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and a very warm welcome to my
My name is Luke.
, actually.
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And I have been carefully
a series of mysterious events. And because I’m a bit of a
, I’ve decided to write all
of my investigations down, just for you. of other people have
to write it all down before,
but I want you to hear
side of the
it all starts with a woman called 2
sto ry.
Elizabeth husband) ( h ia r a h c e Z in) Mary (cous 0 : Very old ttle Lives in a li ill in Judea h a p u e s u ho
SAMPLE Zecharia h Elizabeth : Very o ld Very importan t Temple in Jerusa lem
(wife) 0
Elizabeth was
. She was married to
Zechariah (who was also very old), who was a kind of special religious leader
and he worked with a group
of other special vicars who took it in turns to burn in the (kind of like a Jewish church).
it was
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Zechariah’s turn to do the burning (he burned incense – that’s the to
– as a way of helping people
God) and while he was inside on his
own, something
happened. A large, glowing, bright man-shaped thing appeared out of nowhere and said, 4
Ha ha. “Don’t be scared”?? I mean, a big glowing man just appeared and fancied a chat!
SAMPLE Zechariah was
to the spot,
and when he heard what the man had to say he just couldn’t believe his
,
The man said, “You and your wife are going to have a called guy was
.” Zechariah thought this , and pretty much told him so
– which was a bit of a mistake.
.
Because then the man introduced himself as the
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(still scary!) and told Zechariah he’d not be able to until John was born.
– always listen to what angels say,
As a
I can tell you that I’d have thought it all
sounded a bit
too, I mean super
don’t just suddenly start having babies. It doesn’t
that way! 6
Poor Zechariah had to invent his
version of
so that he could tell everyone what had happened to him.
When he
got home to Elizabeth and
managed to wave his arms around enough so that she could
SAMPLE understand what had happened, she was even more
than he was.
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the
was out and
about again, only this time he was in a
town called
azareth, having a chat with a woman called
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He was telling her all sorts of
things
(that God had told him to say), so he couldn’t understand why Mary seemed
. I mean, what’s
scary about being told that God , that he’s
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and that
to have
and
God’s going to be the
… and you have to call him
That’s not scary at all… if you’re the angel Gabriel. Gabriel also said, “Oh, by the way, your cousin
is having a
Mary took a
and calmly said, “OK.
If it’s what God wants, then been
too.”
brave.
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.” She must’ve
went to see
and she was definitely
pregnant, either that or she’d eaten a for breakfast. Elizabeth was to see Mary that both she and baby John and down for
up
, and Mary started to dance and sing:
SAMPLE God is
, I can hardly believe it
y not a good fit
Why’d he choose me, I’m reall But he has
me, because he is epic ’s
And I will praise him, ‘cos he
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good, he’s
He’s I can’t
kind n his mind
had me o believe he
, he’s
He’s
o long
us all for s
ing he’s
It’s amaz
SAMPLE God is
, I can hardly
He has chosen He’s my He is
believe it,
, so now I’ll do , he’s my
, he’s the Lord
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of all!
my bit
, Elizabeth had her baby and everyone told her she should call him after his dad. Elizabeth tried to tell them all she wanted to call him
, but they were having
. Zechariah started waving his arms about like again and everyone stared at him.
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. Then he grabbed something to write
on and scribbled down something that looked vaguely like Joan,
Joon
But eventually someone said, “Does that say
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Jobo.
?
” At that moment Zechariah suddenly blurted out:
His name is
then he pulled a rather “Hey! Did I just say that
face and said, ?”
Everyone stopped and stared at old
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Zechariah. He hadn’t said a months (not even a all of a
word for
whole
– how rude!) and then
he could speak again. eh? But the people began to wonder…
There must be something special about this John baby, maybe God might’ve had something to do with it… Baby John became the subject of village pretty quickly!
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Zechariah was
at being able to talk again,
that words just wouldn’t
He was
,
and
,
,
all at once.
God has done it again!
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He’s really
Just like he said he would He
breaks a promise. us,
He’s
us,
He’s us,
He’s He’s
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“And John,” (Zechariah
him on his
knee as he said this), you’re going to be the start of it
! You’re going to tell
people what’s coming, you’re going to be like a
.
SAMPLE (Very comment from a father there.)
As John grew up, he was still a in the local
charts, especially when he decided
to go off and live in the desert, wear and eat only
hair
and insects. Tasty. How was he
supposed to be a
in the desert? No one
ever even went there!
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