God Has Arrived

All right open up your Bible here on the 3rd Sunday of Advent, to Luke Chapter 1, and I want to talk this morning about this title, “God Has Arrived.” And that’s the meaning of the Advent, the longing, the awareness that God was coming, that God was going to arrive, that the Messiah was going to come to the earth. And this morning in Luke Chapter 1, we’re going to look at the story. We’re going to take a look at the Magnificat. We’re going to take a look at the song of Zechariah and we’re going to discover some things, why it’s important that God had to come the way He came. The reason that God had to arrive in the body of a little baby, birthed by a teenage girl in the middle of the night, there is a reason for all of that.

Let me ask you a question. What is the greatest miracle in the Bible, you think? I mean, think about all the miracles because the Bible is full of miracles. In fact without miracles, we miss the core message of the Gospel. The whole Bible is based … our whole belief system is based on the idea of miracles. So what do you think the greatest one was when you think about the Bible; the parting of the Red Sea? I mean, that’s a natural miracle. The sun standing still? That’s a pretty big miracle. I’d make the Top 20 maybe. What about somebody being raised from the dead? I mean, that’s a big deal. And then we saw that throughout scripture, people being raised from the dead, and people being healed of their diseases, their sicknesses. That’s a big deal. And that happens throughout scripture: Old Testament, New Testament; people were healed, miracles happened all the time in the Bible.

In my opinion though, the greatest miracle in the Bible is the Incarnation. The fact that a finite God would come in human form, taking on the infinite God, taking on the mortality of the human being, entering into our world as a human being, the Incarnation. The fact that the Holy Spirit would overshadow Mary, that she would give birth to this fragile baby; this baby to me is the greatest miracle in the Bible. And I think often times, we’ve lost the meaning, the awareness, the awe of that moment when Jesus came as a little baby.

And next week I’m going to talk about the grand invasion; what really happened in the spiritual realm. We’re going to talk about that next week. We’re going to talk about the angels and the spiritual warfare that happened. But I was thinking this morning driving here, to the church, there was a tremendous amount of spiritual battles going on in the heavenly realm. If you read Revelation Chapter 12, or read that this afternoon or this week, you’ll see kind of a type-in shadow or a picture of the demonic spiritual warfare, the clash between heaven and hell that was happening during the Incarnation.

But I was thinking, you know, God had to come into the world and most people, most Jewish people especially, believe that God would show up the conquering Warrior King: the Leader, the Conqueror because they were being enslaved by the Roman Empire. They needed freedom. They needed somebody strong to come and defeat the powerful Roman Empire. Everybody thought that Jesus would show up 9 feet tall with you know, armor on, and a big sword blazing, and come in and defeat the Romans. Instead God sends a baby.

God sends a baby when everybody was expecting the Warrior King: Leader, powerful—God sends a baby. Isn’t it an amazing thing that God … we always … the enemy especially always over estimates what it takes to defeat Him. When everybody was expecting the Warrior King, here comes a baby. And the baby brings redemption.

So let’s pick up this story today, Luke Chapter 1. Last week, we ended our talk last week with Mary in verse 37 and 38 saying, “May it be to me as You have said. I am Your servant.” Remember we talked about being open to whatever God has for your life saying, “I’m a person of a great purpose, may it be to me as You have said, God. I am Your servant. Do with me like You want.”

So let’s pick it up now in verse 39. We know that Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist is further along in her pregnancy, about six months further along in her pregnancy than Mary is. But this is the first time in Luke that we actually hear Mary. Now she’s got a baby in her womb. Baby Jesus is now in the womb of the Mother Mary. In verse 39, at that time, so Mary has taken a trip to go see her cousin, Elizabeth.