It’s a joy to be in the house of the Lord.  And if anybody is trembling or wondering because of the “Joy to the World,” you don’t have to worry about me.  I haven’t celebrated Christmas in 25 years.  I was just adding it up.  Maybe even a little bit longer than 25 years, long before we came to the Message.

We knew that Christmas was a figment of people’s imagination and that it was based on pagan roots and culture.  And even though we’re getting closer to our time to live forever with the Messiah, we don’t see any reason to pick up these little pagan things to appease our friends and family.

In fact, we enjoy serving the Lord in the way that He has revealed for us to serve Him.  Amen?  And if our friends and our neighbors and our loved ones don’t like it, they don’t pay the rent.  Amen.

And so you know, we have to make a choice where we’re going to stand.  And I made my choice a long, long time ago.  Praise the Lord.

I think that will be all for the music, but if Brother Steve will stay and help me . . .  I’ll really need him this morning.

We want to welcome a host of people who are listening in, looking in.

Let’s welcome all of them this morning into our service.  Blessed be the Name of the Lord.

Let’s turn this morning to the Book of Luke, chapter 1.  I’m going to give you a little reprieve from Nehemiah 3.  

We’d like for you to remember our family this week as we travel, that the Lord will be with us.  We made some reservations over a month ago and reconfirmed and settled to have a few days away.  And it hasn’t come at a convenient time financially, but it’s come anyway.  And so we ask that you would pray for us that the Lord will give us mercy for travel, that He will use us to speak to those that we will come in contact with.

And we pray that the services here will be what the Lord would have them to be and that God will use these brothers to fill in.

I’ve been away a couple of times this year, but always home on Sunday.  And you can’t, you can’t blame me, you have to blame my wife for that because any time I have tried to miss a Sunday to be away a little bit longer . . .  And it’s kind of strange . . . But somebody said this to me this week, “I guess if you don’t ever not preach on a Sunday, you don’t hardly feel like you’ve ever had a time off because you’re just preparing, maybe, during the week.”

And that’s certainly the way it is.  But any time I’ve mentioned to my wife about being gone, she said, “You can’t be gone now.”

And I’d say, “Why now?”  And she’d give me all the reasons why now I couldn’t miss a Sunday.

And then it would be a month or two go by and I’d say, “Well, let’s go away for a few days, and let’s stay a little bit longer . . . just a little bit longer.”

And she’d say, “I’m sorry.  We can’t be away Sunday now.”

And I’d say, “Why now?”  And she’d have another list of reasons - the other families, other people that might need us.

And so I made these reservations, and two weeks later I told my wife.  And it took me another week to tell her that I was going to miss a Sunday.  It’s my first Sunday this year that I haven’t been in Jerusalem.  And I hope you will not be offended at us for that.

Pray for us because we want to be led of the Lord.  And there are so many people I’d like to visit.  There are so many people I’d like to see.  But I just don’t know what the Lord will have for us just now.

Luke, chapter 1, beginning in verse 5.

If I’ve ever had a troubled week over trying to present something, I have really had a time this week.  I was here before 8 o’clock this morning to make final preparations.  And I don’t feel much more prepared now than I did when I came.  And I’ve spent a considerable amount of hours this week trying to prepare this teaching.  And I’m not going to be able to hit every detail this morning or answer every question, but I’ll be able to give you a summary of what I want to give you and bring the rest to you at  another time.

Verse 5 said,

5.  There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, (Now in Hebrew his name would have been Zachariah, not Zacharias.) of the course of Abia: (Or we read in English sometimes Abijah with a “j” which we know doesn’t belong in the Hebrew language.) and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.

6.  And they were . . . (which is also her English name.)  And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.

7.  And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years.

8.  And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his course,

9.  According to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.

10.  And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense.

11.  And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.

12.  And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.

13.  But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John (or Yochanan).

14.  And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth.

15.  For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb.

16.  And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God.

17.  And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias (which is Elijah) to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

I just want to pause and say that this was a heavy burden to be placed on anybody’s shoulders . . .  Such a commission.  He would turn many of His people, many of the Lord’s people would be turned back to Him, back to God because of this young child.

17.  And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, (Elijah - which was fulfilling the prophecy of Malachi the prophet who was a prophet at the time of Nehemiah when the walls were being restored) . . . the spirit and the power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

18.  And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this?  for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years.

19.  And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, (or Gavriel) that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings.

20.  And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.

I think he offended the angel a little bit.  I mean all he said was, “Can I have a little proof?”

And the angel said, “Because you doubted, because you didn’t believe me, you’re going to be struck dumb.”  It’s a little serious, isn’t it?

And verse 21.  (A few more verses and you can be seated.)

21.  And the people waited for Zacharias, and marveled that he tarried so long in the temple.

He was only in there to burn the incense.

22.  And when he came out, he could not speak unto them: and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple: for he beckoned unto them, and remained speechless.

23.  And it came to pass, that as soon as the days (this is an important verse), as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house.

24.  And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying,

25.  Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men.

One more verse.

26.  And in the sixth month . . .

Now that is the sixth month of Elisabeth’s pregnancy.  And that’s something you’ve got to watch carefully.

26.  And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,

And if you have any doubt that it is referring to the sixth month of her pregnancy, there are other verses later in this chapter that will give you the confirmation that you need.

Father, we thank You this morning for the reading of Your Word.  We thank You for Your divine Presence that has been in this house.  We thank You for the praise and the worship that has gone forth and the blessings that have flowed down because of the sacrificial praise.

And now, Lord, I know there are many needs represented here.  And although this is going to be a little teaching that may not speak directly to those needs, I believe and trust You.  And I know that whatever the need is, it is now being presented to You by the faithfulness of those who have gathered.  And that even though the Word may not be going directly or addressing directly what that need is, we have a promise that as the Word goes forth, if we believe and receive it, then we become candidates to receive the blessings that are contained therein.

And the greatest thing that could happen to any of us is if we could have that same kind of spiritual conception that Mary had, that Your Word could become so attached in us that that Word would form and begin to grow in our womb, the womb of our spirit,  so that we could, as Mary, give forth, bring forth the Man-Child, God in flesh, in this hour.  It is a promise as we sons come to adoption.

Now, Lord, because of the teaching (and a little dull, maybe, for some), I pray that Your anointing will cover all of that and that You’ll help us to be as attentive as possible to get through this teaching because every time I tried to get out of it, it was You, Lord, who kept nudging and pulling and wooing.

And I know that for some reason, You have a plan.  We submit and surrender to it in the wonderful Name of Yeshua HaMashiach, we pray.  Amen.  And the church said, “Amen.”

You may be seated.

Even when I got here this morning before eight o’clock, I looked over what I had and I said, “I can’t do it.  I just can’t get it together enough after spending all week . . . my notes still scattered, you know, here and there . . . and have to go back and forth to get to everything.”

And I started looking over Nehemiah again.  And I thought, “I’ll just move into the Valley Gate.”  And I had spent almost forty-five minutes in Nehemiah when I just again felt such an unction.  And I said, “Lord, You know I’ve only got thirty minutes now to read over this again and to get ready to present it.”

But if that’s really You, then I will pray that You will make it as easy as You possibly can for me and for the people to take it.  

Now, there is a graphic back there, Brother Billy, that will help us get started in this teaching.  I’m not . . . probably won’t get to spit and sputter much this morning, but I’ll just try to present it to you in a lesson form.

In the Book of Chronicles,1 Chronicles, chapter 24, there is a graphic that speaks about the order of the priest, the priestly order.  If you could prepare that one and put it up for us . . .

1 Chronicles 24 beginning in verse 1.

1.  Now these are the divisions of the sons of Aaron.  The sons of Aaron; Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.

2.  But Nadab and Abihu died before their father, and had no children . . .

How many of you know why?  How many of you remember what they were doing?  They were offering strange fire.  

2.  But Nadab and Abihu died before their father, and had no children: therefore Eleazar and Ithamar executed the priest’s office.

3.  And David distributed them, both Zadok of the sons of Eleazar, and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar, according to their offices in their service.

4.  And there were more chief men found of the sons of Eleazar than of the sons of Ithamar; and thus were they divided.  Among the sons of Eleazar there were sixteen chief men of the house of their fathers, and eight among the sons of Ithamar according to the house of their fathers.

5.  Thus were they divided by lot, one sort with another; for the governors of the sanctuary, and governors of the house of God . . .

Now it goes on and begins to name the priest and tell us their courses.  Now let’s drop down for a moment to verse 10.  

