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Luke 1:26-38, Key Verse 1:38 I am the Lord¡¯s servant ¡°I am the Lord¡¯s servant,¡± Mary answered. ¡°May it be to me as you have said.¡± Then the angel left her.¡± In this passage the angel Gabriel visits Mary to announce the birth of Jesus. In one sense, this is an old, old story that tells us about history. However, it is so much more than that. It is God's very word to us, which can open our eyes to his kingdom and teach us the way to receive God's great favor on our lives. Let's accept this word as we begin to prepare for Christmas. Part 1, "Greetings, you who are highly favored" (26-30). Look at verses 26-27. "In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendent of David. The virgin's name was Mary." It was now six months since God had given great favor to Zechariah and Elizabeth. The Lord answered their prayer by giving them a son, John the Baptist, forerunner of the Messiah. Little John had been in Elizabeth¡¯s womb for six months. Now, according to God's time schedule, the promised Messiah should be conceived. Humanly speaking, with the wicked King Herod on the throne, the times looked dark. However, God was directing history to fulfill his work of salvation. As God prepared to send his Son into the world, he needed someone to serve as a mother. Entrusting the Son's life into human hands was not a light matter. Even when parents choose their babysitter, they check carefully for their back ground, experiences, characters, even they request for their official resume. Who did God choose? God chose Mary. What kind of person was she? She was from Nazareth in Galilee, a country town which despised by Jews at that time (Jn 1:46). At the same time, she was a virgin, young and pure. She was engaged to Joseph, a descendant of David. Certainly Mary must have been the happiest one among all the girls, and she must have been enjoying her beautiful dreams of a sweet home with Joseph. Her sweet dream seemed to last forever. If she was a modern girl, she might have spent an hour on honeymoon schedule and faceshop every day sharing her feelings with her girlfriends. Mary seemed to be just an ordinary country girl with her own small dream. Mary was not like Hannah, who came to God in agony of soul over her barrenness. Rather, Mary was peaceful and happy. All of that changed suddenly. Look at verse 28. "The angel went to her and said, 'Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.'" Humanly speaking, Mary looked like an ordinary person. Yet the angel called Mary, "you who are highly favored." It was because God had chosen her to be the mother of the Messiah. However, Mary did not respond positively at first. Mary was greatly troubled at the angel's words (29). She thought that God's favor required a sacrifice in her life, and that God would ask her something challenging. Generally, favor means to get some help from someone else. Many Christian think that to be favored by God is to receive many human blessings. However, the real meaning of "favor" in the Bible is different from what we thought to be. Sometimes, there comes huge difference between God¡¯s favor and the favor in our mind. We must acknowledge that God's favor in a person's life is disruptive. It requires us to acknowledge God as God, putting aside our own dreams and plans. Here we learn that to be chosen by God for a mission is God's favor or grace to us. All Christians have received this grace. Romans 1:5 says, "Through him and for his name's sake we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith." For example, before meeting Jesus, Paul had been a terrible sinner who persecuted the church of God. But Jesus forgave his sins and made him his servant, an apostle to the Gentiles. The apostleship is also God¡¯s favor to Paul. He said in Ephesians 2:10, "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." All who are in Christ Jesus are included in this grace. To be entrusted with God¡¯s mission is great favor. To some, it is to serve campus mission, praying and fishing campus students. To others, it is to care for one sheep with 1:1 bible study. To others, it is to be chosen to deliver the message at the summer bible conference. It is also to serve Christmas worship service through festival, dancing, chorus, or preparing all kinds of things behind the scenes. When we sense God's favor upon us, we feel a great sense of privilege and find absolute self-worth. However, from time to time, when we face many practical problems or difficulties, we can feel burdened by God's favor. When we see people enjoying free lives without any mission, we can envy them. Then we can begin to complain about the very mission that makes our lives special. Let's come back to our senses, let¡¯s acknowledge God's grace in choosing us and Let¡¯s thank God. When the angel said to Mary about God¡¯s favor, she had to decide to surrender to God. Mary was scared at first. So, the angel helped Mary overcome her fear by emphasizing God's great favor to her. How did the angel help Mary overcome the fear? Part 2. You are to give him the name Jesus (31-33). In verses 31-33, the angel tells about the child to be born. Look at verse 31. "You will be with child and will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus." The name "Jesus" means Savior. Matthew 1:21 explains that he would save his people from their sins. The real problem of mankind is a sin problem, that is, a broken relationship with God. God made man in the image of God to live in fellowship with him. God wanted man to rule over the created world. God made man with freedom of choice to willingly choose to love and serve God. God did not want man to be a robot, but a person of freedom and dignity. So, God made it possible for man to disobey him. Under Satan's temptation, man fell into disobedience. Through one act of disobedience, sin entered the world, and death entered through sin, and all creation fell under the power of sin and death. Sin has made all men sick and miserable. Romans 1:29 says, "They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity." People try in many ways to solve this problem. However, no matter how hard man tries, the basic problem remains unsolved. So, Man needs a Savior. God sent Jesus as our Savior. How is Jesus our Savior? Look at verse 32a. "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High." What does it mean to be great? Alexander the great was known as a great king for his spirit of