Last week Pastor Jake talked about life interruptions.
Zacharias and and Elizabeth's life was interrupted in a very
good way. But some interruptions are not
so good, like when we break a knee or come down with cancer or
have a stroke. All events that have interrupted
our personal family schedule, getting married or the arrival
of a baby or death in the family are all life changing events.
Our passage today tells us about a unique historical event more
unlikely to happen then the Blue Jays winning the World Series or
the Toronto Maple Leafs winning the Stanley Cup.
This morning we're going to be reading from Luke chapter 1 and
as we discuss them we want to focus on them as.
So I won't read the whole passage to start, but we will
read them as we come through them.
So keep your Bibles open to Luke chapter 1, verses 26 to 38,
verse 26. Now, in the sixth month, the
Angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth
to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the
House of David. The virgin's name was Mary.
Gabriel was a special messenger from God who brought messages to
Daniel, to Zacharias, and here to Mary.
Mary was in Nazareth. I think Pastor Jake mentioned
that last week that it this was not some religious center, not
Jerusalem or Bethlehem. When so Gabriel brought this
bewildering message to a small town, the city of Nazareth, a
lowly place and despised Nathaniel, which was one of
Eventually one of Jesus's disciples commented that
comment. His comment was what good can
come from Nazareth? So last week Pastor Jake talked
about interruptions in life. Now Mary's life was totally
interrupted. She was engaged to Joseph and
was waiting for that wonderful wedding day.
But life got messy. Gabriel greeted her.
Bringing a message of joy and blessing, he said that Mary was
highly favored by God and chosen to bear a son.
But the earthly father was not going to be Joseph.
Joseph became the adopted father and God was the real father.
Betrothal time was a time when a couple prepared for marriage.
Society expected purity until marriage, and if a young lady
got pregnant before marriage, she could have been stoned to
death. Today, engagement often is
interpreted as a license to become more physically intimate,
but not in Mary's day. That could lead to death.
Instead, the individuals were almost isolated from each other
as they prepared for the big celebration, which sometimes
lasted up to a week. The man would often build a wing
to the parents house to live in and Joseph being a Carpenter
would have been working to get a place ready for after the
wedding. Verse 28 and having come in the
Angel said to her, rejoice highly favored one, the Lord is
with you, blessed are you among women.
So Mary found grace. She found she found that she was
highly favored with God. This favor was from God, was not
because of self, effort or personal goodness.
It came from an understanding of God's love and favor.
Grace is the attribute of God where He looks overlooks our
faults. We don't deserve God's
blessings. We're not perfect and neither
was Mary. If an Angel showed up at your
door, how would you react? What would you say?
Verse 29 says that when she saw him, she was troubled at his
saying and considered what manner of greeting this was.
Then the Angel said to her, Do not be afraid Mary, for you have
found favor with God, and behold, you will conceive in
your womb and bring forth a son, and shall call his name Jesus.
We need to ask ourselves the question, have we found favor
with God? What would it take to find or
receive God's favor? In this passage we have one of
the most unique features of Christendom, the virgin birth.
God indicated this from the very beginning.
In Genesis chapter 3, verse 15. It says that the one that would
crush the head of the serpent, Satan, was to come from the seed
of a woman. We have the next slide.
Thank you Sir. Genesis does not reference any
male involvement in this prophetic word written down from
oral tradition by Moses about 1500 years before this event.
Then God's prophetic word is reaffirmed in Isaiah Chapter 7
verse 14. Therefore the Lord himself will
give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall
conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel.
And Emmanuel here means God with us.
God came down and identified with humanity, being born as a
child and taking on the human form while keeping his divine
nature. When sin came into the world,
the punishment was death. We see in in Genesis chapter 2
verse 17 God said to Adam, but of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil you should not eat, for in the day that you eat
of it you shall surely die. Romans 5 verse 12 says
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and
death through sin, thus death spread to all men because all
have sinned, That death was not just a physical death, but a
spiritual death, being separated with God forever.
Until the point at where we accept Christ's forgiveness, we
are powerless to cleanse our own sin.
We can't do enough good deeds to make things right, Isaiah 64
verse 6 says. But we are all like an unclean
thing and all our righteousnesses are like filthy
rags. We all fade like as a leaf and
our iniquities like the wind have taken us away.
