 But today, we're going to be looking at the Gospel of Luke, and as I was looking at this, realizing that the first chapter has 80 verses, we obviously aren't going to go through all 80 verses tonight. It's an absolute impossibility for me to do something like that. So we're only going to look at 79 verses, no. We're going to look at the first 17 verses of Luke in chapter 1. I'll begin reading to you here in Luke chapter 1. At verse 1, I'll read Luke 1 verses 1 through 4. And I'll give to you an introduction that's going to give you some background information, and then we'll move on into our study. So let's begin reading here in Luke chapter 1 at verse 1. I'll read to verse 4, and we'll get into our study, Luke 1 beginning at verse 1. In as much as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which are most surely believed among us. Just as those who, from the beginning, were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed. The Gospel of Luke is like the other four Gospels in that it is identified by the name of the writer. Every one of our Gospels are given to us by name Matthew, Mark, Luke, as well as John. Interestingly enough though, you don't see him identifying himself here in his introduction, nor is he identified throughout the entire Gospel. Church tradition holds that Luke wrote two books that he wrote here, the Gospel of Luke, as well as the Book of Acts. And so what you have here is an early tradition identifying Luke as the author of this Gospel. Luke was a Gentile, meaning he wasn't a Jew. More than likely was a native of ancient Syria from the city of Antioch. As a Gentile, he would be the only writer who was a Gentile who contributed a book to the Bible. As we look at the Bible, we see him in the New Testament, and he's identified in various places. We know that according to Acts chapter 16, for example, that he was a traveling companion of the Apostle Paul. We also know that he was a servant to the church and served alongside of the Apostle Paul because in the Book of Philemon, verse 24, he's mentioned there as a fellow laborer with Aristarchus, Deimos, and others. He's a physician. We know that through Colossians chapter 4, verse 14, because he's identified there as the beloved physician. So as a physician, when we go through the Gospel of Luke, you're going to see that he highlights many of the healings that Jesus performed. Now both the Gospel as well as the Book of Acts are written to an individual by the name of Theophilus. You see that in his introduction when he speaks concerning that in verse 3, and he speaks of him as most excellent Theophilus. There's a variety of reasons that people have begun to speculate as to who he is. Some think that he may have been a patron, a person who was a believer who paid Luke to give him a written account. He more than likely was a Roman nobleman of some sort, perhaps a Roman governor. As we look at Luke, though it has 24 chapters, and Matthew has 28 chapters, yet Luke contains more information, is actually more wordy. It's the longest Gospel of all four Gospels. When you study the Gospels, you're going to see that each one of the Gospels has a particular purpose for them being written. For example, the Gospel of Mark was written for the Romans. It was written from a perspective of the Lord Jesus Christ being a servant. And so when you read the Gospel of Mark, Mark is written from that perspective because in the nation of Rome, the highest ideal was the servant of the state. And the ancients would have designations or symbols that would identify the Gospels. And so Mark had the symbol of an ox because an ox is a beast of burden. You have Matthew. Matthew is typified by the lion because he is royal and he is majestic. And it's a picture of an apologetic. Matthew is an apologetic to the Jewish readers. That's why he writes very often quoting Old Testament Scripture and says it has been written or as it has been written. When you look at the Gospel of John, John was written to combat the Gnostic heretics who had been creeping into the church. And so it emphasizes Jesus Christ as being deity or God in the flesh. You see that in the very first chapter and he's identified that way throughout the book. His symbol is the eagle because the eagle is a symbol of royalty and deity. The Gospel of Luke though has as a symbol a man. And the reason it has as a symbol a man is because Jesus Christ is presented here in the Gospel of Luke as being the ideal or perfect man. Luke was writing to Gentiles and so he writes from a Gentile perspective. And the Greeks identified with his portrait of Jesus Christ being the perfect man. And his favorite title for Jesus throughout this particular Gospel is the Son of Man. Now the date of the writing is somewhere in the early 60s. It's been stated that he wrote between 60 and 70 AD. One of the reasons why it's believed that it is no later than 70 AD is because the Jewish temple was destroyed in 70 AD and as he writes both in Luke as well as in the book of Acts he doesn't speak concerning the destruction of the temple. And so the date is somewhere between the 60s and the 70s. Now this or before 70 AD. This is the only Gospel that refers to Jesus as boyhood. This Gospel stresses Jesus' ministry of compassion to the sick, to the brokenhearted as well as to the mistreated. And it also gives insight into Jesus' ministry to women. It highlights such women as his mother Mary, Elizabeth, Anna, Martha, Mary and Mary Magdalene. And as a result of that we have a tremendous amount of information that's going to be given to us as well as instruction from it. So let's begin our study here in the Gospel of Luke at chapter one and again we're going to be looking at verses one through four. He begins here in verse one by saying, inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which are most surely believed among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first to write to you an orderly account, most