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1-2-3I’m writing this for you, my good friend Thiofilus.
A lot of great things happened here, and the people that saw those things happen told everyone what they saw, and a lot of people wrote down those stories that they heard. After that, I read those stories, and I talked to the people that saw those things, and I checked up on everything they said, right from the start. So now I am carefully sorting out those stories, and I am writing them in this book for you.
4You already heard some of this, but I want you to know the right story, and I want you to be sure about it.
5When Herod was the big boss over Judea country, there was a man there that was called Zekariah. He was one of the men that looked after the Jewish ceremonies. There were different groups that did the Jewish ceremonies for the people at different times. He was in the group called the Abijah mob. His wife belonged to a family of Jewish ceremony people too. Her name was Elizabeth.[#1 Chronicles 24:10]
6Those 2 people, Zekariah and Elizabeth, they were very good people. They did everything in God’s law, and God liked the way they lived.
7They got very old, but they didn’t have any kids. You see, Elizabeth just couldn’t have a baby.
8The time came for Zekariah’s mob to do the ceremonies in God’s ceremony house, in Jerusalem city.
9One day, it was Zekariah’s turn to go into the special room in that house and burn some special perfume to make a good smell.
10While he was doing that, a big mob of people were outside, and they were praying.
11Then God sent one of his angel messengers to that room, and he stood on the right-hand side of the metal table where that special perfume was burning.
12Zekariah saw the angel there and got a big shock. He was really frightened.
13But the angel told him, “Don’t be frightened, Zekariah. God has heard what you have been asking him, and he will give you what you want. Your wife, Elizabeth, will have a baby boy, and you will name him John .
14You will be really happy, and a lot of other people will be happy with you.
15God will say that this kid is important, so you have to make sure he never drinks any sort of wine or grog at all. You see, the Holy Spirit will come into this kid before he gets born, while he is still inside his mother.[#Numbers 6:3]
16And then, after he grows up, he will get lots of you Israel people to turn away from bad things and turn back to God.
17Remember Elijah, God’s man that lived a long time ago. He had God’s spirit in him, and he did powerful things. Well, in the same way, your son John will have God’s spirit in him, and he will do powerful things. He will get people ready for God. John will get people to turn around and live the right way. He will get the men that are fathers to love their kids properly. And he will get people to listen properly to the sensible words of good people. Even those people that don’t listen to God now, he will get them to listen to good people.”[#Malachi 4:5-6]
18Zekariah said to the angel, “But that’s hard for me to believe. I am an old man, and my wife is old too. We are too old now to have a baby. How can I be sure that your message is true?”
19The angel said, “Look, I am Gabriel. I am always close to God, and I do special jobs for him. And he sent me to tell you this good message.[#Daniel 8:16; 9:21]
20And everything I said will happen at the right time. But you didn’t believe me, so now God will shut you up. You will not be able to talk until this kid gets born.”
21While they were talking in that room, the people outside were waiting for Zekariah. They were thinking, “Why is he staying a long time in that room?”
22Then Zekariah came out, and he tried to talk to them, but he couldn’t say anything. He had to make signs with his hands, and at last they understood that he saw something powerful in that room.
23Then Zekariah finished his days of work in God’s ceremony house, and he went home.
24Soon after that, his wife, Elizabeth, found out she was going to have a baby. She stayed inside her house for 5 months.
25She said, “Wow. God is properly good to me. He will let me have a baby, and nobody will rubbish me any more.”
26That baby kept on growing inside Elizabeth. After about 6 months, God sent Gabriel, that same angel messenger, to Galilee country, to a town called Nazareth.
27He went there to a young girl that was not married. Her name was Mary. Before that time, Mary didn’t ever sleep with any man, like a woman does with her husband. She was promised to a man that was called Joseph. He belonged to the family of David, the man that was the big boss a long time ago.[#Matthew 1:18]
28Gabriel came to Mary and said, “Hello, Mary. God loves you and is good to you. He is here with you now, and he will do something good for you.”
29This worried Mary. She thought, “What’s he talking about?”
30Gabriel said, “Don’t be frightened, Mary. God is really happy with you.
31Listen. You will soon have a baby boy, and you will call him Jesus.[#Matthew 1:21]
32-33God will make him the biggest boss over you Israel people, like David, his grand-father that lived a long time ago. He will be very important, and he will be the biggest boss for ever. He will never stop being the biggest boss over the Israel people. And people will call him the son of God.”[#2 Samuel 7:12-13, 16; Isaiah 9:7]
34Mary said, “But I’m not married. I’ve never slept with a man, like a wife sleeps with her husband. How will I get a baby?”
35Gabriel said, “The Holy Spirit will come to you, and God’s power will come over you and give you a baby. Your baby will be really special, and people will say he is God’s son.
