“A Surprising Announcement”
Series: Beginnings of a Legacy
December 13, 2009
If you’re a regular church attendee, then you know that the giving of “Announcements” is a regular part of most church services. It can also be the funniest part of the service, because mistakes can be made. With that in mind, I want to give you a sampling of “Church Bulletin Announcement Bloopers” that could get you into a lot of trouble! These are actual bulletin announcements…
• Bertha Belch, (a missionary from Africa) will be speaking tonight at Calvary Memorial Church in Racine. Come tonight and hear Bertha Belch all the way from Africa.
• The sermon this morning: "Jesus Walks on the Water". The sermon tonight: "Searching for Jesus"
• Barbara remains in the hospital and needs blood donors for more transfusions. She’s also having trouble sleeping and requests tapes of Pastor Jack's sermons.
• Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24th in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.
• At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What is Hell?" Come early and listen to our choir practice.
• Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles, and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.
• “Weight Watchers” will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use large double door at the side entrance.
• Our next song is "Angels We Have Heard Get High."
This morning we’re going to look at another kind of announcement… a God Announcement. Unlike our announcements, God doesn’t make any mistakes and He doesn’t make any bloopers… but nonetheless, His announcements CAN still get you into a lot of trouble. Just ask Mary and Joseph! Last week we looked at the news of Jesus’ birth from Joseph’s perspective, but this week we’re going to look at it from Mary’s point of view. As we do that, I want to share with you “4 Facts About God’s Messages”, that are still relevant to today…
But 1st of all, let’s read about God’s announcement to Mary in Luke 1:26-38…READ You know, a lot of times when we read the bible we get the idea that what happened to the people we read about could never happen to me! After all, we rationalize… “They’re special people living in a special time. Their experiences could never be repeated in my life!”
In fact, we’ve conditioned ourselves to read the bible in terms of OUR experience, instead of in the terms of the experience of the people we’re reading about. For example, If we don’t hear God speak to us in special ways… then we assume that He just doesn’t do that anymore! If that’s the way you read your bible… then no wonder you’re bored with it! It’s become some kind of moralistic life guide… when what God meant for it to be is a way to hear His voice and respond to His voice in a life changing way!
Well, as we read about Mary this morning, I want you to see the story we’re going to read about as not just some kind of nice story, or some distant encounter with God… I want you to see it as something that can actually happen to you! Mary received a visitation from one of God’s angels who had a special message for her. I want you walking away from here this morning realizing that God (the same God that spoke to Mary) has a special message for you too! So, the 1st FACT that you should know about God’s messages is simply this…
1. God still SENDS messages.
In case you didn’t know it or realize it… God is still in the business of making announcements and sending messages to people today. In otherwords, God is alive and well… He’s still talking…He hasn’t gone into hiding… and He’s attempting to communicate with me and you.
Now you might have had a hard time convincing the average Jew about that back in Jesus’ day. Because for all intents and purposes it seemed like God had gone silent on them. See, what you need to understand is that God’s people hadn’t seen or heard from God (or one of His angels) in more than 400 years! For 400 years there’d been no revelation from the Lord, no prophets, no miracles. They hadn’t heard as much as a ‘peep’ out of God. And some were even wondering if He even existed! Sounds kind of like today huh? Because most people haven’t heard from God in a personal way, they wrongly assume that He never existed in the 1st place… and if He did, well, it looks like He packed up His bags and moved away! If that’s you… then like Mary… you’re in for a big surprise!
Because now… in the span of less than a year… God had sent not 1…but 2 messages! This was amazing! Luke 1:26 identifies the divine messenger that comes to Mary as Gabriel, the same angel who came a few months earlier to the priest Zacharias with news about John the Baptist’s birth. Now Gabriel is 1 of only 2 angels who are actually named in the Bible. The other one is Michael. Michael is kind of a “Super Angel”, and God always sends Him out on assignments that need a lot of power and strength. For example… In Daniel 10, Michael showed up to fight a spiritual battle for Daniel.
“Gabriel” on the otherhand is God’s supreme messenger. I call him the “FED-X” angel, because God seems to use him to deliver great, crucial announcements that will impact all of humanity. For example, in Daniel 9, God sent Gabriel to deliver the pronouncement to Daniel that outlined all of history as a count-down of 70 Weeks. (By the way, a count-down that’s still going on!) Now, God is using Gabriel to give the most astounding, significant birth announcement ever delivered. In his introduction to Mary, God makes it very clear who he is, and where he’s from! In vs.26, In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, 27 to a virgin named Mary. So this high-ranking angel of God came down out of heaven to this little Galilean town called Nazareth. And what He said would shake the world! But 1st it shook up Mary pretty good! I imagine that if all the sudden you saw Gabriel standing next to you… you’d be shook up too! I’m one of those people who get startled easily. I would have probably screamed like a little girl! (AHHH!)
The point I’m trying to make is that God is sending messages to His people today. Granted He may not send Gabriel to you, but He has a lot of other ways to communicate to us…mostly through His Word and His Holy Spirit. Are you open to that? If you believe in God this morning, you should be!
