Return with me and your Bibles to Luke 1. I don't want you guys getting too excited. I normally don't preach through that word Christmassy type sermons in that regard, but since I'm in Genesis, and it's probably going to be at least six weeks before I would ever get to any gospel truth, Since the gospel doesn't come until after the fall, if you will, I thought it'd be good to do a brief exposition through a couple weeks of Luke and then come back to Genesis after that. So for those of you who like that Christmas stuff, I guess you can have it. But just know I'm still going expositionally through Luke, so I'm not changing my methods or anything like that. All right, so with that being said, if you would turn there to Luke chapter 1, we're going to read verses 1 through 25. Hear the Word of the Lord. And as much as many have undertaken to compile the 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, 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 both were 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 prayer has been 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 before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will 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. And he will go before him in the spirit and the 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 for the Lord a people prepared. And Zechariah said to the angel, How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years. And the angel answered him, I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you do not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time. And the people were waiting for Zechariah. And they were wondering at his delay in the temple. And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them. And they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home. After these days, his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, Thus the Lord has done for me, and the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among the people." Let's pray. Father, we ask that You would open hearts. Lord, especially heartened ones, I pray that You would soften them for those who have grown to distrust the promises of God. May they believe them this morning. We ask in Christ's name, Amen. I'm going to give you a little bit of background this morning before we get into it. I think we're sort of setting up what's happened between the Old Testament and this period of time. It was the prophet Malachi who spoke the last remaining words of the Old Testament, right? And his prophecy to the nation of Israel was about 430 B.C., so about 400 years or so before the birth of Christ. And his message to the Israelites consisted of a reminder of the Lord's choice of Jacob over Esau, first of all. Then secondly, a rebuke to the people for offering blemished sacrifices to God and for not worshiping the Lord in sincerity. They weren't being sincere. They were being hypocritical. And he also particularly rebuked the priests for not following an example of Levi and walking in uprightness before the Lord, following his ways. So you see this pattern that all the people are walking against the Lord's commands. But the priests themselves are the ones who are supposed to teach everyone else how to do it right. And they're not walking right themselves. Therefore, Malachi warns them that on the day of judgment, the day of judgment is coming, he says, that the Lord himself will come and purify his people. But he warned them that before the Lord would come to purify them in such a way, that he first would send them a messenger who would arrive to prepare the way for the Lord. Now, This messenger, Malachi says, would be like Elijah. He would come in that power and that strength, turning the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers. But it's now been over 400 years, though, and we still haven't seen this come about. This prophecy has not been fulfilled. The messenger still has not come. In fact, no message from the Lord had come for 400 years. Nothing. There were no prophets during this time. There were no miracles. There was no speaking in tongues. There was no divine visions. There were no divine dreams. There were no angelic messengers. There were no signs from God, no communication at all. And they've been waiting and waiting and nothing. Now, after their release from captivity in Babylon, the nation of Israel was ruled first by the Medes and the Persians and then by the Greeks. And then by the Romans, the Jews were not a free people and they had not been a free people for quite some time. Even their brief independence was not really free. They were a nation seemingly not blessed by the Lord. That's the way they felt. Not only had they not heard from God, they themselves were continually unfaithful to him. And they continued to walk in the stubbornness of their hearts and to walk in darkness. Most of these people, as well as the priests, were hard hearted. They were stiff necked. They were not looking for Christ. They had given up looking for Him. They sort of half-heartedly looked for Him, but they doubted whether He would really come. So that's sort of the back story to this. And it's with all that back story that the New Testament begins. Herod the Great is