Coming of the Messiah, The

Transcript

So I was trying to figure out what, you know, a topic, and I was going back and forth with different topics. I know I mentioned I was thinking about doing like how people made money in ancient Israel in the ancient world, you know, what the economies were like, and I'm like, ah, it's kind of it's, I mean, I find it very interesting, but I don't know how interesting everyone else would find it. And then, you know, I was kicking around, you know, it's, you know, it's Christmastime, Christmas is coming, you know, it's it's one of the, in my opinion, one of the great stories in scripture. It fundamentally obviously is going to change human history and just the individuals of faith that are involved in this story have have always been an inspiration to me. People like Zachariah and Elizabeth, Mary, the faith that they had and the prayers that they said as well, and the salutations they gave each other, it's, and it just always inspires me. I always kind of compare, you know, to the two chapters in Luke, chapters one and two, you know, just the gospel message of hope that is just found in those two chapters. I think if you could take the two chapters of Luke, you could find pretty much any any topic relating to the gospel. And so we're going to try to, you know, listen, it's a subject that we know very well, you know, people from other denominations know it well, too, you know, and so you can get really superficial with this story, as many, many people do, and it can be maybe boring, you know, I've heard it all before, but I'm going to hopefully I can make it interesting again for you, maybe, you know, bring out some some stuff that I've I found interesting and inspiring and, you know, just makes me just strengthens my faith, really, but, you know, particularly when we when we go through trials and tribulations, yeah, these these two chapters in this story, you know, they inspire me. So anyways, with that said, just a quick comment on this picture here, the coming of the Messiah, the birth of Jesus, the the the person of the artist that did this, his name is Tyrus Wong. He's dead now. He was a Chinese American and he was he was he was a Chinese American. He worked on Bambi, you know, obviously, you know, the Walt Disney Bambi, but they took his name off of the credits because he was Chinese. He had a Chinese American name. And so obviously, America was very different at that time. But anyways, after this all came out, one of the things that he did after that, he was so disillusioned with it, he went and he made like Christmas cards. And this is kind of an example of one of the Christmas cards that he made. You know, I think it's really it's beautiful. It's simplistic, but it's also very beautiful. And he uses a lot of different colors there that kind of draw you in. It's very soft as well. But anyways, you know, this isn't I don't want to go down and not, you know, and not rabbit hole. But anyways, yes. Tyrus Wong, if you're interested, he's got some really good, great stuff. All right. Here we go. So let's set the stage for this incredible story, the greatest story of all time. Right. The story that absolutely, fundamentally is going to change human history for the better, eventually. So there's a 500 year gap. I'm going to go through this very quickly. There's a 500 year gap between the ending of the Old Testament with Malachi and the beginning of the New Testament in Matthew. A lot of stuff went down in Israel during this time, believe me. And, you know, in a lot of ways, it's unfortunate that we don't have, you know, just I would say, you know, in our community, having access to some of those primary sources, it's just not even in our community, just like Christians in general, I would say, you know, we I think we kind of lack a historical, you

know, compass when it comes to this this time period, because a lot of stuff went down that is going to change Israel so it becomes a place where the Son of God can be born. And let's go through some of those things very quickly. First, as we know from Ezra and Nehemiah, Cyrus the Great is going to allow the Jews back into the land. Ezra and Nehemiah are going to provide, you know, incredible leadership. Jerusalem and the temple are going to be rebuilt. Now, here's a key. The Old Testament, the Torah, the Tanakh, the writings, the Old Testament, as we know it, is going to be copied and compiled. All of the scrolls that they saved from the destruction of Jerusalem during, you know, during the Babylonian captivity, they're going to collate all that kind of stuff, all those all of those scrolls, and they're going to put it into one giant And so there's a lot of things that happened during this time, but it really refocused Israel, refocused the Jews on Yahweh, on God. Before that time, they were all over the place when it came to God's. And in fact, one of the issues that they ran into, particularly with Josiah and others, that the temple, the temple itself was dilapidated, and they had forgotten the law and everything else. So it was so important for people like Ezra and Nehemiah to make sure that the law was never lost again. And it's going to be the law. And I don't want, I don't want to use the word, like, obsession about the law, but certainly an incredible commitment. You know, they had a zealous nature for the law and for the things of God. And it's, eventually, it's going to cause their downfall in AD 70, but we're not going to look at that today. Jews do very well on the Persian rule. They had to play politics. We know that there were a lot of different enemies out there and, you know, that who were afraid and maybe from their point of view, rightfully so. They didn't want a strong Jewish presence in the land. You know, they felt that they start building Jerusalem. Here we go with another rebellion. They don't listen. You know, you can't reason with these people. You know, and there's some truth to that as well. So anyways, you know, the Jews actually did very well. And with the coming of the Greeks, they are going to really, really expand to different cities in and around the Mediterranean and also in the Near East, like in areas like Iraq, because a lot of them, if you remember, brothers and sisters, not everybody went back to the land under

