Father, we say thank You that You are a faithful God when we are not faithful. You are loving when we are not loving. You show mercy undeserved to us, Lord. Thank You that Christmas is a cause for great joy for us as Your people because of what Jesus did. We pray that Christmas would renew our love for You, reframe life for us, that all that we let life be about, Lord, You would bring it back to surrender at the foot of the cross as we dwell on the humble manger that Jesus first laid in. We just thank You and bless Your name. We pray for… We pray for many families in our church who are sick, dealing with the flu. We just pray healing. We just grace. We pray Your power against the work of the enemy and the way that He works to discourage us. The way that He works in all kinds of means to take our focus off of You, Lord. We just pray You’d unify and keep us. Lord, we pray for our tithe and our offering that, Lord, we would be faithful to generously give to You, to Your church, to Your kingdom, God. So we just want to happily, sacrificially just be surrendered before You this evening. We pray it in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well, good evening. It is good to be with you. Thank you. People throughout the week have the flu. I thought I wasn’t going to have anybody to preach to. So, thanks for coming. It’s good to see you. I’m glad you’re here. We’re going to be in Luke’s Gospel in the first chapter, verses 26 to 38.
Luke chapter 1, verses 26 to 38.
Luke chapter 1, verses 26 to 38. Luke chapter 1, verses 26 to 38. It says, In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin
betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David.
And the virgin’s name was I want to read you a poem I came across recently. This is a poem by a man named Ben Johnson. This was 16th century. And it’s entitled, A Hymn of the Nativity of My Savior. I have it up there so you can follow along with me. He writes, I sing the birth was born tonight, the author both of life and light, the angels so did sound it, and like the ravished shepherds said, who saw the light and were afraid, yet searched and true they found it. The Son of God, the eternal King, that did us all salvation bring and freed the soul from danger. He whom the whole world could not take, the word which heaven and earth did make, was now laid in a manger. The Father’s wisdom willed it so, the Son’s obedience knew no, no, both wills were in one stature. And as that wisdom had decreed, the word was now made flesh indeed and took on Him our nature. What comfort by Him do we win, who made Himself the Prince of sin to make us heirs of glory? To see this babe, all innocence, a martyr born in our defense. Can man forget this story? I love that last line. Can man forget this story? And I think, the answer is, we forget it all the time. And you say, no, I can year round tell you what Christmas is about. But, you know, to really remember something the way He’s talking about means I don’t just have some idea of it, knowledge of it in my head, but to remember it means it really lives with me. It’s something that informs my present life. That’s what He means. What He means is, does that Christmas story, does it really impact, impact life in July as much as in December? How often, I think, do we forget the wonder of that story? How often we don’t really believe the goodness and power of that Christmas story by the way that we live and the way that we think.
Perhaps we’re more amazed or more interested sometimes in the stories we make up from Captain America, to Spider-Man. Maybe these stories are truly just as interesting or more interesting to us. And we think little on this one true amazing story of what God did 2,000 years ago in sending His Son to come as a babe in a manger to save us. I want to ask us, do we really believe in Christmas? I’m not talking about some big man in a red suit. I’m not talking about Christmas cheer and mistletoe and all that stuff. I’m talking about Jesus in a manger. Do you really believe that? Does that really impact your person all the time?
