Everyone loves to receive gifts at Christmas time. And I am sure that as Christmas approaches we are wondering what lies behind those wrapped presents. I remember as a child that these 4 weeks of advent were so difficult. I would go by that tree about 30 million times a day looking at the box and trying to discover exactly what it was. I could not touch the presents that was against the rules. And so I would spend time imagining what was in that box and hope to goodness that it was exactly what I had asked for. It sort of reminds me of the story found in a recent Dennis the Menace cartoon. Dennis is shown rushing into the room with this big box and as his mom turns around her mouth drops open as Dennis says Mom we’d better tell Santa Claus to forget about the train that I asked for. I just found one exactly like I want on the top shelf of Dad’s closet.
Well as we celebrate Christmas, the perfect gift that has been given to us is not wrapped in shiny paper. We do not have to try to figure out what the gift is by shaking it upside down. For the perfect gift we have been given does not lie under a Christmas tree but was born under the stars of Bethlehem in a manger. Yes, I am aware that some people don’t see Christmas like I do. They miss out on the beauty of Christmas because they tend to commercialize Christmas instead of promoting it for what it truly is and that is God giving us the greatest gift in the world. And yes I will be honest and say even for the dedicated Christian it is tempting to miss the true meaning of what Christmas really is.
We open up our Bibles once a year at this time to read the Gospel accounts of Jesus coming from the portals of heaven to lie in a bed of straw on this earth. Yet, to be honest isn’t it so much more than that? Isn’t there something more majestic about the events of that night? We talked this past Wednesday about the beauty of the two planets and the moon that was displayed this past week. But even greater than that is the arrival of God to this earth in the form of the Savior Jesus Christ in an ordinary manger but through an extraordinary way.
And so as we go about fighting crowds, debt, and anxiety over the perfect gift for that special person, let’s spend some time being reminded that there is only one perfect gift and it has already been given to us. It is the gift of the presence of God. And because of that gift that God has been given, the question is now in our hands. What will be our gift to God? Well let’s look this morning at the gifts that God has given us and what our answer should be in return.
We find the beginning of this glorious event as recorded by Luke in The Gospel of Luke 26-38. And it is here where we must begin our journey to the ordinary stable of Bethlehem to witness the awe inspiring arrival of the Almighty God.
1) God’s Gifts Are Delivered Anywhere to Anyone who will receive them
I have a confession to make to you. Actually two. First, I detest shopping. I have no interest whatsoever in going to stores and waiting in long lines and dealing with large crowds to get gifts. And that leads to my second confession. When I do shop, it is usually in my pajamas. That’s right I am not ashamed to admit it, I will put on my favorite pajama pants (which are the ones I wear on Saturday nights before church the next day because they are my holy pants). Well anyway I will put them on and go shopping. And the great thing is I can shop at over a hundred stores and don’t have to pay a dime in gas. I have become a lover of shopping over the internet. Shopping in my pj’s allows me to order a gift for my lovely wife in California and have them ship it directly to Castalia. And I get out of having to answer people’s non stop questions of Where’s Castalia (Casteleea)> I never have to pay shipping and I never have to worry about someone getting the last thing that I want.
If I can buy Christmas gifts all over the world and have them delivered to the ordinary town of Castalia, then how much greater was it that God brought us His perfect gift into the world in the small ordinary town of Bethlehem and Nazareth. While Jesus was born in Bethlehem, he was raised in Nazareth. Nazareth was basically a town that was off the main highway and was relatively insignificant when compared in size and power to Jerusalem. If you remember Nathaniel summed up Nazareth best when he said in John 1:46 “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?”
And the answer to Nathaniel’s request was not just yes you better believe something good can come from Nazareth; rather something great came from Nazareth. For a Savior came from Nazareth to give you and I a new life free from the bondage of sin.
And let’s also notice that not only was it an ordinary town but it was also an ordinary woman that was given the opportunity to carry the greatest of all treasures. We know about Mary. We know that she was a virgin and we don’t doubt that God could use her, but I am sure that we have probably wondered why God chose to use a poor virgin ordinary girl to bring the Son of God into this world? And my answer to that is because that is exactly who God wanted to use to bring His Son into this world. Mary had all the characteristics that would make her seem unusable by God for any major task. And that is why God did it. Because God wants to use the ordinary to do extraordinary things. And God has not changed his mission today. Who has he put in charge of sharing his love? Who has he put in charge of telling others about His name? Who has he put in charge of providing for the sick and the needy? Who has he put in charge to be His example? It’s you and me. Simple ordinary people. Friends never underestimate God. He had great and mighty things for us to do. And it began with Mary.
Notice how ordinary Mary was extraordinary in God’s eyes. When he brought the angel Gabriel to Mary, Gabriel offers a beautiful powerful and personal greeting. He tells Mary that she is highly favored and that the Lord is with her. Do you know what this word favored means? It means that one is has been given the gift of grace freely. This poor simple ordinary girl was a recipient of God’s grace. And because the Lord is with Mary not only is she highly favored but she has received the free gift of grace that God has to offer. That’s what grace is all about. When we allow God to be apart of our lives and he lives within us we are favored. We are full of His grace.
