Book of Common Prayer

1 I am Paul. I am a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. I have been sent to God's chosen people so that they will believe and know what is true. This will make them more like God wants them to be.

² I do this work because then they can hope to have everlasting life. God does not fool people. He promised everlasting life before he made the world.

³ And at the right time he sent men to tell people his word. God, who saves us, trusted me and told me to tell that word.

⁴ Titus, I send greetings to you. You are my true son because you believe the same way I do. May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Saviour bless you, and be kind to you, and give you peace. of Crete. I want you to finish putting things in order. And I want you to choose leaders among the church people in every city as I told you to do.

⁵ A leader must be a good man, that no one can blame for doing anything wrong. He must have only one wife. His children should believe. They must not live wrong lives.

⁶ The church leader must be a good man because he looks after God's work. He must not want his own way. He must not get angry or get drunk. He must not fight. He must not try to get rich in wrong ways.

⁷ But he must be kind to strangers in his house. He must love what is good. He must be wise. He must do what is right. He must live a holy life. He must know how to control himself.

⁸ He must hold strongly to the true message which he has been taught. Then he will be able to teach other people what is right. And he will be able to answer people who talk against it.

⁹ There are many people who do not obey God's truth. They talk about things that do no good, and they fool people by it. The Jewish leaders do this very much.

¹⁰ You must put a stop to their talking. They stop whole families from believing in Christ because they teach things which they have no right to teach. They teach because they want to get paid for it, even though it is wrong.

¹¹ One of their own prophets said, `The people of Crete are always telling lies. They are like wild, bad animals. They are lazy and want to eat too much.'

¹² What he said is true. You must tell them that they are wrong. Tell them to stop it. They must believe what is true.

¹³ They must not use the old Jewish stories. They must not use the rules which were made by men who do not believe what is true.

¹⁴ All things are clean to those who have a clean mind. But nothing is clean to those who do wrong things and do not believe. Their minds and their hearts are full of wrong things.

¹⁵ They say that they know God. But what they do shows that they do not know him. They live in a way that God hates. They do not obey. They can do nothing that is good.

1 Many people have tried already to write down the things that have happened among us.

² These things were told us by men who saw them happen from the time they began to happen. And these men helped tell the good news.

³ I have tried to find out all that has happened from the beginning. And so, Theophilus, great ruler, I myself will write you the whole story.

⁴ Then you will know that the things people have told you are true.

⁵ When Herod was king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah. He was one of a group of priests, and Abijah was their leader. Zechariah's wife Elizabeth came from the family of Aaron.

⁶ Both of them were good people as God saw them. They obeyed all the laws and the things that the Lord said they should do.

⁷ But they had no children. Elizabeth was not able to have a baby and they were both very old.

⁸ Zechariah was doing his work one day as a priest to God. It was time for his group to do the work in the temple.

⁹ The priests had a certain way of dividing their work. This day it was Zechariah's turn to go into the temple of the Lord and burn the incense [that smells sweet when it is burned].

¹⁰ All the people were talking to God outside the temple at this time.

¹¹ An angel of the Lord came to Zechariah. He was standing on the right side of the incense table.

¹² When Zechariah saw him, he was surprised and afraid.

¹³ But the angel said, `Do not be afraid, Zechariah. You have been talking to God. He has heard you. Your wife Elizabeth will have a son. Name him John.

¹⁴ `You will be glad and happy. Many people will be glad when he is born.

¹⁵ He will be great in the way the Lord calls people great. He must not drink wine or any strong drink. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit from the time he is born.

¹⁶ He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God.

¹⁷ He will go ahead of the Lord. He will have the spirit and power of Elijah. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children. And he will bring back the people who do not obey, so that they will want to do what good people do. He will make people ready for the Lord.'

¹⁸ Then Zechariah said to the angel, `How can I know that this will happen? I am an old man and my wife is also old.'

¹⁹ The angel answered him, `I am Gabriel and I stand before God. I have been sent to talk to you and to bring you this good news.

²⁰ Now listen. You will be silent and not be able to talk until the day that all this has happened. This is because you did not believe what I told you. At the right time all that I said will come true.'

²¹ the people were waiting for Zechariah to come out of the temple. They were surprised that he stayed in so long.

²² When he came out, he could not talk to them. They knew that he had seen something in the temple. He made signs to them with his hands and did not talk.

²³ When his time for doing the work of a priest was finished, Zechariah went home.

²⁴ After that, his wife Elizabeth found she was going to have a baby. For five months she stayed away from people.

²⁵ She said to herself, `The Lord has done this for me. At this time he has remembered me so that I need not be ashamed among people anymore.'