Mary The Willingness Of Christmas Series

Characters of Christmas Sermon Series for December AM

Sermon 1

Mary- The Willingness of Christmas

The Womb of Christmas

The Woman of Christmas

The Willingness of Christmas

Turn to Luke Chapter 1

I recently asked people to name someone popular or famous named Mary.

The answers came from all ages but here is what I received when I asked people to

name a popular or famous Mary

Someone said

Mary Quite Contrary

Mary who had a little lamb

Mary Poppins

Mary Tyler Moore

Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen

Mary Lou Retton Olympic Gymnast

Mary Kay - Make up...and

Peter Paul and Mary

At namestatistics.com It is reported that the name "Mary" is the most popular name

for females in the US.

It is reported that there are 3351975 females in the US with the name Mary.

Luke Chapter 1

26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee,

27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David.

The virgin’s name was Mary

28 The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord

is with you."

29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this

might be.

30 But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.

31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name

Jesus.

32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will

give him the throne of his father David,

33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."

34 "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?"

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.

36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who

was said to be barren is in her sixth month.

37 For nothing is impossible with God." (PAUSE)

38 "I am the Lord’s servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said."

Then the angel left her.

Here we have a familiar angel....Gabriel

Do you have angels around your home?

I have four (three daughters and a son) but they sometimes have crooked halos if you

know what I mean. Or some days retractable horns my wife says.

But here we see a familiar angel named Gabriel he is the same angel that we see in

the earlier verses of this chapter announcing to Zechariah that he and his wife would

be blessed with a son.

But in verse 26 we find Gabriel visiting Mary. He comes to deliver the message that

she will deliver a child who will be called Jesus and He will deliver the people from

their sins.

Certainly no woman is as associated with Christmas as is the name of Mary. This is

why she can be called

I. THE WOMAN OF CHRISTMAS.

Ask 10 people at random on the street what female name is most widely associated

with Christmas and 9 out of 10 will likely say...."Mary"

Now there’s always one silly individual who will say

"Mrs. Claus" But I tell you..... truly it is Mary who should be called "The Woman of

Christmas."

Gabriel did not say she was perfect.

We know that no one has ever been sinless ....except the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so what did Gabriel did say?

Well in v28 the angel said Mary was highly favored !

We must be careful that we do not to make to lightly of the character of Mary and at

the same time we must be careful not to exalt her to highly.

Mary is a wonderful picture of womanhood. While some might scoff and say it was

woman...who brought sin into the world when eve brought the forbidden fruit to Adam

and said let’s eat of this.

Gen 3:6 says When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and

pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.

She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Some might say it was woman who brought sin into the world but I say to you it was

woman...The woman of Christmas MARY who brought the Savior into the world.

If we had been their that night as Mary gave birth to the Christ Child. We could have

said "that is one small step for womanhood... and one giant leap for all mankind.