excellent theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed. And so during this time there were people who were beginning to attempt to write concerning the life of Jesus Christ. And not all of the writings during that time were factual. Not every one of them actually could be trusted. As a matter of fact we have some of the residue of that even to this day in some of the writings that were put out by Gnostics and others. And so what he's doing is he's given a detailed account. He's more than likely going to be using other sources. He uses sources like the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Mark. He also speaks to people, he interviewed people who were alive and knew of the ministry of Jesus Christ. And what he does is he compiles their information in order that he might form this gospel. That's what he says in verse 2 when he says, as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word delivered them to us. And so he compiled various sources but those sources were accurate. And he's writing this as an accurate historical account of the works of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I want you to notice that he makes it very clear that the things that he's reporting are the things that he says are most surely believed amongst us. In other words he's positive that his writing is authoritative and can be believed. These are the things that we have surely believed. These are the things that we hold fast to. When he says we are surely believed, we have surely believed this, the words surely believed means we have been fully convinced by this. This account of the life of Jesus Christ, the things that we believe have fully convinced us of their truthfulness. This isn't a myth, this isn't a fable, this is not a story, this isn't something like that at all. What this is is a historical account of the life of Jesus Christ. And what I'm doing is I'm presenting to you a historical account of Jesus that is accurate. It is accurate because there are people today who are going out writing accounts of the life of Jesus Christ who have not done their homework. And so he's saying I have spoken to eyewitnesses. These are the things that I have gathered together to commit to you theophilus in order that you might know these things and that you might know the certainty of it. Notice how he says in verse 4 that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed so that you might have full confidence, that you might have security and safety, that you might know that the word that I'm giving to you is accurate and so you can safely trust in it. This is something that you can surely believe in. This is something that you can hold fast to. This is something that will transform your life. This is an account of the life of Jesus Christ that is written in an orderly fashion because as you listen to this you will understand his life and by believing in his word concerning him will bring security to your life. The question is asked sometimes, why should we even study the Bible? What's the purpose of doing that? Well the reason that you study these things is so that you might have certainty. The reason that you study these things is so that you might surely believe. The reason that you study the life of Jesus Christ is so that you might have security because the word of God brings growth, it brings spiritual growth to your life and the word of God brings security in your spiritual walk. God's word is intended to provide you with that. God's word is intended to provide for our spiritual walk and we should be led by the word of God and not our opinions and not our feelings and not our emotions. There are numerous people who are actually led by their opinions. I mean they have entrusted their eternity to their opinions. God's word has been given so that we might have security to know that God is capable of communicating his mind and heart and his actions to us and if we hold fast to those things then we can have a safety in Christ. We can know him for sure, we can have a relationship with God that is stable. So Luke is a gospel. The word gospel speaks of good news, great news, wonderful news, outstanding news and this message of the gospel is intended to bring a security and safety in Jesus Christ and is intended to communicate to us as the word of God does. In 2 Timothy in chapter 3 verses 16 and 17 Paul said it this way, Paul said all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good word. All scripture given by inspiration of God, inspiration there, Neustas speaks about all scripture being God breathed and God has given to us his word because it is profitable to teach us how to live, to reprove us when we do wrong, to correct us so that we go in the right direction, to instruct us in ways that will produce a life that is known for righteousness so that we might be completely and thoroughly equipped because God intends for us through his word to do works of service that bring honor and glory to him. Paul in Romans chapter 15 verse 4 said it like this, he said whatever things were written before were written for our learning that we through the patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. And so God has given to us his word, we can have a certainty, we can surely believe in these things because his word came to us from eyewitnesses and ministers of the word of God as they have been delivered. And so God gave us his word, God gave us his word for a variety of reasons including one very special reason and you need to mark this one down so that he might bless your life. In the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy in chapter 5 verse 29, God expresses his heart to us and he says to us, oh that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me and always keep my commandments that it might be well with them and with their children forever. That they might fear me, that they might obey me so that their lives are blessed and not only their