We are introduced to this godly Israelite couple. 7 But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years. 6 And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. Luke 1:5 In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. Today I want to look at Luke 1, where we find the account of Zechariah and Elizabeth, an older relative of Mary the mother of Jesus. My goal in these advent weeks leading up to Christmas is for us to stop, to look, to pause, to behold, to let our jaws drop in wonder, and to worship. My goal is not to fill your head with more information or teach you something you don’t already know. All of this ought to stop us in our tracks with our jaws dropped and our hearts filled with awe and wonder.īut so often we are distracted last time we looked at what Jesus told us in his parable about the sower and the soils, ‘the cares and riches and pleasures of life’ (Lk.8:14) grow up and choke out the truth of God’s word in our lives, and we fail to wonder, we fail to worship. He came to reconcile our broken relationship with God, to bring us near to God. Jesus came to take our place, to die as our substitute, to bear the penalty we deserve. And that he came not because we were so good, but because we were so bad, because we were without hope and without God, because we needed rescuing. The gospel – the good news – that Jesus came that Immanuel, God, became human God with us. This season especially is a time when we ought to be filled with wonder and awe at what God has done. DISC ONE: Doctor Who by BBC Radiophonic Workshop DISC TWO: Sweet Mother by Prince Nico Mbarga And Rocafil Jazz International DISC THREE: The Boys Are Back in Town by Thin Lizzy DISC FOUR: Swing Low, Sweet Chariot by Ladysmith Black Mambazo DISC FIVE: That's The Way Love Goes by Janet Jackson DISC SIX: Family Business by Kanye West DISC SEVEN: Mr Bojangles by Sammy Davis Jr DISC EIGHT: A Change is Gonna Come by Ayanna Witter-Johnson BOOK CHOICE: The Wormwood Trilogy by Tade Thompson LUXURY ITEM: A solar-powered puzzle generator, designed by Tom.12/05_2nd Sunday of Advent Zechariah and Elizabeth (Luke 1) Audio available at: He is married to Caron and has two grown-up children. In 2017 he topped the Powerlist, the annual list of the 100 most influential people of African and African Caribbean heritage in Britain, and was appointed a CBE in 2018. He is also involved with philanthropic projects in education, including founding a school for high-achieving but disadvantaged girls in Ghana with a focus on maths and science. In 1996, he founded his first company and has since been involved with several other start-ups – “thinking up ideas, raising venture capital, building companies, selling them and doing it all again,” he says. After many unsuccessful job applications, British Airways gave him a break, and he later worked for the London Stock Exchange and Goldman Sachs. He returned to London looking for work in information technology. He began his teenage years back in the UK, enjoying rugby and ice-skating, before moving with his family to Nigeria, where he also attended university, studying Applied Physics and launching his first business selling flared trousers to fellow students. He was born in 1963 to a Nigerian father and a British mother, and grew up first in London, and then in Uganda, a stay cut short by the rise to power of Idi Amin. He recently took up the post of chairman of the Rugby Football Union. Tom Ilube is an entrepreneur, known for his successful start-up companies, and a philanthropist.