Key Life Network

Steve Brown: Who in the world was Zachariah? We're going to introduce him on Key Life.

Matthew: If you've suffered too long under a do more, try harder religion, Key Life is here to proclaim that Jesus sets the captives free. Steve invited Jerry Perry to teach us this week. Jerry is an author and the pastor of Christian Family Worship Center House of Grace.

Steve Brown: Thank you, Matthew. If you're just joining us, Dr. Jerry Perry uh is joining us this week. He has been over the last two or three times with us. He's one of the voices of Key Life. He's been looking at an overview of the Gospels and the writers of the Gospels. And we've looked at Matthew and Jeremy just said, and I put my ditto to it uh that he learned something new. And I did too about Matthew and about Mark. And now we're looking at Luke. And we saw yesterday that Luke was a physician.

Jerry Perry: Yeah.

Steve Brown: That he was careful about details.

Jerry Perry: Yes.

Steve Brown: That God speaks to people in different ways

Jerry Perry: Yeah.

Steve Brown: so that everybody could understand Jesus. This time, who was Zachariah?

Jerry Perry: Yeah, Zachariah uh was John the Baptist father. And uh uh Luke talks about him uh in the uh first chapter of Luke. He Yeah, here's what I want to say. Matthew starts with the genealogy of Jesus.

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Jerry Perry: You know, and and and and when Matthew starts with the genealogy of Jesus, Luke says, well, wait a minute. Before we get to the genealogy of Jesus, let's talk about how Jesus was introduced and why he came and the whole nine yards. So Luke goes into more details and he brings up the story about Zachariah.

Steve Brown: Let me read the the verses. When Herod was king of Judea, there was a Jewish priest named Zachariah. He was a member of the priestly order of Abijah. And his wife Elizabeth was also from the priestly line of Aaron. Zachariah and Elizabeth were righteous in God's eyes, careful to obey the Lord's commandments and regulations. They had no children because Elizabeth was unable to conceive, and they were very old.

Jerry Perry: Yeah. So Luke comes and writes about this because it's important to understand that um John the Baptist uh uh is important to understand his role in in the kingdom and what he was going to do the forerunner of Jesus. And And Zachariah uh John the Baptist needed to be born uh in order for Jesus to kick off his ministry. And so we know about John the Baptist because of the writings of Luke.

Steve Brown: Oh man.

Jerry Perry: And it's uh And it's interesting when you look at it too cuz uh because they were they were not young enough to have children. And these are old folks getting ready for the nursing home. And And you don't expect your wife to get pregnant in that particular circumstance. So this was a supernatural act of God.

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Jerry Perry: In the sense that it was something that was very unusual. Yeah, and it was very good because we often time only concentrate on the angel visiting Mary and and her conceiving and and the and the story of the birth of Jesus. But Zachariah's story and Elizabeth's story is just as uh miraculous uh as that, which lets me know, Steve, that God does miracles for quite a few people. And sometimes we can miss that. See, there again, looking at the text, sometime we can miss that because we feel that somebody else is being blessed and is not happening to me.

But I want to encourage you to know that God is even working miracles in your life along with as you see other people being blessed.

Steve Brown: And he knows your name too.

Jerry Perry: Absolutely.

Steve Brown: You know, there's a sense in which John the Baptist was a fulfillment of the expectation of Israel that Elijah would come.

Jerry Perry: Yes.

Steve Brown: Uh And while it made clear by Jesus that he's not Elijah, the spirit of Elijah is there and the prophecy is fulfilled. And so John had a special reason for existence. It was to announce the kingdom and to point to Jesus, right?

Jerry Perry: That is correct. And And that's what I'm saying when we talked about last uh uh yesterday of of going back and carefully reading the text, um looking at every line, every word to see. And you will see in the story of John that John was necessary uh and the announcement of Jesus, as you just talked about. One of the One of the famous things that I love and and it helps my grace walk is when John the Baptist says uh uh behold the Lamb of God

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Jerry Perry: that take away the sins of the world.

Steve Brown: Oh man, you got it.

Jerry Perry: Man, that listen, that line is so overlooked in the body of Christ because sometimes we hear it and we don't realize that Jesus came to remove the sins so that you and I our sins, our past, our present, and our future sins are forgiven. And he has taken them away so we can stand in the presence of God now, holy, blameless without a single fault. John saw that revelation and denounced it to the world.

Steve Brown: That is so good. And lost his head for it.

Jerry Perry: Yes, he did. Yes, he did. Yeah, that's a whole another story that I You know, there's a And I don't want to go in directions you hadn't planned, but when when you think of John in prison

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Jerry Perry: and he know You know, he had his doubts too.