The 2nd fact that you should know about God’s messages is that…
2. They come to ORDINARY PEOPLE
You’ve got to understand that before Gabriel came to Mary… she wasn’t anything spectacular…and she wasn’t sinless either! She was an ordinary simple young girl. I’m sure Mary would have been perfectly happy to be a normal Jewish girl…in a normal Jewish town…
I mean, even her “name” was ordinary! Every family had at least one girl in the family named ‘Merium’, (after Moses’ sister). A few weeks earlier a betrothal contract had been signed, and she was engaged to be married to a ordinary guy named Joseph. He wasn’t a ‘scholar’ by any means… he was more the ’Industrial Arts’ type… he was a carpenter, a blue-collar worker. Mary would have been perfectly happy to be an ordinary Jewish wife and mother…BUT God… interrupted her life in a BIG way!
Has God ever interrupted your life in a big way? He wants to you know! You’re going along… hum, de, dum…happy and “stupid” in your sin… when all the sudden God shows up and gets a hold of your life! Maybe you think you’re going to school to become a psychologist and then one day He comes to you and makes it clear He wants you to be a pastor! That’s what happened to me! Or maybe you’re pretty sure you’re going to live out your days going to work, earning a paycheck and raising a family… when God puts a burden on your heart for the homeless, or maybe the sexually abused…etc., and all the sudden you’re off doing something totally foreign to what you thought you’d be doing. It happens to people ALL THE TIME…I’m soooo glad it happened for me… and I want it to happen for you!
Because God’s message came to an ordinary girl named Mary… in an ordinary town…you can know that nothing is impossible where you live either – no matter who you are… God has a message of hope and purpose for you too!
Which leads to the 3rd FACT of God’s messages…
3. I can KNOW what God is telling me.
Listen again to what the angel said to Mary…READ vs.30-33… 30 “Don’t be frightened, Mary,” the angel told her, “for God has decided to bless you! 31 You will become pregnant and have a son, and you are to name him Jesus. 32 He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!” The moment Mary heard these words, she knew what the angel was talking about. He was telling her that she would be the mother of the long awaited Jewish Messiah. He’s lit. telling her about His entire life in one sentence…
• 1st, he tells her about His Saving mission in life…He says that His name will be Jesus = Heb. Yeshua or “Jehovah saves”
• Then, he tells her about His Righteous Life… When Gabriel told Mary that Jesus would be “great”, he meant that He would manifest the very glory of God. That is, people would see the attributes of God displayed through His perfectly righteous life.
• When Gabriel tells Mary that “[He] will be called the Son of the Highest.” He’s giving Him the title of God! To Jews, the word “Highest” was simply another title for God, Gabriel was saying that nobody is higher than Jesus is.
• Lastly, Gabriel tells her about His Kingly position… He says,“‘The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end’” According to Gabe… this child will establish a kingdom that will not only rule the earth… but it will never end. Right now it’s an invisible kingdom… but someday it will lit. come true!
That was quite a mouthful, and Mary could hardly believe what her ears were telling her, but it was unmistakable… That’s because…when God speaks… it’s unique to you. I’m not going to stand up here and tell you this morning that God is going to send an angel every time He wants to get your attention. He “might” send an angel… but not necessarily. That’s because God won’t talk to you like He talks to me! Mary had never had an angel talk to her before, and as far as we know it never happened again. She couldn’t say, “Oh yeah, this is my “Angel Visit!” My ancestors Abraham, Issac and Jacob had their “angel visit”… and now this is mine!” NO!
I guarantee you that if Mary lived today, people would want her to write a book entitled, ”How to Hear God’s Angels” … and it would sell like hotcakes! Everybody would be running around trying to duplicate her experience by finding THEIR visiting angel! That’s because today, everybody is looking for a method, 3 easy steps, some procedure, a technique…they can use to hear God.
But God doesn’t duplicate Himself, and He refuses to be put in a box or a formula… He’s personal, He’s private, and He speaks to you in a way that you can understand Him. He’ll speak to you different than he speaks to me, because He wants His voice to be personal to each one of us. He wants us to know Him in the context of a relationship, not some kind of formula or technique.
With that in mind let me give you 3 very simple principles you need to know so that can help you identify if a message is really from God…
a. It will agree with scripture: The reason Mary knew that this was God’s angel and not some “fake” angel (like Joseph Smith’s “Moroni” (i.e. satanic angel of light)… is because what he said essentially agreed with scripture. The angel wasn’t teaching her some new doctrine, or telling her to write her own bible… he was merely applying what the scripture already said about the coming Messiah to her life.
Listen, God will never tell you something that contradicts or disagrees with what He’s already said in scripture. That’s because God’s Word never changes. God’s Word never changes, however my understanding or interpretation of God’s Word WILL change! That’s why I can read His Word one day, and the next day something totally new will pop out, about what I read the day before! Because God will never contradict His word, that’s one way you can tell it’s Him.
2ndly… if it’s a message from God…He will confirm it.