36And you know your cousin Elizabeth? Everyone reckoned she is too old to have a baby, but now she is carrying a baby inside her. She has been carrying that baby for the last 6 months, and soon she will have a son.
37You see, God can do anything. Nothing is too hard for him.”[#Genesis 18:14]
38Mary said, “All right, I will do whatever God wants. I want everything to happen just like you said.”
Then Gabriel left her.
39Soon after that, Mary got ready, and she went south quickly to a town in the hilly part of the country called Judea.
40Zekariah and Elizabeth lived in that town. Mary went to their house, and she went in and said to Elizabeth, “Hello cousin.”
41As soon as Elizabeth heard Mary say those words, she felt her baby jump inside her. And the Holy Spirit came into her,
42and she talked really loud. She said to Mary, “God is really good to you, and he is making you happy. He is being more good to you than to any other woman. And he is being really good to your baby too.
43I’m not important, but you are the mother of my leader, the man from God. It is really good of you to visit me.
44You see, as soon as I heard you say ‘hello,’ my baby inside me was so happy he jumped.
45Yes, you believed that God will do everything he told you, and so God makes you very happy.”
46Mary said,[#1 Samuel 2:1-10]
“God is really good and really great, and I want to tell everybody about him.
47My spirit is really happy with God. I know he will save me.
48God knew that I was not important, but he picked me,
and now everyone will say that God was good to me.
49Yes, he is the really strong one, and he did great things for me.
God is properly good, better than anyone else.
50He is always good to all the people that respect him. He was good to people that respected him before, and he is good to people that respect him now, and he will be good to people that respect him later on.
51He does great things with his power, and he shows everyone that he is really strong.
Some people reckon they are smart and strong, but God makes them nothing. They are like soldiers that get frightened of the enemy and run away.
52He chucks out the big bosses and takes their power away.
But he gets people that are not important, and he makes them bosses.
53And he gives hungry people good food, and they eat until they are full.
But he doesn’t give anything to the rich people. They go away with nothing.
54He feels sorry for his own people, us Israel mob, and he helps us,
55just like he promised to Abraham, and our other grand-fathers that lived a long time ago.
He said that he will look after us for ever.”
56Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about 3 months, then she went back to her own home.
57Then the time came for Elizabeth to have her baby, and she had a son.
58All her family, and the people that lived near her, they all heard that she had a baby, and they knew that God felt sorry for Elizabeth, and that he was very good to her. Elizabeth was happy, and they were all happy too.
59When the baby was 8 days old, all those people went to Zekariah and Elizabeth’s place. The baby boy had to have a young man operation on that day, and they used to give a baby his name at that time. The people wanted to call him Zekariah, the same name that his father had.[#Leviticus 12:3]
60But Elizabeth said, “No. His name is John.”
61They said, “What? Nobody in your family has that name.”
62So they made signs with their hands to his father, to ask him what name he wanted to give to the boy.
63Zekariah got them to give him something to write on, and he wrote, “His name is John.” Everyone was shocked.
64Then, straight away, Zekariah started to talk again, and he told everyone that God is very great.
65The people there never saw God do things like that before. They were really surprised. They told other people about everything that happened, and soon a lot of people in the hilly part of Judea country were talking about it.
66Everyone that heard the news thought about it, and they said, “After this kid grows up, what will he be?” They knew God was powerfully looking after that boy.
67At that time, when Zekariah started talking again, the Holy Spirit came into him, and he told everyone a message from God. He said,
68“The God of us Israel mob, he is a great God.
He came now to save us, his people.
69He sent us a very strong person, to save us.
You know about David, the big boss that worked for God a long time ago.
Well, this person is in David’s family.
70God promised this to us a long time ago, and he got his men to tell us this message.
71God promised to save us from our enemies,
and from everyone that hates us.
72He did that because he felt sorry for our grand-fathers that lived a long time ago, and wanted to be good to them,
and do everything that he promised.
73Yes, God will remember the things he promised to our grand-father Abraham.
74He promised to save us from our enemies,
so we can work for him without being frightened.
75We can live God’s way and work for him in the right way,
and we can do that all our lives.”
76Then Zekariah talked to his baby boy. He said,
“This word is for you, my son.
Everyone will know that you tell people messages from God.
You will get things ready for God.
77You will teach his people how God can say they are not guilty of the bad things they did,
and then God will save them.
78You see, our God feels sorry for us, so he will do that for us.
It will be like the sun coming up, bringing light from God.
79That light will shine for everybody.
Some people are like they are in the dark. They think they will die soon.
But that light will shine on everybody.
It will show us how to live in a happy and quiet way.”
80After that, baby John grew up to be a man, and God made his spirit strong. He went and lived out in the bush for years, until he started to tell the Israel people God’s messages.