Cyrus and under Ezra and Nehemiah. A lot of them just stayed there. They had integrated themselves into Babylonian society. They thought it was great. They had a nice community there and they stayed there. And in fact, up until 1947 and 1948, there was a continuous Jewish community inside of Baghdad.

Unfortunately, with the creation of Israel, they all got kicked out. Just like all the other the Jews in the Arab countries, they all got tossed from those countries. But anyways, they're going to spread out. They're going to do very well. They had a lot of different trade opportunities. I know I've talked about this in the past and I'll just mention it very quickly. Alexandria, you know, had, you know, they had a million, not a million Jews. I'm sorry, that's a misprint there. They had a million people living in there and there were close to, I think, 150,000 Jews that were living in Alexandria and they were a very powerful political force. In fact, the Greeks aren't going to like the fact that the Jews got preferential treatment by Alexander the Great. There was a handful of Jews, Jewish soldiers that fought valiantly for Alexander the Great and he gave them land in Egypt and that was today Alexandria because of their faithful service to Alexander the Great. And so this is how this community in Alexandria grew and this is just one example of the many communities around the Mediterranean where Jews are going to be successful. Rome, Athens, Corinth, Antioch, Damascus. What they did do, which was very important, was what we call it today, we call it networking. They networked with each other and they remained in contact with the homeland, with Israel. There was always that connection and we know that that connection was still there because when Paul goes to preach the gospel, actually when Peter speaks about the gospel, there are all kinds of different people from all over the Mediterranean and other places that hear Peter speaking in their native tongue. And so this is kind of another thing that God is going to use to spread the gospel around the world, to bring all nations to himself. That picture right there is a modern day picture of Alexandria. You can see some of the harbor there. Most of the ancient harbor of Alexandria is unfortunately underwater because of earthquakes, but that is a fort that was built actually during the Middle Ages. But you can still see some of the ruins there. Okay, here's the last slide on the background. Okay, so this is all background leading up to the birth of Jesus, to the time of the birth of Jesus. We can't forget about the Maccabee Revolt. Very quickly, they revolted against the Seleucids who were a Greek kingdom and a Greek family that ruled areas in Syria, Turkey, that area in the north, the northern parts of Israel. And Israel always looked very literally, is that a word? Yes, to the north. If we remember Ezekiel 38, where does Gog come from? Gog comes from the north, right? The great horde coming down to destroy Israel. Here's the thing, and I want you to keep this in mind because it's going to play a part when we take a look at the actual events of Jesus' birth. Rome is going to take over Israel, or Judea as it was called during this time, around 62, 63 BC, somewhere around there. Pompey the Great. And it was really the Jews' own stupidity because they invited Pompey to come. Herod's family at the time invited the Romans to come and to take sides in the civil war that was going on. And they backed Herod and his family. And so Herod became like a client king to Rome, kind of like the way that Josiah was a client king to Egypt, you know, that type of thing in the ancient world. A stronger king would have a client king who would do their bidding. Like today, the United States is not directly fighting Russia right now. They're fighting Russia through a client state, which is the Ukraine. So think of it, that's a modern example, you know, a modern example of a