Our culture is captivated by the supernatural. As we saw last week, followers of Jesus ought to believe in the supernatural. The Bible logs over 300 sightings of angels from the Book of Genesis to the Book of Revelation. You can’t believe in the Bible and not believe in angels. A.C. Gaebelein, one of the great theologians of the 20th century wrote in his book, The Angels of God, “Like every truth, the truth of the angels of God—their presence on earth and their loving ministries—has practical value. As we realize in faith . . . that they are watching us, ready to walk with us as we walk with Him in His ways, ready to serve us as we serve Him, ready to shield us and help us in a hundred different ways, a solemn feeling will come into our lives. Thus this truth will assist us in a holy life.”
Think about the activity of angels in the life of Jesus. In Acts 1:9, the Scripture says that after Jesus gave his final instructions in v.8….that “After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid them from his sight.” No less than David Jeremiah believes that the language used here, that Jesus was lifted up by an outside force, indicates that an angel or angels were the mode of transportation. By the way, notice in your listening guide we have featured Dr. Jeremiah’s book: Angels. It’s an excellent read on the subject. Also, notice the verse of Scripture that we print there each week: “But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves.” Hebrews 5:14 All I can do is giving you some basic instruction on Sunday mornings. YOU have to take the responsibility for your own spiritual growth and maturity. You must learn to feed yourselves. I can’t do that for you. One of the ways you can train yourself and grow spiritually is to read the books that we feature in each series.
Angels: involved in the Ascension. Angels were also active in the Resurrection of Jesus. You’ll recall from gospel accounts, that when Mary Magdalene and the others came to the tomb that first Easter morning that it was an angel who declared to them, “He is not here, He is risen!” Matthew 28:5-6
Angels were involved in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was praying great drops of blood, if you examine the text, there was angel right next to him the whole time strengthening him. Luke 22:43
Angels were involved in the Temptation of Christ. The Scripture says that once the 40 days of testing were over, and after Satan had tempted Jesus and Jesus had triumphed, that angels “came and attended him.” Matthew 4:11
And of course, angels were involved in Birth of Jesus. There are at least 7 occurrences of angelic activity surrounding the birth of Christ. We’ve selected four sightings to study this Christmas season. And this morning we focus on the sighting of the angel Gabriel making the announcement to a young Jewish girl that she would be the one whom God favored to bring the Messiah into the world.
Turn in your Bibles to Luke 1:26. Our culture is captivated by the supernatural.
And this morning we turn our attention once again to the most supernatural event in all of history: the birth of Jesus Christ; the first coming of the Messiah. Read
v.26 As we said last week, angels are messengers for God; they only respond to His directives. They minister only to believers. Only two of them are given names, Michael the Archangel, and Gabriel, which means, “Mighty One of God”.
v.27 descendant of David. Of course, this was absolutely critical. It was predicted in multiple places that the Messiah would have to come from the family tree of David, the most favored of all the Jewish kings.
v.28 favored: endowed or enriched with grace; charitoo: form of charis, the word for grace. “Blessed are you among women” is in the King James, but that phrase is not in the oldest and best manuscripts. Now we have many people here from various religious backgrounds. Many of you come from the Catholic faith. Unfortunately, Catholic doctrine places Mary in an unbiblical position, one of being prayed to and even worshipped. They point to this passage as one of the prooftexts, but in reality, the angel does not say these words to Mary, Mary’s cousin Elizabeth says this to Mary in vv.39-42. And blessed Mary was: it was to her the angel brought this great news and through her that the Messiah would be born.
v.29 troubled: not fearful; diatarasso; agitated or confused. Apparently Mary was not so much afraid of the angel as to be incredibly confused as to why he would be talking to her, a young, poor, lowly virgin and saying, “You are highly favored; the Lord is with you.”
v.31 Jesus: Jehovah or Yahweh saves. Yahweh of course is the personal name of God. Yahweh saves. Jesus is God’s provision for salvation. Acts 4:12 “There is no other name under heaven, given among men whereby you can be saved.”
v.32 Notice immediately that the angel confirms the hypostatic unity of Christ. Now I know what you’re thinking: what the heck is the hypostatic unity of Christ? It is that Jesus is both fully human AND fully divine; 100% man and 100% God. This is critical: any less 100% man and He couldn’t be the sacrifice for our human sin. Any less than 100% God and He wouldn’t be the perfect sacrifice for our sin.
v.33 Jesus reigns in heaven now, but He will reign on this earth eventually and for eternity when He comes the 2nd time.
v.34 How? Now, her questioning is completely different than Zechariah’s question that we studied last week. Zechariah’s question was asked out of fear, Mary’s out of confusion. Zech’s out of doubt, Mary’s out of faith. Attitude is everything isn’t it? If you tell someone, “I’m giving you $100, if they accept it as true and are thrilled, they might say, “I don’t believe it.” But if they don’t accept it as true, they’ll say, “I don’t believe it.” The two might say essentially the same thing, but with different attitudes.