10.  The seventh to Hakkoz, the eighth to Abijah. (Or Abia without the “j”.)

Now, I’m very sorry.  Where is that graphic?  I’m very sorry that it, that the blue is so dark that way.  I haven’t learned how to change those things.  You’ll just have to forgive me.  I haven’t learned to do it yet.  But the main thing is in yellow, and you’re able to see what has happened here.

This takes the priests that are mentioned there and divides them into their courses.  And shows you right here, this is Abijah.  And his order in the temple was the eighth week.

Now the reason why that is even important is we have just read in Luke, chapter 1, that Zacharias was of the order of Abijah, or Abia.  We know what order of priest he was.  Amen?  That is established.

We also know that Elisabeth . . .  It’s interesting to note that even Elisabeth was of the priestly family.  Now that’s unusual that it mentions that even the wife of Zacharias was from a priestly family.  In fact, she was of the daughters of Aaron.

So these were two special people.  It’s so fitting that the Bible would then go on to say what righteous people they were, how they were blameless, how they walked before God in all the commandments and in all of the ordinances.

Now, Luke 1 does not tell us what month or what week Zacharias was in the Temple when the angel Gabriel (or Gavriel) appeared to him and told him what was going to take place.  So we . . .  from Luke 1, we would not have any real idea when this took place, when it happened, when Mary came to Elisabeth, when Elisabeth conceived.  We wouldn’t have any idea of that.

But because God has such a puzzle in His Word, pieces sometimes that have to be placed together by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit . . .  And it’s the same in the Message of the Hour.

When we’re studying what the Lord has spoken to us through a prophet in this day, if we just took one sermon and said, “We’ve got the whole idea,” well, we’d just be wrong because I found myself over the years having to pull something from here and something from there and place them together to get the real meaning of it.  Okay?

But in Luke 1 we find out that Zacharias is a priest after the order of Abijah or Abia.  And it’s important.

Now Josephus, Flavius Josephus, (or some people say Josephus Flavius) who was a great historian and very, very well respected, he tells us . . . and fills in some very important things in studying the Bible even about the life of Yeshua . . . about the life of John and the ministry that John had.

He tells us about the priestly service and what was going on in the Temple during the time that he was writing.  The Bible tells us, though, in Exodus 12 . . .

Let’s look there quickly.  I don’t expect you to get every little detail of this.  But I have to lay it out there anyway so you can maybe, if you’re very interested, you could study it for yourself.

Exodus, chapter 12, verse 2.

We’ll just take this like a little Sunday school lesson then.

Exodus, chapter 12, verse 1 and 2.

1.  And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,

2.  This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.

Now if you don’t know what month that is, that is the month of Passover, the month that Passover comes in.  And we know that which is Nisan.  And we know that because if we go on and read the next verse, it begins to give us the preparation for Passover.

Now, do you know in the Jewish calendar there are many new years.  And they celebrate an agricultural new year and a governmental new year.  And they even have a new year for the trees.  They have a lot of different new years.

And so during the preparation for Succot they have Rosh Hashanah, the sounding of the Shofar, the sounding of the trumpet.  And that is pretty much accepted today as the beginning of the new year.

In the book of Exodus, it tells us that the new year begins in the month of Pesach, or the month of Passover.

And so Josephus tells us that the order of the priests began the first week of the first month of the year.  And the first month of the year was the month in which Passover falls.  

And because of that, we are able then to count the weeks.  We understand also from Josephus that the priest would minister . . . one week was their service from Shabbat to Shabbat, from Sabbath to Sabbath.  

There were hundreds of thousands of priests.  And so they would minister from Shabbat to Shabbat.  And every priest would have two weeks of ordered duty every year.  The first week . . . and then it would continue on through the courses of the priests and it would become their turn again.

So we know that because Josephus explained it in great detail.  He took the breaking down of the priestly families, and he explained that each priest would serve two weeks of ordered service in the Temple.

Now there were some other times that the priest would serve other than these two ordered weeks.  They would all come together to serve the Lord in the Temple during the high holy days.

How many of you remember from the Bible there are three holy days, or three festivals, or three feasts that the Bible tells us that every Israelite, every man especially, is commanded by God to do what?  To go up to Jerusalem.

And what are they?  Passover (or Pesach), Shavuot (or Pentecost), Succot (or Tabernacles) is what we call them.  

And during these three feasts every Jew in the Land made . . . and not only in the Land, but out of the Land . . . made every effort he possibly could make to get to Jerusalem.

I want to just insert something here.  It’s very interesting what we Gentiles have done.  We have preached for years and years and years that Joseph and Mary, Yosef and Miriam, went to Bethlehem because of the census that was decreed by Caesar Augustus.  

How many of you know that’s the story?  Why did they go?  Because there was a decree made.

Somebody said, “Well, that’s even what the Bible said.”  Not really.  That’s not really what it said if you’ll read it again a little more carefully.  Like the same thing about what the world calls Easter.  And everybody says that Yeshua very early in the morning, He arose from the grave.

And you say to them, “Where do you get that idea?”
And what do they say?  “It’s in the Bible.”  But it’s not.  The Bible said, “Very early in the morning the women went up to the tomb.”  And when they got there, guess what?  He was gone.

And so they . . . we’ve all preached over these years that He rose very early in the morning when we know now that is not the truth at all.  Very early in the morning when they got there, He was already got up.  He had already risen from the grave because the Jewish day doesn’t operate like our day from sun-up to sun-down and through the night.  But it operates in the opposite.  A day begins when the sun goes down and continues on ‘til the next day that the sun goes down.

So we assume by reading this reference in Luke that Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem because of the decree of Caesar Augustus.  

This is one of the things that the Jewish people who are anti-missionaries have pointed out.  They have found in history the records that indicate that there was no such law made, that no one was required to go immediately to the . . . let’s say the capital of their province to register for the census.  

In fact, historical documents prove that when a census was given by any governor, that every citizen had at least one year to go and make this census.  And if they were not able to go in one year, there were even other provisions made that messengers would be sent out to help take the census.

And so there is no evidence anywhere that Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem because of the census.  But because they were going to Jerusalem anyway, it’s very likely that they filled out their census in Bethlehem and then went on to Jerusalem.

Somebody said, “Why were they going to Jerusalem?”  Because it was commanded of them.  Don’t forget that Yosef, the earthly father of the Lord, or the earthly husband of Mary, the mother of our Lord, was what?  He was a Jew.  And it was commanded of him that he leave Nazareth three times a year and go where?  To Jerusalem.  To do what?  To worship God.  

We are able to prove by these weekly courses of the priests that Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem on their way to Jerusalem because it was the Feast of Succot.  And they were commanded to be in Jerusalem at that time.

That makes it very, very special when we get that far.  And we probably won’t get that far this morning.

We’ve read in Luke, chapter 1, that Zacharias had drawn a lot.  Lots were cast.  And according to the lot, the assignment was distributed for the service of the Temple.

How many of you remember what Zacharias’ job was given to him by the lot?  He was to burn incense on the holy altar of God.  We also are able to know because of Josephus that Zacharias was serving his first week of the year and not the second week.

Somebody said, “How in the world could you know such a thing as that?  Because Josephus records that the order of the Temple was such that during the first week of a priest’s service, the rural priests, the country preachers, would always serve in these little ministries of lighting the incense, burning the incense, cleaning out the lamps and these little menial type tasks.  In the second course they would move up into a higher level of ministry in the Temple.  

Those priests who lived in Jerusalem, which were historically more corrupt, . . .  They were so corrupt over the years, at times, that they became the elite in such a way that they were so exalted, and they began to take bribes.

And that’s what you hear the prophets crying out about.  When you hear them prophesying against shepherds and crying out against false prophets and so forth, a lot of times they’re speaking about the corruption of the priests in the Temple.

These were the Jerusalem priests who lived in the upper city, in the Green Island Hills of Jerusalem. That’s where they lived, in the exclusive area.  But the rural priests, like Zacharias, he lived a few miles away from the Temple out in Ein Kerem, what we know now as Ein Kerem, out in the country.

When you drive out there, you think you’ve left Israel, almost, because you start seeing trees.  You start seeing little forests and green hills and little brooks.  And it almost looks as though you’ve left the country altogether.

And Zacharias chose that kind of a life.  And Josephus then tells us that Zacharias was in the temple, in Luke, chapter 1, serving his first week.  Not the second week.  His first week.

It just so happened that because he was in the eighth order . . .  Now here is . . .  Now Brother Billy has fixed that so nice.  We are able to see how this went in the first week.