client state and a larger state and what that relationship looked like. It was the same in the ancient world. Rome dominated Judea. They had soldiers in there. There were legions there. They controlled that area. They made sure taxes were being, you know, gotten from the people. They put pressure on the leaders, you know, and the leaders of the Jews just wanted to survive with the Romans. So Rome was a big deal. The majority of people in Israel longed for the time of the Maccabees when they were free, when they independent, when they controlled the temple without a giant Roman fortress overlooking their sacred space, with all the legions around, the oppression that was going on by the Romans, financially and other. So we'll see that that's going to play a part in it. But, you know, what Herod did, and it was kind of politically smart, he kept the leaders of the religious Jews, of the religious Jews, the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes, those type of people, the people running, all the priests running the temple, he kept them on their side by beautifying the temple and building it greater and greater and greater. It was one of the great buildings of the ancient world. It still stands today. We know that. Not the actual sanctuary, but the actual base of it is still there. That's where the Wailing Wall comes from. Relatively peaceful, quote unquote, because anybody that challenged Herod died pretty much, particularly those in his family, and he's going to be the one that's going to order the slaughter of the innocents in Matthew. He looked at Jesus, the birth of Jesus, the information that he got from the as threatening his throne. And he was trying, we get a glimpse into his craftiness and his lies and his deceit in the way that he treats the wise men, right? Oh, tell me, yes, tell me about this child. I too will go and worship. Meanwhile, he was coming up with a plan to kill him. So obviously God was involved in that. This is the environment that Jesus is going to be involved in. It was volatile. Jerusalem is going to be a hotbed of all kinds of religious ideas. I think this is, again, helpful to kind of look at. It helps us give a better picture of what the environment was like. Gamaliel is going to give the history of some of these characters that were there. Acts, the fifth chapter. He says in verse 36, For before these days rose up Thetius, boasting himself to be somebody, to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves, who were slain. And all as many as obeyed him were scattered and brought to naught. And after this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him. He also perished, and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed. So he gives two examples here. And there were many others, because if we remember in Acts, I think one of the centurions thought that Paul, he asked Paul, Hey, aren't you this Egyptian guy that's causing all kinds of trouble? And Paul's like, No, I'm not. No, I'm not the Egyptian guy. So Jerusalem was just a hotbed of all kinds of religious ideas. And those are just two examples. There were others, believe me. And the Romans were at their wits end with the Jews, particularly the religious Jews, the zealots, the assassins. And we've talked about this before. The Aseans, right? This is many, many historians felt that John the Baptist was a member of the Aseans. They lived out in the desert. This is where we get the Dead Sea Scrolls. They kept all of the ancient writings together. And the reason why we have those is just so incredibly dry. And they have some wild technology now that they can actually look at the Dead Sea Scroll and virtually unroll it, and then see what was written on it. And you can see right there, look at that. You know, that is ink on parchment. Or it actually might be animal skin. But that's probably over 2,000 years old. Pretty incredible. And I think you can go see they have a massive museum.