now king over Israel. He's put in place by the Roman Emperor himself, which is probably not a good thing when the Roman Emperor chooses your king for you. But he had been in that role since 37 BC, so for almost 40 years. But Herod was a madman. He struggled with paranoia, and he killed just about anybody who he even slightly feared. And so he went around killing his family members, his friends, and anyone else that he thought could possibly get in his way. Now, most of the Israelites didn't support him, especially because he also was an Edomite. And if you remember, Malachi just made the point, the last communication that they had, that the Edomites are not good. We want to follow Israel, not Jacob, excuse me, Jacob, not Esau. And so again, everything that Malachi, the last prophecy they have, everything is going wrong. That's not the way it should be. But now an Edomite is ruling over the Jews. And as I said previously, most of the priests and the spiritual leaders in the land are corrupt. They're not walking according to the law of God. Now, there's one man, the text applies here, tells us that he was upright in the sight of God. And it makes it seem like he is an unusual man in comparison to most of the other priests at this time. But it says that he followed the Lord's commands and regulations blamelessly. His name was Zechariah. He was a priest who lived in a very small town in the countryside outside of Jerusalem. Both he and his wife, Elizabeth, walked with the Lord. Now, that's emphatic there. It's meant to be, again, in separation from everyone else. And so her father and grandfather and her brother, they were all priests as well. They come from a long priestly line, right? Though they were righteous in God's sight, they were not blameless in the sight of most Israelites. And this is what Luke wants you to pick up on. They both were perceived as being under God's curse because they were childless, because his wife was barren. Most likely they were married in their teens. But now the text says that they are well advanced in years, which means they're probably much older, above 65 or what have you. It's much older than that. Now again, so it should encourage you, you know, if you're over 65 today, you don't, biblically, you don't call yourself old, you call yourself advanced. So keep that in mind. I'm an advanced person. That's what you would say. In the scripture, they're advanced in age. But given her approximate age, For about 50 years or more, Elizabeth has had to experience the ridicule and the stigma attached to her infertility. Again, this is a culture in which you really believe that you were cursed if you couldn't have a child. Okay? Zechariah 2 was not allowed to move up in the ranks of the priesthood because of this perceived curse that had been placed upon him. And his wife supposedly, for some secret sin, had caused this childlessness, you see. It's just assumed that somehow they had sinned in this way, which isn't true. Again, that's the background that Luke records for us. Now, Luke's the only gospel writer who gives us the full account of what happened from this first angelic announcement to the time of the ascension of Christ. Hence, he's the only one who records these events that we'll be considering over the next couple weeks. His gospel is the longest in the New Testament, much longer than Mark and the others. But he's obtaining for us eyewitness accounts of all these things that have transpired as he's he's done the research and has put all these things together again with the aid of the Holy Spirit. Now, Luke begins where Malachi leaves off. OK, so so these first few chapters in Luke are pivotal to our understanding of how the Old and New Testaments, how they how they continue along in the redemptive plan of God. So at this time in Israel, here's what you need to know. There are 20,000 priests who are descendants of Aaron living in Israel right now. 20,000. Now, you would think, well, that seems like that's an awful lot. Probably way too many for Israel to need on any regular basis. And you'd be right. Most of the time, you don't need 20,000 priests. But on the day of Passover, every single one of them would be employed all day long. We're talking Millions of animals being sacrificed and every priest in town would be covered with blood from head to toe You need a 20,000 priest to accomplish the task okay, but outside of that and outside of the regular feast days you Any normal day of the year, they had a rotation of men that would come in to do the regular tasks that needed to be done in the temple. You don't need to have 20,000 priests to do that. And so because of that, 1 Chronicles 24 records for us how the Lord divides up the priests into 24 divisions according to the grandsons of Aaron. And so in verse 5 of our text, we learn that Zachariah was in Abijah's division. So again, it's broken up according to division. Now, each division ministered in the temple for two non-consecutive weeks per year. I'm giving you a lot of historical background, but I promise it'll make sense in a few minutes. For two non-consecutive weeks per year. It was Zachariah's division that was responsible for ministering in the temple that week. So all week, you had his division