During these days that lead up
to Christmas, we are spending our time together looking at an account of the
Christmas story that is recorded for us in our Bibles called the gospel of
Luke. Last week, we looked at how much money we spent, as a nation, on
Christmas and discovered that Advent, the countdown to Christmas
calls us to spend less so that we can worship and not worry. Where we can get off track, however, is when we respond
to our cultures call to worship the god of consumerism by spending more money
that we do not have in order to impress people with gifts that they probably
won’t even remember.
Now this week I would like for us to begin by
interacting with a question that could arise after last week. And that question
might sound something like this: Well Dave, if Christmas
calls us to spend less, then what are we to do with the time and treasure that
we normally would have been spending? You say Christmas calls us to spend less,
but doesn’t Christmas call us to something more? What does worshipping Christ fully during the countdown to
Christmas look like if it is not what we have been doing?
To find the
answers to these questions or objections, I would like for us to spend our time
together by looking back at an account
of Jesus life that is recorded for us in our Bibles called the gospel of Luke,
which records what happened that first Christmas. So
far, we have been looking at the responses of people after the arrival of
Jesus. This morning, I would like for us to spend our time together looking at
the response of Mary to the announcement of her pregnancy with Jesus. So let’s
do that together, beginning in Luke 1:26:
Now in the
sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called
Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the
descendants of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.
Luke begins this story by introducing us to the two main
characters in the story. The first character that Luke introduces us to is the
Angel Gabriel, who we met two weeks ago in the opening sermon in this series. Gabriel
was an angel of the Lord who was God’s personal servant, who in the Bible
delivered messages from God to humanity. Luke tells us that God sent the angel
Gabriel to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, which was a small, rural town,
located about 60 miles north of Jerusalem.
Gabriel
was sent to Nazareth in order to deliver a message from God to a virgin engaged
to a man whose name was Joseph. Now when Luke refers to Mary as being a virgin,
this phrase does not only refer to her sexual history. In the culture of the
day, this phrase was used to describe a young girl of marriageable age, which in the culture of the day would have been between
12-13 years old, and had not had sex.
So Mary was basically a Junior High age virgin who was
engaged to be married to a slightly older teenager named Joseph, who Luke tells
us was of the descendants of David. That Joseph was a descendant of David is
significant because God had promised the Jewish nations most famous king, King
David, that one of his descendants would be the Messiah.
So the Jewish people were looking for the descendant of
Abraham, from the line of David that would be the promised Messiah who would
bring the Jewish people back to God and back to prominence in the world. And
Joseph was a descendant of Abraham from the line of David. However, Joseph is
not a main character in this story; he is only mentioned as an aside. Luke then
gives us a front row seat as this story unfolds, beginning in Luke 1:28:
And coming in, he said to her,
"Greetings, favored one! The Lord is
with you."
Now imagine yourself as Mary: you are a Jr.
High girl in a small rural town. Place yourself in her shoes. Out of the blue,
the angel Gabriel, God’s personal messenger appears and says "Greetings,
favored one! The Lord is with you." If the appearance of the angel
Gabriel wasn’t enough, let’s take a minute to look at the greeting itself. The
word greetings here, in the language that this letter was originally written
in, is the same word that is translated rejoice in our English Bibles. The
little phrase favored one comes from the same word that is translated grace.
This greeting, if it was to be communicated in the
language we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this:
“Rejoice Mary, for God is with you and is going to extend grace to you in a way
that will transform your life”. We see Mary’s response to this greeting in
verse 29.
But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering
what kind of salutation this was.
When Luke states that Mary was perplexed at this
statement and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was, he is revealing
for us the reality that Mary was confused and was trying to process what this
amazing greeting from this supernatural being meant. This teenage girl was
confused and was considering the significance of this statement.
Now wouldn’t you be confused? Wouldn’t you be considering
the consequences and significance of the statement if the angel Gabriel showed
up at your door and made such a statement? But not only was Mary confused; not
only was Mary considering the significance of the angel Gabriel’s statement
that “God is with you and is going to extend grace to you in a way that will transform
your life”. There was something else going on in Mary, which we see revealed in
verse 30:
The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary;
To which Mary was probably thinking “that’s easy for you
to say. You’re not a teenage girl; you are an Angel of the Lord who delivers
special messages from God”. You see, the reason why the Angel Gabriel said “do
not be afraid” is because Mary was afraid. The Angel Gabriel then delivers
God’s message to Mary:
for you have found favor with God. "And
behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him
Jesus. "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and
the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign
over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end."
Now God’s message to Mary, if it was communicated in the
language that we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like
this: “Mary, the reason that you have nothing to be afraid of is because God is
with you and is going to extend grace to you. God is going to reveal His
transformational intervention and activity in your life in a miraculous way.
You see, Mary you are going to have a child; and this child is not just any
child. You are going to have a son and you are to name him Jesus, or Yahweh
saves. And the reason that you are to name Him Jesus is because He is God in a
bod. God is coming to the earth through you as the Lord God is sending His Son
Jesus, who is God, to take on flesh and fulfill the promise that He had made to
bring the Jewish people back to Him. The son that you will give birth to will
rule and reign as He reveals and establishes the kingdom of Heaven for all
eternity”.
Now imagine yourself as Mary hearing that you are going
to become pregnant and give birth to God: What would you be thinking? How would
you respond? Tomorrow, we will see how Mary responded…
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