Now remember this . . . that in a Hebrew month, a lot of times in a Hebrew month, we will have two of our months and vice versa because the Hebrew calendar is based on what?  The moon.  Our calendar is based on what?  The sun.

And so we have the month of Abib and Nisan which is sometimes referred to as the same month.  In our calendar it would be March and April.  And that means on the first day of Nisan, the first day of the month, Jehorab would have been the priest.  His order, those who were after his family, his descendants, would have been the ones who were working in the Temple.

How long was their course of ministry?  One week.  And it started what day of the week?  Shabbat.  And ended on what day of the week? Shabbat.  Do you think they waited until early Saturday morning to get there?  No.  They went early because there is a commandment that tells us we can’t travel on the Sabbath.

That’s the reason why Joseph and Mary went early.  They were there a few days early because the first day of Succot is what?  A Sabbath.  And so they went early to Bethlehem.  And when they got there, there was a crowd of people.  Not because of the census, but because of Succot because the population of Jerusalem would swell three times a year from 120,000 to . . .  Do you want to guess?  Two million people.  From 120,000 to 2,000,000.  

Anybody want to guess why all the inns were full?  And the houses?  And the closets?  And the basements?  Because everybody had relatives in Jerusalem.  

And listen at this.  Not only is that interesting, it’s also interesting to note that in Succot the people are commanded to build (what?) booths outside of their homes.  Can you imagine how crowded the streets got if two million people were building their little booths around Jerusalem, all through the hills of Judea, even in toward Bethlehem?

And it is commanded that men . . . only the men are commanded to do it . . . sleep in the succa, in the booth, in the tabernacle at night.  But at least a meal is taken, a family meal is taken, in the succa.

Now it would often happen, Josephus said, when he was in Jerusalem for the feast he would notice that because it was so congested and crowded that a lot of times a family would build their succa, but they would sleep inside at night and leave the succa for pilgrims and travelers who were passing along.

And not only would they do that . . .  (I’m getting ahead of myself, of course.) . . .  Not only would they do that, but they would build a little shelf of whatever they had, some kind of little container.  The word in Latin is . . . it comes from . . . it’s translated in English from Latin, “Crib.  C-r-i-b.”  That’s where we get our word crib.

But it’s not referring to a place where babies are born or placed after they’re born.  It’s referring to a place where food is stored like our grandparents used to talk about corn cribs, a place of storage.

And so what these families would do is, they would build a little shelf.  If they didn’t have a shelf, perhaps they would even go out and bring in a trough or a manger that had been used to feed the animals, not likely made of wood because wood was very scarce at this time.  Still, today, scarce in Israel.

And so it was probably made of what material?  Stone.  So some would set up a little table or a little booth, a little shelf.  It has a word in Hebrew.  I don’t recall it just now.  And others would use whatever kind of storage bin, or crib, or container they could get.  And they would leave food in there after their meal.

They would leave leftovers in there because somebody was traveling without a place to stay.  And maybe their family had come, and they would leave food out there in case somebody ducked in there on their way on up to Jerusalem or something.

It’s so wonderful to think of that because after a lot of study, we see that Yeshua was not born in a crèche.  Is that what they call it?  What was the word they use?  Crèche.  How do you say it?  Am I not saying it quite right?  What’s the word the Catholic church uses?  A crèche?  

Nobody knows?  What did you say?  It’s crèche, isn’t it?  How many of you know in a little nativity scene, you’ve got this little wooden building.  How many of you have seen it?  You’ve got this little wooden building where they’re born.

And then there’s other theories that perhaps it was a cave where the animals were kept.  But most likely because God did everything in such meticulous detail . . . fulfilling every one of the Feasts of Jehovah in the Lord Yeshua . . .  It’s most likely that He was not born in a cave, He was not born in a Catholic crèche, but He was most likely born in a succa because there were thousands and thousands of them everywhere.

And it’s not likely that He was laid in a little wooden trough, but it’s likely that when He was born, His mother laid Him either on a little shelf, or perhaps it really was a little manger type thing that had once been used for animals but was now being used to store food during Succot.

Somebody said, “Why is that so significant?”  What did Yeshua say about Himself?  He said, “I am the Bread of Life.”  How wonderful it is that when His mother gave birth to Him, she wrapped Him in these rags, in these swaddling clothes, (which there is a whole other interpretation of that as well) and laid Him on this little shelf, or crib, or manger, whatever it was, where either animals had taken their meal or more likely pilgrims who had come to Jerusalem.  Their bread would have been left in there.

Can you imagine?  Ducking into a succa on your way up to Jerusalem at night expecting to find a piece of bread in the little crib and instead find a little baby laying there?  But this wasn’t any ordinary baby.  

And we already know that these wise men from the Orient were not Chinese.  We know that, don’t we?  They weren’t Japanese because the whole land of Persia and Babylon and even Palestine is known as the Orient.  And today when you’re in Jerusalem and you see a sign that says, “Oriental food,” don’t go in there expecting rice and sushi because they use the word “oriental” in its ancient form meaning “the Middle East.”

We Americans have come to call Asian people oriental which, by the way, is not something they really enjoy.  Asian people consider that a slam, a slur, for you to say that they are oriental because they are not oriental.  They’re not from the Orient at all. They’re not from the Middle East.  They’re from Asia.  And they would prefer to be referred to as Asians or Asian Americans.  Just for your information, see?

These wise men were not kings from the Orient of Japan or China or somewhere like that.  These were Jewish scholars who did not return to Jerusalem.  (I already taught you this under the Tabernacle some years ago.)  Whenever?  What was the message on the wise men?  I don’t remember exactly the title.

They were Jewish scholars who had read the Tanach.  They had read the writings of the prophets.  They knew what was going to happen.  And they came to see.  They were looking for the Messiah.  Not as strangers.

I’ve heard great messages of how the Gentiles came and worshipped Him.  These were not Gentiles, these were Jewish men who studied the Bible, the Tanach, who studied the stars, who knew and trusted in the Living God.  And they were led by God with a sign of a star right over the place where the Bread of Life was at that time wherever that was.

Now that’s exciting to me because it does away with so many of the little things that are so important to people that have nothing to do with the story of the Lord Jesus being born.  Absolutely nothing to do with it whatsoever.

Let me just give you this.  The name Abia (Abai’-yah) or as we say in English “Abijah” . . .  Do you know what it means?  It means “the affectionate father” because “abba” in Hebrew is like “papa” - not just like father, but it’s like papa or daddy.

When you’re going through the market, you will hear the Jewish children saying, “Abba, Abba, Abba,” calling to their fathers.  And they’re not saying, “Come here, father.”  It’s a sweet term, a term of affection.  And Yah is a name for God or a word for God.

And so if his name was Abiyah, it means “the affectionate father.”  These things are revealed.  They are messages.  Brother Branham talked about messages that are revealed to us in names.  And how important it is in choosing the right name for a child because in some way we’re placing a destiny on them by their name.  Anybody still believe that?  I still believe that.  

You should have seen Benjamin’s eyes this week when it dawned on him.  It became a revelation to him that his middle name was Judah, and it was Judah Maccabees that led the revolt.  His eyes got big.  He looked like he was going to faint.  

I said, “Are you all right?”  He said, “I just realized that he’s got my name.”  “Well,” I said, “more accurately, you’ve got his name.”  But there is something in those names.

Now, let me move on quickly.  We have established a few things and not much.  We’ve established that Josephus has explained to us a little bit about the order of the priest.

Let’s look at that again one more time.  I want you to look at it and get it in your mind.

The first month of the Jewish year, the first week, the second week, the third week, the fourth week . . .  Here is the family.  Now notice at the third week it says, “All priests . . . because that was the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  That was the Feast of Pesach.

And when there was one of these high holy feasts, every priest came.  And then the last week of the month, here was another priest.  Harim.  And then the second month of the Jewish year . . . it correlates with our April and May.  

Here are the families’ names.  And then into the third month that correlates with May and June.  Here again we have Shavuot.  We have Pentecost.  And so we know immediately that the next week after Shavuot was the course of Abijah which means that Zacharias would serve burning the incense in the Temple that week, the second week of the third month.

Anybody see that?  The second week of the third month of the Jewish year.  We know that - not just leaning on a historian.  We know that by the order that’s given to us in the Scripture.

We take what we learned from Josephus, but we have to go back to the Scripture.  And when we go back to the Scripture, we see how the priests were in order.

Now the thing that changes it a little bit is we have to take into consideration that all priests served during Passover, and all priests served during Shavuot.