coming in to minister before the Lord. Now, like his division, all the divisions contained about a thousand priests. That's still too many to do anything on a daily basis, if you will. So again, they would have to draw lots, particularly of who would offer the incense on that particular day. And I'll tell you this, according to tradition, from what we know from history, You're only allowed as a priest to offer incense on the golden altar once in your life. OK, so you have to understand what a great privilege this is for a priest to be able to offer the incense on behalf of the people. OK, so this is not something he had done many times before. This would be his first time. even in his old age. And the reason why he's doing it so late is because of the perceived curse upon him. You see that again. OK, so this is a man who not most men who were perceived as blessed by God would have done it much earlier in their life. He's an old man. Normally, old men didn't offer incense. OK, that was something you gave to the young man. You already did your time, if you will. But There are two main duties of the priest. One is to offer sacrifices, and this is also a sacrifice of incense, if you will. And then the other is to offer prayer on behalf of the people. So one of the duties of the priest was to prepare this incense offering both morning and evening on the golden altar. So again, it would be his opportunity and time to do it. Now, as the priest made the offering, The incense went up to heaven the same time their prayers were being lifted up to heaven. It was meant to be a sign, right? So, as the smoke is going up into heaven, it's meant to be a sign, a symbol of their prayers going up to heaven and God receiving them. Now, to offer the incense on the golden altar inside the Most Holy Place, very special privilege. Now, if you remember, and I think I still have it right. All right, so if you're going from my direction into the holy sanctuary, right? So you have the holy place and then the most holy place where the Ark of the Covenant is behind the veil. When you go in the door, the left-hand side is where the golden lampstand is. On your right-hand side is the golden table with the showbread. And then in front of you is the altar of incense. Okay, it's a much smaller version of the altar that's outside the bronze altar. Now, that golden altar is sitting right in front of the veil. It's the closest that any normal priest outside of the high priest would ever get to the Ark of the Covenant. It's the closest he would ever get to the presence of the Lord. So it's a very special place. Like I said, most of them only got up as far as the table on either side, but they never went farther than that, not without permission on that particular day. And so now because of the proximity to the most holy place, this was a dangerous as well as a great thing for any priest to do, you see. If you remember, Nadab and Abihu had offered incense on that same golden altar many years before and died because they didn't do it in the proper manner, you see. So it's a very important thing that you do it right. Fire had come out from the Lord and literally consumed them while they're standing in the holy place. Just to show you what a high gravity this situation really is. But every priest knew the proper procedure for the offering. He was to take fiery coals from the bronze altar in the courtyard with the golden utensils in one hand and carry the divinely sanctioned incense in the other. And it was a very specific mix of spices that were to be used on this. If you messed up the spices again, there would be consequences. So he was to walk into the holy place, put the coals on the golden altar, Stoke it and then pour the incense on top thus immediately causing this great display of smoke which would be a sweet smelling aroma Both to him as well as unto God right so every priest was taught to tell exactly how to do this But because the great number of priests each one only offered it this once now Zachariah followed the directions exactly carrying the coals the incense the whole bit and And immediately, as he's doing that, you also have to understand the people are standing outside of the temple praying. And they're going to wait for him to come out to sort of officially say, God has received your prayers. So his job is to go in and to pray on their behalf. And they're also praying outside. So it's a corporate thing here, even though it seems like he's doing it all by himself. But inside the holy place, Zachariah is praying both before and while he offers the incense to the Lord. You sort of have to picture Martin Luther carrying the elements and being afraid to drop one single drop of the wine because he's afraid that he's hurting the blood of Christ itself. It's that important. But as soon as his prayer goes up, he receives his answer. That's quite shocking. All of a sudden, he's not alone anymore. Now again, you sort of picture the golden altar sort of about the size of this lectern and he's standing before an offering and all of a sudden beside the lectern, something appears. Someone is there standing beside him. Again, this man is well advanced in years. I wouldn't be surprised if he almost had a heart attack. as