But you might be thinking the same thing Mary was thinking in verse 29 she begins to be troubled. Mary knew there was nothing exciting about her. Surely she was not highly favored, she had made mistakes, she did not have all the wealth, the latest fashion, etc. Surely this is a mistake.
But in a beautiful response to Mary’s questions of not being good enough, Gabriel says Oh but Mary there is no reason to be afraid because you have found favor with God and He is with you. God had chosen her to do mighty things and the angel proceeds to share with Mary the gifts that God was going to give to Mary and ultimately us.
1) An Unnatural Pregnancy
Mary was a virgin. The first gift is that this virgin was going to become pregnant which is nothing but a miracle. I mean it is one thing to discover that you have favor with God and it’s another thing to discover that God is going to do something that has never been done before or since and that is allow a virgin to conceive a child.
2) What Child Is This
Nowadays when people are expecting they long for the day when an ultrasound will share with them the sex of the child and allow them to see their child growing inside the womb of the expectant mother. It is then that they can start narrowing down the names from Jimbo to Charles to Englebert or whatever name you decide. Yet with Mary there was no technology like that and none was needed. As soon as she discovered she would become pregnant the angel says the details have already been worked out. You are going to have a son and this is the name that he will be called. Now we know that His name is Jesus but what’s in that name?
Well first of all The Hebrew name of Jesus is Joshua. What is so important about the name Joshua? Well first of all Joshua was the most popular name for boys in the Old Testament. If you remember Joshua was the hero of the Israelites as he had led the people into Canaan. But the name Joshua or Jesus has an even more significant purpose. The name means God saves. Where Joshua of the O.T led people to Canaan Land the Jesus of the N.T. will lead His people to the Promised Land that is known as eternal life. Why did God choose the name Jesus? Well the Gospel of Matthew shares with us why the baby’s was to be called Jesus and what his mission would be. Matthew 1:21 says “She (Mary) will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Friends the only way that we can truly understand the importance of Christmas is by understanding the events of Easter. By looking at the baby in the manger as he grows up and become the Savior on the cross. Paul captured best the mission that God had planned for Jesus when he was brought into this world. In I Timothy 1:15 Paul says “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners-of whom I am the worst.”
3) He Will Be Great
The angel then continues to share the gifts of God by saying that Jesus the God of salvation will be great. The word great means extraordinary or awesome. Gabriel tells Mary that this baby that is going to be born is going to be awesome. The one that you will hold Mary will be the one that will hold everything together by the word of His power.
To be honest, I do not think the words great, awesome or even extraordinary really do justice to just how wonderful God really is. Jesus is so much greater than all of those things. I like the way that John Piper puts it to try and describe Jesus greatness: He says “If you took all the greatest thinkers of every country and every century and put them in a room with Jesus, they would shut their mouths and listen to the greatness of His wisdom. All the generals would listen to His strategy. All the greatest musicians would listen to his music theory and His performance on every instrument. There is nothing that Jesus cannot do a thousand times better than the person you admire most in any area of human endeavor under the sun”
Jesus would be great in His love, great in His compassion, and great in His sacrifice. He would live a great life, teach great parables and give great sermons. He would heal with great power and be a great example. He would die a great death and would be resurrected in great power. He would give the great commission and ascend to a great height. He will come again in great glory. And He longs to make great changes in your life and in mine, if we will but let Him.
4) He Will Be the Son of the Most High
If you ever wanted to know who Jesus was and is then this summation of this gift of God should remove all doubt. In verse 32 he is the Son of the most high in verse 35 he is the Son of God. Do you get where this is going. Whose son is Jesus? He is God’s Son. He is the son of Mary through birth and the Son of God through creation. He is God’s only begotten son as recorded in John 3:16. He is the very essence of God. The fact that her Baby was to be called the “Son of the Most High” pointed to His equality with Yahweh. This designation was not lost on Mary. In Jewish thought a son was the “carbon copy” of his father; he would act like his father, think like his father and would possess all of his father’s qualities. There was no doubt that this baby that Mary would deliver would be the son of God and in His name demons would be banished, people would be healed, sins would be forgiven and lives would be changed.
5) He will reign forever.
As Gabriel finishes up describing the gifts that God is going to give to His people Gabriel shares with Mary that the birth of this baby will bring about the fulfillment of the prophecies that had been shared in the Old. Testament. These prophecies had been shared hundreds of years earlier and through the birth of this baby from this ordinary virgin girl, these prophecies would be fulfilled and Jesus would come into this world and establish his kingdom that would never end.
Now I don’t know about you but I would have been Mary I would have had to say Wait Hold up slow Down I can’t comprehend all of this information. And so after hearing all of this Mary has to ask a question. It’s not a sarcastic question but a practical question? She says Gabriel I hear what you are saying but I don’t see how it can happen to me because I am a virgin and it is humanly impossible for me to have a child?
