10 Aug (Luke 1)

Luke 1

The Gospel according to Luke is the only gospel that was written by a Gentile. Luke never met Jesus, but was a close friend of the Apostle Paul and Peter. Since Luke was believed to be a physician, he was meticulous in detail, and the Holy Spirit saw it fit to have the humanity of Jesus be documented by him.

(v.3) God had given Luke complete understanding of the life of Jesus...we as believers, as we learn and grow in Christ, acquire the same wisdom.

(v.6) John the Baptist was from the tribe of Levi, since his father was a priest. It was a priest's duty to bring the people closer to the LORD...John did just that! We see that this was another situation where the LORD had a barren woman have a child to defy nature.

(v.15) The Holy Spirit was with John the Baptist from the womb...we will see evidence of this when Mary meets Elizabeth later.

(v.17) This is what most of the Jews missed...John the Baptist made the way for the LORD by preaching repentance...they believed that Elijah would be resurrected, but his spirit was with John the Baptist!

(v.31) The name, Jesus, is important. We must teach our kids that it's not an ordinary name like John or Steve. Jesus is the Greek version of the Hebrew name, Joshua. We would pronounce the name as Yeshua, which in Hebrew, means Yahweh Saves.

This is why He was named Jesus...His name defined His mission on earth!

(v.33) It's hard to imagine what Mary must have thought when Gabriel told her that her child would reign over Israel forever...not 40 years, but FOREVER!

This was the first of many clues given to Mary that the Son of God was in her womb.

(v.41) The Holy Spirit was in John the Baptist when he was in the womb, and he leaped when his cousin was in the womb. But this wasn't any ordinary cousin...this was the Creator of the universe, the Alpha and the Omega...the Son of God...God in the flesh!

(v.59) Most of us skip over this without seeing another amazing work of God...the eighth day of a young boy's life is the BEST day to perform circumcision. There is a clotting agent in the blood that is called prothrombin, and it is produced to a level above 100% on the eighth day, then drops down on the ninth day. Science didn't discover this until the 20th century!

Here is a link for more information: http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/2204

God instructed Abraham to do this to all newborn Jewish sons in Genesis 17.

(v.69) Remember that the use of a horn in Scripture represents authority...we will see a lot more of the use of horns in Revelation, as we saw quite a bit of them in Daniel as well.

(v.76) John the Baptist's mission was to get the people to repent, and ready for the salvation of the LORD!