The Gospel of Luke: The Promise

Today, we start a new and exciting series in the Gospel of Luke. If you please turn to Luke chapter 1, and do stand when you have that for the reading of God's Word together, as we'll be examining

Luke chapter 1, verses 1 to 13. Please do stand and hear the

Word of the Lord. And as much as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the

Word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent

Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things that you have been taught.

In the days of Herod, the king of Judea, there was a priest named

Zechariah of the division of Abijah, and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was

Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the

Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both advanced in years.

Now, while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by law to enter the temple of the

Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense.

And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him.

But the angel said to him, Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayers has been heard, and your wife

Elizabeth will bear a son, and you shall call his name John. This is the word of the

Lord. You may be seated. Let me pray. Father, we do come before you thankful for the word that you've given us, for the faithful testimony and witness that we have now received through Luke, who, under the inspiration of the

Holy Ghost, came with this impression to bring forward this compilation, this work, this narrative of the good news of our

Savior, Jesus Christ. Lord, it is with great joy that we examine the scriptures this morning, with great anticipation of the work that you will do in it and of what you will accomplish.

Let us, Lord, now receive your word, with joy and thanksgiving, and may it implant in us your good deeds and work that will flourish onto eternal life.

We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. Well, beloved, again, we are beginning a new series in the

Gospel of Luke, and I'm so excited to be bringing this word to you. Luke is an incredible book.

I don't have to sell you on that because it's in the Bible. There are 66 books in the Bible. Every book in the Bible is amazing, amen?

Every book of the Bible is inspired. It is meant for our good, for edification. It is

God -breathed. Yet, I will contend with you this morning that Luke is one of my favorite books, specifically of the synoptic

Gospels. Well, there's four Gospels in the scriptures, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Three of them are called what's called the synoptic Gospels, meaning that they all share essentially the same framework and DNA, and they all share and touch on basically the same stories and narrative points, and they all have much in common.

And John being kind of the odd child in that, John is usually referred to as the spiritual gospel, as the gospel that kind of begins not at the incarnation, but instead in the beginning of time where you have in the beginning was the

Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And from there, it even skips the narrative of his birth and goes straight into his ministry.

But of the synoptic Gospels, Luke is my favorite. And the reason why Luke is my favorite of the synoptic

Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke is because Luke goes into quite beautiful detail in the things that the other

Gospels kind of skim over. And it's also the one that is, in my view, the most thematic, meaning that there is a strong theme and narrative that Luke is very careful to build from the very beginning until the very end.

Luke is also very interesting because you can even examine Luke not as just one work, but really two works that make up one whole work, meaning that there is the

Gospel of Luke, and then there is the sequel to Luke, which is the book of Acts, both written by Luke, likely around the same time frame.

And also, both kind of, you know, Acts picks up exactly almost where he leaves off in Luke, and both addressed to the same person,

Theophilus. We begin this morning by examining the first couple of verses. I keep saying

Paul now because I've been so used to preaching from Paul's epistles, but now Luke, he writes in this verse, verse 1, "...inasmuch

as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us."

Luke begins very simply to say he is working to compile as much data, as much information, and it's to compile a narrative.

So if you're following along in today's teaching, in the first line, Luke's Gospel was compiled as a narrative.

Now this is important because it gives us insight into where Luke is going with this book.

It's a narrative. In other words, it's a story. But it's not just a story of one time, a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

It's not the type of story that he's telling. This is a narrative that is based upon historic fact.

This is a historical narrative. And this is a narrative that he has compiled very carefully.

As he says, "...inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative." There are other Gospels. Luke probably comes after Matthew and Mark.

Most people don't contend that. Luke is likely the third Gospel. And yet, he goes on to say, "...just

as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses," referring to the work of the apostles, the work and testimony of the early believers, the work of the early apostles, "...just

as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us."

So even early in the infancy of the church, you have what's called this oral tradition that is strong and vibrant, and even so vibrant and strong that Luke is able to compile all the data from the verbal tradition, from the oral tradition, as it has been passed down from the apostles, and likely from the

Apostle Paul as well at this junction. He begins to say in verse 3, "...it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely."

This is an important aspect that we must touch on. Luke, you may know him as the physician, and the

Scriptures teaches us that Luke was indeed a physician, but he's also a historian of sorts.