In the Old Testament an animal was sacrificed to cover the sin,
but the old covenant has been a done away with.
We don't have animal sacrifices anymore.
The new covenant began with the virgin birth.
Jesus was not just man, but he was divine.
Gabriel again repeats the message that Mary has nothing to
fear as she has found favor with God.
What kind of character do you think would please God?
Maybe fruits of the spirit that we find in Galatians chapter 5,
Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Maybe also characteristics like purity, devotion, meekness and
humility. Mary also might have been asking
the question, why me? Do we have the kind of character
that God would be pleased with? What are the kind of struggles
that we go through? We struggle with purity, with
kindness, with self worth, self-control, irritation or
anger. What else in our lives require
God's constant forgiveness and loving mercy to correct and to
make us into the kind of person that Mary exemplified?
Gabriel goes on to describe what this child Jesus would be like.
Now Jesus was a very popular name in Greek and it means
Jehovah saves. In the Hebrew it was Joshua.
And by this name we learned that the Son of God would be the
Savior that God was sending to redeem his people.
In verse 32 we read he will be great and will be called the Son
of the highest, 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 and of his Kingdom there will be no end.
So Gabriel prophesied that Jesus would be great.
John at the end of his gospel, after writing all about the life
of Jesus, he said in verse 25. There are also many other things
that Jesus did which they if they were written 1 by 1.
I suppose even the world itself could not contain the books that
could be written. But the greatest work that Jesus
did was to bridge that gap between God, God's perfection
and holiness, and our sinfulness as the Son of the Most High, the
Father, He knew no sin, and that is one of the mysteries of the
virgin birth. Another prophecy given here by
Gabriel was that he would profit.
He would reign over the House of Israel or Jacob.
There would be no end to his Kingdom, though we we see
through the genealogies that are written in Matthew and Luke that
Jesus was a descendant of the line of King David.
So my question whether that prophecy was fulfilled in the
first coming. But we know that Jesus was the
Savior of the world and that he was the spiritual ruler over
Israel and someday he is coming back to complete his reign and
we all anticipate that coming. In verse 34 we read then Mary
said to the Angel, how can this be?
I do not know a man and the Angel answered and said to her,
the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power, the Most High
will over shadow you. Therefore also that the Holy
Spirit, Holy One, who is to be born, will be called the Son of
God. So how could a virgin become a
mum without a husband, without a man?
Here it tells us that the power of the Most High would over
shadow Mary. He would be called the Son of
God because of the supernatural power to that, because of the
supernatural power that was that to create, it was needed to
create in Mary's womb a child from the seat of the woman to
make him fully human and the presence of God would make him
fully God. The new covenant began with
God's coming and overshadowing Mary, much like that glory that
was displayed when God's spirit filled the temple in Exodus
chapter 40 verse 34 and 35. We read there when then the
cloud covered the Tabernacle of meeting and the glory of the
Lord filled the Tabernacle, and Moses was not able to enter the
Tabernacle of meeting because the cloud rested above it and
the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle.
That presence of God was so complete, so that presence of
God so completely enveloped Mary and was the moment the beginning
of Jesus becoming a child in the womb of Mary.
No longer was God's glory in the physical temple, but now it
overshadowed people and we can experience God's presence in our
lives. The level to which God can be
God can reflect His glory in US will depend on the level of our
commitment to Him, Paul declared in First Corinthians chapter 316
and 17. Do you not know that you are the
temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?
If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him, for
the temple of God is holy. Which temple you are to
authenticate the prophetic word. Gabriel told Mary that in verse
36. Now indeed Elizabeth your
relative has also conceived a son in her old age and this and
this is now the 6th month for her who is called Baron.
Now Mary would have not would have known about Elizabeth's
barrenness, but Elizabeth had gone into hiding for five
months, so Mary didn't know about her pregnancy yet.
This is another Rhema, another word prophecy from God to Mary.
Our next verse is a pivotal word in this passage, verse 37.
For with God nothing, no Rhema will be impossible.
