Announcement – Luke
1:26-45 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God
sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named
Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King
David. Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is
with you!”
Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean.
“Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with
God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called
the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor
David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”
Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.” The
angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will
come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby
to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. What’s more,
your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say
she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month. For
the word of God will never fail.” Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May
everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.
A few days later Mary hurried to the hill country of Judea, to the town
where Zechariah lived. She entered the house and greeted Elizabeth. At the
sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s child leaped within her, and Elizabeth
was filled with the Holy Spirit. Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to
Mary, “God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed. Why am I
so honored, that the mother of my Lord should visit me? When I heard your
greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for
joy. You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he
said.”
Birth of Jesus – Luke 2:1-14
At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken
throughout the Roman Empire … All returned to their own ancestral towns to
register for this census. And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he
had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David’s ancient home. He traveled there from
the village of Nazareth in Galilee. He took with him Mary, his fiancée, who was
now obviously pregnant.
And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be
born. She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in
strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging
available for them.
That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding
their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an
angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory
surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you
good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah,
the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! And you will
recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of
cloth, lying in a manger.” Suddenly,
the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God
and saying, “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with
whom God is pleased.”
No comments:
Post a Comment