He's looking at all the data points, he's looking at all the narratives surrounding the story of Jesus, and he's compiling them, and he's examining them closely in order to write an orderly account for you, most excellent

Theophilus. Verse 4, "...that you may have certainty concerning the things that you have been taught."

There's so much that we can do and look into in the book of Luke, but I want to look at it from a historical narrative perspective for a moment.

Most individuals, most scholars, will put the Gospel of Luke as compiled or written in about the years, in the decade of the 80s.

I'm not talking about the decade of the past 80s, I'm talking about the first century 80s.

So around 80 AD was around the time that most scholars think that Luke was compiled.

I would submit to you that that is likely not the case. In fact, I think it's actually impossible that it would have been written that late.

And the reason is, very clearly and very sincerely put, is because the internal witness of Scripture would not allow for that.

When we examine a historical narrative, we have to examine it on its own merit.

And when you look at the historical narrative of the Gospel of Luke, you see that he gives us details, and he gives us insight into his own thinking, into his own processing of this information.

And I would say to you that Luke was likely, most likely written between the year 58

AD to 64 AD. So very much earlier than what is spoken of in modern textual criticism and scholarship.

And the reason I would put the writing of Luke around that time frame is because you got to remember, which came first,

Luke or Acts? Which came first? Luke.

Luke came first, the Gospel of Luke came first, and then the narrative of the early church in the book of Acts.

Where does the book of Acts leave us in chapter 28? But at the imprisonment of, the house arrest of Paul.

So before Paul's death, which most scholars would agree would have been around the year 64, 62 to 64

AD, during what's called the Nero persecution of the church under Emperor Nero. And so we know for a fact, historically,

Paul was martyred under Nero. And that must have been before then, 64 AD.

Yet, in Acts, we see Paul still very much alive and active in preaching the good news of Jesus Christ.

And so clearly, Luke and Acts have to have been written before 70

AD, before 64 AD even. What's also important to note here is there are things that are mentioned in Luke's Gospel, in the book of Acts, that are giving us an insight into the time frame of his writing.

And more of this will come to light as we go through the narrative, as we go through the book of Luke. But very importantly, something that is of great importance is right there in the text of verse two.

Just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word.

He's speaking of the eyewitnesses as if they're still alive, as if they're still there, as if they can still be cross -examined.

Very similarly to how Paul uses that phrase in 1 Corinthians 15, when he says that at one time there were up to 500 eyewitnesses who saw

Jesus, some of whom had fallen asleep, but some who have not. Essentially saying there are those who are witnesses of the

Lord Jesus and of his glorious resurrection who are still alive, that you can cross -examine, that you can speak to, that you can receive a witness from.

Similarly, we see that here as well, that there were those who were eyewitnesses who were still very much around and very much alive at the time in which

Luke compiles his gospel narrative. And so if you're following along in the first part of the teaching,

Luke's gospel is compiled as a narrative of Jesus' life by eyewitnesses, or by eyewitness accounts.

How is it then that we have received these four gospels? How do we know that these four gospels are the

Word of God? Because maybe you've heard watching a History Channel documentary that there are other gospels out there.

How many of you have ever heard of the Gospel of Thomas? Very famous one. How about the Gospel of Mary Magdalene?

There's even a Gospel of Peter. Did you know there's a Gospel of Nicholas as well?

Not Saint Nicholas as in, you know, Santa Claus, but there's a Gospel of Nicholas. I don't know who Nicholas is.

Your guess is as good as mine. But there's all these different gospels that were compiled and written somewhere between the second and fourth century that began to gain attention and even to some degree became mainstream in the early church.

Many of them coming from a theological perspective that became heresy and considered heresy by the early church, such as the

Gnostics. The Gospel of Thomas being the most blatant forgery and evidence of early

Gnosticism in the early church. Have you ever heard of the Gospel of Thomas? The Gospel of Thomas is more like a collection of sayings.

It's not very narrative -driven, which is completely different from the approach that Luke is taking for instance.

Luke is taking a historical narrative approach to his Gospel, whereas the Gospel of Thomas is more of a collection of odd sayings of Jesus with some narrative sprinkled in, but mostly just odd sayings attributed to Jesus Christ.

What a far cry, what a difference you see between the Gospel of Thomas and the

Gospel of Luke. Between that which is inspired and that which is a clear forgery is the amount of detail and attention that goes in to the

Gospel of Luke. That's also seen in the other two synoptic Gospels of Matthew and Mark, and of course the distinctiveness of John's Gospel and the glory that we see therein.