Do you know what that means?  It means that Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, had to leave early.  He was not to serve lighting the incense until the second week of the third month.  But because all priests had to be in the Temple for Shavuot, he had to go early.

And so he went early.  He served all week during Shavuot, or at least those few days of Shavuot.  And then he served from Sabbath to Sabbath the next week, which was his first time that year in the Temple.

Now what does Luke, the physician, tell us in that chapter one?  He gives us something interesting.  While Zacharias is doing his little duty offering the incense (Stay with me if you can.) on the altar, the smoke is rising up, the aroma is filling the room and even permeating out of the Temple because they say that the fragrance of the incense on the Temple Mount could be smelled all over the Land of Israel -  that even in the desert at times you could smell the incense as it was carried on the winds throughout the whole Land.

And that was a good feeling to the people because they knew that continuous praise and ministry was going up to God in the Temple.

Remember, it wasn’t as it is today, a church on every corner.  There was one - one Temple.  One place where God was meeting the people.  And it was nice even if you couldn’t see the Temple.  It was nice to be able to smell it and know that somebody was there carrying out the sacrifice and doing the things that were expected by God from the people.

And here is Zacharias doing his priestly duty when all of a sudden on the right side of the altar an angel appears.  And I don’t want you to think this is common that angels are showing up every day.  But I don’t want you to think it’s uncommon either because the first reaction of the people when Zacharias came out dumb and unable to talk . . .  What’s the first thing they said about him?  He’s seen a vision.

So it’s not like it was happening every day.  But it’s not like it was against the Message to see a vision.  And we don’t have any indication even that Zacharias was a prophet.  But we know that he was a priest and that an angel showed up - that Gavriel showed up and told him, “You’re going to have a son, and his name is going to be Yochanan.  His name is going to be John.  And he’s going to turn many people of Israel back to God.  He’s going to fulfill some scripture, some prophecies that have been given about him by Malachi.”

Let me say again that Malachi was a prophet in the time of Nehemiah when the walls were being rebuilt.  What a beautiful time for God to give such a prophecy in a season of restoration.  God moved on a prophet named Malachi, and he told about what was going to happen in the forerunning of the coming of the Messiah.  We know because of where we are that John the Baptist fulfilled only a portion of Malachi’s prophecy.  We know that the second part of that prophecy has been fulfilled even in our day.

And I don’t want you to think there is any doubt in my mind that that is the truth.  And even Gabriel knew it.  Not only did Jesus know it when He spoke about John the Baptist, but Gabriel knew it because when Gabriel was telling Zacharias what John the Baptist’s commission would be, he only rehearsed half of the prophecy.

That’s Bible.  There can’t be any doubt about that.  Remember that it was important to the Jewish people, this coming of Elijah, because He was to come as a forerunner of the Messiah.  If Brother Branham would have been the only fulfillment of that Spirit of Elijah, then no one would have hardly been able to receive Yeshua in His day.

But in His first coming, God sent a forerunner with the Spirit of Elijah.  His name was Yochanan, John the Baptist.  He was born to a priest, Zacharias, who was of the family of Abia, who was married to a woman named Elisabeth, who was one of the daughters of Aaron, who happened to be in the Temple the week after Shavuot.

And an angel appeared to him.  (I’m happy now.)  An angel appeared to him and said, “You are going to have a son, and he’s going to be a special son.”

And Zachariah dared ask the angel, “How do I know?  How do I know?”

You know, we want to say, “Boy, that was dumb.”  But you know, we’d have probably done the same thing.  I mean, here he is standing in the Most Holy Place very near the Shekinah, the Glory of God, the actual Chabod, the heavy Presence of God.  And what appears?  An angel of the Lord.  He knows it’s not one of his brothers.  All the priests who were serving around him are relatives.  He knows them well. They’re all descendants that come from the course of Abia, or Abijah.

He knows them all.  He knows this isn’t a priest.  He knows it has to be an angel.  But he still wants to know for sure because he realizes that he’s an old man and his wife is well stricken in years.  And how can this thing be?

And Gabriel says, “Because you didn’t believe my words, I’ll give you a sign.  You’re going to be dumb, and you’re not going to be able to talk.”

And I say, you know what that was?  That was God’s way of making sure that Zacharias didn’t spread his doubt.  Doubt is a contagious devil.  It’s a contagious disease.  Doubt comes out of our mouth so many times.  And God just said, “Ok, it’s all right if you doubt.  But I’m going to shut your mouth, and you’re not going to spread it anywhere.  And God said, “I’m going to prove it to you.”  And He did.

And so Zacharias continued . . .  And listen, we are then able to know . . .  I want to read a paragraph to you.  “Unable to speak, Zacharias not only had to fulfill his priestly duties the remainder of the week, but he still had to remain in the Temple for another two days until the Feast of Shavuot and his service the next week was finished on Sivan 6 and 7.

So that was the first day of Shavuot.  And it goes on.  

And we know then by looking at that, we know that the first possible day that John the Baptist could have been conceived . . .”

What does the Bible say about this situation?  It says . . .  Very carefully, let me give you the verse.  It carried over a few days into the third month.  We know that for that particular year.  It’s recorded.

And so we know that the first possible day that he could have been conceived would have been on the eighth, but it’s more likely that he could have been a couple of days later.

One rather spiritual Bible student said . . .  (I don’t know how to say this exactly.  Let me see how to say this.  Hum . . .)  One perceptive and spiritual Bible scholar, not just a student, but a scholar, said that it’s . . . that Zacharias was in a hurry to get home - that he didn’t dilly dally past the days of his service.

The Bible says that.  The Bible said, “When the days of his ministration were over, he went home.”  He departed.  He went home to his wife.

But this particular student said he was anxious to have relations with his wife.  Now I know that’s kind of hard to say in church, but he was anxious to have relations with his wife not just because he was a man and had been away from his wife, but because he had received a sign that God was going to do it.  And if God was going to do it, it was time to put this thing in action.

So here comes Zacharias, an old man, an old priest, stricken in age.  And he comes home to his wife after being away for at least two weeks.  And he’s immediately ready to love her, to hug her, to hold on to her, to kiss her on the cheek.

And you know what she probably said?  “What’s got into you?  Don’t you know we’re old people?  What’s got into you?”

Just be honest.  I’m not trying to be dirty.  I didn’t say that vulgar.  “What’s got into you, Zacharias?”  I can just see it.  She probably said, “Don’t you know that we’re old and I’ve got a headache and things are going bad?”  The one thing she couldn’t say was, “I’ve taken care of the children all day,” because she had no children.

Let’s all say, “Amen.”  She had no children.  

But I don’t know what she said.  But anyway, the Bible said that shortly thereafter Elisabeth who was well stricken in years conceived a child.  And that’s special because we know that . . . within a few days when that took place.

And that becomes very important shortly because other things began to unfold.  And Luke begins to give us some other important details that become very special, I think.  

So this sets the time of John’s conception somewhere between the second and the third week of the third month which would have been somehow in the season of Shavuot.  Pentecost.  The outpouring of the Spirit of God would come at that season.

But to the Jewish people, it was the commemoration of God giving what?  The Law on the Mountain.  It was a holy time.  It was a prophetical time.  No wonder it was in that season that John was conceived.  

Because what was he?  He was one who tried to turn people to the righteousness of what God had given them.  He was a forerunner.  He was a trailblazer.  He went with great words of seriousness, tearing down the high places and exalting the low places and telling everybody, “Make a straight way.  Prepare a straight way for the Messiah is coming.”

This is the time that God’s Word is going to be fulfilled.  No wonder he was conceived then at Shavuot time or Pentecost.  I don’t think there should be much doubt about that.

And do you know what happens if you add nine months to this estimated time of his conception?  Science says forty-one weeks is a full term pregnancy.  Not forty like a lot of people say today, but science says forty-one weeks.  Most children are born between the thirty-eighth and fortieth week.  But forty-one weeks is still the full cycle of a pregnancy, a full term pregnancy.

The exciting thing is if you’d just add nine months to the month, the Hebrew month that John the Baptist was born, was conceived, you will see that he was born during the time of Pesach, Passover, which is special.

You take twenty-seven weeks and add them to the week that the priest in the course of Abijah served in the Temple.  If you add twenty-seven weeks to that, do you know what time of the year you’ll come to?  Hanukkah time.  The Bible said, and we read it, that Elisabeth had been expecting for five months.  She had hid herself.

And in verse 26 it says, “And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel . . .”