lives but the lives of their children too. He said that they might have this and see that comes from the word of God and God's word is certain, God's word is something that you can trust, God's word is something that I can hold fast to and rely on. Jesus in Matthew 2435 said heaven and earth will pass away but my words will by no means pass away. So I can and you can, we can trust God's word and so this is what we're looking at here in the Gospel of Luke. Luke has very carefully taken in hand to commit to us the things that he has thoroughly investigated in order that we might have certainty, that we might surely believe, in order that we might be able to live lives that are blessed by God. And so he begins here in verse 5 and continues by saying, there was in the days of Herod, the King of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias of the division of Abiyah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron and her name was Elizabeth and they were both righteous before God walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless but they had no child because Elizabeth was barren and they were both well advanced in years. And so it was that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord and the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense. So we're introduced to two people here, Zacharias and Elizabeth. The name Zacharias means the Lord remembers. The Lord remembers it would be carrying the connotation of the Lord remembering his promise. The name Elizabeth is a word in Hebrew that says, my God is a promise. And it's a picture that God is absolutely faithful. So what we have here is an introduction of two people from a priestly line. You have a man who is a priest and his wife but both of them are descendants of Aaron who is the priestly line of Levi. All direct descendants of Aaron were priests but there were so many men that the priesthood actually had to be divided into 24 divisions. You see that in 1 Chronicles in the Old Testament chapter 24. As he speaks about Zacharias and Elizabeth, notice verse 6, it says they were both righteous before God walking in all the commandments and the ordinances of God blameless. What this is intending to do is to reveal the character. These are people who are declared righteous before God. These are people who were not just outwardly righteous because outward righteousness is pretty easy. You can put that on very easily. It's not difficult at all to have an appearance of being a pretty good person or even a religious person. All you need to do is wear a 300 pound tuna fish around your neck and have the back of your car plastered with bumper stickers. You can have the appearance of being righteous and it's not hard to do that at all. A lot of people do that and they do that habitually. They have the outer appearance. They might carry the Bible. They might go to church regularly. It isn't difficult to have an outward appearance, but what he's speaking about here is that people had an internal righteousness. These were people who were walking in a righteous fashion. These were people who were walking according to the commandments and ordinances of the Lord God and it says they were blameless, meaning that they were people who indeed had a heart that had been transformed by faith. They were motivated and purified by faith in the Lord God. So it gives us a picture of a righteous couple. This verse 7 though, they had no child because Elizabeth was barren and they were both well advanced in years. The Jews put a large premium, a very high premium on having children because children were inheritance of the Lord and the fruit of the womb was his reward. They recognized that barrenness is actually being something that would cause great sorrow. These were people who were righteous and these were people who were blameless, but this is an old couple who more than likely are past their child-bearing years and they have had no child whatsoever. So Elizabeth at this point is living in great sorrow and even shame in the Jewish community because she hasn't had a child. It's impossible for her now to become pregnant. She's old and more than likely infertile. But his greatest desire would have been to be a father and his great desire for his wife would be that she would be a mother, but it was not to be. So it says in verses 8 through 10, so it was that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord and the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense. Now the priests would serve for one week and then they'd be off for several months and then they would serve a second week through each calendar year. And as they did that, that would be fulfilling their priestly duty. The only time they would come in, if you will, when they were not supposed to be there was during the major feasts like Passover, Pentecost or Tabernacles. Because there were so many priests, a priest would burn incense before the Lord if possible only one time in their entire years of service. In other words, it wasn't something that every priest had an opportunity to do. And for them to have the lot fall on them so that they were the ones who were capable of going in to the temple there and to offer incense before God was an incredible blessing and privilege. I can't think of anything. I couldn't think of anything that would be equal to that in our modern day life. For them, the honor of doing something like that was the dream of every priest, to be able to go in and to offer up incense. Now part of the reason why it was a dream of every priest to be able to do that is because incense in the Old Testament as well as the new represents the prayers of the saints. And so this was the time of prayer. So he would add his prayers to the prayers that were being lifted up at that time and he had a very special place as he went in there and began to lift up prayer before the Lord in the lighting of the incense. It was something that was of incredible value