he sees this image appear before him. But it's because of the words of the angel that gives him comfort to know that he's not about to die. Again, if you have an angel show up and you're standing before the ark that has the holy angels, the cherubim on both sides, probably means you're going to die, right? So keep that in mind. Verse 13 to 15, the angel says to him, do not be afraid, Zachariah, for your prayer has been heard. and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John." Now here's a question for you. What do you suppose Zachariah was praying for in the holy place when the angel appeared to him? He says, your prayer has been heard. What was he praying? At first you might think that he was praying for a son. But based upon his reaction, clearly that's not what he's praying for at that moment. for it he didn't believe that he was like you have a son in their old days and certainly was not praying for that at this moment not only that but when the first one and offers first is offering prayers on behalf of the people and what are the people supposed to pray for the supposed to pray for the Messiah to come that's what he's praying for and the angel is saying your prayer has been answered the Messiah is coming that's that's sort of the gist of it The prayer of God's people at this time, again, even that they weren't really believing that it was going to happen. It's interesting, though, that when the angel tells Zachariah that his prayer has been answered, he doesn't talk about the Messiah. Rather, he talks about a son for Zachariah and Elizabeth. Now, I find that to be amazing, an amazing truth, for God is not answering one prayer here. He's answering a number of prayers at the same time. He's not just answering the prayer for the Messiah, which they had prayed many times. He's answering a prayer for a child. A prayer that they had prayed probably 50 years ago. A prayer of desperation year after year until they quit praying because they couldn't take it anymore. They had prayed, but they had never received the answer to it. And at this late stage in life, had all but forgotten those prayers they had prayed so fervently, so desperately. Praise God, He never forgot them. It's interesting. In the Hebrew, Zechariah's name means God remembers. That's apropos, is it not? God never fails to remember all of our requests. And the truth is, he answers each of them in his own time, according to his own purpose and for his own glory. He never fails to do it. And should our God not receive glory for such a marvelous answer to a multitude of prayers all wrapped up into one answer? What a great God. The Lord had withheld the Son from Zachariah and Elizabeth for so many years. Why? that He might bless them at this appointed time, not only with the Son, but with the one Son who would become the greatest prophet ever to walk the face of the earth." That's what Jesus says. He is the greatest prophet ever to have lived. For their Son would prepare the way for the Lord Himself. And it's fascinating to see God's wisdom and His providence in choosing this particular couple. I was thinking this week, what's the significance of John the Baptist coming from a priestly family. I mean, after all, he wasn't really a priest as much as he was a prophet. Yet he performed ceremonial washings through his baptisms, right? But he didn't offer any sacrifices on behalf of the people, which is what a priest is normally required to do. That's a central role of a priest. Well, it dawned upon me the other day that it would take a priest to recognize a proper sacrifice unto the Lord. Again, that's the problem with the priest in Malachi, is they're offering lame sacrifices unto God. Whatever the people choose to give, they're laying it on the altar. Their job is to recognize a proper sacrifice. That's the priestly duty. And when John the Baptist sees Jesus coming toward him at the Jordan River, he says to the crowd, look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. He is a proper sacrifice. He is the proper sacrifice. The only one. You see, that's the priest's job to recognize what would be acceptable unto the Lord. And Jesus is the only one who is acceptable unto the Lord. You see, earlier the prophet Malachi was pointing out all these priests, they couldn't recognize it. They weren't doing their job. But that now the priest son himself, John, is going to recognize the one worthy lamb of God. He's right there, right in front of you. Now, the angel told Zachariah that the boy's name would be John, which means God is gracious. And he said that John would not only be a joy and a delight to them, but that he that many would rejoice because of his birth, for he would be great in the sight of the Lord. So great would he be that he would be filled with the Holy Spirit even in the womb of his mother. And just to make sure that no one would accuse him of enthusiasm, the Lord also put the requirement upon him that he would have no drink, no alcohol, or anything else, because clearly the man would be perceived as being crazy at times when he's talking. No one wanted to be able to accuse him of being fermented with drink, if that's the case. But then in verse 16 and 17, the angel tells us what great things he will