And I'm sure Jason can talk about this. A massive museum that's totally dedicated to the Dead Sea Scrolls. OK, we talked about that. Hey, yeah, the Aseans were big end-of-the-world guys. In other words, they felt that God was sending his judgments to Earth very soon, very soon. They were big into the apocalypse. The Book of Enoch, they loved the Book of Enoch, which talks about judgment. And I think both, yeah, Peter and Jude both mention the Book of Enoch. But that's a story for another time. Anyways, the Temple is at the center of Judaism. And Roman rule is becoming a problem with many in Israel. They hate it. They hate the Romans. And people, particularly the poor in the land, are desperate for relief. They're desperate for salvation. And they were struggling. And we can get a sense of that struggle when we look at Luke chapters 1 and 2, all right? OK, I'm going to get right into it. Are there any questions about the background? So we are, listen, we're going from macro down to micro. I just gave you a big picture overview. Now we're going to zoom in into the land of Israel, into the city of Jerusalem. One thing I do find interesting with this is only two of the Gospels give us the birth, the details of the birth of Jesus, Matthew and Luke. Mark kind of starts straight away with John the Baptist and Jesus being there, and Jesus is actively preaching, and he's actively healing people as an adult. And John the same way, we're immediately introduced to John the Baptist, and then the baptism of Jesus, Jesus comes, that type of thing. So the birth is not mentioned in Mark and in John. However, we are given a lot of details in Matthew, details that in Luke we don't have, and so when we combine these two, we get really just kind of the full flavor of the birth of Jesus, when it happened, why it happened, that type of thing. Matthew has some other information that Luke leaves out, particularly having to do with Joseph and the dreams that he had, and his role in protecting Mary and protecting the unborn Jesus and the born Jesus, because remember they had to take off after Herod killed all the babies in Bethlehem, they had to take off down into Egypt, down into, we talked about the Jewish community down in Alexandria. We're not told where they went, but there were several Jewish communities down in Egypt, and that's where they went, they obviously had connections down there. Anyways, all right, so we are introduced in Luke chapter one to two individuals, okay, Zechariah and Elizabeth, and what are we told about them? Well, we're told, number one, that this individual Zechariah, he was a priest, and it was his turn to fulfill the different duties of the temple, the incense, the sacrifices, those type of things. Remember, there was a rotation of different priests doing different tasks in different months, and so you would go there, like Zechariah and Elizabeth were there, but then you could return home. In other words, you didn't have to stay there all the time. You could return to your, once your month was over, you returned back home. And we'll look at that, all right? So what does scripture tell us about Zechariah and Elizabeth? That they were both righteous before God. They were righteous individuals. They followed the law. They were blameless in that regard. They were righteous individuals, but they had no child because that Elizabeth was barren, and they both now were well stricken in years. And so straight away, we have conflict. You know, there's a struggle. We get this idea that, you know, they were righteous, and they followed the ordinances of God, and they prayed to God, and they had this, you know, just loving relationship with God. But the one thing that they wanted, they didn't have. They wanted a child. And you know, brothers and sisters, that they prayed every day for that. Fervently, they prayed for it. Every day, nonstop, they prayed for a child. And it just had never happened. And they were old now, stricken. You know, that terminology, you know, well stricken in years. And you know, the older I get, I understand that more. And I think, you know, people that are even older than me, they understand it even more than I do. So, you know, they were righteous individuals, but it wasn't perfect, brothers and sisters. There was some suffering there. You know, I'm sure there was a sense of loss, you know, when other relatives or other neighbors, that type of thing, they had children and maybe even grandchildren. And Zechariah and Elizabeth, going through their righteous rituals, had no child. So, you know, that's, God is painting us a picture. He's painting us a picture right now of the individuals that He uses to bring about salvation to mankind. And so it's His order, Zechariah goes in, you know, again, the duty and the sacrifice of these two individuals, of this husband and wife, and the power of a righteous couple, of a husband and a wife committed to each other's salvation. Incredible powerful unit. Zechariah and Elizabeth was a very powerful unit. And it was a great honor for Zechariah to go in and to burn incense. You know, you didn't have any, you know, Joe Schmo priest going up there, you know, offering, doing the burnt incense and offering the prayers of the people, because that's what he was. He was, at that time, he was the mouthpiece of Israel. He was bringing the prayers of the people to God via the incense. Because that's what it says, too, there, that, you know, all the people, verse 10, and the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense. And this is, boom, he sees an angel. It's the angel Gabriel. And we know Gabriel, you know, he's an archangel. According to tradition, he's never really said the archangel, but, you know, there are four archangels, again, according to tradition. We know the archangel Michael, Gabriel here, the angel Gabriel, also is proclaiming his God's mouthpiece right now. And he says, this is very interesting, brothers and sisters. He says, I'm in the wrong place. Yeah, okay, in verse 13, well, verse 12, it says, when Zechariah saw Gabriel, he was troubled and fear fell upon him. As we go through, you know, obviously, very quickly, as we go through these two chapters, just bringing out some highlights, just make a mental note about how many times that, you know, that statement about, you know, fear. They were fearful when they were troubled, that type of thing. And then we're going to see how the fear and the troubling is balanced out with joy,

with rejoicing, with glorifying, those type of things. And then, you know, we'll look at ideas like light and darkness. So anyways, fear fell upon him, but the angel said unto him, Don't be afraid, Zechariah, for thy prayer is heard.

