Luke 1:1-13

¹A lot of great things have happened here, and the people that saw those things happen told everyone what they saw, and a lot of people wrote on paper the stories those people told.

³I have read those stories, and I have talked to those people, and I checked up on everything they said, right from the start. So now I am carefully writing this book for you.

⁴You already heard some of this, but I want you to know the true story, and I want you to be sure about it.

⁵At the time when Herod was big boss of Judea country there was a man there called Zechariah. He was a man that looked after the Jewish ceremonies. He belonged to a group that did the Jewish ceremonies called Abijah’s mob. His wife too belonged to a family of Jewish ceremony people. Her name was Elizabeth.

⁶Those 2, Zechariah and Elizabeth, were very good people. They did everything in God’s law, and God liked the way they lived.

⁷They lived that way for a long time, but they didn’t have any kids. Elizabeth just couldn’t have a baby. And they got very old.

⁸Zechariah belonged to that group that did the Jewish ceremonies, and the time came for them to do those ceremonies in God’s ceremony house in Jerusalem city.

⁹One day it was Zechariah’s turn to go into the special room in that house and burn some stuff to make a good smell.

¹⁰While he was doing that a big mob of people were outside, and they were praying.

¹¹Then God sent one of his angel messengers to that room, and he stood beside the metal table where that stuff was burning.

¹²Zechariah saw the angel there and got a big shock. He was really frightened.

¹³But the angel told him, “Don’t be frightened, Zechariah. God has heard what you have been asking him, and he will give you what you want. Your wife, Elizabeth, will have a baby boy, and you will name him John.