Author: Jeff Englund

Luke 1: 31-33

” You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He 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, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to receive a message from God? Sometimes it is tempting for me to want God to explain things in terms that I can understand. Sometimes I have wanted God to give me a message.

Fortunately for me, the kind of messages God has had for me have been messages of hope and encouragement. Sometimes they come through God’s Word, sometimes through brothers and sisters in the faith, and sometimes it feels like God is talking to me directly. In Mary’s case, God sent a very special message and sent it by messenger.  Continue reading “The Message”

Luke 1: 26-30

” In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.’

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God.'”

Luke the historian has researched a great deal of information that the other gospels did not share, or did not have access to. God’s messengers are very active prior to the time of our Lord’s birth. Such visits were not unheard of in the time of patriarchs, but they were exceedingly rare. Here are two such events within six months of each other.

The angel tells Mary that she is highly favored and that the Lord is with her. She rightly wonders what kind of greeting this might be. Continue reading “Greetings!”

Luke 1: 5-25

” 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. 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 worshipers 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 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 realized 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 his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.'”

 

Zechariah presents us with an interesting situation. Luke tells us that he is a priest of good lineage. He is married to a woman descended from Aaron, the First Priest. Luke goes so far as to tell us that they were both considered righteous in the sign of God. And they were old. In Zechariah’s case, old enough to know better than to argue with a messenger of God and yet that is exactly what he did.

As we read this passage and we get to the part where Zechariah questions the credibility of the angel we can almost see the angle bristle at the insult. In a similar way, we are given the Word of God in the words of the Bible, conveyed to us by God Himself in the form of the Holy Spirit. How much more does the Creator bristle when we reject His words to us? Continue reading “Messenger”

Luke 1: 1-4

” 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.”

Luke begins his gospel account in an orderly fashion explaining what he is writing and why he is writing it. He admits that it is not the first account of Jesus that has been written, so we should not be surprised if the gospels of Matthew and Mark are quoted here as source material. There are two major differences that separate Luke from Matthew and Mark. Both of these gospels were written from and for a Jewish perspective. Luke, on the other hand, writes to Theophilus, who if not a Gentile at least has a very Gentile sounding name. So it is very likely that Luke was written for us Gentiles. It is debated, but also possible that Luke himself was a Gentile. If so, Luke’s Gospel provides us with a unique perspective into the Jewish world that Jesus was raised in.  Continue reading “The Gentile Perspective”

If you have been reading through John’s Gospel with us I commend you! Today is the first of December and I thought it might be fun to take a break and look at the scriptures in the Gospels that describe the birth of Jesus. Our primary source for this information comes from Luke, the faithful physician, and we will probably look at Matthew’s gospel as well. I hope this daily meditation is a blessing to you this Christmas season.