And yet so my case to you this morning is that Luke is absolutely 100 % the

Word of God. That it is inspired, it is God -breathed, and it is in fact an earlier work than that which is attributed to it by many modern day scholars.

And this is important because part of the overall view or story or narrative of Luke is the person and work of Jesus Christ and what he has accomplished, is accomplishing, and will accomplish in the future.

So I want to give you, in Luke chapter 1 verse 4,

I want to give you certainty just as Luke is attempting to give certainty to a man by the name of Theophilus.

Now who is Theophilus? Again, your guess is probably as good as mine. I've read many commentaries and many works on this, there's many opinions, but what seems to be the consensus is that this is a man who was of great rapport, likely of great respect and stature in the early

Christian congregation. Theophilus was likely a man of wealth and influence, and was someone who had become a convert to Christianity, and was indeed someone who had a lot of pull and power.

And yet, Luke, in writing this, he's not writing this just for the sake of one man of Theophilus, he's writing it for the sake, for the posterity of all of God's people.

For the same reason as he gives to Theophilus, so that you may have certainty concerning the things that you have been taught.

All of us need some level of certainty in the things that we have been taught and received. We go through our

Christian catechism, we give you instruction through Bible studies, we give you all this teaching material, but how can we know something for certain?

In some regard, we can't know anything truly out of complete certainty, in that there's things that we can't, you know, we can't check the

DNA of Jesus on the cross, there's a lot of things we can't do empirically that we can't put in a test tube, and yet there is a certainty that is accompanied with true and saving faith in Jesus.

It's an assurance, it's an assurance that isn't visible, that you can't measure, but it's real, and it's true, and it abides in you, and it abides in us, and it's this, that you may have certainty concerning Jesus Christ, that Jesus is the

Messiah, that Jesus is the promised one, and that you may have certainty of the things that have been taught to you, just as Theophilus would have received.

So you're following along, Luke's gospel is meant to produce certainty in the truth about Jesus.

It's excellent that Luke, from the beginning, from the onset, from the first four verses, gives us the intent of his writing, gives us the intent of his gospel, that you may have certainty concerning the things that you've been taught.

But I also want to submit to you two main themes that we're going to be examining through the entirety of Luke's gospel.

Now you may be asking yourself, okay, how long are we going to be in this book, Pastor? This is a big book, 24 chapters, a lot of verses.

How long are we going to be in it? Well, I'm going to admit to you that I started doing this sermon series several years ago at my previous church, and in about two and a half years, we got to chapter 16, which is where I left off.

And so buckle up, it's going to be a long ride, it's going to be a good ride, and it's going to be worth the time and investment that we're going to be putting into this book.

But it is truly a thematic and beautiful book. And I think one of the major themes that you'll see throughout this entire book that we're going to examine beginning even today, this morning, is number one,

God's sovereign rule over history. God's sovereignty emanates and bleeds through the pages of this gospel book.

It is without a doubt that God's sovereignty is front and center in this whole narrative, in this whole story, this whole redemptive work.

God's sovereignty is front and center, not only His sovereignty, but His sovereign right to rule.

It is a reminder that God is the one who rules over the nations. He is the one who is sovereign over the affairs of man, that there is nothing outside of His divine power or providence.

All things are working as the Lord has willed, and all things shall be fulfilled that He has spoken through the mouth of His prophets.

His word shall surely come to pass, amen? And that is a certainty that Luke is trying to instill in Theophilus and in all

Christians as we read this compiled work, that God is sovereign and He rules over history.

As the promises, specifically of the Old Testament prophets, are being fulfilled in the pages of Luke's gospel.

The second theme that I find strongly in the book of Luke is the arrival and palpable presence of God's kingdom.

God's kingdom can be said to be the central theme of this book. In fact, it wouldn't be incorrect for us to say that the kingdom of God is indeed the theme of the entire

Bible. God's kingdom, His rule, His reign in and chiefly through the person and work of Jesus Christ is the entire story of the

Bible. His kingdom come, His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is the story of God.

And this is the story of man, that He rules, His kingdom rules, and there's a king and His name is

Jesus. In fact, so strongly is this theme throughout not only

Luke's gospel, but the entirety of the Bible that you're going to begin to see as we go through Luke's gospel.

We're going to see echoes of the Old Testament time and time again.

You're going to see how through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the story, the narrative of the

Old Testament is being woven into the fabric of the New Testament, specifically relating to the person and work of Jesus Christ.