So that tells us, brothers and sisters, that that was a constant prayer on the lips of Zechariah and Elizabeth, probably their number one prayer that they've prayed for, what, 20 years? And now here's Gabriel telling Zechariah, Don't be fearful. You know that thing you've been asking for, that you've been praying for, God has heard you. And your wife Elizabeth will bear thee a son and will call his name John. And thou shalt have, here's some words, brothers and sisters, joy in gladness, and many shall rejoice at John's birth. So the joy and the rejoicing is going to compile as

John the Baptist is born and then Jesus the Son of God is born. So, you know, Gabriel kind of goes through everything. He says he's going to be great in the sight of the Lord. He's going to be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb. Keep that in mind. And many of the children of Israel shall be turned to the Lord their God. I mean, that sounds fantastic, brothers and sisters. I'm sure Zechariah was like, yes, finally, finally, my prayer has been answered. But that's not his response. His response is, how shall I know this? I'm an old man and my wife well stricken in years. That's, it's interesting, brothers and sisters, his response. That's all. You know, you would think it would be different. And sadness of disappointment, you know, he'd just gotten to him. And the thing that he dreamt about and prayed for, it made the opposite, it had the opposite effect on him. You know, how is this going to happen? You know, I don't know, it's just like he sees the angel Gabriel and he's afraid and the angel is speaking to him and he's just, he's got questions. I got questions. And because of that, you know, Gabriel said, I'm Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God. I was sent to speak to you about these glad tidings. This is the good news about the gospel, the good news of the kingdom of God. And because you question this, behold, thou shalt be dumb and not able to speak until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season. It's going to happen, Zechariah, but you didn't believe me. And so Zechariah was dumb. He couldn't speak for the nine months of John's pregnancy. And so, you know, that's the question, you know, I

was thinking about. Why did God make him dumb until the birth of John? Other people ask questions. We're going to see that Mary asked a question. How shall these things be? She's not rebuked for it.

Zechariah is rebuked for it. And there was an outward sign of that rebuking. He was dumb. He didn't question God for nine months. He didn't say a word. And so I think God did this. Number one, you know, well, he says he didn't believe. But, you know, he should have believed because he was old. He was a teacher in Israel. Remember what Jesus said to Nicodemus when he was talking about being born again? And, you know, Jesus, Nicodemus, he couldn't believe it. And Jesus says, you know, are thou not a teacher in Israel when you don't know these things? I think it was similar, you know, with Zechariah. You know, you're a priest. You've seen many, many things. You've said many, many prayers. You have offered many, many sacrifices. You know, in the eyes of God, he should have believed straight away. And so the question is, brothers and sisters, you know, we had Zechariah. He got, he had an outward sign of the admonishment of God. He couldn't speak because he questioned God.

Remember Sarah questioned God as well. You know, she laughed, right, when she heard it. But Abraham also questioned, how, you know, how is this going to happen? You know, I wish, you know, that God would accept Ishmael. So, you know, there's instances in Scripture where God just answers questions without, you know, punishment. So just something to think about. I don't have a, you know, I don't really have a hundred percent answer. And I don't think we're told that. Rich, can I make a comment? Yes. Who's this? It's Steve. Oh, Steve, go ahead. Yeah. So Sandy and I were just sitting here listening to you. And she had made a comment that said, you know, while he was struck dumb,