do. He says, and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will 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 for the Lord a people prepared. Now, during this time, many of the hearts of the people have grown cold toward God and toward each other. Love and truth and grace, they're all lacking in their lives, and they have forgotten the end of their calling. It was John's calling to bring them back, to prepare them for when Christ would come. That's his job. His main job is to prepare. That's it. To tell them to repent and to prepare the way for the Lord. This is a great message indeed, but it's interesting. Zachariah like totally skips all that. It's like he wasn't listening to a single thing. Everything he just told him, all this wonderful news about how great his son was going to be. All he can, he can't wrap his mind around the one fact in verse 18. He says, How shall I know this? For I am an old man. And notice he doesn't call his wife old. He says, My wife is well advanced in years. But what Luke is trying to point out to us in this passage is that he didn't praise God for this wonderful message of hope. He didn't thank him for keeping his promises or fulfilling his words of prophecy. He didn't ask him how it would happen, per se, or when it would happen. But really, his question in the Greek is more like this. Are you sure it will happen? So he's doubting, you see. And later you'll see with Mary's reaction, it's a little bit different. Mary asks questions, but her questions are based in faith. Zechariah's are not. He's an old man who has somewhat grown bitter because he hasn't seen the power of the Lord working in his life. And so he asked for a sign or proof that what the angel is saying is true. Now, this was not a request based upon faith, but upon unbelief. Zechariah had lived his whole life without having his prayers answered. And so he doesn't believe. He doesn't believe. It's interesting when he's speaking again in the Greek, it's in the emphatic, he says, I am an old man, as if he's trying to teach the angel a lesson. I am an old man. You don't get it. I'm old. But in verse 19, the angel answers Zechariah, also using the emphatic, and he says, I am Gabriel. You may be an old man, but I am the angel of the Lord. The same angel that appeared to your forefather Daniel and told you exactly what would happen from that time until now. That the Medes and Persians would come, That the Greeks would come, that the Romans would come, and that you would be in this exact situation. I'm the same angel who spoke then, and you could tell I told the truth because it's come to pass. And now I'm standing before you. Listen to what I'm saying. Then he again uses the emphatic. He says, I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you to bring you this good news. So forget your I'm an old man stuff. That's not working. Zechariah, this may be the closest you've ever gotten to the Lord, but I continually stand in the presence of God. And I'm telling you the truth. You see? Therefore, you should believe what I'm telling you. But if you want to sign, here it is. Verse 20, Gabriel says, Behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time. Now, how ironic is that? Zechariah had asked for a sign, and the Lord gives him sign language. He doesn't want to believe the word? Fine. You're not going to be speaking any words at all. But rather, you're going to have to use sign language to tell others what I've just told you. Now, you have to understand something. It was also a matter of discipline for him. Zechariah's unbelief affects what would happen when he goes out, you see. Give you, for instance, on the day of a pastor's ordination in a Reformed church, the pastor sits in the pew just like all of you, he's a regular member of the church. At the end of the service, he is invited to come up and to take his place as one of the servants of God. And he raises his hands in the benediction and gives you the blessing from God. The priest does the exact same thing. After he has offered the prayers on behalf of the people, he comes out of the temple and he raises his hands in order to pronounce for the only time in his life, he only does it once, and he pronounces, may the Lord bless you and keep you May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. But when Zachariah comes out, he can't say a word. Because he didn't believe. All this time, Zechariah had been inside the holy place, having a conversation with an angel. The people are waiting outside, waiting for this benediction. Now, under normal circumstances, the priest would not have stayed inside very long at all. It doesn't take that long to offer the incense on the altar. And so, in verse 21, Luke tells us that the people began wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. They most likely were thinking, maybe he's dead. Maybe the Lord struck him down for some secret sin of which they all assume that he was some secret sinner anyway, that it caused this great blessing of this great burden upon his wife in her barrenness. Now, surely they were amazed, though, with wonder when Zechariah comes out of the temple with fire in his eyes and his arms are flailing around trying to get their attention of what