Virgin literally, andra ou ginosko, a man I know not. The word ‘know’ is the word ginosko which is a Jewish idiom for sexual relations between a man and a woman.
v.35 Here’s how the virgin birth works, the Angel says: the Holy Spirit will literally be the father, not Joseph, your fiancé. That will make Jesus the son of God, not the son of Joseph….that way the seed of sin that passes from generation to generation through the father will not contaminate this baby.
v.38 Such faith. Such humility. No wonder she found favor in the sight of God.
The word favor is a wonderful word, isn’t it? What is your favorite ice cream? What is your favorite dessert? What is your favorite pair of pants or your favorite blouse? I’ve got a sweatshirt I got 8 years ago in California that is my favorite sweatshirt.
That word favor is a wonderful word. You may favor steak over soufflé. If you’re a man, you may favor women with a great sense of humor. If you’re a female, you may favor men with rock hard physiques. If you’re a baby boomer, you may favor oldie goldies; if you’re a millennium generation, you may favor the Goo Goo Dolls!
That word favor is a wonderful word. If someone grants you a favor, they are doing something you don’t necessarily deserve, but they do it out of a kind and gracious heart. To favor someone is to have a soft place in your heart for that someone. It is to be gracious toward them.
In Charles Dickens’ The Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge, who had treated Bob Cratchit with such disdain and indifference finally breaks down and shows favor to Cratchit’s family. He brings gifts and food to the Cratchit family on that Christmas day, showing favor to each one of the family, particularly Tiny Tim finishes off the novel by saying, “God bless us—everyone!”
In July of 2005, Angelina Jolie adopted a little Ethiopian child (pic). While she was touring drought and disease and famine stricken Ethiopia, she got the idea that although she couldn’t do every child in Arica a favor, she could grant favor to one child. So she stepped out of her world and into the world of this little girl whose existence was difficult at best. Can you imagine the difference in the life of this little girl before Jolie adopted her and after the adoption. Jolie chose her. She showed favor to her. Her life, once deprived, now had abundance. Her life, once without any real future, not exploded with possibility. What a difference it can be when someone who has everything shows favor to someone who may not have very much.
Here’s the thing:
1. God favors you. 1:26-28
I know that may surprise you. But if you are a follower of Jesus, God favors you. I know there are times you don’t feel it. When you feel confused. When you feel unworthy. When you face difficulties. When you face tragedy. When you grieve. When you’re treated unfairly. When your lonely. It’s hard to believe sometimes. But God favors you. Mary was surprised by God’s charis, God’s grace, God’s favor. She was surprised, but she accepted it; she believed it. At some point, you’re going to have to accept it; you’re going to have to believe it.
OK, OK, you haven’t had an angel appear in front of you to tell you that you’re favored by God…You have someone better: Jesus. A person who bears the name of Jesus has the favor of God. That’s what Jesus means: God saves. Sometimes we look for God’s favor in the temporal things of life: possessions, health, even family. But His favor, His love is far greater than that. Romans 8:38 says, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present not eh future, no any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus.”
2. God’s favor shows up in the person of Jesus Christ. 1:29-33 And He’s told you and keeps telling you: I have loved you with an everlasting love. You are my beloved. I will keep showering you with my favor and my blessing.
And yes, 3. Grace is a miracle. 1:34-37
In this world, we get what we deserve usually. If you get a 78 on a test, you deserve a C. If you hire on at a position that pays $50,000 a year, you’re paycheck will reflect what you deserve. If you drive 80 mph down I-20, you deserve a ticket. I hope you get one, actually. But God is all about giving us, not what we deserve, but what we don’t’ deserve. God’s all about showing us grace; his unmerited favor. He breaks into our lives again and again to show us His favor.
One last lesson from this angelic sighting: Yes, God surprises us with His favor. And yes that favor is in the person of Jesus Christ. And yes, the favor of God is a bonafide miracle. But I want you to notice this:
4. God’s favor is best experienced when we surrender. 1:38 Mary’s last words to this angel were: “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.” Surrender is always a prelude to the favor of God. James 4:6 says that “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” There’s that word grace, charis, favor. When we surrender to Him and His will, our lives experience even more of the favor of God. But we fight Him for control. We want to be God, not Him. We try to control our reputation so we do stuff that’s not honoring or healthy. We try to control our possessions instead of letting Him control them. They belong to Him anyway. We try to control the memories of the wounds of our past or the fears of tomorrow. Is God in control of all of you: your thought life, your values, your spending, your tongue, your marriage, your kids?
What do you need to surrender to God in order to experience His favor this Christmas season? Surrender it all, surrender yourself today.
No matter who we are, no matter where we are, no matter what faces us, the child of God can be assured that God is for us. The Scripture says, “If God be for us, who could possibly be against us?” Romans 8:31 And the favor is best experienced when we surrender.