Now, listen.  This is how people come up with all these others dates and other times that Yeshua was born.  There is nothing, no reason whatsoever, not even a stumbling misinterpretation of a word, that would place Him in the winter time.  You can’t even misinterpret what you read in Luke and have Him born in December.  It just won’t happen.

But some people have Him born at another time of the year because they take the sixth month to be the sixth month on a Gregorian calendar, the calendar of the sun, that was never even invented during this time!  This calendar, the Gregorian calendar, was created by Pope Gregory.  Our calendar that gives honor to the sun god is a Catholic invention that has older roots than Catholicism.  It goes all the way back to the worship of the sun god.

It’s a very serious thing.  And you can’t take the sixth month of our calendar and add nine months to that and say that Yeshua was born because the Gregorian calendar has very little to do with the Jewish calendar.

And you can’t look at that.  You’ve got to read it in context.  And it says, “Five months Elisabeth hid her secret from everybody.  But in the sixth month . . .

I don’t see any reason to believe that that’s the sixth month of the Gregorian calendar that we have today.  I don’t even have any reason to believe that it’s the sixth month of the Jewish calendar.  But it must be the sixth month of her pregnancy because it says that in the six month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth.

Verse 27, Luke 1.  Let’s read it.

1.  To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, (I’ll hurry.) of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.

Do you know a lot of Bible students believe she was about fourteen years old.  That’s pretty young -somewhere between fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen.  Brother Branham had an idea that she was a young maiden this way as well.

26.  And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth.

27.  To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.

28.  And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.

29.  And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.

30.  And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God.

31.  And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name . . . (Yeshua.)

Unless the angel Gabriel was a Greek, unless he was born in Greece, there is absolutely no possibility whatsoever that he said, “And His name shall be called Jesus.”  There is absolutely no possibility because we don’t think the angels would speak a language that wouldn’t be understood by a little peasant girl.

We are safe to guess that Mary didn’t understand Greek or even a mistranslation of Greek.  If she didn’t understand Greek, it’s very unlikely that she understood a mistranslation of Greek.  He must have spoken to her in Hebrew or in Aramaic.  Most likely, Hebrew.  “Yeshua.  Thou shalt call His name Yeshua (God saves).”  

32.  He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest:  and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: . . .

I’m telling you, if you think Zachariah received a great promise for his child, what about the one that Mary was getting?  “He’s going to sit on the throne of David.”

32.  . . . the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David.

33.  And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever;

He’s going to be an eternal king.

33.  . . . and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

34.  Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?

I like it because Gavriel, Gabriel, he was a little kinder to Mary.  He knew better than to try to strike a woman dumb.  He knew that she’d figure a way to say everything she wanted to say by writing it down.  So he didn’t . . .

The very same question that Zacharias asked got him a sock in the mouth.  But Mary, it’s okay for her to ask.  “How shall this thing be, seeing I know not a man?”

35.  And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

You’ve got to understand this was mighty big words for a little girl who had never known a man.

36.  And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: (It’s done.  She has.) and this is the sixth month with her . . .

There is your confirmation that it was the sixth month of Elisabeth’s pregnancy and not the sixth month of the Jewish calendar or the Gregorian calendar that we use.  You got it?

36.  And, behold . . . she has conceived . . .  This is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.

37.  For with God nothing shall be impossible.

38.  And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.  And the angel departed from her.

That’s wonderful.  That’s so wonderful.  That’s so wonderful.

And you know what Mary probably did?  She got up from that experience.  And you know some of the things that happened, and how Joseph . . .  The Bible said he wanted to put her away because according to the law of Moses, what should happen to her?  She should be stoned.

It was only God who protected her.  It was only God who kept her alive.  The very stress of what was going on in Joseph’s life, the very stress of what was going on in her life could have jeopardized the life that was growing within her under normal circumstances.

But she realized what a wonderful time of year it is.  It’s drawing nigh to the time of the Feast of Dedication when everyone is going to Jerusalem anyway.  And under normal circumstances, even though I’m only espoused to Joseph, he would probably never let me travel.  He would probably never want me to go.

But since it’s the Feast of Dedication anyway in Jerusalem, he’ll probably let me go and visit a kinswoman.  We assume cousin, but the Bible doesn’t particularly say cousin, but a relative, Elisabeth.  

So she probably gains permission to make this journey because it’s Hanukkah.  It’s the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem.  And she’s able to travel with permission, probably, and the blessing of her family because of the time it is.

Verse 39.  A few more verses and I promise I’ll try to be closed in a few minutes.

39.  And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Judah;

40.  And entered into the house of Zacharias, (It’s a three-days journey, by the way.)  And entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth.

41.  And it came to pass that when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost:

What Holy Ghost?  What has happened?  There had never been a filling of the Holy Ghost before, only a demonstration of the Spirit of God.  God demonstrated Himself in the Old Testament.  But look at this.  This was a real filling.  He came and filled her.

That which was growing . . .  Anybody with me?  I’m just going to finish my teaching anyway.  

That which was in her womb was so holy and so powerful that her “Good morning,” her greeting, her salutation caused the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, to fall upon Elisabeth.  And she was filled with the Holy Ghost.

42.  And she spake out with a loud voice . . .  (She began to prophesy.)   Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

43.  And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

Notice.  Gabriel did not go to Elisabeth and tell Elisabeth, “Your kinswoman Mary is going to have a child.”  Gabriel went to Mary and told Mary that Elisabeth . . .  We know that Mary had just conceived.  Her belly wasn’t showing.  But it was the Holy Ghost that filled Elisabeth that caused her to know and to prophesy, “Blessed are . . .  Who am I that the mother of my Lord would come to me?”

My, that’s wonderful.  My, that’s good to me.  This was before the Day of Pentecost.  

44.  For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.

Oh, somebody said, “All babies kick.”  I guess a mother who had carried a baby for six months knew the difference between just a little simple bump and a leap for joy.  Only a mother would know the difference.  You and I, fellows, we wouldn’t know the difference.  But you’ve seen your wife sometimes, “Oh . . .” not expecting those flips.

45.  And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.

And Mary, what did she begin to do?  She began to have a praise and worship session.

Verse 46.

46.  And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord,

47.  And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.

48.  For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

49.  For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name.

50.  And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.

51.  He hath shown strength with His arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagine of their hearts.

52.  He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.

53.  He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath send empty away.

54.  He hath helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy;

55.  As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever.

56.  And Mary abode with her about three months, and returned to her own house.

Now you add those three months from Hanukkah, the time that Mary appeared . . .  You add three months to that, it’s going to bring us to the middle of Nisan.  It’s going to bring us to the week of Passover.

Mary stayed in the house of Elisabeth from the time of Hanukkah until the time of Pesach.  She certainly wasn’t going to be traveling during the week of Pesach.  She stayed until Pesach was over.  And there is no doubt in my mind that while she was there at the end of that three-months period that Elisabeth gave birth to John the Baptist, and Mary was there to take care of her.

No doubt in my mind whatsoever.  In fact, he was probably born at the beginning of the fifteenth day of Nisan.  And we come to that figure by adding the weeks.  And it’s very close.  We can’t pinpoint the exact day except to say that God has a way of fulfilling.  And we know that the Jews already at this time were expecting Elijah to appear during the time of Passover.  They were looking for him, and they didn’t realize that out on the hill he had come, and it would be a few years that he would have to spend in the wilderness being trained and schooled by the Spirit.

And another exciting thing . . .  As we were in Israel . . . and we visited this cave where archeologists now believe that perhaps John the Baptist was hidden there - that his mother showed him that little cave.  And he was hidden there from Herod because Herod was trying to kill, and did kill, all the firstborn babies.

And perhaps, because he knew that cave during that time when the time of Jerusalem was at such unrest before he himself was beheaded, perhaps he took believers who he could not any longer baptize them publicly in the Jordan River because of the oppression of the Roman government . . .

And it’s very likely then that he took those little believers back to the cave that he knew as a child.  Historians believe that Elisabeth died when John the Baptist was seven years old and that according to these records he lived alone perhaps from the time he was seven.  And he hid, perhaps, in the cave that his mother had already shown him.  We don’t know those things for sure.  

But it’s a very interesting thought that at the end of his life he was taking believers back into that cave to baptize them, not unto repentance in a mikveh as had been the Jewish tradition . . .  But one day on the Jordan River, he had met the Lamb of God.

He recognized that this One who is related to me is also the Savior of the world.  And because of that revelation, he didn’t continue baptizing people unto repentance.  Even though Yeshua was still alive, he knew that it was in His Name that the hope of salvation was.