to him. Now, you need to understand that when Zacharias was in there at that time and the incense was being presented to the Lord, that this is a man who would have been fully and completely taken by what he's doing. His attention is going to be fully on what he is doing at that moment. It's not distracted by anything else. And there he is as he's in front of the altar of incense. Now as this is taking place, verse 11, then an angel of the Lord appeared to him standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled and fear fell upon him. So imagine yourself. Again, I can't imagine this, but I'll pretend that I can. If I was there in that moment of offering my hearts for God, and I'm in this, the most holy place that I could possibly be in at that moment. And I see off to my right, off to the right rather of the altar movement, or I hear a sound and I open my eyes and in front of me is an angel. You better believe I'd be scared. I mean, every once in a while I've heard testimonies of these guys who will say, you know, I was shaving and an angel stood next to me, oh, you lying dog. There's no way that you would stand there and continue shaving if an angel is next. It doesn't work that way. Whenever you study the Scripture and you see angelic visitation, very often the visitation is accompanied by great fear on part of the persons who are being visited. You see that over and over again. You see that in Revelation chapters 19 and 22. You see it in various places throughout the Scripture. You see it in Mark 16. You know, the people are afraid when an angel shows up. Matthew tells us that the men who were guarding the tomb when Jesus Christ was resurrected, when the angel appeared, they were like dead men. I mean, there is a tremendous fear associated with the appearance of an angel and that's what's taking place here. And so the angel is, and I want you to notice verse 11, by the way, the angel is there on the right side of the altar. The right side of the altar is called the place of honor. And so there is a very special thing taking place here. Zachariah sees him. He's troubled. Fear falls upon him. Verse 13, but the angel says to him, Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you shall call his name John and you will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord and he shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Do not be afraid, Zacharias, your prayer is heard. What prayer are you praying? Well, there's at least two prayers that we can be aware of. One is he's praying there. He would be praying for the redemption of the nation of Israel. He would be praying for that because we know that later on in the same chapter if you'd like to turn a page in verse 67, verses 67 through 69, his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, blessed is the Lord God of Israel for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. And so one of the things he would be praying for would be for the redemption of Israel. But there's another thing that he would be praying for and that is that his wife would become pregnant. That's obvious that Zacharias didn't have any other children because once you've had one, I don't know if you'd be praying for a second one. I'm just kidding, of course, kind of. To have a child, his great desire is to have a child. I want you to see verse 13 here because it says, don't be afraid, Zacharias, your prayer is heard, your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you shall call his name John. You might find this interesting what the name John means. The name John means Jehovah has shown grace. The name John speaks of the grace of God. And John is gonna be a mighty man. John is gonna be a man who goes before Messiah. He is the one who is a forerunner. He's the one who goes before him, preparing the way for the Lord. And I wanna give to you right now a very practical approach to these verses here. I wanna give you something that might help you in your walk with Jesus Christ. And as I was looking at this passage, I was remembering some of the things that the Lord has placed on my heart in the past that I wanted to repeat to you tonight. And so I wanna give to you seven things here that you're gonna find about John. Seven things in the life of John that could be a blessing to you because these are things that God used in his life and things that God can use in ours. And I wanna give you these things because I think it will help you to appreciate what God can do in a person's life. The first thing I wanna show you here as we look at this is that John is a person who has a godly heritage. One of the things that went into his life that made him very special in the way that he was used by God, one of the things that he could look back on is a godly heritage. He had a mother and he had a father who were believers. He had somebody who he could look to in his life, a mom and a dad who had a life of faith and service of God. And that's something that I think is a tremendous advantage in anybody's life. If you had a godly mom and you have a godly father and you were raised in a home that honored the Lord, you have a tremendous leg up on anybody else. You have a tremendous advantage because you were raised in a household that believed in God. You were raised in a household that had faith. You were raised in a household that would serve him. You possibly had a dad who would read the word of God, a mother who would pray with you. Those are tremendous advantages and there's something that we ought to be grateful for. Now not every person has that. Not everyone was raised in the Christian faith. It's been said it is a blessed thing for some of us that we can look back on a father's example and a mother's example with nothing but genuine gratitude to God for both. But there are others among you who in looking back must say, I thank God I was delivered from the evil influence to which I was subjected as a child. Do not let your child ever have