Luke 1:16-17

He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

From Background Notes [BN] for December 7^th& 8^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

If these hopeful evidences for John’s future weren’t enough, the angel reached into the closing verses of the prophetic canon to quote Malachi 4:5-6 in Luke 1:16-17. From there he finds a direct connection between Elijah and John such that John fulfills the role predicted for Elijah in the last days.

“He goes before” the Messiah in an act of transformative power, reaching deep into the human hearts of children and parents alike, so that Israel might become, “a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17b). In effect the message becomes, “Fear not,” let God prepare you for the Lord’s new work in the world; let Him prepare your families to become agents of His salvation. We can agree (I think) that the family God has in mind for Zechariah and Elizabeth is a wholly transformed model! Starting with nothing, God infuses grace so that aged parents and newly-born children might become the forerunners of His kingdom. “Fear not”: as then, so also now.  [BN,5]

Join us this week in Study, Worship, Praise and Celebration at Chicago First Church of the Nazarene:

* Saturday 6:00pm
* Sunday 8:30am & 11:00am