he was still able to speak to God in prayer. But, you know, because he was a teacher, he could no longer perform sort of the role of teaching. You know, it was almost like, you know, making sure that, you know, if he's questioning God, who is he, you know, as you point out with Nicodemus, you know, you're a teacher in Israel and you don't know these things. Right. But if he's a teacher in Israel and he's questioning God, well, maybe he ought not be a teacher. Right. Yeah. So I thought that was interesting. You know, Sandy brought up that, you know, he could still pray to God. Sandy, it's a good point. Thank you. Yeah. So, you know, again, you know, I don't have, you know, it's up to God, obviously. God is going to make those determinations. But it's just something interesting to think about. And it's also, you know, what's our attitude towards God as well? What's our attitude, you know, with prayer? What's our general attitude about life? Have we become, you know, glum, disappointed? Or do we have an attitude of hope, of rejoicing, of wanting to be near Christ? So, anyways, after his time at the temple, he goes back home to the hill country. And the hill country was just north of Jerusalem. And Elizabeth is going to be with child. She's going to become pregnant, just as the angel Gabriel, you

know, promised or prophesied to Zechariah. And remember, too, you know, Sandy, this goes to your point, too. You know, there was still communication, right? Because he said, you know, bring me a writing table. And so I think he was using writing tables, certainly, to communicate. But yeah, you know, he couldn't, I don't think he could perform, you know, if he can't speak, you can't say the prayers for the people. But you could, you could, you can pray internally to God, for sure, yes. Okay, now, without, what do we got for time? All right, all right. So, Matthew, if, let's keep our finger here in Luke chapter one, and just we'll turn it to Matthew, the first chapter. But verse 18, now, the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise when his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph. Before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man. All right, so straight away, we're told something about Joseph's character. He was a just man. And, you know, he was going to put Mary away, just say, look, it's not working out. To put away privately, not to embarrass anybody, not to embarrass the families. Okay, it shows the character of Joseph. He didn't want to stick it to Mary. And I'm sure, you know, brothers and sisters, imagine you're Joseph and you're in this situation. You know, it obviously, it was difficult, weighed heavy on his mind. And so, and we know that because this is what, you know, this is what the angel says. Again, we're not told who this angel was. Again, traditionally, it has been said to be the angel Gabriel. And it says, but while he thought on those things, right, I'm sure he was thinking on those things. You know, the understatement, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not. There's that term again, fear not. To take unto thee Mary thy wife, and he goes on and talks about, he is going to fulfill the prophecy in Isaiah the seventh chapter. And this is something that Matthew does, brothers and sisters. He always brings us back to the Messianic texts in

the Old Testament. And he does this with Isaiah the seventh chapter. Thou shalt call his name Immanuel, being interpreted God with us. Joseph was fearful. He was troubled by these things. What the heck is going on?

And so it obviously takes, you know, Joseph, it takes God intervening and really help Joseph to process all this stuff. Don't worry, Joseph. Don't be fearful. You can marry Mary, okay? What has happened to her is by the power of God. And so appears in one's dream is going to have a son, Jesus, who will save Israel from their sins. And so essentially what the angel has told Joseph

is that Mary is going to have, is going to birth the Messiah. And so we have that view from Matthew because the very same thing that the angel told Joseph, okay, it's like two points of view here. The point of view of Joseph, like what was the point of view of Joseph? Well, we got it in Matthew. Okay, well what's the point of view of Mary, right? So this is the two individuals involved in this situation. But what was Mary's point of view? Well, the angel appeared to Mary as well. Now, Mary most likely 16, 17 years old, most likely, okay? And that was very common for that time period, be of married age, remember? Because a lot of different factors, particularly disease,

people didn't live as long, you know, 35, 40 years old. If you were a woman and you made it through childbirth, that's, you know, that's the average. So, you know, that's why they got married so young. And so the angel Gabriel tells Mary again, verse 30 of Luke chapter 1, fear not Mary. And we know she was fearful because verse 29, she was troubled at his saying, which was, hail thou, I'd highly favor the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women. And she's like, what in the world is this? And so, again, the angel Gabriel tells Mary not to fear, don't be fearful. There is why, she says, behold, thou shall conceive in thy womb and shall bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus. And so it goes on and talks, he shall be great, the son of the highest, and the Lord God shall give 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. That is the gospel, brothers and sisters. And the angel Gabriel spoke it to Mary in a condensed form. And so she receives all this information, very similar to

what happened with Zechariah, almost really, you know, the same template. The angel Gabriel appears to Mary. Mary is troubled and fearful. Zechariah is troubled and fearful. They're given, both of them are given the gospel, the good news, the good tidings, the glad tidings. Both ask questions.