How all things that were written beforehand were written for our instruction, but also to point us toward Jesus Christ.

That Jesus Christ is the climax of God's redemptive history, of His redemptive arc, of His will,

His work in and through the cosmos. It is all about Jesus, amen? Jesus is the centerpiece of the gospel because the word gospel in itself means the good news, according to Luke, the good news of what, you may ask?

What good news? So we see that we have the Matthean gospel, the gospel of Mark, the

Markian gospel. We have the Lukean gospel, we have the Johannian gospel. What are all these gospels about?

But the lordship and reign of Jesus Christ.

It's all pointing to Jesus, and it's all for Jesus, and it's all about Jesus.

This is the glories of the gospels that we have contained in Holy Scripture. It's all about Jesus.

Therefore, as we examine for ourselves the theme of the gospel of Luke, which again

I think would even apply to the rest of the Bible, namely God's sovereign rule over history and the arrival and palpable presence of the kingdom of God.

This is the story of God, and these are things that were closely examined and compiled for my witnesses and ministers of the word who have been brought to us by the writing of Luke so that we may have certainty concerning the things that we've been taught.

So as Luke lays this groundwork, he gives us the why and to the who. The why being that we may have certainty and to who, to Theophilus.

Now, some scholars have even thought maybe Theophilus is just a code word for the church.

I don't think that that's the case. I think that Theophilus was clearly a real historical person in the early church, but I could see why they would think that Theophilus might just be another code word for the people of God or the church, is because this doesn't apply just to one man, and it wasn't only meant for one man to have in his possession, but rather that the church would greatly benefit from this work, that this would be an inspired work not just for one man's personal collection, but for the church and for the nations to have as their possession.

And so certainly this book was written not just for one person, but for all people, and it's evidence because here it is in the canon of Holy Scripture.

But the why is still the same, that we may have certainty concerning the things that you've been taught, concerning the promises of the word and the promises of the

Old Testament. As soon as we have that wrap up, Luke jumps into the narrative, and it's interesting where he starts his narrative, different from where Mark and Matthew start their narrative.

Matthew and Mark start their gospel narrative with the story of the incarnation, with the picture of Mary and Joseph and the trials and the virgin conception, the virgin birth of Jesus.

But Luke goes from a different perspective. Luke starts in verse 5 by saying, in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, there was a priest named

Zechariah of the division of Abijah. Now this is interesting here because Matthew also begins his

Luke with appealing to, in the days of Herod, the king of Judea. So we know this is the same time frame.

The time frame of this would have been around the year 3 B .C. to 4

A .D. So that's where most scholars would put this narrative, somewhere in between there. I would actually contend that this is certainly the second century

B .C. that this is all happening in. And so in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, there was a priest named

Zechariah. What a curious way to start. Not with the narrative of Christ and His birth, but with the narrative of someone else.

And it says, and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was

Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the

Lord. But they had no child. Because Elizabeth was barren.

But both were advanced in years. The Advent story begins not with the conception of Jesus, but of another.

It starts with the conception of John the Baptist. I want you to write that in if you haven't already.

In the fourth line, the Advent story begins with the conception not of Jesus, but of John the

Baptist. Very interesting, very different from the other two synoptic

Gospels. And yet, we see this clear setup for Jesus, this foreshadowing.

But the story of Jesus doesn't just start at the Incarnation. You have to go back a little bit, and you see the story of John and his conception through his parents,

Zechariah and Elizabeth. And then John's Gospel, almost to outdo all the other

Gospels, he goes even further in the past. And he says, no, no, no, no, it doesn't just start there with the conception of John the

Baptist, it goes even further to in the beginning. And you see how these

Gospels work marvelously together under the inspiration of the Spirit to bring forth the full picture.

Here is an error that many, unfortunately, make when reading the Gospels. You can't read the

Gospel in isolation to the others. You really have to read the Gospels in companionship with the other

Gospels, so you get the full picture in effect. It's like when you examine a court case, you have many individuals come forward as eyewitnesses to testify of an event, and every eyewitness will bring forward a bit of a different perspective.

And maybe they're all saying essentially the same thing, but they all saw the crime or the event from different vantage points.

And it's only when you have all the witnesses, all the testimonies lined up that you see the true story in its totality.

