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December 1, 2019  / Luke 1:1-20  / “Doubts”  

Luke's Christmas Story : “What can I give him…poor as I am?” o

3 Things about these 20 verses: i. Luke is giving us the Truth; ii. God through the angel Gabriel is giving the gift of Joy; iii. And Zechariah is giving the response of Doubt ·     

Truth

Luke tells us that many people have undertaken the task of drawing up and account of Jesus, there are “eyewitnesses” and “servants of the word” 

And Luke tells us that he himself has done “careful investigation”, And now he has written this “orderly account”, So that Theopholis (possible patron / financial backer? of this writing project / book??) can be certain of the things he has heard about Jesus

Luke 3:1—Reliable ·     

2 examples of this found in Luke 3:1: i. “tetrarch”: the use of this word is a more accurate word that simply “king” (that Mark uses in his gospel); ii. “Lysanius”: historians only knew of one person this name who lived before the birth of Jesus a.   But then a few years ago a tablet was found that has the name of this leader on it  

Zechariah and Elizabethh: We are told that this couple: o  Was living close to Jerusalem [“the hill country of Judea”—1:39]; both are connected with priestly families; they were “righteous in the sight of God”; they “observed all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly”; they are “elderly,” “very old”; But…no children (7)  

And there are some amazing things said of John :

“he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born” (verse 15)  

“He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God” (16)  

“And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah” (17)  

“to turn the hearts of the parents to their children”  

“and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous”  

all in order “to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

 

John as a "Joy": “He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth [verse 14)

Doubt : “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” (verse 18)  

We are in shock: the priest who should believe does not believe  

 

Most Shocking!: Luke includes "doubting Zechariah" in his story!

Our Doubts???