After Gabriel told Mary what was going to happen, like any sane person, she asked for proof of what He said was true. She asks, “How can I have a baby if I’m a virgin?” And theproof the angel gave her was none other than the ‘virgin birth’! Then he added, “…And if that’s not enough… your old Aunt Elizabeth who’s been barren her whole life is going to have a baby too!” Wow! Now that’s confirmation! In the same way, if God tells you something…He’ll confirm it. It might be through what someone says, or something you read, maybe an experience… it might even come through what some might call a ‘coincidence’. All I know is that the more I pray… the more ‘coincidences’ happen! HA!
3rdly, if it’s really God speaking… I’ll recognize His voice.
When the angel said, “For nothing is impossible for God”, she knew that it was really Him speaking. How? Because that would be consistent with the way God speaks! God is a God of the impossible! What I think can’t be done, He says CAN be done! According to Isa.55:8-9, God’s thoughts, the way He approaches problems, His perspective is totally and radically different from mine. READ Isa.55:8-9… “My thoughts are completely different from yours,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. 9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”
One of the tests I use to determine if God is speaking to me or not is to ask the question… “Are these thoughts different from my own?” I’m telling you … sometimes the things God communicates to me are so outside of myself …so opposite of the way I would do or say things… I know it isn’t me!
I don’t think that way, and never will! The thought of God making her pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit… is so ‘out there’… so ‘beyond Zebra’… that it confirmed to Mary that God really had spoken to her! Besides, God’s voice has a consistency about it and the more I get to know Him… the more I can tell it’s His voice over mine… or even Satan’s.
The last fact I want to share with you about hearing God’s messages is…
4. I will hear God speak if I’m PREPARED
There are 2 Kinds of People Who Hear God Speak…
a. Available People
b. Willing People
When Mary said, “I am the Lord’s servant, and I am willing to accept whatever he wants.” She proved that she was both! Not only was she available… but she was willing to do whatever it took to obey God. When she said that, make no mistake, she was offering herself as ‘gossip bait’ in a small town. I once heard gossip described as…”the most deadly bug…it has neither legs nor wings. It is composed entirely of tales, and most of them have stings”. True! If you’ve ever been ‘stung’ by the gossip bug, you know what it felt like to be Mary. Tongues would start wagging and she was setting herself up for being mocked…ignored and shamed. Being pregnant out of wedlock in Mary’s society brought the bitterest kind of shame.
A traditional wedding ceremony required that the bride sit in front of her fathers house for parts of 3 days dressed in white, sig. her purity and virginity. Now what kind of ‘greetings’ do you imagine a ‘pregnant girl’ dressed in her bridal white could expect? It would be devastating! Have you ever thought about the fact that Mary was the 1st person ever directly persecuted for her faith in Christ? Even as he grew within her womb! And then there was Joseph! Oh, my! What would Joseph think? Goodbye to that fiancé’! There went her chance for marriage and a family! A righteous man like Joseph wouldn’t want to touch her with a 10 ft. pole! Un-wed mothers were cast out like lepers…left to fend for themselves. If Joseph rejected her, her only 2 choices for supporting herself would be a. slave labor and b. prostitution! Maybe worse…because by Jewish law, a betrothed maiden discovered to be ‘with child’ was to be stoned.
Mary was lit. risking her life by accepting the angels assignment! She was risking everything that ever really mattered… (her family, her reputation, love and marriage, financial security)… EVERYTHING!…even life itself… in order to serve God! I think about that and I have to wonder to myself… “What am I willing to sacrifice for my Savior in order to serve Him this Christmas? My hopes and dreams? My finances? Habits that would displease Him? If you really want to hear from God, you have to ask yourself…
• What price am I willing to pay in obedience to Him?
• What am I willing to risk in order to follow him? My reputation? Relationships? How about my life?
I can’t think of a better example of availability and willing commitment, than in the life of Mary. Mary stated her basic attitude towards life when she responded, “I am the Lords servant” Another translation reads, “I am here to serve the Lord”. That was her attitude towards life! Is it any wonder that her natural response to the Lords request was, “Whatever you say Lord!” When that’s your attitude…you’ll not only hear God, but God will use you! “Whatever you want Lord!” Is that your response when God talks to you? If not… maybe that’s why He’s not talking to you! Mary didn’t have to understand the whole process before she accepted the Lord’s assignment… once she was sure that it was God’s desire… SHE DID IT!
I think one of the reasons so many people have trouble hearing the Lord today is…
1. We haven’t really ever consecrated ourselves to be the Lord’s servant (no matter what)… and
2. We don’t operate on faith, because we have to know all the nitty-gritty details before we act.
If you’re anxious this morning as to how it’s all going to work out in your life…. If you wonder if ‘going out on a limb’ for the Lord is going to result in falling out of the tree… then learn from the faith of Mary, that when God is in it… all things work together for your good and God’s glory!
Do you want to hear from God today? You can if you’re willing to…
1. Recognize that God still sends messages
2. Learn how to identify it when He speaks
3. Accept that you don’t have to be perfect to hear God speak.
4. Prepare by making yourself available and willing.
It’s the greatest announcement ever, and I don’t want you to miss it this morning!
1. A Savior has come!
2. He’s God in flesh
3. You can know Him!
