Luke 1:26-38
The Birth of Jesus Foretold
26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month.37 For no word from God will ever fail.”
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
Luke 5:33-39
Jesus Questioned about Fasting
33 They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.”
34 Jesus answered, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? 35 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.”
36 He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. 38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’”
Matthew 6:9-15
The LORD's Prayer
9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Acts 1:1-11
The Death and Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus
1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with[b] the Holy Spirit.”
6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
I often wonder if Jesus has the same huge impact He had on others in His day, as He does today...Does the Jesus impact us as it did others as He walked around and taught in His day?...His story is still the same...And what a story of a Man who came to earth, who was a traveling Teacher...From His very beginning of being born in a stable to His teachings and then to His unusual death and resurrection is a life that is very much different from others...I think we often miss the whole uniqueness of the story of Jesus, and His being so completely different and new and unique...He taught and healed and did miracles so humbly and subtly, we sometimes overlook this extraordinary and Divinity that is all about Him...He is removed from us by two thousand years and that has some impact on us not realizing that this Man had the most unusual story and life of any other Man...Those who were the original eyewitnesses, had to be going around shaking their heads, rolling their eyes, and be in complete wonderment of what He was saying and doing as they watched and listened to Him...
To say Jesus had an interesting birth and an interesting life is a grand understatement...His mother was a virgin girl...The Holy Spirit came over Mary and she would conceive a Son, who would be called the Son of God...One of the many things, I think we forget about Jesus is that everything He said was from God...He is Divine...And a Divine One allows Himself to be placed in a manger...Being Divine all His spoken words are from God and relate to God and us...And because He is Divine all His words are the Theology of God...He is the Master Theist...He is the Greatest Theist to ever live...
Just the simple question of Jesus being ask why His Disciples did not fast as John the Baptist's disciples did is answered extraordinarily...The Pharisees are in a sense asking Him why He thinks He is any different from John the Baptist...The act of fasting was a very old tradition in the Hebrew religion...It was a sign of worship...Jesus answered it with a parable about a bridegroom, and He is this Bridegroom...Jesus told the questioners, “Can you make the friends of the Bridegroom fast while He is with them?...But the time will come when the Bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.”...Fasting is a sacred time and is to be done while focusing on God...Fasting is an earnest and serious act of worshiping God...But He tells the Pharisees that His followers do not have to fast while He is here on earth...He is the One, we and everyone are supposed to worship and be focused on...So why fast while He is on earth...Let Him be worshiped while on earth...There will be time for fasting when He is gone...And when He is take from His followers and is crucified, then they shall fast, but not until them...The Son of God has arrived on earth...He the Bridegroom and He is New...The time on earth has changed...We are at this special time, while He is on earth...His mere presence makes this time on earth different than any other time...We are at the beginning of a new time on earth...God's Kingdom has come and God's will - will be done on earth as it is in heaven...And Jesus did His will exclusively, while on earth...His prayer, the LORD's Prayer is His prayer about making earth like heaven, and being more Christ-like...We are to do God's will on earth as it is in heaven...And when and if that is done, earth becomes similar to heaven...He is the Master of Prayer...
Jesus is New and is different...He talks more about Himself being new and different from the old ways, the old rituals, the old times...Jesus is the new patch of garment to be put on the old wineskins...New wine ferments and swells old wineskins causing them to burst...New wine must be poured into new wineskins...So Jesus also gives the Pharisees this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one...Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old...And no one pours new wine into old wineskins...Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined...No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins...And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’”...In this case New is definitely the better...Jesus is the New...Old traditions seem to be old and outdated...We are now to walk with God and neighbor...And love both God and neighbor...And this parable is all about the tradition of fasting...Who has the right to change the ritual of fasting?...The answer is Jesus does, and He did...
And finally He has the most extraordinary death on the cross, but He really does not die...Maybe the most extraordinary chapter of His life is that He rises from His death, by God His Father and comes back to teach for another forty days...Then He ascends to heaven...He has overcome birth, life, and death...He goes back to heaven...He is LORD...