to say that of you. But ask for the grace that in your own house you may walk with a perfect heart. You know we have to have this advanced desire to not only walk with God ourselves, but to walk in such a way that our children will see the living testimony and witness of our faith in Christ so that they might long to have the same relationship with God that they've seen their mother or their father have. And one of the things that I see in the life of John is he had godly parents. These were people who lived for God, served God, and so what a tremendous advantage for him to have been born into a family like that. If I do not have that as my heritage, well as a believer I can make that the heritage for my children. If I didn't have that as I was growing up, well I can make certain that my children have the advantage of the thing that I wish that I would have had as a child myself. So the first thing I see in this man's life is a godly heritage. The second thing I see is found in verse 15. Notice it says he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He will be great in the sight of the Lord. We see something about John as his ministry grows and we see more of him which we'll see here in the Gospel of Luke. But this is a man whose desire was not to please other men. This is a man whose greatness came from his desire to please God. He was great in the sight of God. This is a man who was not spineless. This is a man who was strong in his faith and his convictions. And if I'm gonna be strong in the things of the Lord it just begins with me establishing priorities in a right fashion. I have to have my spiritual priorities in a correct order. We need to seek God first. You know the Bible tells us in Matthew chapter 6 verse 33 that he seeketh first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. This is what we need to do is we need to have a spiritual priority. One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord that I might behold the beauty of the Lord. There needs to be this desire in my life to seek after the kingdom of God first. If I'm gonna be used by God then I need to have a knowledge of the relationship that I have with God so that I might love him with my whole heart, soul, strength, mind and that I might put that into practice by caring for other people. John had that. He wasn't spineless. You see moral courage and spiritual conviction comes from having a sold out heart to Jesus Christ. The reason that a lot of people have fear in their communication of the gospel is because they frankly know that they're not living up to its claims and they don't wanna be a hypocrite or perhaps they're afraid to share because it may put them in a position of having to live the message out consistently. So some people don't speak about the Lord very much because they're afraid of being hypocritical. I found out a long time ago that if I'm gonna be used by the Lord then I need to put my words and my walk together to do the best that I can to walk in the grace, love and goodness of God, his mercy and I thank God for it every day it's renewed, his mercy is renewed and his compassion never fails on a daily basis. But what I need is I need to have a mentality of not fearing man. I need to have a mentality of wanting to please God and if I have that as my priority then God will even make my enemies to dwell in peace with me. But the bottom line is to learn to have spiritual priorities. When I look at the life of John this is a man who was great in the sight of God. That tells me that he wasn't a man who looked to be great in the sight of other men. He was not a man pleaser, he was a God pleaser. He wanted to bring honor and glory to the Lord and God's testimony concerning him is that he is great. He is great in my sight. A third thing we see here in verse 15 is he shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. This was a man who was not open to any artificial stimulus. This is a man who was separated to God and he didn't cater to the desires of his flesh. Every once in a while I will have either get news of or conversation with somebody who basically wants to argue about the liberties that they have in Jesus Christ and sometimes they want to argue about their freedom to drink. I'm not somebody who waste my time in arguments like that just so that I don't want to appear to be argumentative because I don't. I don't want to waste my time arguing with people about their perceived liberties but I've discovered something. I've discovered this. In my experience, my experience obviously isn't universal. It's just limited to my own but in my experience when I've had discussions with people who want to argue about the liberties they have it's usually because they're not walking in the spirit. It's usually because they don't share. They don't get into the word of God. They don't pray. They don't have fellowship. What they want to do is they want to use the grace of God and basically extend it over their sinful life. They want to continue living in sin and go to heaven and I've had more than one conversation over the years with somebody who wants to argue about the fact that it's okay and the Bible doesn't forbid it and it's our right to drink and I see that and I've seen that over the years many, many times. Many times. You know, I had my own battle with alcohol. That's no secret. My testimony is obvious. I've shared it with you. I abused alcohol for a number of years and even after coming to Christ I on occasion would drink and sometimes I drank to excess and I made excuse for it. I said it's okay. I can still remember when I went into the military and I had a toothache and I told one of my friends. I was a brand new Christian. I was in a Christian of more than three months and I went into the army and I had a toothache and my friend said, why don't you go to the dentist? And I said, I don't trust military dentists. Just take me to the liquor store. So I went and I trusted Dr. Bud and