Luke tells us here in verse 26 that Gabriel was sent to Nazareth. Now, Gabriel is only one of two angels named in the Scriptures. The other one being Michael. And Gabriel we see only in the Old Testament. He reveals future occurrences to Daniel. Gabriel then in the New Testament has just gone to Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father, to tell him that he’ll have a son that his wife’s been bearing. And then thirdly here, this angel Gabriel comes to Nazareth. And if you remember our studies in Matthew talking about Jesus’ hometown, Jesus’ hometown, Nazareth was what one person has said outside the mainstream of Jewish life. In other words, it was kind of like podunk. So if you’re from Nazareth, you were from the backwoods, you were from the sticks. Nazareth was not a special, amazing place to be from. And we even know that because in John 1.46, Nathanael says to Philip, can anything good come out of Nazareth? Right? And Philip has to say, just come and see when Nathanael says that. But it’s to this very lowly, unimportant place that such an amazing, majestic, perhaps high-ranking angel comes to. This angel comes to Nazareth. And more than that, this angel does not come to address some royal king. Like that would make sense. He’s got something, something to say to some very important, you know, magistrate. Or like a major prophet like Elijah. Maybe God’s going to say something mighty to this great, powerful man of God we see in the Old Testament. That’s not who this great messenger comes to. This messenger comes to a very young, engaged woman. And this very young, engaged woman is going to be the one who’s going to say, she’s going to be used by God in an unimaginable way. She’s going to do something that no other man could possibly do and be used in a unique way that is going to be life-changing, soul-changing, not just for her, but for everyone. For all the world.
I want to say to you from this passage, there’s two things we see from the life of Mary. If we really believe in Christmas, If we really believe in Christmas, the first thing that we will do is rejoice and worship for the undeserved favor that God has shown us. If we really believe in Christmas, we will rejoice and worship for the undeserved favor that God has shown us. It says, picking up in 28, He came to her and said, Greetings, O favored one. The Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at this saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And 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 bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus. And 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. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of His kingdom there will be no end. So the angel comes and the angel says, Greetings, which really we could translate that to mean rejoice. He’s coming and saying, I’ve got great news. You should be happy. You should rejoice.
And Mary has a response that seems pretty fitting. She’s greatly troubled. She’s freaked out. She doesn’t know what this is. And, I think you could say, well, that’s really fair to be freaked out when an angelic messenger comes. But at the same time, I think that there is no other appropriate way to respond when God or one of His messengers comes in all of God’s power and presence and holiness. Is there any other way a sinful person should respond when God presents Himself? What else could, should you really do? Think about Cornelius in Acts chapter 10. It says, The ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, Cornelius, and he stared at him in terror. And we read, obviously, back in Isaiah, when Isaiah gets his vision of the Lord, what does it do to Isaiah? He makes that very famous exclamation, Woe is me. I’m lost. I’m a man of unclean lips. That’s what happens when we come into the presence of a powerful, holy, God. So if Advent is Latin for coming, and it is, and we’re celebrating the coming of God’s Son to earth, it seems like Christmas should not be a cause for celebration, but trouble and worry and fear. Because we would be then in the presence as sinners, the presence of a holy God, rebels against the Lord of hosts. What else could this God’s business be with us?
Let me just say as a footnote, unless we are there and believe that about our deserved relationship with God, Christmas really can mean nothing good for us, nor the gospel, if we’re not willing to admit before God we deserve only judgment. But the angel says an earth-shattering thing. He says to her, don’t be afraid. You’ve found favor with God. And here’s what’s interesting about this word favor, is it connotates and implies an undeserved favor has been bestowed upon you. So it’s nothing that the receiving party has done to merit the favor. It does not mean that Mary, you know, her sins are passed over, and God says, I favor you, I don’t care if you’ve done anything wrong, I’m just going to close a blind eye. Sometimes, sometimes parents do that thinking they’re helping their kids out, right? I’ll just ignore everything because I like you. I’m just going to let you get away with everything. That’s not what God’s favor means. God doesn’t look past your sins when you sin. God’s going to have to deal with all sinners’ sin. And He does do that. And we know how. But this God has, of His own volition, chosen to show an undeserving mercy and kindness and grace to Mary. Mary, unlike any other human being who will ever be born or created, in all humanity, has this extremely special grace, and it’s this. She is going to carry the eternal, pre-incarnate Son of God in her womb. How do you process that? I think this is the thing when you grow up in the church, you hear the songs, and you hear the stories, they stop being powerful, and you’ve got to shake yourself out of that. Like, did she ever get, did she ever get finished like processing that? Is she in heaven right now going, I can’t believe I carry Jesus in my womb? And I was like, how did I get chosen for that? I know that old Christmas song, but it popped in my head when I was reading this, you know that song, Mary, Did You Know? I always loved those lines. Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod, and when you kissed your little baby, you’ve kissed the face of God? It’s so powerful because it’s true. And so I don’t think you can get to the end of that amazement, that, that God became a man to save us. That God became a baby in a womb, just like all the other humans He created. I think the only thing you can do is take the angel’s recommendation and rejoice and worship God because this happened. I think that’s the only thing you can do. And that’s what Mary does. Because if we go down in the next section of Scripture, we have what’s, you know, famously called, you know, Mary’s song. And she says in that song, in verse 46 to 49, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has looked on the humble estate of His servant. For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed, for He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. It wasn’t, it wasn’t lost on her, what great and amazing thing had happened. That God showed her this special, unique favor. And I think we have to stop there and say, the Catholic held Mary that prayer. I believe it really sucks the life and the beauty out of this passage. I want to quote Calvin here. He says, If Mary’s happiness, righteousness, and life flow from the undeserved love of God, if her virtues and all her excellence are nothing more than the divine kindness, it is the height of absurdity to tell us that we should seek from her what she derives from another quarter in the same manner as ourselves. With extraordinary ignorance, have the papists, by an enchanter’s trick, changed this salutation into a prayer. These words are a simple congratulation, he says. And that’s what it means to me. What’s happened, what I’ve read to you is what’s called, I’ll read it. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus, Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of death. Amen.
But that can’t work
because Mary found undeserved favor with God in the same way the thief on the cross found undeserved favor with God. And her holiness and her worthiness was not innate. It was the grace of God that moved in her to believe God and through faith she was counted as righteous. We have to believe that. And I’m not knocking on Catholicism to do it. I just think it’s bad theology that ruins the beauty of the gospel. That we’re all undeserved sinners that don’t deserve God’s grace and love.
We can look to Mary as a hero of the faith who responded in faith and see that we ought to do what she does. Worship God. Rejoice. Friends, I want to say to you, rejoice this Christmas because God hasn’t just shown Mary favor. Through showing Mary this favor, God has shown everyone favor. I want you to see the rest of her song. She goes on to say,
in verse 50, His mercy is for those who fear Him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with His arm. He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate. He has filled the hungry with good things. So God’s intention wasn’t just to show Mary some favor, but through Mary carrying this child, there’s now a way open for all people to come and if they would trust and if they would fear the Lord, so they also would be known and so they also would be saved. This unique favor made a way for God’s elect to know God’s favor. Because it’s not just any old son she’s carrying, is it?
Mary is carrying the very Son of God. You know, Jesus is kind of the rendition of Jesus. You know, Jesus is kind of the rendition of Jesus. You know, Jeshua, which Hebrew means salvation. She’s carrying salvation in her womb. And the angel tells her that this is the Son of the Most High, which means that this baby is God-made flesh. So this man is not like all other men with a sin nature. He’s a real man, but he’s really God. And we’re also told that God will give to this man the throne of His Father, the throne of His Father, David, and this goes all the way back to 2 Samuel when God makes the Davidic covenant with David and says that soon He will raise up someone to sit on David’s throne and His throne will stand and it will last forever.
The earthly father of this man is Joseph, and of course we’ve preached through that before back in Matthew, but if you start with Abraham, you go all the way down to David, all the way down to Joseph who is the father of Jesus. This is exactly God’s Savior for the world. And it’s undeserved. And friends, if we believe all this about this baby who was born 2,000 years ago, there’s only one thing that you and I can do and that is rejoice. And that is worship God. We’ve been chosen, we’ve been called out, we’ve been favored by the Father to life and salvation through the great humility of Jesus in the manger and humiliation of Jesus on the cross. I just wonder how often we let that live as a small thing in our hearts and minds.