The older teacher of Israel was silenced because he questioned God. The young girl Mary had it explained to her without punishment, without being admonished. And so that's interesting to me. And I think, you know, we've talked about it, but, you know, Mary was, she was full. She was hailed that are highly favored. The Lord is with thee, full of grace is the way, if you look at, look at your margin. And so she had found favor with God. She was going to be the vessel that carried the Son of God in her womb. And she asked the question, how can this be, seeing I know not a man? I, you know, you know, and it's interesting. They're both questions are about, you know, conceiving, conceiving of children. Mary, you know, she knew her simple biology. Hey, I am not married. I'm not, I haven't had any relations with any man. I'm still a virgin. Zachariah, I'm wait, my wife is way too old. So yeah, it's a clarify. I guess, you know, Mary, it was like, it was like, you know, like a clarifying question because the angel Gabriel gets right back into it. Says the Holy Spirit 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. And so Gabriel uses that question as a springboard to answer all the questions, right? To answer that question. How is this going to happen? The Holy Spirit will overshadow you. So what it is, it is by God. It's not by man. And the rich. Yes. Yes. Go ahead. I wonder if that's the difference between the questions Zachariah and Elizabeth. They were a couple beyond years, but so was Abraham and Sarah. And God worked through them. Yes. A question of faith there. Whereas Mary, she has a very innocent question. She's not yet married to, she's betrothed, but she's not yet with Joseph. She's a virgin. She's alone. How can this be? I don't know a man. She asked a very innocent question. How can this be? And the angel so gently explains to her how it's going to happen. Whereas with Zachariah, I think the intense, like God knows the intense of the heart. He knows what Zachariah was thinking and he's questioning God's ability. And he says, I have Gabriel who stand in the presence of God. You doubt my word. Yeah, it's pretty awesome. I think there's cause for rebuke. And then in Mary's case, he answered a very good question. How can I possibly bring forth a son? Well, this is how God's going to do it. And I love the way he explains it to her.

Yeah, Luke, I agree. I think Mary's question was really one of innocence. And she wanted to know. And then Mary, in verse 38, and Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word. Mary consented. She said, yes. And I think it's beautiful. That's beautiful. She got the information and she committed herself to being the mother of the Son of God and committed herself to the things of God, even though we know she didn't fully understand anything because there are several times in Luke chapter one and Luke chapter two, I think it's mentioned actually two times and other times in the Gospel as well, that but Mary kept these things in her heart and pondered them. She kept them in her heart. She didn't understand these things. Even when she went to the temple and Simeon tells her that a sword will pierce your heart as well. You know, just imagine like this little, this young girl, 16, 17 years old, getting all of these prophecies kind of, not thrown is the wrong word, but she hears all of these prophecies. And she was a young girl. She had a tremendous faith. And you just look at, my soul doth magnify the Lord. Just look at her words. Look at the words of Elizabeth here. These people, these women were such women of faith. And we know they were women of faith because they didn't understand what was going on when they were going through it. But eventually it was revealed to them. And so I got to go quick here. This all happens up in Nazareth, right? We are told that Mary, that the angel Gabriel tells her, oh, hey, by the way, Elizabeth is pregnant as well. She's pregnant for six months. And I told them too about it. You know, she was barren, now she's got a kid. She's six months pregnant. Mary hears that, what does she do? Boom, goes in haste. It tells, she goes. And this isn't just a little journey, a mile or two up the street. I just, I did a quick thing. How, you know, from Nazareth down to Jerusalem, okay? Hour and a half by car. And Jason's probably driven this like 16 times. But anyways, it's 90 minutes by car. This girl, she's pregnant herself, goes with purpose in haste to go see Elizabeth. And, you know, and this reminds you, you know, that Mary goes in haste, arose in those days and went into the hill country, verse 39, went into the hill country with haste into a city of Judah. This reminds me of the fourth chapter of Luke, that once Jesus, he's filled with the Holy Spirit after the baptism. And it says that the Holy Spirit drove him into the wilderness. And I think something similar was happening here with

his mother. She was driven to go see Elizabeth. And when they met, John, the unborn John weeps, leaps for joy in the womb of his mother. You know, there's rejoicing, there's no fear. No one is troubled. No one is confused.

