Luke is writing to a Roman official named Theophilus in order to explain the ministry and work of Jesus, and strengthen his faith. But Luke is doing more here than just writing a biography about Jesus. This is more than just facts about the life of Jesus.  What Luke wrote is about what God accomplished in human history through Jesus - This is a story with eternal ramifications.  This is salvation history – theologians call it “redemptive history”. Luke's two books - Luke and Acts - are constantly dipping into the waters of the Old Testament, to show how God saves those whom He has loved since before time

The priest Zechariah is visited by the angel Gabriel, who announces to him that he's going to be the father of a son. Zechariah responds with unbelief, because he and his wife are old, and she is barren. So the question for today is, how do you respond to the Word of God?  There’s only two responses – either you respond with unbelief, or with belief. Either you trust God, or you don’t.  RC Sproul wrote, "In the Bible, there are two ways that people die.

We all have times when we struggle with doubts – when we seem to have insurmountable odds to overcome, when we never can seem to get ahead financially, when the medical condition just won’t get better, when the relationship issues just won’t resolve – But these are temporary lapses – When John the Baptist was born, Zechariah’s voice was restored, and his first words are described in Luke 1:67-68  And his father Zechariah was filled with

The angel Gabriel appears to Mary and delivers a message - "Mary, you’re going to give birth to the Son of God, God in the flesh – His name will be Jesus". Here’s what’s interesting about the name Jesus – it means Healer – It means Saviour.  Mary understands the implications of this -She knows the Old Testament teaching about a Messiah coming from the family tree of David to save Israel from their sins – A King who will have more than

Magnifying God isn’t about making God look bigger than He really is – It’s about sharing a true picture of how big our God is.  Our worship of God, in our singing and in our normal, day to day activities are opportunities to demonstrate how incredible and magnificent Jesus is, even though the world doesn’t pay Him much attention; even though Hollywood and Washington, DC don’t think He’s that important. Mary’s story teaches us that magnifying God doesn’t mean you have to do huge things for God; just do small things with huge love.  The greatest spiritual act of worship that Mary ever performed in life was carrying and giving birth to and nurturing a baby.  The most profound and eloquent sermon she ever preached was being a mom. In worshiping God with her lips and with her day to day living, Mary magnified her God, and she took incredible joy in magnifying God, so the world could see how big He really is.  John

Zechariah's song is one of four songs sung in The Book of Luke. The overarching theme in Zachariah’s song is hope– remember, this is a people who

There are constant battles going on in our world – on a macro level, we see the United States and China bickering about airspace; we see Democrats and Republicans debating about gender ideology and race and inflation;  on a smaller scale, we see husbands and wives arguing over loading the dishwasher

 James is going to answer the question "What causes quarrels within us?" by identifying three battles, three wars

-the war inside us

-the war outside us

-the war up above us

If you find yourself wanting what the world has to offer, listening to all the voices in the world that tell you to chase that perfect Instagram moment and

We’ve arrived at a place in James where there are ten commands grouped together.  Now, they’re sandwiched between two statements about humility – James 4:6 says God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.   If you need Jesus, all you need is to be humble enough to admit your need.  God’s grace is extended even to individuals who would never imagine that they deserved grace. In fact, the defining characteristic of grace is that it isn’t deserved at all.  It can’t be earned in any way whatsoever.  So if you humble yourself, admit you need a Saviour, then God gives you not just a small helping of grace,