Maybe you’re more excited about hanging up, you know, tinsel or putting a tree up and ornaments and maybe you’re more excited about the food or maybe there’s some expensive gift you’re hoping you’re going to get and I’m not saying it’s wrong to have traditions and I’m not saying it’s wrong, but something is wrong when those of us inside the church are just as happy about the secular version of Christmas as everybody else and our real passion and worship for this Savior Jesus is so much smaller in our hearts and we don’t get nearly as excited about it as we do the other version. Friends, God has favored you. He saved you from yourself. He saved you from your sin. He sent His Son as a baby to accomplish this. Wouldn’t you worship Him daily? Wouldn’t you worship Him year-round?
And I think a lot of times the reason we don’t
evangelize and proselytize isn’t because we don’t know how to do it. I think it’s because we don’t worship enough.
I think when we worship God the way we should be worshiping Him and rejoicing in Him, evangelism is the natural overflow. People love to talk about the things they love. People love to share the things they love. Everything from a recipe to a piece of clothing to whatever. We love to talk about and post and get followers and be in the tribe for the things we love. And friends, I think the problem is not we don’t know what to do out there. The problem is we’re not doing that thing we should be doing and get to doing here and that’s worship Jesus. And I think a life of worshiping that Savior it’ll naturally pour out into a life of evangelism.
I think that the great joy of worshiping on Sundays shouldn’t be lost here. Do we let it be old hat that we get to Sunday after Sunday come in this room and we happen to live in a nation where we don’t have to worry about getting shot for doing it? We get to raise our hands and we get to worship the Lord out loud and remember and exclaim this is who you are Jesus. Praise you. And if you let me get my soul out there in this little box for just a moment I think it’s crazy that we would not have worship on Christmas Sunday when that Sunday falls on Sunday every seven years. I think that we should be glad for it. I think it’s, again, I’m not God so I’m not judging churches that don’t do it. I don’t get it. I don’t understand. Let’s be honest. This is going to get in the way of that big present around that Christmas tree. And that’s what I want to do. On Christmas morning. And friends, I’m not telling you to crawl in a hole and don’t participate in culture and society but at the end of the day, how much do we really want to worship this Jesus if every seven years when Christmas falls on a Sunday morning, we’re not excited about it. We’re trying to figure out how to get out of it. I think it says a lot about our hearts. So we’re going to be here Christmas Sunday. Join us for worship, would you?
Can we be amazed? Can we wonder at the grace and the favor of God to sinners like us?
The second thing, if we really believe in Christmas, we’ll obey because God always does what He says He’ll do because God can do even the impossible. We will obey because God always does what He says He’ll do. He’s the God of the impossible. Verse 34. Verse 34. And Mary said to the angel, How will this be since I am a virgin? 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. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son. And this is the sixth month with her who is called barren. For nothing will be impossible. with God. And I want to contrast Mary’s response to Zechariah’s. So, just the passage earlier when John the Baptist who’s Jesus’ cousin, you know, Zechariah and Elizabeth are barren, she’s in her old age, they don’t have a kid. So look in Luke 1.18 it says, Zechariah said to the angel after the angel says Elizabeth will bear John the Baptist, he says, How shall I know this? For I am an old man. My wife is in advanced in years. So it’s a question coming out of disbelief. The angel answered him, I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place because you did not believe my words. So, Mary’s question, though, is not a question out of unbelief, but it makes curiosity. The answer that the angel gives to Mary is even more wild than the original thing that he said. He doesn’t just say you know, you’re going to be pregnant you know, and it’s going to be the Son of God. She says, well, how is this to be? And his answer is the Holy Spirit. So for the first time and the last time in all the story of people, this is the only time where a male counterculture part is not required. That is an incredible thing to tell someone to believe. Someone who is even a virgin. So if she was looking for an out to go, I must have ate the wrong thing. I must have drank the wrong thing. This is a bad dream. This would have been her time to say, this is wacky. This is not real. How absurd to be told that the Savior would be born. No father would be involved.
