Christmas Through Mary's Eyes
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Introduction
Introduction
Our mission as a church is not just to grow our church, but to bless our community, and because of your incredible generosity over the last couple of months, we were able to provide Christmas gifts for six families in our community. Six families with a total of 11 children.
Our mission as a church also consists of spreading the gospel throughout the world. So each Christmas, as a church, we give to a special offering called the Lottie Moon Christmas offering which goes to support the International Mission Board (IMB).
This is the agency through whom we, as Southern Baptists, send out most of our overseas missionaries and church planters. This year we have set a goal of $2500.00 to go to support this great missions endeavor.
So I challenge you to think about being involved generously in the mission of God this December.
The mission of God began before the foundation of the world. It was first expressed in words in Gen 3:15
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
The mission of God moved along slowly through redemptive history in the people we know as the Israelites. Then, it appeared to come to halting stop at the end of the book of Malachi.
Through the prophet Malachi, God exposed just how corrupt the Israelites had become after returning from Babylonian exile.
The general picture we get from the book is that the long years of Israel’s exile did not fundamentally transform the hearts of the people.
They’re still in rebellion against God, the temple is corrupted, and Malachi leaves his reader waiting for some kind of future resolution.
And that’s exactly what Malachi announces. He warns that the Day of the Lord is coming to purify Israel from all moral compromise and evil, so that a faithful remnant can emerge out on the other side.
Malachi ends with a hopeful note that God will one day come to sort everything out. Then the people waited.
Four hundred long years they waited. Nothing. Crickets were louder than God’s mission until.......until God sent an Angel named Gabriel to a small town in Galilee named Nazareth to deliver the greatest angelic message ever.
If you have your Bibles, and I hope you do, find your way over to the Gospel according to Luke, chapter 1. We will get started in verse 26. For the sake of time we are going to dive straight in and examine this important divine drama.
Luke begins by telling us about the actors, the location, and the time of this great divine drama.
26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,
27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.
1. The Actors
Gabriel the Angelic messenger.
God
A young virgin, named Mary who was betrothed to Joseph of the house of David.
2. The Place
A city of Galilee named Nazareth.
3. The Time
The Sixth Month (Elizabeth’s Pregnancy).
After setting the stage, Luke unpacks the dramatic dialogue between a young girl and a mighty angel of God.
1. Gabriel greets Mary.
28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”
Mary, a young teenage girl, has her whole world change literally before her eyes. In this encounter with Gabriel, she experiences God’s favor.
The Greek behind the phrase “O favored one”, literally means to be the recipient of God’s freely bestowed, beneficent goodwill or grace. The root word is charis, the word we call grace. God’s undeserved, unmerited favor.
While Mary’s world is changed, her nature does not change. She is still a young girl who has been singled out by God to be a special instrument in his on going amazing plan of salvation.
2. Mary is perplexed by this greeting.
29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.
I’m sure the sight of the angel was overwhelming to her, but Luke specifically says that she was troubled at the angel’s saying, his greeting, “O favored one.”
Mary was probably thinking, “Who am I, for you to show up in all your heavenly glory, telling me I am someone special?”
Imagine if in the middle of this church service we heard the sound of sirens and helicopters and the secret service stormed in and said,
“Sorry to interrupt, but we have a matter of urgent national security, and President Trump has asked to speak with …” and said your name? You would be perplexed too! Wondering “Me? Who am I? Why all this attention for me?”
Mary is saying, “Who am I that God sent his top level angel—who knows me by name and calls me ‘the favored one’?” It’s troubling isn’t.
3. Gabriel calms her with the greatest message of all time.
30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
Mary, God’s grace is upon you and His grace removes all fear.
Oh, and by the way, you are going to have a baby boy and God wants you to call him “The Lord is salvation” or “Jesus.”
Already in her mind, she has to be wondering who could this baby be? Could it be the one Isaiah spoke of?
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
4. Gabriel reveals Jesus as the Son of God.
32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,
This baby boy will be great! Not just great in name, but great in his being and nature, for this child will be called the Son of the Most High. He is the Son of God Mary! O Favored One, you are going to give birth to God’s Son!
5. Gabriel reveals Jesus as the long awaited Davidic King.
32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,
33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
Gabriel says, oh by the way, did I mention that God’s son is also the long awaited Messiah of Israel?
