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3월20일_누가복음1강.hwp|
Luke 1:1-25 Key Verse 1:25 He Has Shown His Favor. “The Lord has done this for me,” she said. "In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among people" Thank God for giving us new semester in this new spring season! God always blesses us with new things. Thank God for his new plan to provide us with new lectures on Luke's Gospel! Today, we learn the beginning of the whole new story through out the bible. It is the beginning of the good news of the Christ! May God bless our new study on Luke's Gospel and pour out his grace upon our hearts! The life of king David always reminds us of the life of the Christ Jesus. In some way, he life was a shadow of Jesus' life. As the book of Samuel begins with the birth of Samuel, the king-maker and a forerunner of king David, Luke's Gospel begins with the birth of John the baptist, the forerunner of the Christ Jesus. Both Samuel and John were born in a family who were upright in the sight of God. Both were bone by sincere prayer and God's grace given to their prayer. May we learn and aknowledge God's great power and grace upon the people of prayer. May we also learn how God uses our fragile lives for his eternal vision! Part 1. Zechariah, Your Prayers Has Been Heard (1-13) Look at verses one through four. Luke explains why and how this gospel was written. Look at verse four; “so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.” 'Uncertainty' has been a representative word that reflects our lives in this post-modern word. Everything is uncertain. Even physicists say that this physical world is fundamentally uncertain. Look around the world! Who know what happens tomorrow? No political leaders, scientists, or philosophers couldn't tell what is happening today and cannot tell what to do with all the crisis around the world. But this Gospel has been given to us so that we may know the certainty of what has happened! Congratulations! Let us now look at a time that was extraordinarily uncertain and how an old couple overcame their uncertain times by faithfully observing the commandments of God. First, the dark and uncertain times of Herod king of Judea. Look at verse 5 “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 Araon.” Through verse 5, we see these events happened under the very uncertain and most ruthless times of a king known as Herod. He was a gentile appointed by Rome to be king over a Jewish nation. Under his rule not even Herod’s own sons were certain of tomorrow. Two of them he strangled to death with his own bear hands. We are told in Matthew’s Gospel when he heard the news baby Jesus was born in Bethlehem he ordered the immediate execution of all baby boys two years and younger. There is no comparison between our time and Herod’s time. Herod had the authority of Rome night or day to execute immediately anyone under his reign. However Luke skims over Herod as if he was nothing and places his focus on the lives of two old people Zechariah and Elizabeth. This couple had priestly blood flowing in their veins that went back all the way to the first Hebrew priest Araon. Nevertheless, this is not what is eye catching about this couples lives. What grab our attention are the words in verse 6 “Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly.” Both, not just one of the couple, were upright in the sight of God. What did this couple do to be upright in the sight of the Lord? Our Bible recognizes them as people who observed all the Lord commandments and regulations blamelessly. Not only did they outwardly keep all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly, they also did it with a humble spirit. Verse 7 reads: “But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well along in years.” According to verse 25 not having children was a disgraceful matter. This means that although they observed all the Lord’s commands and regulations blamelessly they could not avoid critical and faulting finding eyes on everyone else. At the same time they didn’t use their no-children problem to give them an excuse to comprise God’s word. Often we may put limits on when or when we will not obey God’s word. When we get everything we want, we obey. If we do not get what we want, we disobey. This was not this couple's way of life. When they were young zealous believers they obeyed God’s word. When they were old they observed God’s commands. Even when they had a severe life problem they continued to obey. From them we learn what it means to be faithful. On the great Day of Judgment what do we want to hear from Jesus? “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Is there any doubt this is what the Lord will say to Zechariah and Elizabeth: “Well done good and faithful servants.” You were faithful in a land full of unfaithfulness. You were faithful to each other. You were faithful to me your whole life, even though you could have used your no child problem to be unfaithful.” What we learn from this couple is their faithfulness to God and to each other. Faithfulness that has value is like a pearl. A pearl is formed from sand collecting in a clam over a long period of time. Likewise that faithfulness Jesus is looking for comes over a long period of time. In sickness and in health. In good times and in hard times. We often say things around us are too uncertain and unfaithful for us to show certain faith and to be faithful. But let us learn a faithfulness from Zechariah and Elizabeth, who showed their faithfulness when they were placed in most uncertain and unfaithful situation. Part 2. He will be a Joy and Delight to You Look at verse 8. Zechariah held a very important and respected position(). Zechariah was serving as priest before God. This means Zechariah was in the high position ordained by God to represent God’s people in important matters of forgiveness of sins, and to ask God’s help and blessing. As one way of praying to God the priest would choose one priest by lot among 24 divisions. Each division was made up of 1000 priests. This chosen priest would then go into the temple alone, burn incense and pray to the Lord while the people gathered outside the temple. The Bible tells us the way they picked the priest who would burn this incense was by lottery. Zechariah was chosen by