Fear Not, Just Trust Series

Have you ever been afraid at Christmas time? Maybe as a child you were afraid of Santa? Or maybe you were afraid that you hadn’t made the good list and you were afraid Santa wouldn’t come.

Or perhaps it was a rough year financially and you were afraid that you would let your family down at Christmas, you had seen their list and weren’t sure that you could meet their expectations.

Or maybe it was your first Christmas in your new reality and you were afraid of spending Christmas alone, either because of death or divorce.

By the way, a reminder that even though GriefShare and DivorceCare have both started you can still attend, each of the sessions stand by themselves.

This is week two of our “Fear Not” series at Cornerstone and this advent season we are looking at the various “Fear Nots” that show up in the Christmas story.

Last week our message was “Fear Not, Just Believe” and we looked at the Angel Gabriel’s visit to Zechariah and his message, Luke 1:13 But the angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Zechariah! God has heard your prayer. Your wife, Elizabeth, will give you a son, and you are to name him John.”

And we looked at the ramifications of those words, “God has heard your prayers.”

Sometimes we are afraid that God won’t answer our prayers, but we need to understand that when our prayers are answered there are usually many different moving parts that go along with the answered prayers. If you missed last week’s message, you can find the manuscript and the video on our website.

This morning we are moving to the next chapter of the Christmas story and it’s here we are first introduced to Mary.

If there is a person who should receive best supporting role in the Christmas story, it should be Mary. She almost deserves best lead, but how do you compete with the Son of God?

Kind of like the story about the Sunday School class, where the teachers asked the students, “What’s grey has a bushy tail and collects nuts.” One little boy blurted out, “It sounds like a squirrel, but I bet the answer is Jesus.”

Mary was a critical piece of the puzzle. And she truly is what makes Christmas, Christmas. She was the original Madonna and she put the word “Virgin” in songs two thousand years before “Like a Virgin” became a hit. Through the years she’s been called The Holy Mary, Saint Mary, The Blessed Mother, The Mother of God and on and on and on.

But in the Bible, she is simply called Mary.

Max Lucado has twenty-five questions that he wants to ask Mary the mother of Jesus; here are a few of my favourites.

What was it like watching him pray?

When he saw a rainbow did he ever mention a flood?

Did you ever feel awkward teaching him how he created the world?

When he saw a lamb being led to the slaughter did he act differently?

Did you ever try to count the stars with him . . . and succeed?

Did he ever come home with a black eye?

Did he have any friends by the name of Judas?

Did the thought ever occur to you that the God to whom

you were praying was asleep under your own roof

Did you ever accidentally call him father?

What did he and his cousin John talk about as kids?

Did you ever think, That’s God eating my soup?

Mary is my hero. She was the one chosen to change the diapers of God. But before that she was just a young lady, with all the dreams and aspirations that young ladies 2000 years ago had. She was going to get married and she was going to raise a family.

So our story begins with these words in Luke 1:26-27 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David.

Up to this point it really isn’t all that complicated. Just a young couple who were planning on getting married.

It is kind of interesting how Mary is described; did you catch that. God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. I don’t know when the last time was that I introduced someone by stating they were a virgin. Let me think, no never. But that description is going to be instrumental in the story.

And I know that there are folks out there who poo poo the entire idea of the virgin birth, and even some pastors and churches who say that it’s not possible for a virgin to conceive and then they assure their people that it’s not really necessary to believe in the Virgin birth. They would tell you that Matthew simply meant that Mary was a young woman, or perhaps a young unmarried woman.