Budweiser and I justified it in my own sight. I said, you know what? And the Bible says that Paul told Timothy to drink a little wine for his stomach's frequent illnesses. You know, so a beer or two is not a bad thing. I was a brand new Christian looking for kind of like loopholes to continue walking in the flesh, you know? But you know, after a while I began to discover that I might be able to find some loopholes here or there but I certainly didn't have the joy of the spirit. I certainly didn't have the peace that I used to have with the Lord. I most certainly was not sharing the things of Christ with anybody else. I was compromising my walk. This individual here, John the Baptist was a man who didn't give himself over to stimulation of any sort that was artificial. He didn't drink wine nor strong drink. That's another way of simply saying that he was a man who was sold out to the Lord. He was separated to God and did not cater to the desire of his flesh. Some things may be lawful, Paul said, but not all things build up. And he said, and I'm not gonna be brought under the bondage to anything. It's been said, I believe that one reason why the church of God at this present moment has so little influence over the world is because the world has so much influence over the church. This was a man who was separated to God. He didn't cater to desires of the flesh. The fourth thing you see in verse 15, he was filled with the Holy Spirit. His sinful flesh was under the control of God's Holy Spirit. And because he was filled with the Spirit of God, he would do that which is pleasing to God. In Galatians chapter five verse 16, Paul says, live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the sinful desires of the flesh. My encouragement, even as we gathered together last week to you is always gonna be the same. Walk in the Spirit. Open your heart up and say, God, fill me with your Holy Spirit. Lord, I wanna walk in the power of your Spirit. You have a Holy Spirit that will work in me, that will cause me to live a life that is pleasing to you. Lord, I wake up in the morning with old memories and inclinations of the flesh and a variety of other things that I'm gonna battle with all day long. And if I don't have your help, I'm not gonna be victorious. And so Lord, in Jesus' name, I'm asking you right from the beginning, I'm asking you, fill me with your Spirit. And today, awaken me to the reality of your power because this was a man who was filled with the Holy Spirit. What made him great? That God would use him, God filled him from his mother's womb with the Spirit of God and so that he could be used by the Lord in a way that was mighty. He was filled with the Holy Spirit. In verse 16, we see a fifth thing. It says he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. This is a man who has a mission of evangelism. This was a man who went out preaching repentance. This was a man who was not a compromiser whatsoever, had boldness and courage by the Holy Spirit who filled him in a message that came from heaven. And this is a man who had an eternal framework because he knew that he had a short time to live. And he didn't have that much time that he would be able to donate or use in the service of God. And therefore, he knew that his mission was to turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He was an evangelist. He was a man who was preaching the word of God to people. You see, ultimately Paul says it this way. He says in Philippians chapter two, verses 10 and 11, at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. He had a heart to see people saved. Now, I should hasten to add, when I say that to you, I realize that not every person in this room is an evangelist. I know that God gives a multiplicity of gifts and not every person in the body of Christ receiving your spiritual gifts that he's given to you is an evangelist. I know that. I know that it's been stated that probably somewhere around 10% of the body of Christ has the evangelistic spiritual gift. I understand that. Not everybody here is called to be an evangelist. I mean, I don't expect that I'll be seeing your name in lights one day at the Anaheim Stadium. You know, replacing Greg Laurie and your name there. Now maybe if that happens, that's cool. Get me a seat up there on the platform, love it. But I don't know, maybe God will use you that way. Maybe you are a missionary and you just have been quenching the spirit. But on the other hand, you may not be and I may not be called as an evangelist. But I can do the work of an evangelist. That means that I can be a witness. You see, the Holy Spirit comes upon you, Jesus said, so that you might be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. Do you recognize your home if you've got unbelievers there as being your mission field? Do you see it that way? I hope you do and I'm sure most of you do. It's a mission field. Now that doesn't mean that you're constantly pushing the gospel down your unbelieving relatives or friends throughout. Of course you don't do that, but you do pray for them. But you do live in an awareness of that, that they don't know the Lord and you're the only Bible that they're gonna read. You're aware of that, so I'm sure you live in such a way to bring honor and glory to God. You may be the only evangelist on the job site. You may hate the job that you have, even though it's the job you prayed to get. But you may hate it. But you know God placed you in that position to be a light in a very dark place. You may be the only testimony that somebody has of a real living Christian. You're going to school when you're on the campus there, instead of trying to be the coolest person on campus, it may be that God has placed you there so you can be a light in a very dark place so that you can live in such a way that people will see that you're sold out to something other than the latest trend. You see, you need to see yourself that way. Because if you do see yourself