And I believe that is an appropriate way to read the Gospels of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you don't read them just in isolation, but that you read them truly in companionship with the other

Gospels. And so here we begin with the story of Zechariah, who was a priest in the division of Abijah.

And he says he had a wife from the daughter of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. So why is that important?

Why are we talking about these divisions and the lineage of Zechariah and Elizabeth?

One of the reasons this is important is because God is establishing His royal line,

His royal lineage. He is bringing forth the fact that there were promises made in the

Old Testament, and the promises were kept. The promises were kept.

So sometimes as we're going to go on in a few chapters from here to read in the

Gospel, we see the genealogies, and we always think, oh, that's like the least fun part of the

Gospels, right? Like, we don't want to read through genealogies, it's just this person and that person and this name, and most of these names you can't even pronounce, right?

But why is it important? It's important because God made promises, and those promises were kept.

It's not like a politician where they make promises and then they don't fulfill it.

Every promise, every word of God is true, and it will be fulfilled, and it has been in this junction fulfilled in relation to the redemption that came through Jesus Christ.

And so Elizabeth and Zechariah were both righteous before God.

They were righteous people. They were people of faith. They were people who obeyed God, who loved

Yahweh, who followed the commandments, who kept them blamelessly. You know, it's a very rare instance in Scripture that we read of anyone, and it says that they were blameless, and it says that they kept all the commandments and statutes of the

Lord. It's very, very rare to find any such statement, and there are a few, but it's very rare to find statements like that in the

Bible, that there were such people who were blameless. Enoch was among them.

Noah was a man who walked blamelessly in his generation. We see others who were blameless in their generations, but it's rare, and yet here we have this couple who were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the

Lord, but verse 7 gives us an important detail here, but they had no child.

Now this is really important, folks. This is evidence to show that these are people who were blameless, and yet they had no children.

This is important because in the Old Testament, children were a sign of the promise. Children were a sign of the covenant.

Children were a sign of blessing in the Old Covenant, and the fact that you had a couple who were blameless, who were doing everything that God required of them, and yet they were barren, and most people in that day would have judged them and said, well, you're probably barren because you're not blameless, because you're not upright, because you're not following the commandments.

Therefore, God has cursed you and has cursed your womb so that you would have no children. Stiff -necked people they are to have that idea and mentality, because are they not aware of Father Abraham?

Are they not aware of the circumstances of Sarah and how God often works in His people in barren situations and circumstances to bring forth life and to fulfill

His promises? It's always through the barren that God brings forth life.

It's amazing, isn't it? And we see this as well working here in the story of Zechariah and of Elizabeth.

These were individuals who had kept the commandments, who obeyed the statutes of the Lord, who walked blamelessly before God, and yet they had no children.

But this was not a sign of God's curse in their life, rather this was a sign of promise, of promise, even though they were both advanced in years, similar to the story of Abraham and Sarah.

You see how, again, the Old Testament narrative and promises are woven into the fabric of the

New Testament narrative of Jesus Christ. It's hearkening back, echoing to the narrative of Abraham and Sarah and the barrenness that was there, but the promise that came forward and that was fulfilled in Sarah having an offspring, who in turn now, the promises of God being that Abraham would have descendants as numerous as the stars to bless the nations.

And here you have the same situation and circumstances coming forward, barrenness, but a promise being made in which all the nations of the earth would be blessed through the promised one, the promised seed, even

Jesus Christ. It's beautiful how the narrative is woven together in such a way.

And it says in verse eight, and while he was serving as a priest before God, when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by law to enter the temple of the

Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense.

And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.

And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him.

So here you have Zechariah performing his priestly duties, performing that which he is responsible over.

He enters the temple of the Lord to burn incense, and a whole multitude of the people are praying outside and gathered now.

Now that's actually a very important piece of data. We don't know when this is occurring. We don't know when this is happening.

But many scholars have theorized that this is likely happening around the Feast of Booths or the

Feast of Tabernacles. And this is a time in which people would be gathered in that setting for that exact same work or deed.

And that the multitude would be gathered for that, because again, in the Old Testament, you had several festivals that were to be observed in the city, in Jerusalem.

So when it mentions the multitudes, it's likely a reference to the multitudes of people being gathered in Jerusalem for sacred service in accordance with the custom, accordance to the tradition or the word of God, the

Torah, that has been given to us for them to obey. And so it's very likely that this is during, around one of those pilgrimage festivals.