just happened. And he can't quite explain it to them. He hasn't quite learned how to use sign language just yet. And you have to think that they had to be amazed at all of this. Luke tells us that the people realized that he had seen a vision in the temple and they knew that the Lord was working, that something wonderful was happening. They just didn't know what. They'd have to wait just a little bit longer to hear it, to see it for themselves. After Zechariah had finished his priestly duties, he went home and had to explain all this to his wife with whatever stuff he's doing. Now, you can only imagine Elizabeth is waiting in anticipation to hear all about her husband's experience in the holy place for the first time. And all he can do is smile. I imagine he has this big grin on his face because he believes now at some point. Finally, he writes it out for her and she looks at him and wonder, probably asking something like, is it true? Can it be, after all these years, the Messiah is finally coming and his forerunner is my son, my baby. Perhaps over the next few weeks she gets sick and she grows tired, fatigued, And she becomes cognizant that there is, in fact, a new life living within her, but she doesn't tell soul. You know, perhaps she has had morning sickness before, perhaps many times before, and then knew that there was a death within her womb soon after. Perhaps she was afraid of even more ridicule that she would experience if others did not believe her husband's story. She had already been disgraced time and time again. And out of fear, I imagine, She wouldn't want to have to undergo that again. Well, for these reasons and others, she remains in seclusion until her fifth month, when finally she begins to feel the baby kicking. Then, even Zechariah cannot deny that what God said is true. And Elizabeth too is praising God, saying in verse 25, Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when He looked on me to take away my reproach from among the people. Isn't our God marvelous? God could have chosen any woman in the world to give birth to this prophet. It didn't have to be this way, but he purposely chose a despised barren woman and a very lowly priest to bless them. Truly, it was a miraculous birth drawing attention to this child who would soon to grow up to be the forerunner to the Messiah. The circumstances that surrounding his conception is what makes the people wonder what good thing is going to come from this baby if he's born in such a way, in such a miraculous way, and they would not be disappointed in the end. But what does all this have to do with us? John the Baptist has already come. He's already gone. He's already died. And so has the one whom he prepared the way for. He also came and he died. Well, in one sense, it should fill our hearts with wonder and praise of God's power and wisdom and favor. Now, I know that many of you have felt that same wonder at times in your life where you've seen God's hand at work and his providence has just been magnificent. And I know that at that moment you really felt blessed by God. But I imagine at other times as well in your lives that you've experienced and said the sorrow of loss, the disappointment of your prayers continuing to be unanswered, and even ridiculed from those who just can't empathize with your plight. God does not always take away those things immediately. Sometimes He doesn't take them away until after this earth has been restored. What you need to know about this particular instance is not that we should always expect the same type of miraculous intervention, but rather, it's meant to point us to when Christ comes, you can expect wonderful things. We're meant to look to Him with patience in wonder, knowing that at the right time, All of this will be made right. At the right time, all of your desperate prayers will be answered. Every tear will be wiped away from your eye. And that hope that has been dissipated at some point will be renewed completely. Completely. Then also, the passage should remind us to be prepared ourselves. That's that's the whole message. That's that's the whole reason why John the Baptist comes is to tell us to be prepared. Gabriel's message still applies to us today, since all of John's prophecies haven't come true yet. In fact, most of what John talked about was not about the baby being born, but rather the Lion of Judah coming in judgment upon all the world. John's message to his own generation and to us is to repent of our sins and to turn to Christ, bearing good fruit, worthy of our calling, thereby preparing ourselves for the Lord's return." It's been 2,000 years since His incarnation. But at any moment, just like He did with Zechariah in the temple, He can surprise us with the revelation that it's time. This is the appointed time. And so, I hope that He comes in answer to our prayers as we say, Come, Lord Jesus, come. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for these gospel truths. We thank you for the wonderful way in which you work in our lives. And even when we don't see it clearly, we look forward and hope to the restoration of all things in Christ. Lord, give us this faith. Give us the joy of the faith and the hope in it as well. We ask in Christ's name, Amen.