One way to get started is to look at the integral for the gamma function:
$$\Gamma(z)=\int_0^\infty t^{z-1} e^{-t}\\,dt$$
Subsitute $t=nx$ in the integral to arrive at
$$\frac{\Gamma(s)}{n^s}=\int_0^\infty e^{-nx}x^{s-1}\\,dx$$
which we then sum up to get
$$\Gamma(s)\zeta(s)=\int_0^\infty \frac{x^{s-1}}{e^x-1}\\,dx$$
which already shows that there is _some_ connection between the gamma and zeta functions, and it does in fact allow us to extend the definition of the zeta function into the critical strip.

What comes next is _far_ less obvious, but the idea is to introduce a branch cut for $x^{s-1}$ along the positive real axis, and to replace the above integral by one running from $+\infty$ along the bottom of the positive real axis, around the origin, and back to $+\infty$ along the top of the real axis. This introduces an extra factor $1-e^{2\pi i s}$. Now start expanding the circle around the origin, taking account of the poles of the integrand along the imaginary axis as we go, and end up with
$$\Gamma(s)\zeta(s)=(2\pi)^{s-1}\Gamma(1-s)\sin(\tfrac12\pi s)\zeta(1-s).$$
From there, some cleanup still remains. As I said, this is not terribly intuitive, so it doesn't answer your question, but the first paragraph should at least give you a notion how the gamma and zeta functions are interrelated.