lot to burn the incense. This means he won the lottery. It wasn’t a lottery he could collect great sums of money. It was however a lottery that placed him in a prime location to pray to God and have that prayer answered. Because of this fact it is often agreed that many priests who won the lottery to burn incense went into the temple with a secret prayer topic to pray for along with all the prayers they had to pray for the nation of Israel. Secret prayer topics keep us connected to God. We find our spiritual life becomes artificial if we don’t have a secrete prayer topic. As for Zechariah it was his secret prayer topic we find which grabbed hold of God’s attention and which moved him to send his angle to let Zechariah know he would answer his prayer. Look at verses 11 and 12. Books and movies have all been made focusing on what it is like for a human to meet an angle. Mostly they portray angles as nice people with supernatural power doing nice things. In the Bible, however, we find angels always seem to generate great fear in those who personally witness them. Even if they are sent to bring good news they seem to cause those they visit to be gripped with a paralyzing fear. This was Zechariah’s reaction. What was the message this angle of God was sent to give to Zechariah? Let us read verses 13 and 14. "(13,14)". He told Zechariah not to be afraid because his prayer for a son had been heard. Moreover the angle told Zechariah this son would be a joy and delight to Zechariah. We know it is not unusual to hear a son become a source of grief to his parents when he becomes old. What then would this son John do, which would make him a source of joy and delight? Let us read verses 15-17. "(15-17)" First, he will live a pure life. Notice the words: “He is never to take wine or other fermented drink.” Drinking alchohol makes us relaxed and cheerful and more close to people around us. But we can truly be influential if we give up those joy for the sake of holiness of God. Secondly, John would be a joy and delight because of his mission to bring many of the people of Israel back to the Lord their God. It is the tendency of men to draw attention to themselves. John would do just the opposite. His message was always the same: Repent and produce fruits in keeping with repentance. He did even more to make himself less attractive. He lived in the hot lonely desert, ate locust and wild honey and wore camel skins as his primary clothing. On the other hand he did everything possible to make Jesus more attractive. He told the crowds that came out to see him: “One more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Let us now look at Zechariah’s response to this good news that angle brought him. In verse 18 he asks the angle: “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years” Do you think this is a good question? On the surface it seems harmless enough. Additionally he is recognized as a man who is upright in the sight of God and blameless in all he does. Not so to the ears of an angle whose constant job generation after generation is to stand in the presence of God Almighty. This angle is much attuned to the fact faith is everything to God. He is also aware the tiniest doubt can become like yeast and spread to everyone and ruin their faith. Look at verses 19 and 20. Let us notice the major problem the angle sees. He gives Zechariah the good news that God will answer his prayer but he does not believe this good news. The angle tells Zechariah he would not be able to speak a word until this good news is fulfilled because he did not immediately believe the message. Our God is very gracious. He gives us even greater good news. He gives us the good news of Jesus Christ's death for our sins and his resurrection and the hope of eternal salvation in his Kingdom. Some people hear and hear this message and still don’t believe. As we see here God takes such signs of unbelief very seriously. It is noteworthy the angle gave Zechariah dumb training to help him overcome his unbelief and not become a source of unbelief. Jesus was a master at helping his people overcome unbelief. Once he said to a synagogue ruler who was given a report his daughter died. “Don’t be afraid, just believe.” When we just believe in Jesus our prayers will be answered. When we just belief in Jesus Christ we will receive the good news of God. Today let us just believe in the good news of Jesus Christ. Finally let us look at verses 23-24. Zechariah completed his service as priest of the temple and went home. Soon after this his wife who was well along in years became pregnant. God answered this couple’s prayer. He was true to his words. Elizabeth’s own testimony to this event is very gracious. Together let us read verse 25. “The Lord has done this for me. In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.” Some become proud when God blesses them. It’s difficult to share their joy.” Elizabeth on the other hand acknowledges God’s favor to take away her disgrace. Her testimony helps us to see the grace of God in her life. Preparing this message, I realized that I have been trembling in the fear of uncertainty of my life and future; thesis, doctoral study, family issues and even marriage. But today's passage begins by assuring the certainty of what God does! It touches my heart. Every thing around my life seems uncertain, but in God everything has happened and will happen with the certainty of His good will. I also learn that God stretches out his powerful hands when we are upright in his sight and pray with secret prayer topics. He answers our secret prayer topics. He waits us until we bring our own request to him. I realize God sometimes gives us life problem because he wants us to pray for it. He does greater thing and gives us greater life when we humbly bring those prayer request to him. We see only small things; things only circles around our small lives. But God wants to do something influential and effective universally and historically. That happens when we faithfully pray and wait. Let's keep our secret prayer topics. Let's not give up when we pray. May God bless our secret prayer and does his good and great work when we seek God's hand upon our problematic lives! Let's read verse 25 and pray. |
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