There's rejoicing, praising God.

Beautiful prayers by these two sisters, by these two women. Blessed art thou among women. My soul doth magnify the Lord. And let's remember too, brothers and sisters, and we don't have time to get into it because each one of these prayers, they're powerful prayers. And, you know, I think we should familiarize ourselves with them. Maybe say them on occasion as well. They're beautiful prayers. And if you add into what Zechariah says as well, you know, there's this idea of God sending his Messiah by his own arm. My own arm brought salvation, he says in Isaiah. The oppression of the Romans is going to end. And we can see that, you know, for instance, I'll give you an example here without reading the whole thing. Verse 51 of Luke chapter 1, this is Mary's prayer. He hath shewed strength with his arm. He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath 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 hath sent away empty.

Mary knew hungry people, brothers and sisters. She knew destitute people. It was all around her. And she wanted it to end. She wanted the oppression to end, the oppression that she saw in her own people. And it was through her son. Jesus the Christ that these things would be done. And so there's going to be great rejoicing at the birth of John. Let's look at verse 58 in Luke. And her neighbors, speaking of Elizabeth, her time, verse 57, Elizabeth full time, that she should be delivered and she brought forth a son. Excuse me. And her neighbors and her cousins heard how the Lord had showed great mercy upon her. And what did they do? They rejoiced with her. They rejoiced with her. Again, the rejoicing. We don't have time, but take a look at Isaiah 40 and 60 and compare it to what Zechariah talks about there, particularly verse 79, to give light to them that sit in darkness in the shadow of death to guide our feet in the way of peace. Now there's also this other thing too. And that's actually directly taken from the 60th chapter of Isaiah. To give them light to them that sit in darkness. Actually, I'll read it right here. I got it right here. 60, 60, yep. Arise, shine, for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness to people. But the Lord shall arise unto thee and his glory shall be seen upon thee and the Gentiles shall come to thy light. And the kings to the brightness of thy rising. And so this idea of light here about verse 71 of Zechariah's prayer, that we should be saved from our enemies, from the hand of all that hate us. Those were the Romans, brothers and sisters. Zechariah is looking for the Messiah to happen, for him to witness it, and that his son John the Baptist would go before the Messiah to bring about salvation of the people of Israel. And then, you know, just again, very quickly, taxation. You know, God is using the powers of that time, the Romans. You know, this is all time. Think about all the people that were living in this time. Pompey the Great, Julius Caesar, Augustus Caesar, Cleopatra, all of these ancient people. You know, Jesus, you know, Mary, Joseph, Jesus, they were nobodies. In the eyes of the world, nobodies. They were just another Jewish family that had to go down to the, you know, that were forced to go down to their hometown to be taxed by who? Our friends, the Romans again. So the Romans themselves, you know, are driving Mary and Joseph back to Bethlehem. And God uses this, right, to fulfill his promise, to fulfill his prophecy of Bethlehem being the place where the savior of the world is born. And so just think about it, a four-day journey from Nazareth on down to Bethlehem, four days on a donkey, nine months pregnant. Incredible fortitude, brothers and sisters. Incredible personal strength, faith, commitment. Just an absolute trusting in God. And they had that same faith as they had to escape to, to go down into Egypt as well. And so let's just end with this, right? We know the story. The shepherds are out in the flock. There's no room in the inn. Jesus is born and the poorest of the poor. And the shepherds are in the flocks. It's at nighttime when he's born. But then the glory of the Lord appears to the shepherds. And all that darkness is blown away by the light of God. And the angels sing a new song to the Lord. Glory to God in the highest. In honor of peace.

Goodwill towards men.