Not everyone wants to take God's good news seriously, but I hope you will want to! It is certainly worthwhile to trust and obey God in life, 1*. as Zechariah was about to find out!
Zechariah's elderly wife Elizabeth had become the proud mother of a baby boy. Her friends thought she would surely call him after his father. "No!" Elizabeth said, "He is to be called John."
They said, "There is no one among all your relatives who has that name." 2*.
What did Zechariah have to say? He was unable to say anything! He had been dumb for over nine months since the angel had told him that this boy was going to be born. That day the angel had told him, "You will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words." 3*.
Zechariah now "asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone's astonishment he wrote, `His name is John.'" This was the name the angel Gabriel had said the child was to be given. Immediately Zechariah's ..tongue was loosed and he began to speak, praising God."
The name John means "God has been gracious." John was to become a special messenger of God's great kindness. .
Already the whole countryside was asking, "What then is this child going to be?" for the Lord's hand was with him. 4*.
Then Zechariah, filled with the Holy Spirit, said, "Praise be to the Lord, because He has come and has redeemed His people.... And you, my child, will go before the Lord to prepare the way for Him." 5*.
God's gracious plan to rescue sinful mankind was already in action. Jesus the Saviour was soon to be born from Mary. The Son of God was about to become the Son of Man! He was coming to redeem them - to pay the price for mankind's sin by Himself! Then he would be able to forgive all those who would put their trust in Him.
John's job would be to "go before the Lord" and give the people "the knowledge of Salvation." 6*.
Some years later Jesus satisfied God by paying the full price of all our sins by dying for us. 7*.
Today God still uses faithful messengers like John. A faithful messenger of God will call people to repent - to turn from sinful wrong ideas - and to trust in Jesus, the only Saviour God sent for us.
Many are refusing to listen to and believe the message God sent about Jesus the Saviour. Instead some choose to believe that God will forgive everyone, or they want to think other priests can bring them to God; such people will be lost for refusing Jesus the only Priest and Saviour. 8*.
Can't you see why the message of God's great kindness can still be offered to sinners like you and me?
It is because God's Son came to redeem us by dying for our sin. It is ONLY if you will put your faith in Jesus that God can redeem you from destruction and give you a place in His own family. 9*.
Read in Luke's Gospel chapter 1, verses 57-80 about the birth of John, the special messenger of God's great kindness. .
Bye for now,
John Nixon, Ballincollig, Cork, Ireland. P31HD98. Contact: jnixonj@gmail.com
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EVERYONE LIFE ETERNAL HEAVEN HELL SALVATION ASSURANCE PEACE LOVE GRACE HOPE BOYS GIRLS
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Bible quotations from N.I.V.
1 Matthew 7:24-27.
2 Luke 1:60-61.
3 Luke 1:20.
4 Luke 1:63-66.
5 Luke 1:68, 76.
6 Luke 1:77. & Acts 19:4.
7 1st Peter 2:24. 3:18.
8 John 3:16-19.
9 Galatians 4:4.