Title: I am the Lord’s Servant
Text: Luke 1:26-38
Lk 1:26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee,
Lk 1:27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.
Lk 1:28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
Lk 1:29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.
Lk 1:30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.
Lk 1:31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.
Lk 1:32 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,
Lk 1:33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”
Lk 1:34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
Lk 1:35 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.
Lk 1:36 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.
Lk 1:37 For nothing is impossible with God.”
Lk 1:38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her
Introduction
After 400 hundred years of prophetic silence, God started speaking again. First the angel Gabriel was sent to Zacharias the High Priest proclaiming the birth of John the Baptist. Six months later, Gabriel was sent to Nazareth an insignificant town in Israel to deliver a message to a young Jewish girl by the name of Mary.
The bible says that Mary was betrothed to Joseph. The Jewish marriage consists of two stages. Weddings during this time in history were very different than weddings today. Weddings consisted of two parts, the betrothal; engagement and the marriage ceremony. This may seem like our marriage, however it is quite different.
The betrothal was a form of engagement agreed to by a parent or brother sealed with a marriage contract and payment, known as a bride price or deposit. Betrothal was final and could be broken only by infidelity of the bride or groom. It was a time of probation and testing of fidelity.
The betrothal was considered marriage without consummation and living together. Social contact was limited and the marriage ceremony did not take place for up to a year or more.
The marriage ceremony was a public display of what had already taken place in the betrothal process where a family and friend celebration took place. Following the ceremony the bridegroom could then take his bride home for the first time.
Having been recently engaged to Joseph, Mary must have spent hours dreaming about life ahead of her. She had been thankful to God for giving her a husband like Joseph, a man with good reputation, a hardworking carpenter and most importantly a man who loves God. Often she wonders about God’s plan for her and the new family that is going to be formed. She often wondered how many children God would grant Josepha and her.
God was about to unfold His plans to Mary and the Angel Gabriel was sent to Nazareth to look for Mary.
1. God’s plan unfolded
Gabriel appeared before Mary and greeted her.
“Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
He went on and declared to Mary that she will be giving birth to the Messiah spoken by the prophets in the Old Testament.
God chose this moment of history to fulfill the Old Testament prophecy regarding the coming of the Messiah through a virgin. Seven hundred years before Mary conceived Christ, the prophet Isaiah, prophesied that “A virgin shall be with child and bear a son; she shall call his name Immanuel.”
Isn’t it amazing to know that seven hundred years before Mary was brought into this world, God has already chosen her with a divine purpose. She was to be the human vessel to give birth to the savior of the world. In His perfect timing, God stepped into human history and unfolded his plans before Mary.
It is certainly comforting to have the assurance in our hearts, that we are created for his divine purpose. In His timing He will unfold his plans to us. As I ponder in regards to this point, I realized that God is a very detail architect.
He prepared a detail blueprint of our lives with all the intricate details. Right from the Garden of Eden, God has already devised his salvation plan for mankind.
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” Genesis 3:15
Mary was one of those individuals whom He had ordained to execute this salvation plan. Jesus had to be born through a virgin. Also he had to come from the line of David. Since Joseph and Mary are both the descendants of David, both these prophetic prediction came to pass through Mary.
Gabriel greeted Mary calling her the “Highly Favored of God”. Why? It was because God has considered her faithful and have entrusted her with His divine purpose.
Just like Mary, God has a plan for each of our lives and he prepares us for the moment of destiny.
See yourself as one highly favored by God, for it is a privilege to be used by God almighty.
2. God’s plan questioned
The news that Gabriel brought was shocking. “Mary, you will be with child and will give birth to a boy and will name him Jesus.” “A son? How could I have a son? I am still a virgin. That is impossible.” Mary asked Gabriel the question which most of us would have asked if we were in her shoes.
Gabriel explained to her the mechanics of how it is going to happen. The boy will be conceived by the Holy Spirit and he will be the son of the most high God who will seat on the throne of David.