Mary could have challenged Gabriel and said wrong woman wrong place wrong time. She could have said this is lunacy and ran away, but notice what she did? She did not say she did not believe, rather she did believe she just had problems understanding the logistics of this. She did not need proof she just wanted to understand the process. If God was going to squeeze His awesome greatness into human flesh, it’s no wonder that she was filled with some questions.
And that is when God gives Mary and us His final Christmas present and that present comes in the form of the Holy Spirit.
6) The Presence of the Holy Spirit.
After Mary asked about the logistics Gabriel shares that it will be the presence of the Holy Spirit that will bring about this baby inside of you. We usually spend more time talking about Mary’s response in verse 38 but catch this first part of verse 35: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you…” How reassuring is it to hear that the presence of God is always overshadowing those who believe Him. The word overshadow carries a sense of the holy powerful presence of God and is used to describe the events of the Transfiguration of Jesus and to describe how the tabernacle was filled with the presence of God in Exodus. And because of this presence this child will be holy and will be the Son of God. Once again another reminder of who Jesus is. Fully God fully man. He will be holy which means that he will be free from all sin so that he can be the sacrifice for our sins. Make no mistake about it, this baby was God’s son. In the birth of Jesus, God himself become human and entered this world for us. That is the miracle of Christmas
And then Gabriel left Mary with words that you and I should already have not just memorized but etched into our minds and hearts as truth. It is the words of verse 37 that says “For nothing is impossible with God.” Can I just get real this morning? Some of you are feeling like Mary this morning. You are in an impossible situation. Some of you are in an impossible situation right now. You may have lost your job and don’t know where God is calling you next? Nothing is impossible with God! Are you wondering how you are going to be able to provide a decent Christmas for you and your family? Nothing is impossible with God! Are you struggling with a child? Nothing is impossible with God! Is your marriage on life support? Nothing is impossible with God! Are you lonely this holiday season? Nothing is impossible with God! Are you wishing that you could just be happy? Nothing is impossible with God! Are you experiencing overwhelming anxiety in life? Nothing is impossible with God! Do you feel unloved this morning? Nothing is impossible with God! Do you feel that you can’t go on? Nothing is impossible with God Amen.
If God can reach all the way down from the throne of Heaven to the body of a teenage virgin, if He can enter time from eternity, if the infinite can become an infant…think about what he can do in your life. In this entire passage the awesome extraordinary God became flesh. The one who created all things emptied himself into a human being so that we could have everlasting life. How did he do it? I have no clue. Mary didn’t know. Gabriel didn’t know. You can’t know things like that. You just have to leave them up to God. And, as Gabriel says, “nothing is impossible with God.”
On that first Christmas, God gave the perfect gift in the form of Jesus the God who Saves. But it would not be fair for us to just receive a gift this morning; we have been taught that it is always better to give than to receive so let me ask you as we wind up our message this morning. What are you planning on giving God for Christmas? You might say Chris, you know finances this year, you know the situations we are facing, I don’t really have anything to give back to God? Well let’s look at what Mary gave. After all she was like us. She did not have a lot to give back to God. She did not have the money, etc to give but yet she still had something to offer God and she gave him the only thing that she had to give. Mary gave God herself. Verse 38 she says, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said?” Did you catch that? No arguments. No complaining, No whining, no ‘Why me’. No excuses. No postponements and No refusals. Just surrender. “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said?” What better gift could a person give at Christmas? It’s really what God wants!
I read a story that I thought was a perfect illustration as to what the perfect gift looks like at Christmas. It centered on a school Christmas pageant. Of course there was nothing there to make it religious. Only snowmen, reindeer and the like. And so the kindergarten class was to sing a song and the name of the song was Christmas love. And so the children had large letters that they were to hold up as they sang the song and so there was the C which stood for Christmas and then there was an “H” that stood for Happiness and an “R” well you get the idea. And they would continue this until they had the letters up that spelled Christmas Love. Everything was going well until the small quiet girl who had the letter “M” held up her sign. Pretty soon the kids began to giggle and laugh as the song kept going on. They were laughing at the little girl who had the “M” sign. The “M” girl did not know they were laughing at her and she still held up her letter high. The song continued and the last letter was raised and when the last letter was raised all the laughter died down and there was a hush as kids and parents began to understand what was going on and why they were there. That little girl with the “M” they had laughed at her because she had held up her “M” upside down to make a “W” Yet at the end of the song there was no laughter because the message of Christmas spoke loud and clear as the message those kids held up said Christ Was Love instead of Christmas Love
What will you offer God this year? Are you still looking to give the perfect gift? Then look no further because the greatest gift that you and I can give is to give ourselves to God to trust Him, to surrender to Him, with no arguing, no excuses, no I’ll do it tomorrow, but just saying “Lord, I surrender to you. I give you myself. I am your servant. May it be to me as you have said?”