And it’s very likely that before Yeshua died, John the Baptist was probably the first person . . .  not Peter, not the Apostles . . .  It’s very likely that John the Baptist was the first person that ever baptized anybody in the Name of Yeshua - while He was still alive.

Do we know that for sure?  No.  But we can tell already there’s a whole lot more to this story than what we’ve ever thought before.  We can already see that.  And sure, some things are placing things together with a little bit of speculation.

But I like to be able to find enough in the Bible to help me to know at least the season that He was conceived and the season that He came because in doing so, we’re able to prove that God made no mistake.  He fulfilled the Feasts of Jehovah.  They’re not missing gaps in the feasts, but He has fulfilled them.  We’re blessed.  It’s a wonderful thing.  

Mary stayed for three months until the birth of John.  Twenty-seven weeks after that makes up the first six months.  Two trimesters.  That leaves fourteen weeks to bring us to a full term of forty-one weeks.  There are exactly fourteen weeks from Hanukkah to Passover.

There are your forty-one weeks.  John, born at Passover, circumcised probably on the last day of Passover.  Again that’s a little bit of speculation, but very, very possibly exactly how it happened.  Very interesting, anyway, to me.  

And now, let’s just look at a few more verses and close.  (At 12:30, I’ll try to be through.)

Mary has given this beautiful praise.  She returned to her own house.  Now look at verse 57 a moment, quickly.

57.  Now Elisabeth’s full time came that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son.

(Don’t let that confuse you because the story is unfolding.)  

58.  And her neighbors and her cousins heard how the Lord had shown great mercy upon her; and they rejoiced with her.

59.  And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father.

. . . which was very important to pass that name along because he was a priest.  John was supposed to fulfill his destiny as a priest in the Temple.  He was born to be a priest.  He was born to be given the name of a priest in the minds and hearts of all the people.

But God had a different plan.  He wasn’t going to be a priest like his father in the temple.  He was going to be the one who would forerun and foretell the coming.  “Prepare the way of the coming of the Messiah.”

It came to pass on the eighth day . . . they called him Zacharias . . .

60.  And his mother answered and said, Not so; but he shall be called John.

61.  And they said unto her, There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name.

62.  And they made signs to his father, how he would have him called.

I wonder how Elisabeth knew what his name was supposed to be?

63.  And he asked for a writing table, and wrote, saying, His name is John.  (Now he’s writing it.)  And they marveled all.

64.  And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed . . .

He couldn’t doubt any more because the baby was here.

64.  . . . and his tongue loosed, and he spake, and praised God.

65.  And fear came on all that dwelt round about them: and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judea.

66.  And all they that heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What manner of child shall this be!  And the hand of the Lord was with him.

I need to read the rest of the chapter.  

67.  And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying,

68.  Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,

69.  And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;

70.  As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:

71.  That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;

72.  To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant;

73.  The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,

74.  That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,

75.  In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.

76.  And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;

77.  To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins,

78.  Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us,

79.  To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

80.  And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel.

What a beautiful thing.  What a wonderful thing was happening.

I want to close this morning.  If the Lord will allow us, then tonight we will talk a little bit about the birth of Yeshua.  We’ll show you some things a little more.  We’ve already shared some of that concerning Succot.  But we’ve come all the way now.  We have found that John the Baptist was conceived around the time of Shavuot.

We know that six months later the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary.  And Mary came from Nazareth to visit Elizabeth who was six months with child.  We know that this then, adding the weeks to that, would bring us to the time of Pesach that John the Baptist would be born.

And we also will find out tonight when you then add the rest of the weeks, we know approximately the time of the conception, that it would place the Lord being born in Bethlehem, the city of David . . .  His parents on their way to Jerusalem.

They were in Bethlehem, perhaps most likely in a succa on the first day . . . most likely on the first day of Succot and circumcised on the eighth day, the last day of Succot which would fulfill many promises . . . many prophetic things spoken of Him in the Old Testament.

It would place His birth not in the spring, not in the winter, but in the fall.  

Somebody would think maybe, perhaps, it’s not even important.  I can tell, you know.  You’ll never know the battles sometimes I go through.  God knows, it’s alright.  

But there has to be a reason why the Lord keeps pulling and prompting me and pushing me.  You know, I don’t believe the Lord wants us under anything that’s not truth.  I believe He wants us to see the picture.

And you might not be able to explain it now any better than I’ve tried to do this morning, but I believe God wants to eventually bring us to the place where we can show it to somebody.

I want you to know something.  If the Jewish people are going to receive Yeshua as their Messiah, He will have to fulfill the things that the prophets have spoken about Him.  He’ll have to.

Somebody said, “Well, God’s going to open their eyes.”  Not to see an error.  He’s going to open their eyes to see the Truth.  

And I want to tell you something.  I can go as far to tell you that if Yeshua was born when a lot of people say He was born, I can tell you this morning, “He’s not the Messiah.”  

Somebody said, “That’s a terrible thing to say.”  Well, if He doesn’t fulfill the things that God instituted about Him, then we just need to say it like it is.  He can’t be who He said He was.

And all that I know and all that I’ve experienced tells me without a doubt, He is not just the Son of God, but God in the flesh, Messiah, the Hope of Israel and all who love her.  That’s what He is.  And we are able to know that, not because we get a willy, willy, not because we get a feeling, but because we’ve been called by His Spirit.  We repented in ignorance, really, to a lot of things.  When we got saved, we didn’t know what we know now.  All we knew is somehow God helped us to know we were sinners.  Some people think that’s all we ever need to know, but that’s not looking at it in the scope of the Bride.  

We get that, and we didn’t have to know very much to get that.  We’d just have to know we were sinners.  The Spirit of God draws us, and we repent, and we come to Him.  But He reveals, and He continues . . .

Listen . . .  Brother Branham said that God is going to continue to reveal Himself throughout all eternity.  Are you here to tell me that from 1965 until 2004 there should be no further revelation of God, but once we get to heaven He will start revealing Himself to His people again?

Where did you read that?  He continued to reveal Himself to that prophet from his early Baptist ministry all the way through.  Sometimes, He even had to come correct his own preaching.  Sometimes, he had to come himself and say, “I was wrong.”  Or “I almost made the biggest mistake of my life.”  Or perhaps I could show you where the prophet preached that hell is eternal and then preached that the soul that sinneth shall surely . . .

His revelation was like the revelation of all the other men of God in the Bible.  They didn’t come here, born, knowing all they were going to know or seeing all they were going to see.  God continued to reveal it.  And He’s doing the very same thing for His people around the world.  Not just in this church, but in any church where people are hungry for more understanding and revelation from the Lord.

Somebody said, “I still don’t see why any of these things have anything to do with what the Bride is going to do in these last days.”

She’d better know who she is.  And because God has called us to have a ministry in Israel, and you may have more of a part of that one day than just giving your little offering - you may have a physical part in that.  God may call you there for a purpose.

We don’t know.  Even today we don’t know what the future holds.  I don’t know where I’m going to be five years from now.  I don’t know if I’m going to be here preaching in this church, or if I’m going to be in Jerusalem.  I don’t know.  I don’t have any plans in the back of my head to be anywhere than where I am right now.

But I want you to know, I’m going to be where God is leading.  I have to be.

I’ve told my wife before, “I’ve come too far.  I’ve followed the Lord too far to fail Him and miss Him now.”  Amen.  I don’t know what you’re . . . what God’s going to use you for one day.  I don’t know.  But I know one thing.  If you’re going to reach the people that the Lord is calling the ministry to help, you’re going to have to understand, to know . . . because these people study.

They teach their children from the time they’re . . . some of them begin at the age of four to study the Torah.  Four years old, some of them, sit for several hours of the day not learning to read and write, but learning what God told Moses on the mountain.  And they go every day of their lives to yeshiva.  Every day of their lives, they go to school.  And it’s not until they’re a little bit older that they even start learning the alphabet.

They believe that it’s really sin, really unrighteousness to start teaching the natural things before you teach the spiritual things.  

That behooves some of us to spend a little more time developing our spiritual man,  doesn’t it?  And they know it to the extent that at their Bar Mitzvah . . .

Somebody said, “Oh, wouldn’t it be wonderful if some of the young people would grow up and want to really have a Bar Mitzvah?  Oh, my.  It would be wonderful.  But you don’t get up and sing the B-i-b-l-e.  You get up and quote the law of Moses.  You read from the Torah and chant it in Hebrew.  You study.  Your whole life is about that.