Thoughts flooded the mind of young Mary. If she is found to be with child, she might be stoned alive for people might think that she has committed adultery. If Joseph is kind, he might just divorce her. The intrusion of God’s plan into her life may cause her to lose everything – The man she loves, the family she was looking forward to, her life may even be in danger.
Have you felt like Mary before? Do you fear God’s plan because at the back of your mind, you are worried that the intrusion of God’s plan into your life might cause a major upheaval to life itself?
Illustration – William Carey
In the quietness of his cobbler’s shop — not in some enthusiastic missionary conference — William Carey heard the call of God: "If it be the duty of all men to believe the Gospel ... then it be the duty of those who are entrusted with the Gospel to endeavor to make it known among all nations." And Carey sobbed out, "Here am I; send me!"
In 1793 that Carey went to India. The call of God presented great difficulties for Carey at first. His wife was reluctant to go and only after some persuasion from Carey did she finally agreed to go. Dorothy and his children accompanied him. There were years of discouragement. There was no convert for 7 years. His son Peter died and his wife Dorothy could not cope with Peter’s death, became insane.
By the grace of God — and by the power of the Word — Carey continued and conquered for Christ!
When he died at 73 (1834), he had seen the Scriptures translated and printed into forty languages, he had been a college professor, and had founded a college at Serampore. He had seen India open its doors to missionaries, he had seen the edict passed prohibiting sati (burning widows on the funeral pyres of their dead husbands), and he had seen converts for Christ.
Mary was troubled at first, and the task sounded impossible and further more it might cause a major upheaval in her life.
3. God’s plan embraced
Mary may not fully understand the plans of God, the mechanics of how she could conceive while a virgin. She was not even certain how Joseph would respond. It is interesting to note that Gabriel never explained to Mary how Joseph would be convinced. There were still a lot of uncertainties involved. However Gabriel told Mary that the Lord is with her and that nothing is impossible with God.
in simplicity and faith Mary embraced the plan of God in her life. Her reply to Gabriel shows that she understood the Character of God.
“I am the Lord’s servant” Mary saw herself as a servant of God. A servant exercises no will of her own, and is fully submitted to the master. When Mary replied that she is a servant of God, in essence she was saying that she surrenders to the plans of God in her life, in spite of the danger, the inconveniences, the uncertainties.
She knew that God’s plan is always a good plan and whatever God says will come to pass. Mary embrace God’s plan because she trust in the Lord and she knew that if it is God’s will he will clear all the obstacles from her.
Conclusion
We are highly favoured by God and that is why He entrust his divine purpose into our lives. We are highly privilege to be God’s partner in His world on earth. Remember he does not need to use us, but out of his favour upon us, He chose to use us.
That is why Paul said in 1 Tim 1:12“ I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service”
Every time when we have been used by God in things pertaining to His kingdom, our hearts should break out in thanksgiving, that God has given us such a privilege of serving him.
Mary submitted to the purpose of God in her life and through that act of submission, she was used by God in a very crucial moment in man’s history.
Throughout the history of the church, we see man and woman who submitted to God’s will and in doing so their lives affect the next generation. I could think of the story of John Hus, who preached a message that differs from the Roman Catholic Church. Hus was burnt by alive for his teachings, but his teachings continue to influence the people in Bohemia. This movement later took on the form of the Moravian church, which started the longest prayer meeting in church history. The Moravian church also started sending out missionaries. Later it was the Moravian missionaries who influenced John Wesley and through Wesley came the Methodist movement. Scores of people were saved under Wesley’s ministry.
As God unfolds his plans before us, I pray that we may respond like how Mary did.
“I am the Lord’s servant” May we humbly embraced God’s purposes for our lives and consider it a privilege to be serving the King of Kings.
Only through the eyes of eternity will we discover how a little act of obedience actually impacted generations to come.
I pray that we too may utter these words of submission “I’m the Lord’s Servant, ready to serve. Let it be with me just as you say.”
