will help bring people back to God and prepare the way for the Lord.
Mary is a young girl in an oppressed nation in the Roman Empire. Next to slaves, she probably is considered the least important person in her world. And now she is unwed, pregnant, and the child is not by her fiance Joseph. This is who God has blessed. This is the person that God is using to bring Jesus into the world. God loves the people that society doesn't seem to care about. He loves the outcast, the shamed, those who lack power and influence.
Two things stuck out to me in this chapter.
ReplyDelete1. Zechariah doesn't believe the angel. I've never been visited by an angel before, but if one came to me, i would believe it and maybe even pee my pants.
2. I love the prophecy of Jesus in the last part from Zechariah.
"78because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven 79to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace"
Jesus came to be a light for those living in darkness(like Chris Dela's Talk at HS Group) and to show us how to live in a new way. This new way will bring us to the peace that we want in our lives, but the world fails to give us.
Curious thing here:
ReplyDeleteThe angel says in v15 that John will be "filled with the Holy Spirit from birth," and again in v41 that Elizabeth was filled with it when she sees Mary. Yet we commonly understand the Holy Spirit as the one who was sent down after Jesus to be with people.
Does this mean the Holy Spirit was always around, took a quick vaca when Jesus was on Earth, and then came back? Or ... something else?
Also, as a sidenote to Kim, if I saw an angel who was telling me all this important stuff, there's no way I would believe it was an angel. I would think that someone slipped me some acid or it was some crazy hologram. Maybe that is just me.
Also, not one but TWO people burst into song in this chapter. I love this!
This is great, I love not only reading the chapter but seeing other people's comments!
Who is Theophilus? Is it just anyone who studies under the bible?
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to me how he speaks immediately of the fact that stories were handed down by spoken word in their time, which allowed their memories to be (in my opinion) much greater than our own
On a personal level, being that this is getting tossed around. I don't really know if I would believe it was an angel. I would probably think it was just some crazy guy/gal. I also think I would also question the angel and his prophecy just as Zechariah does, it's in my nature to fact check.
Is there any relevance in that Elizabeth was in seclusion for 5 months during her pregnancy?
What I find really interesting here is that in the OT (Old Testament, yes why abbreviate if I'm going to write it out anyway, and then some) it is considered that Eve was the one who disobeys god, but here in the NT it is man who errs while a woman does not falter in her faith.
What is the meaning of the name John? And what is it really in Hebrew?
Verses 76-79 are quite awe inspiring. The whole song is pretty cool, but then to have God's plan for his son laid out before us in song must have been something special.
-- Steven Mammolito
29Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31
ReplyDeleteI tried to imagine an angel appearing to me in my little apartment, telling me that I have found favor with God.. Sometimes I struggle with remembering I'm totally covered by Christ's blood.. and that because I bear His spirit in my heart, God in heaven sees me as holy and blameless. I think it's easy for us to forget this as the world is largely performance driven. But the performance of Christ on the cross is what has given me favor.. not anything I've done. Reading the first chapter blessed me.
hey all,
ReplyDeleteSteve- great job taking the initiative to get this started. Here are some of my thoughts on the chapter
I think that there are a few similarities and distinctions between Zechariah’s and Mary’s experience upon encountering the angel Gabriel. Gabriel tells both of them not to be afraid and because they were both described as being physically shaken when they see him. The angel promises them both blessings that are coming to them in the form of an uncommon birth. The angel also reminds them of the promises of God and assures them of the historic faithfulness of God to His people Israel. To Zechariah- the angel promises something unlikely- a child born to an elderly couple that had been considered barren. To Mary- the angel promises something impossible- a child born to a virgin. Zechariah responds by asking how he can know this for certain. Mary responds by asking how this is even possible. Zechariah is rebuked for his lack of belief and Mary is given an answer to her question and a sign to reassure her (namely that her cousin is also surprisingly pregnant).
I’m not sure how to apply these distinctions. But I do find them interesting.
I will wildly speculate, however, because it is fun to think creatively and I think that is part of the fun of this particular communal blog. I feel that Zechariah’s question and uncertainty reflect a degree of self-centeredness. He asks, “How can I know this for certain?” I hear echoes of my own experiences of doubt and uncertainty in his words. His question is about himself. He doesn’t want to look foolish. He is a leader of the people and it is hard for him to risk looking like an idiot by acting on the belief that some highly unlikely event is going to happen. While I think that doubt is an integral part of the experience of all believers throughout the Bible and even today, I feel that doubt is typically inwardly focused.