Feast of Booths would have been one of them, Passover would have been one of them. So we know it's likely in one of the major holidays of the biblical calendar that they're all gathered in multitude according to the custom and tradition.

And then in verse 11, something miraculous happens. Not only are they worshiping the Lord in the temple, but then appeared to him, to Zechariah, an angel of the

Lord, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. I don't know how you would respond if you saw an angel, but fear is probably a healthy reaction.

As you see most Old Testament figures when they encounter an angel, a messenger of the

Lord, they usually respond with the same emotion, fear, fear.

Now that makes you think maybe, what do they look like so that maybe fear falls upon them?

And the answer is we don't know. There are times in which angels appear as human.

In fact, in I think Joshua chapter 5 or chapter 6, the commander of the Lord's army appears before Joshua and he can't tell the difference.

He doesn't see him as a heavenly being. He says, are you with us or are you with the other army? He sees him almost as a human.

He couldn't tell the distinction until the angel makes the distinction. Same is true other times in Scripture, but in other times in Scripture you see that angels appear and they're a fearful thing.

They're so fearful, in fact, that oftentimes the Old Testament prophets fall on their face and they even try to worship the angel at times out of fear and reverence for what they are seeing and beholding with their eyes.

If you took a literal approach to the visions in Zechariah or the visions in Ezekiel or the visions in Revelation, you would find a likely an angel with four faces, with six wings, with eyeballs on the wings, and with feet that look like that of a bull.

That would freak me out. It would probably freak you out too. It's not something that is common.

It's not something that you see on a day to day. Today people might interpret that as aliens, for instance.

They might see an angel, which I'm not saying that they do because I don't think that that's something that occurs very often, but if someone claims to see something and they might interpret that as an alien.

In fact, if you watch the History Channel enough, you'll find the show Ancient Aliens where they theorize that the wheel and the spokes and the wheels within wheels in Ezekiel's prophecy was aliens, but clearly they're missing the whole point.

Angels are a fearful thing. It is a fearful thing to be in the presence of holiness. It's a fearful thing to be in the presence of something that's otherworldly.

And yet, this angel doesn't come to condemn, this angel doesn't come to bring forth a sword to smite down the enemies of God or to smite

Zechariah, but instead this angel brings forth good news. It brings good news.

And so what is there to fear? The angel of the Lord brings forth glad tithings, brings forth good news.

And this is what the angel said to Zechariah. Do not be afraid,

Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard and your wife Elizabeth will bear a son and you shall call his name

John. Do you see? Promises were made and promises were kept.

God made a promise that he would bring forth his son. He would bring forth the seed, the savior of mankind through Abraham and that Abraham would in his seed bless the nations.

And the promise was made in the very last verses of the

Old Testament. We can turn there for a moment in Malachi chapter 4, verse 5 and 6.

And these are verses that we'll examine later on in the Gospel of Luke as well.

But Malachi chapter 4, verse 5, notice the promise that the Lord makes. Malachi 4, 5 says,

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the

Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land of a decree of utter destruction.

Notice the promise. He will send forth Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the

Lord comes. To give you the spoilers, John is that Elijah who was to come.

Promises were made and the Lord was going to keep his promises. It's amazing that Luke begins his whole narrative based upon the promises of God in the

Old Testament and now also the personal promise of faithfulness to his servants,

Zechariah and Elizabeth, because God promises in his law, in his

Torah, that he will bless the womb of those who are faithful towards him. That God would bring forth life, that God would bring forth multiplication to those who keep his commands and his statutes, who keep his law pure.

And these are individuals who walked righteously and blamelessly before God, who kept all the commandments and statutes of the

Lord, and God's personal promise was going to be fulfilled in bringing forth

John as their child. And John fills a great role in Bible prophecy.

So important in that Luke finds it imperative to bring the story of Luke first, or the story of John first, before introducing us into the narrative of Jesus Christ, to demonstrate the fidelity of his promises and the fidelity of the fulfillment of his promises, both prophetically and personally to Zechariah and Elizabeth.

This is why then the angel of the Lord can say with great confidence to them, or to Zechariah in this instance, do not be afraid.

So friends, let's personalize this for a moment. God is a good God. God is a

God of promises, and he is a God who has spoken, and what he has spoken shall come to pass.

Therefore, whatever it is that you are struggling with in your life today, whatever promises you feel are unfulfilled in your life, know this,

God is still on the throne. And that is the theme that Luke is building on, the sovereignty of God, even in the face of impossible circumstances.