that way, then God can use you in a marvelous way. See yourself as a person that God is going to use to turn the hearts of people back to him and watch what God will do with your life. That's how John was, he was an evangelist. And also in verse 17, he was one who brought a remedy to a broken, broken family. Notice it says in verse 17, he will also go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. His greatest desire was to bring God into the family, God into the family of Israel. I've shared this many times but it bears repetition at this point because it illustrates the point I'm trying to make. And it's this, the gospel can bring a uniting of a family. And when I came home, that day after getting saved, the very first thing I did in my home was to tell my mom and my dad and my sisters that I loved them. And then when my mom went off into the bedroom because my dad and mom and my sisters were in the den there watching TV and I saw my mom walk past me and she went to bed and she later told me she went to bed before she went to bed, she did a rosary for me because she knew that I had gone crazy. But as my sister Madeline was there and Rebecca with me in that bathroom and Rebecca was washing my hair and I was babbling on, I started sharing God did something today. What did I know? I mean, it was like eight o'clock at night, I had gotten saved around four in the afternoon. I had been a Christian for around four hours. What do you know in four hours? Nothing. But as I was there washing my hair, babbling on, whatever it was that was being said had such an impact that my sister Madeline who was 16 at the time went home, rather went to bed and when she went to bed that night, December 27th, 1970, she said to Jesus Christ, whatever it is that you did in my brother I want you to do that in me. You can have an impact almost immediately when God places on your heart a desire to live for him. It can happen almost immediately. And do you know that I did not know that my sister Madeline committed a right to Christ on that night? I thought she did it weeks later. I thought she did it when we took her to Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa and she went for it at an invitation there. But she told me just a few years ago, she said, no, you think that I got saved at Costa Mesa, David, I got saved the same day you did. She said, because I saw what God did in you because she knew me and knew the way I was, the sins that I hid from other people were very open to my sister Madeline. She was very aware of the way that I was. And she said, and when I saw how radically different, how radically different you were, she said that spoke to me because it wasn't very much before that it was probably maybe two months or three months prior to my getting saved that I had gone to the mountains with some friends and I had dropped some hallucinogenics and I had come home and I was just still, still flying. And I came home and I was telling Madeline some crazy things, we need to go drop some acid into the water supply so that everybody in Whittier can feel what I'm feeling right now. I mean, I was just saying the craziest things and she was just looking at me like, oh my, my, my, some aliens took you away, brought your back, took your brain out and put somebody else's in. I don't even know who this guy is. And I still remember just babbling on telling her all kinds of crazy things and how the world can be changed if my plan were to be put into practice. And just a few months later, there I am, washing my hair, telling her Jesus Christ is king, Jesus Christ is the Lord, he's saved me tonight and he's transforming me and I can even sense it right now. And that's what brought our family together. That's what made my family that I was raised in. That's what made my family a family. My mom was talking to me today and she said to me, you know, honey, she said, she said, your father and I were married, my mom and dad were married 24, 25 years before they came to Christ. And so my mom was saying to me today, she said, you know, honey, she said, she said, I had a great marriage with your dad. She said, but like I say, it really began after we got saved. It really, she said the day daddy got saved, he looked at me and he said to me, this is what my mom was saying, I don't think she'd mind me repeating this to you. She just told me this today. She said, the day your daddy got saved, he looked at me and with new eyes, and he said, you are the most beautiful thing. I love you so much. And she said, from that day on, she said, our marriage really took off because that's what the gospel will do in somebody's life. It transforms. 24 years together, it was 24 years of being married. Actually no, it was 25. And then it took off. That's what John wanted to bring, turning the hearts of the fathers to the children, bringing the family together to worship God. I wanna be used by the Lord. And when I look at these passages, I look for things in it that can help me to have that wish fulfilled. And that, I believe, is something all of us can take advantage of. May God provide for us, if we didn't have a godly heritage, well to produce one. May God work within us so that our desire is to please him and not man. May we be those who do not open ourselves up to artificial stimulus. And may we be filled with the Holy Spirit. May we have an eternal framework. May we be those who are open to seeing the Lord work in our lives. And finally, may we not be respecters of persons. Because he was the one who preached with conviction and he wanted to make people ready to meet the Lord. And because that is true, he preached repentance. And that is what this nation needs. But if this nation is ever gonna turn to the Lord, it's actually gonna begin in our hearts when we as members of this nation turn our hearts completely to him first. So may God work in us so that we might learn these very basic lessons and serve him all the days of our life.