In contrast to Zechariah, Mary asks, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” I feel that Mary’s question, though related to herself, is actually more about a curiosity about how God will work. In her time, there was in vitro fertilization to enable a virgin to conceive of a child. The angel was telling her that a genuine supernatural event was about to take place. I hear in Mary’s words a sense of wonder and curiosity. She isn’t asking a question in order to protect her status. Her status was about to be in far far greater jeopardy than Zechariah’s She just accepts that she will be an unwed pregnant young girl in a highly judgmental patriarchal society. I think that she is curious about the physics/biology behind such a wondrous event. I think that curiosity of this sort ought to be cultivated more and more in the lives of believers. In short I would say that the difference between them is one of- “How can I know for certain?” versus “Help me to understand”
Ok, perhaps that was a little too much detail on my first observation. So I will try to shorten my next thoughts. I like that Jared commented on the situation of the nation of Israel at the time. Israel was living under Roman occupation since 63 B.C. To the Romans, Israel was just another conquered backwater territory. To the Israelites, the Romans were just another military occupation force. Prior to the Romans, the Jews had been conquered and occupied by the Medes, the Persians, the Babylonians, and the Assyrians. Life under these regimes was often brutal and left little room for joy and hope. I think the very gift of life in the form of any baby was a powerful gift- a reminder of hope and vitality to a people without much hope. The angel Gabriel, Zechariah, and Mary all point back to a time before the conquerors as a reminder of hope. They remember the days of David and the ways that God poured out his Divine presence throughout their land. They hope that this child to be born to Mary, who is of the royal line of that same David, might restore the nation of Israel. Jesus was not just a cute little baby who was associated with a future holiday and consumer spending in December. He was the embodiment of God on earth who would free his people from the most powerful military in the world.
ReplyDeleteHmmmm…. That wasn’t exactly a shorter thought. So my last few thoughts are these- When God reveals Himself to people, those people respond in praise and singing. I think that is a great summary of what worship is. I would also add that God’s eyes are on the lowly. As Jared also pointed out, God appears to 2 women, at a place where women were not esteemed highly. God also visits John the Baptist- while he is still a fetus! God values all people not for their power or prestige in society, but because He delights in being loving and knows that we are all His.
This brings up a point/ question that Amanda raised, namely was the Holy Spirit present before Jesus’ incarnation? In a word- Yes.
ReplyDeleteThe Spirit of God has been present all along, even in the Old Testament. In Genesis 1, the Spirit of God is described as hovering over the surface of the waters. When the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness, Moses is described as having the Holy Spirit upon him. Then the Spirit was also given to 70 elders so that they could help lead and they began to prophesy. Moses said that he wished all of God’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them (Numbers 11:25-29). During the time of the Judges, God raised up Sampson and the Scriptures say that the Holy Spirit began to stir within him (Judges 13:25). The account of the promise of his birth is very similar to the birth of John the Baptist, as is the foretold birth of the prophet Samuel (1 Samuel chapter 1). The first human king of Israel, Saul, was described as having the Spirit of God come upon him and he prophesied (1 Samuel 10 and 19:23). The list can continue on and on especially in the accounts of the prophets such as Elijah and Elisha or Isaiah or Jeremiah.
So what was the Holy Spirit doing during Jesus’ earthly lifetime? I think primarily He was empowering Jesus to do the Father’s will. We will get to Luke chapter 4 in a few days, but as a bit of foreshadowing- the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted. Later in the chapter, it says that Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. So I think that I would say that the Holy Spirit was always present, filling people with wisdom and power to speak God’s words and fulfill God’s mission. I also think that after Jesus’ ascension, the Holy Spirit takes on a broader and more active role in the lives of God’s people. Specifically, He does not limit himself to a select few but rather indwells all those who believe. While there is a lot that could be said about the role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers, a few passages worth noting in particular are John 14:15-17; John 16:5-15; Ephesians 1:13 and 14; Romans 8:15-17 and 26-27.
Steve- you asked about who is Theophilus? I think that it was probably a person for whom Luke was asked to summarize the details about Jesus. In Greek, his name would mean “lover of God.” And the name “John” is an anglicized version of the Greek “Ioannes” which comes from a Hebrew name “Yochanan” which means “YHWH is gracious.”
-andy newberry