Most people naturally and instinctively know that if you're older and you are barren, it's very unlikely for you to have children, and yet the only thing that can override common sense and even common biology is the promise and decree and sovereignty of Almighty God.

Amen? That will never fail, God's decree,

God's sovereignty, and God's promises. So much so that when the angel comes forth and says, do not be afraid to Zechariah, I don't think that's just, do not be afraid of the fact that you are in the presence of an angel, but it's also do not be afraid of unfulfilled promises.

Don't be afraid of unfulfilled promises, because when God makes a promise, he'll keep it. And God made a promise, starting with Abraham, starting all the way back in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, that God would bring forth a seed through the woman, and that they were going to play a vital role in this.

And so we need not be afraid, brethren, regardless of our circumstances, regardless of where we may find ourselves today in life.

Know this, that God's promises, his decree, and his sovereignty will never be contested.

It will never be put to shame. So much so that the scripture says that we who believe in Christ, we who put our faith in the sovereignty of God, will never be put to shame.

If you're following along, Zechariah and his wife were both righteous and blameless, as we've already established.

And they weren't barren due to sin, but they were barren according to God's sovereign plan and decree, so that out of the impossible circumstances that they were personally in, being of old age and being barren,

God would demonstrate himself to be the God of the impossible. Do you know him?

Do you know this God of who I speak of? This God of the impossible, who can work all things and is working all things according to his good pleasure and will?

I don't know about you, but I've felt in my life many times where I've been in impossible circumstances.

There were times where I didn't know how I was going to get out of it or what good would come from it. And yet every single time,

I have seen and been a witness of the goodness of God and the promises of God that he shall neither leave us nor forsake us, but that we could be people of courage and of good cheer and know this, that the

Lord is my helper. What can man do to me? This is the truth that we must stand on.

We must stand on the promises. Do you stand on the promises of Christ?

Do you stand on the promises of God? Do you trust in the eternal, immutable decree of the

Almighty? You see, God's promises are not dependent upon our circumstances.

God is greater than our circumstances. God was greater than the circumstances of Zechariah and of Elizabeth, and it was through them that he would bring, through their barren womb, that he would bring forth the

Elijah to come, the forerunner of our blessed Savior, Jesus Christ.

God's promises are not deterred by our circumstances. In fact, it is usually in the impossible circumstances of our life that God shows up the most, amen?

And so, brethren, regardless of your circumstances today, whatever you feel is impossible that you can't overcome, maybe that is true, maybe you can overcome it, but I know who can, and his name is

Jesus, the same Jesus that was born of the Virgin, who lived a perfect and blameless life, who died the death that we all rightly deserved as a criminal next to two other criminals, who died the death that we deserved, was raised again on the third day, and has ascended to the right hand of God the

Father, where he now lives forever as a priest, perpetually interceding for our sins, and he has given us the gift of the

Holy Ghost, of the Holy Spirit, to dwell in us, to work in us, to sanctify us, so that one day, where he is, we shall be also, and like he is, we too shall be transformed onto resurrection glory, and this right is reserved for all those who believe in the name of the

Son of God. If you have not yet come to know this Jesus, if you have not yet become a child of God through faith and repentance in the gospel, the invitation is open to you today, that while it is still called today, do not harden your hearts as in the days of rebellion, but rather yield to the truthfulness of the gospel, yield to the truthfulness of God's word, and trust in Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

May you know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the power of the age to come. Let me pray.

Father, we thank you for this great word of your promises that were made in times past, but even now, as we get to examine the gospel of Luke and see how the promises were made and the promises were kept, we can have great certainty that your promises will yet even now continue to be true, and continue to be fulfilled in and through your people.

Father, we thank you that you have not left us bereaved as orphans, but instead you have given us, through the work of Jesus Christ, the

Holy Spirit, to dwell in us, to testify of the truthfulness of these things, so that we have this faithful and sure witness even now that Jesus Christ is

Lord, and that he reigns over all the nations. Lord, help us with great anticipation to continue to store up in our hearts these treasures in earthen vessels, the treasure of your gospel, of the good news of Jesus Christ.

As we examine this book over the next weeks, months, and years to come, may it edify us, and may it work in us that which is pleasing your sight, as you continue to work through the nations, and as you continue to make your name and fame known through all nations, tribes, and tongues, until that great day when

Jesus Christ comes again in glory. We eagerly await even that day, the blessed hope. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.