{This
month I will be journeying through Advent in a new way. Grab a cup of
coffee & 5 minutes a day so you can journey with me. Missed days
1-19? Check it out here.}
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.
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.”
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. 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.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked
the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will
come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy
one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is
going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to
conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary
answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
At that time Mary got ready and
hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s
home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby
leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a
loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the
child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord
should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the
baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord
would fulfill his promises to her!”
And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the
Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been
mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations
will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him, from
generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his
arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the
humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the
rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to
be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised
our ancestors.” Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then
returned home.
When it was time for Elizabeth to
have her baby, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that
the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy. On the eighth day
they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his
father Zechariah, but his mother spoke up and said, “No! He is to be called
John. They said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who has that
name.” Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like
to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s
astonishment he wrote, “His name is John.” Immediately his mouth was opened and
his tongue set free, and he began to speak, praising God. All the neighbors
were filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were
talking about all these things. Everyone who heard this wondered about it,
asking, “What then is this child going to be?” For the Lord’s hand was with
him.
His father Zechariah was filled with
the Holy Spirit and prophesied: “Praise be to the Lord, the God of
Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them. He has
raised up a horn[c] of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (as
he said through his holy prophets of long ago), salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us— to show mercy to our ancestors and
to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father
Abraham: to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to
serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our
days. And 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, to give his people
the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come
to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the
shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.” And the child
grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the wilderness until he
appeared publicly to Israel (27).
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In those days Caesar Augustus issued
a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the
first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And
everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the
town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because
he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with
Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While
they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to
her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger,
because there was no guest room available for them.
And there were shepherds living
out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of
the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and
they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you
good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of
David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This
will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a
manger.”
Suddenly a great company of the
heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
When the angels had left them
and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem
and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
So they hurried off and found
Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen
him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child,
and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary
treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The
shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had
heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
On the eighth day, when it was
time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given
him before he was conceived.
When the time came for the
purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to
Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the
Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”), and to offer a
sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves
or two young pigeons.” Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was
righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the
Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he
would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Moved by the Spirit, he
went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do
for him what the custom of the Law required, 28 Simeon took him in his arms and
praised God, saying: “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss
your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which
you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the
Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.”
The child’s father and mother
marveled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary,
his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in
Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of
many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
There was also a prophet, Anna,
the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived
with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she
was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting
and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and
spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of
Jerusalem.
When Joseph and Mary had done
everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their
own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with
wisdom, and the grace of God was on him (28).
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