See there was this little thing called the Davidic Covenant in 2 Samuel 7 where God promised the following to David in vs. 12-13.
12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.
13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
We know that Mary had a Levitical ancestry as a daughter of Aaron, but she may have also been a part of a bloodline mixed with Davidic heritage. Romans 1:3 seem to affirm this view of Mary.
3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh
Nevertheless, as the stepson of Joseph, Jesus was legally a descendant of David.
What Mary was hearing was that God wants her to give birth not only to the long awaited Davidic messiah but also the Son of God.
6. Mary has an honest concern.
34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
It’s as if Mary says, “Okay Gabriel, I understand what you are saying, but how will this be? I’m a virgin, and virgins don’t generally have babies.”
Now that is a major obstacle or is it?
7. Gabriel answers her concern.
35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.
Gabriel is very clear that this miraculous conception was going to be the result of divine activity. But not in some physical sense, it is a truly spiritual creation of life.
The Holy Spirit comes and overshadows Mary, much in the same way as God did to the earth during the creation. God creates human life indwelt by the Son of God inside of Mary’s womb.
Don’t miss the last part. “Holy, the Son of God.”
Warren Wiersbe is helpful to us at this point in the following quote.
“Gabriel was careful to point out that the Baby would be a “holy thing” and would not share the sinful human nature of man. Jesus knew no sin (2 Cor. 5:21), He did no sin (1 Peter 2:22), and He had no sin (1 John 3:5). His body was prepared for Him by the Spirit of God (Heb. 10:5) who “overshadowed” Mary. That word is applied to the presence of God in the holy of holies in the Jewish tabernacle and temple (Ex. 40:35). Mary’s womb became a holy of holies for the Son of God!”
8. Gabriel gives Mary Hope.
36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.
37 For nothing will be impossible with God.”
Gabriel ended his message by giving Mary a word of encouraging hope: her older relative Elizabeth was with child, proving that “with God nothing shall be impossible.” Elizabeth was thought to have been barren, yet God opened her womb.
This reminds us of God’s word to Abraham when he announced the birth of Isaac.
14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.”
Sarah was also barren and old. Nothing is impossible when God is involved.
I love the way the older ASV Bible translated this verse.
37 For no word from God shall be void of power.
God always accomplishes His purposes through the power of His Word.
9. Mary obeys God and wonders in amazement at God’s mission.
38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
Mary’s response was to surrender herself to God as His willing, trusting servant (literally slave). She experienced the grace of God. She believed the Word of God. Therefore, she could be used by the Spirit of God to accomplish the mission of God.
So I don’t know what situation you are in. Maybe you are in what feels like a hopeless situation. I can tell you that if you have opened your heart to receive Christ, everything Gabriel said to Mary applies to you as well.
When you come to God, you can only be in 1 of 2 postures toward Jesus: either full surrender or total rebellion.
You can’t negotiate your way into the favor of God. A lot of people try that … I’ll be good. I’ll give this. I’ll clean up my life and then do what God wants.
There’s only one deal that God will make: He will give you all Jesus offers for the price of His full and complete control over your life.
Hope is found in knowing you have the favor of God in Christ.
That’s found in a very simple prayer:
“Lord Jesus, Behold, I am your servant; let it be to me according to your word.”
“Thank you for the favor you have shown me in Christ. I know that nothing is impossible with you. I will trust you completely.” (1:30, 37–38)
Can you think of a better prayer to pray this season? Pray that now?
Invitation:
Church are you experiencing the wonder of Christmas this holiday season?
Sometimes we assume that living the Christian life is like someone gave us a $100 dollar gift. We struggle along trying to keep all of our bills paid on our own. Then one day, we finally realize that the gift wasn’t $100 dollars, but $100 billion dollars.
All this time we have had exactly what we needed, but we weren’t living in the realizatin of it. Is that you this morning?
Let Christmas remind you of the riches we have in Christ!
9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.
Maybe you have never received Christ? It is my joy to tell you that all that Gabriel offered to Mary, I can offer to you. You are highly favored. Jesus has come to forgive your sins if you will surrender and receive and obey.
Mary did not have favor because she was special and sinless, but because of what her Son would do for her in her place. He has done that for you, too.