These people are no . . .  And listen, they all don’t follow the interpretation of the rabbis.  There are many Jewish people, not just Karaites, but many Jewish people who are looking at that Word, waiting to see.

Somebody said, “Why haven’t they already seen that Jesus is the Messiah?”  Where are they going to see that?  Are they going to slip in the back door of Mother Mary Mission and see the idols and the icons?  Are they going to receive Yeshua as the Messiah there?  Are they going to go to the denominational churches with Christmas trees in the sanctuary and see Yeshua as the Messiah there?

Where are they going to go?  It’s a little different for them.  The Jewish people who live in the land of Israel, seventy percent of them have . . . of the ultra orthodox, seventy percent of the ultra orthodox have no conception whatsoever . . . and perhaps it’s a little higher . . . that there’s anybody who believes like you, that there’s any Christian person that’s not Catholic or Greek Orthodox or Russian Orthodox.  They have no conception that there’s little women who serve the Lord without husbands, widows or whatever the situation is, who love the Lord and give themselves to the work of the Lord who don’t wear black.

If they met you and you said, “I don’t have a husband,” they would say, “Are you a nun?  You don’t look like a nun.”

They have no conception.  They don’t know that there are people who don’t celebrate Christmas, but are Christian.  They don’t know that.

I witnessed not too many trips ago . . .  Well, it was really, now, a few trips ago . . . the last trip my family took in June and July of last . . . the year before last.  I witnessed to a man who was sitting on the airplane next to me.  And I told him . . .  He asked me a little bit about why I was going to Israel.  I told him.  And I told him how we believe.

And he kept twisting in the seat.  He said, “I never dreamed there was anybody who believed in Jesus who didn’t follow the church.”  He said, “How can you believe in Jesus as the Messiah and not be in the church?”

And I said, “Well it’s according to what the church is.”  And he described the church as he knew it.

And I said, “That’s so foreign to me.  That’s not how I serve God.”

And at the end of our conversation he made me explain so many things . . .  Easter and Christmas and so many things.  And at the end, he handed me his card.  And he was one of the major executives of a wealthy oil company in Israel.  And he said, “Anything that I can ever do to help you while you’re in Israel, you don’t hesitate to call me.  I’ll be a friend.”

The little cart came by, the duty-free cart.  And I noticed he bought these big old chocolate bars and put them down in his briefcase.  And as we were getting off the plane, he handed the boys these big chocolate bars.  And he said, “That’s the least I can do because you all were so good in being quiet and letting me have such a wonderful conversation with your father.”

And he was not a religious Jew, but a secular Jew.  But he had no idea.  They don’t even know.  And so what they know about Jesus is so foreign to them.  To see people wearing a cross with a body, with a man on it, it’s idolatry.  They don’t even believe in images.  Jewish art is always abstract.  It makes very little sense sometimes . . .

Sculptures . . .  Now they’ll paint . . . non-religious Jews will paint.  Chagall . . .  If anybody can figure Chagall out . . .  I can’t figure Chagall out.  He’s one of the most famous artists that there’s ever been.  And when I look at Chagall . . . most of the time I just see goats flying over the moon.  I have no idea what he’s saying.  But it’s because they paint in such mysticism.  You have to stand there and figure out why the cow’s coming out of the house and the goat’s up there by the moon.  It doesn’t even fit the nursery rhyme.

But it’s because they know better than to make statues.  All the statues you see . . . They wouldn’t make statues like that.  It’s not their concept.  So when they see Christians going through the streets with a cross on their necks . . . some of them this big with a man’s body hanging there . . .

Do you think they would ever come and say, “Tell me about this Messiah”?  No.  No more than they’re going to come to someone with ruby red lips and their hair all cut off and uncovered.  They just don’t see those things.  

The church has been cruel to them.  And the church . . . you know, right in downtown Jerusalem . . . they have the big nativity scene that comes.  They have a little play.  The Christians get together, and they bring the camels.  And Santa Claus shows up for some of the things at Christmas time in Jerusalem because of the Christians that are living there.

And it just builds more and more resentment.  And you say, “What’s it to you?”  Maybe nothing to you, I don’t know.  But it’s becoming more and more a part of the reason why I breathe.  More and more a part of the reason why I breathe because every time I open the Bible, I see . . .  And even when I hear the Message . . .

So many times now when I’m listening to Brother Branham preach, I hear that . . . I think, “Oh my, wouldn’t they . . . somebody love . . . who is studying the Word of God, wouldn’t they love to hear that?”

I wonder what the yeshiva class would do with that.  So much more wonderful and deeper than what the rabbis have taught about a particular subject, you know.

God is good, and He is faithful.  I can’t help but be happy during this time of the year because I perceive that the Light of the world was kindled during this Feast of Hanukkah.

Let’s stand.  

We bless You, oh God.

Musicians are coming.

I know it’s been a little hard getting it out, but let’s just study a little bit.  Hallelujah.  Wonderful is our God.  Oh hallelujah.

Joy to the world.  That’s not what we’re going to sing now.  But joy to the world, the Lord has come.  What a beautiful, beautiful thing.

We bless You, oh Lord.  We thank You, God.  Hallelujah.  

Here he come.  (I’m not going to carry on much.)  Here he come, John the Baptist born at Pesach just like the Jewish people expected the Spirit of Elijah to return during that time.

All these many years later . . .  In 1909 . . .  (I’m taking a risk.  There are people on the streaming that don’t understand these things.)  All these years later . . .  April, 1909 . . .   April 6, 1909.  Here it is.  The first day of Pesach, here came another man with the Spirit of Elijah on him just like John the Baptist.  As John the Baptist was sent to forerun the first coming, he brought a message that was to forerun the second coming of the Lord.

And here we are just waiting on the total reality and fulfillment of all those things.  

Neighbors and relatives said that in that little cabin in Kentucky, a light came in through the window and hung over the crib, over that little baby, in a mysterious light.  Nobody knew.  Nobody understood what it was all about, but it was passed down for generations.

All the neighbors and friends talked about it and told their children about it until it came to that time when God was going to vindicate, not a man, but a ministry in the Ohio River when he was baptizing that person and that commission came forth.

Oh, there are still people arguing over whether the Lord said, “You or your Message.”  To me, it’s not important as long as you understand what the Message is.  It is Yeshua, it is the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is the Message.  

And once He comes on the scene, once He shows Himself on the scene, then we have an obligation and a responsibility to let the forerunner go.  I want you to know that what John the Baptist was teaching the people was right.  But it was not until the fulfillment of what he was teaching stood on the scene . . . and then John was obligated to say, “Now, you go get Him.  Go down and meet Him.  Go down and hear what He has to say.”

And it was hard to do.  It’s was hard to do.  It’s hard to turn your people over to somebody else.  It’s hard for any man to do that.  It would be like me saying this morning . . . having to choose and say, “I’m going to leave somebody with you.”

I’m not saying this is how it would ever be, but that would be a very difficult thing for me to have to say, “This man is going to take over.”  It would be hard to take your people that you feel like you’ve been called to help and turn them over to somebody else.

But that’s what John had to do because he knew that the Lamb of God had come on the scene.  This was so hard for him personally that it even caused him to doubt at one point what had happened.  And he sent those disciples who came to check on him in prison.  He sent them down and said, “Go and ask Him.  Make sure, one more time, that He’s the One.”

And remember, Jesus didn’t rebuke John.  He just said, “Go and tell John what you see and hear.  The blind receive their sight, and the lame get up and walk.  The dumb are made to speak, and the deaf to hear.  Just go tell him.”

And John the Baptist must have believed.  He was not afraid to preach righteousness in a very corrupt Jewish world at that time.  The Jews, the priesthood, had become corrupt, and the Romans had dominated the land.

And yet he stood and told Herod, “It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother Philip’s wife.”  And it cost him his head.  Can you imagine that man that God gave such a beautiful prophecy to Zacharias about . . .  A great man of God . . .  Can you imagine how he had seemed, how he was reduced?  His life and ministry was seemingly reduced.

And do you know how it ended?  It ended with his head being laid on a charger, on a serving platter, and presented to Herod.  Don’t know where his body was thrown, but here his head comes in.  And it sits there.  Perhaps there is a lid on.  And they lift the lid off, and there is just the head.  

What would have happened to those people if they would have clung to John and not received the Messiah?  And what was it John said about himself?  “I must decrease, and he must increase.”

Brother Branham was no more God in flesh than John the Baptist was, but he was sent to testify.  Amen?  And in this hour, I promise you . . .  I promise you . . .  Don’t . . . you don’t have to believe, but I promise you . . . those who cling to the messenger and not the Message . . .  And the proof is the life.