conquest. However, his moral behavior was despicable. Jesus is different than any other human being. Jesus is great because he is the Son of the Most High. Jesus is God in nature. Jesus is holy and pure. Jesus never made a mistake. Although Jesus was severely tested through trials and hardships, he always revealed the power, wisdom and character of God. Jesus is truly great because Jesus is God. Based on his divine character, Jesus is worthy to take the throne of David. Look at verses 32b-33. "The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." The "throne of David" and "the house of Jacob" refer to the kingship to rule God's people. God had a plan from the beginning to raise his people as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. God established David as their king. David destroyed the enemies of his people and united the kingdom and ruled over the people with peace and love. It was a time of prosperity and victory for the people of Israel. However, David was not perfect. One night, David fell into temptation and committed adultery with Urijah¡¯s wife. Consequently, David¡¯s sin might have destroyed his household and ruined the kingdom. However, David repented his sin before God. Surprisingly, David believed in God¡¯s forgiving love. David knew the secret of faith, the secret about the forgiveness of sins. God accepted David¡¯s repentance and through David¡¯s faith, God gave us a vision of the kingdom of the Messiah, where we will be forgiven our sins and become the children of God. God promised to send an offspring from David's line. In this kingdom, God's people would enjoy life and love and joy and peace forever. In order to establish this perfect kingdom, Jesus had to deal with man's sin problem. Throughout his lifetime, Jesus lived a pure and holy life. Jesus obeyed his parents and he obeyed the law of God. Jesus defeated the devil's temptation by the word of God. Jesus served people as a good shepherd by healing their diseases, driving out evil spirits, and planting the word of God in their hearts. Jesus lived the very life of God on earth. At last, in obedience to God, Jesus offered himself for the sins of the world. Jesus died on a cross, shedding his blood. Jesus was innocent. However, Jesus was lifted up on a cross between heaven and earth and became a man of sorrow cursed by God and men. On the third day, God raised Jesus from the dead because he has no sin. Jesus was glorified. Now Jesus has the right to forgive our sins and the authority to give eternal life to all who believe in him. Jesus can make us new in our inner being by forgiving us from all our sins. How? Jesus has taken away our sins on the cross. We obey Jesus willingly because Jesus gave his life for us. In this way, Jesus became our king to save us from sin and death. The verse 33 says, "...his kingdom will never end." How can this be? All human kingdoms have an end. However, in Jesus' kingdom there is no sin and no death. There is no sorrow and no pain and no darkness at all. There are no corruption in Jesus' kingdom. That is why his kingdom will last forever. We human beings were made to live in such a kingdom. We have sorrow because we get old and die someday. But Jesus gives us eternal life in a kingdom that never ends. This is the true and living hope for us. Part 3. I am the Lord¡¯s servant (34-38) When Mary heard what the angel said, Mary's heart was deeply moved. She was ready to obey God's will and do God¡¯s precious mission. However, there was one thing that still bothered Mary. It was the matter of her fiancé Joseph, whom the angel had not even mentioned. So Mary asked, "How will this be, since I am a virgin?" The angel still did not mention Joseph. Instead, he talked about someone else. Look at verse 35. "The angel answered, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.'" Mary would conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit. Through the human egg of Mary, Jesus would be fully human. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, Jesus would be conceived by God himself. Thus he would be in very nature fully human and fully God. As a human being, Jesus understands us fully. Jesus knows our weaknesses and has compassion on us. At the same time Jesus is fully God with all power and wisdom. So Jesus is always victorious. This Jesus is the true Savior for mankind. The nature of Jesus' birth always asks for our faith beyond human understanding. In all of human history, Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. No one had ever heard of such a thing. To be part of this work, Mary also needed faith in God who does a new thing. To plant faith in her, the angel told Mary of Elizabeth's miraculous pregnancy in her old age. Then the angel said, "For nothing is impossible with God" (37). We need this faith. Some of us believe God's favor upon us and have accepted Jesus as king and the hope of his kingdom. However, when it comes to believing that we personally can be used in God's work, we may wonder how it can be. This is personal unbelief. We must have personal faith to be a history maker through God¡¯s favor. Then God can use us greatly in his work and history. Let's read together verse 37. "For nothing is impossible with God." Look at verse 38. How did Mary respond? "'I am the Lord's servant,' Mary answered, 'May it be to me as you have said.' Then the angel left her." Mary identified herself as "the Lord's servant." To Mary, God was her first priority. Mary did not call herself, "Joseph's wife," but "the Lord's servant." Mary put God first. This was a risky decision. Mary knew that Joseph could not understand. Mary could lose Joseph. Mary also knew that her friends and neighbors would not understand. Most likely they would think she was an adulterous woman. She would be terribly mistreated, even stoned to death. Yet, by faith, Mary accepted the word of the angel. She believed God was the sovereign Lord. Through that faith, she became the mother of Jesus who is the king of kings, the lord of the lords. Mary's pain and difficulty would last for a while, but her joy and victory in Christ would last forever. While preparing this Christmas, there are many opportunities for each one of us to receive God¡¯s favor. We should accept the God¡¯s favor to us and be ready to obey the Lord. Only then can we have overjoy in our mind. Let's decide to believe and obey the word of God personally during this Christmas season. May God bless us to have joy and delight in baby Jesus. |