Church, I want to say this. I want to say to you, we don’t believe God because He can explain Himself well. We don’t believe God because He can come up with good answers that make sense to our little minds. We believe God because He’s God. And when He says a thing, it will surely come to pass. Period. You consider Sarah in the Old Testament, and she overhears, you know, the angels speaking to Abraham. About her having a baby. And she laughs, and then Abraham confronts her. And she tries to deny. She laughs. And of course the Lord says to Abraham, is my arm too short? Is my arm too short to do something?
Isaiah 40, chapter 40, verse 8. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever. God is to be believed because He’s God. And His Word is His power to speak all things into existence and wield all creation, everything that happens in time, all events, just as He pleases. And I’m mindful of this, reading through Exodus on my own. I was reading, you know, about the frog plague this past week, and Matthew Henry made a great points commentary that a thing that normally a child would smile at and go chasing through a field, becomes a very dread and terror that undoes the Egyptians. Think about that. God could weaponize a frog against you if He wanted to. And then the next plague, it says that God made gnats from the dust. Now, how often do you give time to thinking about the dust under your feet? Never. But there it sits, ready to be and do whatever God wants it to be and do. Let’s enlarge our heart and our eyes and our mind and our faith about who this God is and what this God can do.
So, it’s the foolishness of this message of Christmas. It’s the foolishness of this message of the cross that saves. It only becomes less believable. There’s this baby, and he’s really from heaven, and he lives in the middle of nowhere, and then he grows up, and he’s got this ministry, and it’s short-lived, and he dies, and then he’s raised again, and he goes to heaven, and he tells his disciples to go, and he’s going to come back. You can find all kinds of outs if you want to try to find out. You want to make up reasons why you don’t believe it? Go for it. Go for it. People do it. People do it all the time. But, friends, it’s the Word of God. And the question is, because it’s the Word of God, will you believe this is God’s story? And it does raise the question, why faith? Why is it that thing, faith, that God is calling me to have? I think it’s because, or it is because, faith is that one thing whereby, you are, I am completely surrendered, where I, my person is muted. Chad’s logic is muted, Chad’s knowledge, Chad’s wit, Chad’s connections, Chad’s gut feeling. I have to mute me, and lay myself bare before this babe in a manger. I have to lay myself bare before this babe who grows up to be a bloodied man on a cross, and say, not me, no good I have, no idea I have, nothing I’ve done, it’s only you, I’m surrendering to the foolish message of Christmas and the cross, and it’s at that moment, friends, when you and I surrender to the foolishness and the weakness of the cross, that it becomes the very power and wisdom of God to salvation.
It’s the God of the impossible. And it’s only embracing the impossibility of what God says He can do that it becomes possible, and we become one with Christ, and we receive eternal life. And when we embrace this gospel of Christmas by faith, there should be no limit to our obedience, because the God who accomplished your salvation is the same God in the Spirit who’s living inside of you. So God’s already shown that He can keep your soul for eternity. Surely He can keep you for whatever task, or mission, or calling that you have in this life.
Question. Don’t you desire to be supremely usable by God in this life?
Do we desire to be a supremely usable church? Man, we love this foolish, impossible gospel. Because it’s only when we really believe it that we obey it. Recall when Jesus goes to His hometown in Nazareth. You know, they say, oh, it’s just Jesus. Oh, it’s just Jesus. We know who that is. And it says Jesus couldn’t do any. Mighty works. Very few. Why? Because of their unbelief. Let that be a horror story. God, increase my faith so that my obedience can be increased. Increase the faith of providence so that our obedience and our usefulness can be increased.