Somebody said, “Well, you know, there are people that worship here that don’t have complete confidence in you.  They don’t think you live the life.”

Come live with me.  How would you know?  You mean, you don’t have any witness in the Spirit?  Come live with me.  Come on.  Bring your groceries, but come on.  

If we are what we eat, then something ought to be happening in me soon.  And in you, as well.  I sure do appreciate the ministry of John the Baptist.  I sure do appreciate the one whom the Spirit of Elijah came in in this hour.  But I’m more excited than I’ve ever been before about the Life that was kindled at the Feast of Dedication at Hanukkah time.

I’m so excited that a Message came and brought Him from the pages of history and made Him a living reality again in people’s hearts and minds.  The Fullness of the Word of God has come, and It lives inside of the people.

You know what the Lord would have us to do?  Sit at His feet.  Do you want to learn?  Sit at His feet.  Let Him talk to you.  Let Him reveal Himself to you.  Sit at His feet.  Sit at His feet.  Sit at His feet.  He’s the only One that can tell you what you need to do.  

Amen.  Hallelujah.  Blessed be the wonderful Name of the Lord.  Hallelujah.

Let’s lift our hands again.

How we love You.  How we love You.

“And, oh, how I love Yeshua . . .”

Oh, wait a minute.  Wait a minute.  Let me say this.  Wait a minute.  I know you’ve got computers, and I know you can quote, and you can search and see.  I have one, too.  I know they came to Brother Branham, and they asked him about Yahweh and the Name of Yeshua.  And Brother Branham said it didn’t seem like it was that important.

And so there is going to be people who will hold on to that thing, to that . . . that quote, that phrase, and refuse, absolutely refuse, to pray in the Name of Yeshua because of that little offhanded statement that was made.

Do you know what my answer to that is?  It wasn’t important then.  Perhaps it had no importance at all.  Perhaps the six Seals were more important in that hour.  

But I want you to know, in this hour it is very important.  Very important.  Very important.  You don’t have to always say Yeshua, but just get it in your spirit.  Remember, it’s the name His mother called Him.  Remember that the Name of Jesus has become a translation.  It’s a translated version, and we’ve used it.

Somebody said, “If I was baptized in that Name, is that enough?”  You did it with all of your heart.  I’ve seen demons cast out in that Name.  I’ve seen the dead raised in that Name.  I know God has used that Name.  Not because perhaps it was His right Name, but it was because it was all I knew.  It was all that had been revealed to me.

But I’m expecting to see the same and greater in the Name, Yeshua.  Amen.  It means, “God saves.”  And yes, I believe it’s important.  And I’ll tell you something else.  We need to be careful about how we always say, “God.”

“God” is not a name.  “God” is not a name.  I say it all the time.  I can’t help it.  I’ve said it all my life.  It would really take practice.  I will have to work on it.  We say, “God.”   “God, who?  What God?  Who God?  Who are you talking about?”

His Name was revealed in the Old Testament as Yahveh or Yahweh.  That’s the closest we can get.  Somebody said, “You think we ought to bother to speak something when we’re not completely sure?”

Yeah, until that day that He reveals the new Name.  One day He’s going to reveal the new Name, and that’s the Name we’re going to speak.  But, remember this.  If Brother Branham said, “Jehovah of the Old is Jesus of the New,” I can stand here today and say, “Jehovah is not a Hebrew word.  Jehovah is an English word that was translated from Yod Hey Vav Hey.”

How do you get Jehovah out of that?  But it happened.  And so if he said, “Jehovah of the Old is Jesus of the New,” I’m not offended or afraid to say that Yahveh of the Old or Yahweh of the Old is Yeshua of the New.

And I don’t want anybody to think when I say I worship God that I’m worshiping Jupiter or Zeus or any other god.  There is only one God that’s worthy to be praised.

And just a little something else.  He didn’t come in three persons.  All the fullness of the Godhead dwelled in Him bodily.  And there is no other Name given under heaven whereby men may be saved but His Name, however you pronounce it.

It’s not in the pronunciation of His Name.  It’s in the revelation of His Name.  So get a revelation.  You may never pronounce it just right, but get a revelation that the Name of Adonai, the Name of the Lord, is a strong Tower and the righteous run into It and are saved.

I am not trying to argue over those little details.  Did you hear what I just said?  However you pronounce it . . .  If all you can ever say is Jesus, let that be enough.  But it won’t hurt you.

I would like to close with this.  I would like for you to know this.  The Lord rebuked me a long time ago for praying in Jesus’ Name.  I don’t pray that way no more than I would pray and say, “In Yeshua’s Name.”  He rebuked me a long time ago.  He dealt with me and my grandmother at the same time about it.

He said, “When you pray, you pray in the Name of Jesus.”  

Somebody said, “Why?”  Because the Bible gives us some indication that there’s an important aspect to the Name.  There is no other Name.

Did you know that if that be correct . . . the Apostle Paul seemed to think it was . . .  His Name is even more important than His flesh.  It was not in His flesh where salvation came, it was in His Name.  Amen.  Do you see that?

It’s who He was.  And He could have come in any kind of flesh.  But His flesh was human flesh.  He came in a human body.  You don’t believe His body was God, do you?  His body was a fleshly body born of a woman.  Yes, it came from a seed that God created.  So did I.

Who do you think placed the seed in my mother’s womb, so I could be born?  Not in the same way that God reached down and placed this in.  No, I understand that.  But let’s don’t get ridiculous here.  Where do you think the seed came from that caused you to be born?  God, who made the body, created the body to produce such.

I do not believe that His flesh was God.  But I do believe that God became or took on flesh.  And the God that lived in His body is the same God that thundered from Sinai.  And I’ll tell you something else.  There is coming a day that His body is going to mean absolutely nothing to you.

Somebody said, “How in the world do you get such an idea?”  The Bible said one of these days He surrenders all authority back to the One that gave it to Him in the beginning.  

Do you know that the ministry of Jesus as we know it . . . there is a time that it decreases so that the Spirit of the Father increases.  He said, “I will . . .”  The Apostle said that He basically just turns the authority back over to His Father.

Somebody said, “When is that going to happen?”  

The God that lives in Him, that’s the Father, the God that lives in Him . . .  He steps away.

Somebody said, “When is that going to happen?”  Not until every seed that was given Him of the Father comes in.  Not until every child of God and the Bride of Jesus Christ is safe with Him in another realm.  Not until that day.  And then, He says, the work is done.  

This body is not important.  And where did you get an idea like that?  In the Message, but I didn’t understand it the first time I read it.

He said, “All those people looking for the corporal body . . .  All those people looking for the corporal body . . .” He said, “I don’t know where the corporal body of Jesus is.”  It might be in a closet somewhere.  I don’t know where it is, that physical body.  But I know where His Body is now - right here in the Bride of Jesus.   That’s where He’s living.  Do you see that?

Let’s praise Him again as we close.

“Oh, how I love Yeshua . . .”

You know, the Jews have done it more right than we all of these years.  They have come together in celebration during the time of the conception of the Messiah, Hanukkah, and celebrated the oil, lighting of the candle.  And they have come together at the time of His birth every year at Succot and celebrated God tabernacling in man, a temporary dwelling.

And what has the Church done?  They’ve celebrated Christmas in December.  They’ve ignored His conception.  They’ve ignored the fact that God became flesh at Succot . . . the festivals that God . . . the feasts that God ordained, and they made up their own. The church world made up their own.

And how convenient they placed it at the time of the winter solstice, December 25th, a time to give acknowledgment and homage, worship, to a pagan god, a false god.  And people say today it doesn’t make any difference.  It doesn’t make any difference to celebrate Christmas as long as you know it’s not the time.

You’re crazy.  You’re crazy.  Of course, it makes a difference.  Of course, it makes a difference.  If you know that it’s not right, if you know that it’s not the time He was born, why would you want to sit around and talk about Him being born in that time?

God designed times for celebration.  “Oh, God just must have wanted to take all the fun out.”  

Oh, no.  He gave us eight days, several times a year, to celebrate the goodnesses of God, the wonderful things that He’s done.  And He didn’t tell us we had to keep it like the law, fulfilling every rabbinical interpretation of it.  He just said, “Remember it and enjoy it and honor it.   You’re with a new covenant, but your new covenant is no good unless it’s placed in the roots that it came from - the old covenant.

Sing one more time, “Oh, how I love Yeshua . . .”

“And I’ll never forsake Him . . .”