Now this is a, a bit of a difficult verse to translate and
I always like to go back, especially when I read in
different versions that there's something not quite the same in
all of them. So then I kind of say, OK, now
what is the what's the basis for there being a difference here in
the Scriptures? And so here we see that there is
a A word says nothing here, but really that word is Rhema.
And Rhema refers to a specific, timely and personal a personally
applied word from God, quickened by the Holy Spirit to a believer
for a particular situation or a need.
This concept emphasizes immediacy, personal application,
and an active living experience of God's guidance.
Mary's response to the Angel Gabriel was May it happen to me,
according to your Rhema, your word highlighting her obedience.
Her obedient faith in a specific divine message.
So Rhema, is that specific portion of truth that comes
alive and personally relevant to an individual at a given moment.
God loves the impossible. Some of the most profound
statements were made with the coming of Jesus.
Here we see that because every word will not be impossible with
God, God's word will be fulfilled.
Most of our translations generalize this by saying
nothing is impossible with God, but it misses the significance
that the IT is the word of God spoken to individuals that is
spoken about here, that it will not be impossible, not be not
fulfilled. Everything that was spoken by
God through the prophets would come true.
Mary had just listened to and watch.
All she had to do was to watch Jesus to see the prophecies
fulfilled before her very eyes. Mary probably had some doubts
that she what she was hearing was really true.
She would not be able to confirm the truth of the angels message
for a few days, but that would only add to the impact of the
Word which was now coming to her.
She had received a special message from God and this would
carry her through the trials which would be coming her way.
Perhaps some of you have received a special word from God
revealing a special truth which transforms your life.
I don't suggest that that we need to be ever searching for a
Rhema from God, but as we read the Bible, certain verses speak
to us and meet our need at that precise moment in time.
I believe that this is good to look for specific answers from
the Word of God. Times when I have struggled with
life problems, God has spoken to me through His Word.
And another unique highlight in the original Greek is that
there's a double negative here in the verb.
The Greek has not will not be possible.
It's really awkward in English and so that's why they
translated the way they did. But the verb here is is the root
of it is the meaning that has power and to be able to do from
which we get words in English like dynamite, Dynamo and
dynamic. So what kind of dreams do you
have? What do you think God could do
through you? First Corinthians chapter 2
verse 9 says I has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into
the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those
who love Him. How much do you love God?
Do you love him like Mary? Are you prepared for some
miracles to happen in your life? What spiritual goals can you
visualize? Can you visualize family members
who are wayward turning back to God?
I can. Can you imagine the joy of
seeing many hearts turn to Christ because of your witness?
I can. Can you see people who have been
touched by your words of encouragement going out into the
world and helping transform the lives of others?
Maybe you can. Could God do the impossible
through you? Why not?
If you say no, you've just put God in a box and I hope that you
unwrap him by Christmas that you can experience the greatest time
of your life this Christmas season before God will do
fantastic things through you. There are several things which
need to happen in your life. First of all, you need to get on
God's wavelength. Listen to Him.
Mary was used of God in a mighty way to bring His Son into the
world. As we explore this passage, we
can examine what can we learn about Mary so that we can be
used of God like she was to bring tremendous blessing to the
world in our generation. Don't let anything stand in your
way of doing great things for God.
Don't make sure that you allow God to accomplish what He wants
in your life. Go after the vision that God has
given you. Use the gifts which God has
entrusted to you. God can do the impossible.
God is doing the impossible and God will do the impossible.
God loves the impossible. No eye has seen, nor ear is
heard, nor mind is conceived what God has done and has in
store for those who love him, what a great promise from God
for those who keep His word. In verse 38, Mary said, Behold,
the maidservant of the Lord, let it be to me, according to your
word. And the Angel departed from her.
How do you consider your position before God?
Can you say with Mary I am the Lord's slave?
Are you willing to voluntarily submit to God and obey Him
totally and obey His word to you?
God is exciting things waiting for you if you put your total
trust in Him. Shall we pray?
Lord, You want to do great things through each one.
Here. You have created us all with a
purpose, and sometimes that purpose is hard to find.
Sometimes we need a Rhema, a word from You to understand the
direction that You want our life to go.
Lord, I pray that you will touch our hearts and that You will do
the impossible through US for your kingdom's sake.
Amen.