You know, Oswald Chambers has that famous saying, and I put it in that email about prayer this past week. Prayer doesn’t condition. It’s for the greater work. Prayer is the greater work. And I think that’s such a powerful statement. Because prayer is not something that faithless people do. Prayer is that exercise that works out the muscle of faith. You know, I think before we get to the business of any obedience in life, praying is one of the chief and first things that we should be doing. So if you want to obey God, prayer is really, I think, a measuring rod for your faith. People don’t stay on their knees asking God to do things that they don’t really believe He’s going to do it. And so I think the smallness of our prayer reveals the smallness of our faith and the smallness of our desire to see God show up. I can’t remain in prayer and talk to God about the things of God and my faith not being enlarged and my desire for obedience not being enlarged. Because if I’m praying for God to do great things, it means God’s going to have to be great in me for these feats of obedience I’ve got to do. Whether it’s share the gospel, whether it’s be a godly father, whether it’s whatever it is, prayer and faith go hand in hand. So maybe you need a New Year’s resolution this year in obedience. Or perhaps you need to grow in faith. That is to say, grow in asking God to show up in mighty ways in your life. And I’m not talking about health and wealth and wisdom because these things come and go. I’m not talking about having a better life in the now. I’m talking about being prepared and believing in God so that God can work in and through you for his kingdom. But yes, God, increase my faith so my obedience grows in evangelism. Increase my faith, God, that I can believe you can still change a wicked nation. Increase my faith that I would have radical selflessness in serving my wife and my children and my money. Increase my faith, Lord, so that I would give more to God’s people. Increase my faith so that I would love and study and obey your word. Increase my faith that I would live sacrificially and resist sin and pleasure. Increase my faith so I would obey.
We come to verse 38 and we get Mary’s beautiful, powerful declaration of faith.
Mary said, behold,
I am the Lord’s servant or slave, slave servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word.
Chad translation, bring it on. That’s what Mary said, like, let it happen to me. Let’s do it. She didn’t say, well, now how’s that possible? Have you ever had a biology lesson? She doesn’t say that. She just says, hey, I’m believing. I’m believing.
Do you believe in Christmas?
Do you believe, friends, that God sent His Son, Jesus, born of a virgin, came and He lived a pure and perfect life that you and I cannot live. He gave Himself up sacrificially.
Humiliated, bruised, battered, nailed to a tree, to die for your sins, and that three days later, He rose victorious over death and over sin for you. Do you believe that? Friends, if we believe that, we will worship God for this great favor, this undeserved favor we’ve been shown. And if we really believe that, we will obey and obey in the hardest parts and obey sacrificially because God is the God of the impossible. And we can look to Jesus and see Jesus finished the task. Jesus was raised from the dead. He did win. And in Jesus, I find all favor. In Jesus, I find all power to obey. In Jesus, friends, we are known and we are loved and we are made new. And that is the joy and wonder of Christmas. Do we really believe that? God receiving all glory through faith-filled, worshiping sons and daughters, doing all His work. That’s the power of the birth, the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus, the Son of David. Let’s pray.
Father, we just pray for a big shake-up. We just pray for a holy revival in heart, mind, and soul.
Lord, we get so disturbed. We get so distracted about the small things. We just get distracted with the hard things and many things, many enemies, many pitfalls. Lord, seek our affection. Seek, Lord, our time and our energy. But God, what we’re praying is the power of Christmas. The power of Jesus who came as a babe, who became a man, and lived, and died, and rose again. That that would renew,
wash clean our hearts and our minds, and refresh our passion for worship, our passion for obedience, our passion for sacrifice. And Lord, don’t just give it to any one of us. Give it to all of us in this room. Give it to all of us in this church. That we would unite it in the truth, in the love and the salvation of Jesus, that we would go forth and proclaim your gospel and live lives of worship and obedience, Lord. We trust your word is true. Father, we, by your grace, surrender and submit to it. Lord, and ask that you would work it very deep into the core of who we are. Lord, so all in all, you receive the glory. We pray it in Christ’s name. Amen.