How To Handle The Unexpected Series

The Divine Advent(ure)

How to Handle the Unexpected

Luke 1:26-56

Have you ever noticed how life never seems to going exactly, or sometimes, even close to your plans?

One of my favorite quotes is this one, apparently from an unbeliever: “Life is what happens when you’re making other plans.”

And if this is true of an unbeliever, how much more for a dedicated believer—especially one who is devoted to the idea that when it comes down to God’s plan vs. his or her plan--God’s plan must prevail.

In fact, Proverbs 16:9 provides us with this rather sobering truth: The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.”

So, in light of all this, how should we respond when the unexpected, and even the unwelcome, takes place?

As we continue in our Christmas series entitled “The Divine Advent(ure)” we have a near perfect example of how we ought to respond in someone who was a teenage girl whose very ordinary life what about to become incredibly extraordinary and complicated. That example this morning is the Virgin Mary.

And what she’s going to demonstrate for us this morning is quite encouraging: When the unexpected happens: Humbly sur4render to God’s apparent plan expecting Him to bless your obedient faith. Humbly surrender to God’s plan expecting Him to bless your obedient faith.

Before we delve into this familiar story, I’d like you to stop and think for a moment about the unexpected twists and turns in your life, and how you have responded, for good or for ill. Have you always responded in obedient faith? Or has God’s plan been a real challenge for you, like it has been for me. Now, consider what could happen in this next year, in your life, that would be a real challenge. How would you likely respond? And then consider how you might respond using Mary’s example.

Now let’s consider Mary’s experience and her response. Now believe it or not, I‘ve actually visited Mary’s hometown of Sepphoris, just down the hill from Nazareth. It’s rather incredible to think that these places actually exist today, a testament to the fact that we’re not talking about some fairy-tale here, but real live people who lived in time and space 2,000 years ago. Most scholars believe that Mary was a young teenager at the time these things happened, a typical but very godly young Jewish woman who was recently betrothed to a young man Joseph, a carpenter, from Nazareth when the angel Gabriel appeared to her.

But part of our problem as we think about Mary and her experience today is that we tend to have a 20th Century perspective. That is, we all already know that this Mary is the virgin Mary, destined to be the mother of the only begotten Son of God, Jesus, the Christ, the greatest person who ever lived, the Messiah of the Jews and for us who are believers, the Savior of all Mankind, a man who would be characterized by his ability to do every kind of miracle and healing, including raising the dead, and would Himself predict His own resurrection and accomplish it.

But what you’ve god to know is that at this point in her life, Mary did not know any of this. Oh, as a godly young woman, she had her Messiah was coming, and there was much Messianic expectation in her day, and she no doubt that know that the Messiah would be somebody’s son, but in a very innocent and unassuming way, I suspect she had never seriously entertained the idea that she herself would be the mother of this great Messiah. So when the Angel Gabriel showed up in her room one day, this was an entirely unexpected set of events. Despite the fact that Gabriel had provided her with an incredible positive greeting: “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you,” Mary initially had no idea what to make of what was happening. Verse 29, in fact, tells us “She was very, not a little, but very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was.”

Now, in retrospect, it was clearly a very positive introduction. You are favored, by God. The Lord is with you? If the Angel Gabriel said that to me, I hope I would be encouraged. But Mary initially was not so sure at all. Her attitude was “What in the world is going on here? What is this all about? Fortunately, for her, Gabriel doesn’t beat around the bush. He tells her that she will conceive in her womb and bear a son, and His name will be Jesus, and then the blockbuster, He will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and he will reign over the house of the Lord forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”