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Jerry Perry: All of a sudden you began to see wait. John the Baptist Yeah.

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Jerry Perry: He's standing there and he's saying, man, I hope I'm right about Jesus cuz if I'm not, this is a bad situation.

Steve Brown: Yeah. Mm.

Jerry Perry: And then Jesus said uh when So John sends his disciples to Jesus to do some investigation.

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Jerry Perry: And And Jesus says uh to his disciples, go tell John about the cripples that are dancing and the blind people who are throwing their beggars cup to the side of the road and the laughter of the people who were mute. Go tell John. And you know, Jesus specifically spoke to his doubts too. Yeah. And the thing that I love about the story um John necessarily didn't like the ending of the story. But one of the things that this story shares with me and helps me to understand that God is still God even when things don't go the way you want them to.

Steve Brown: Oh yeah.

Jerry Perry: Yeah, God is still God when he doesn't pour you out of the fire. God is still God when he doesn't heal your loved ones like you want them to and they have to suffer. But he's yet God and he is still saying, look at what I 'm doing. Look at Look at the the blessings that I've given. And you can see the blessings of God. And even though everybody And this is all of us. Nobody get all of their prayers answered the way they want them to get answered.

Steve Brown: Oh, isn't that true?

Jerry Perry: And And nobody does that. No one No one gets that. But you still have to be able to say, God, I trust you even when things don't go the way that I want them to.

Steve Brown: And you know, in in what Jesus said to the disciples of John when they when when John sent them to listen, go make sure I'm right cuz I'm getting ready to die. And I don't You know, and I This is scary. When he send his disciples to Jesus, I think Jesus still says, go tell John.

Jerry Perry: Yeah.

Steve Brown: Go tell Steve. Go tell Jerry. Go tell Jeremy. Go tell Betty and Elizabeth. And And he does.

Jerry Perry: Yeah.

Steve Brown: In the midst of the fire and the pain and the difficulty of unanswered prayers.

Jerry Perry: Mm.

Steve Brown: I love that statement, go tell John.

Jerry Perry: Yeah. And I want to say, Steve, I believe that God answers every prayer. Every prayer that you pray, God answer.

Steve Brown: Yeah, and answers them all.

Jerry Perry: Sometime he answers Yeah, well, sometime he has. The answer may be no.

Steve Brown: True. That's true.

Jerry Perry: Every answer is not yes. Some answers may be no. And so he answers every prayer. Just maybe the answer is no. I wanted to hit the lottery and I got the ticket and the Lord said, no.

Steve Brown: I asked him too to do that for me. He said I had to buy a ticket. He also didn't just say no. He said, are you crazy? You know, we laugh. You The only people who can laugh about these issues are people who are comfortable in the hands of Jesus.

Jerry Perry: Yeah.

Steve Brown: And have sensed his love and his grace and his mercy.

Jerry Perry: Yes.

Steve Brown: And And you find that with Luke.

Jerry Perry: Mm, yeah.

Steve Brown: Luke spends a lot of time uh letting us know

Jerry Perry: Yeah.

Steve Brown: about that Jesus and what he's really like. And he is a compassionate

Jerry Perry: Yes.

Steve Brown: kind and gentle Messiah.

Jerry Perry: Yes, he is. And in spite of what you're going through, the Lord is always with you. He's promised never to leave you nor forsake you. And that's the real issue. When you read Luke, you fully understand that God is still with me regardless of what I'm going through.

Steve Brown: And God picked Luke, a doctor. Because he knew his attention to detail and his compassion. And he did it because he likes you. Got to go. Hey, you think about that. I'm in.

Matthew: Thank you, Steve Brown and Jerry Perry. If you're just joining us all this week, Jerry is giving us a survey of the Gospel of Luke today talking about Zachariah. There's a lot to pack in the four days. And uh I trust you're enjoying it. Tomorrow there's something about Mary. Be sure to join us for that. So you've heard us talk about Steve's new book called God's Not Mad at You. And you know that it 's now available at keylife.org/notmadbook or on Amazon. But maybe you're a try before you buy kind of person. I know I am.

So it's for you, circumspect book buyer, that we created the brand new booklet that features excerpts from God's Not Mad at You. It's also going to give you a deeper understanding of the sanctification process and and why it takes so long. We're ready to send it to you for free, so call us right now at 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That's 1-800-539-5433. You can also email Steve at keylife.org to order that booklet or go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses for the US and Canada. Again, just ask for the free booklet called God's Not Mad at You. Last thing, if you believe in the work of Key Life, would you give today to help us continue that work?

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