The Face of Faith - Mary
The Faces of Christmas Series
Luke 1:26-45, 2:1-7
Faith Accepts altered Expectations (Luke 1:38)
Faith Believes without Seeing (Luke 1:45)
Faith finds Contentment despite Circumstances (Luke 2:1-7)
Intro
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Has anyone ever had dreams of their future? Not real dreams, but ideas of what something will look like.
High School Sports
If you are younger, maybe you have had dreams of playing your favorite sport at your local high school and how you will score the touchdown or basket to win the game.
College Choice
Maybe it is a college choice. You have had dreams of graduating with a certain major from a certain college. You see yourself walking across the stage to get your degree shaking hands with the university president and some big corporation standing back stage with a huge job offer.
President of Company
Or maybe it is how you will climb the corporate ladder and one day be president of the company.
Wedding Day
Maybe it is a picture of your wedding day. You have a picture of who will be there and what it will look like with the decorations and your dress and how it will feel walking down the aisle and seeing your fiancé standing there waiting for you.
If we are older than grade school age, we have all had expectations of the way we want something to turn out.
Now, if you are still very young, you may not have had any of those hopes or dreams broken yet, but if you are older than high school age, you probably have.
That certainly is not fun for anyone, but how does a person of faith deal with changes to the plans we have?
We are continuing our series, the Faces of Christmas today.
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This morning we are going to look into The Face of Faith as we look at Mary and learn how she dealt with some changed expectations and learn how we might better be able to live a life of faith like she did.
Turn with me to Luke 1:26
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We are going to look this morning at the faith she exhibited as we examine the situation of her being visited by the angel that forever changed her plans for her future as she was told that she would give birth to the Messiah.
Luke 1:26-38
26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."
29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 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, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."
34 "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?"
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. 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. 37 For nothing is impossible with God."
38 "I am the Lord’s servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her.
Ok, I want to pause here and talk about this.
The first think I want us to see in this passage is that
Faith Accepts Altered Expectations
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Just like many of us, Mary had some expectations of what her future was going to be looking like.
She was young, probably in her early teens, and she was pledged to be married.
I don’t doubt that even though this was probably an arranged marriage, that she had some expectations of the wedding and of life after the wedding.
And then and angel visits her and alters her expectations for what life is going to be like.
Being a young teenage girl betrothed to be married you are supposed to be a virgin.
In fact, sex outside of marriage is a crime punishable by being stoned to death.
Your pregnancy through the Holy Spirit is going to be no easy manner of explanation.
Will they want to stone you?
If things go well, maybe Joseph will only divorce you.
This will bring public disgrace upon your family as well.
Your friends will probably turn from you
Life as you know it and expect it to go is forever altered by this news.
How would you respond?
How would you respond to your expectations for life being totally and completely changed and in a way that might bring hardship and suffering, at least for the near term?
Would you try to talk God out of it?
Would you try to talk to Him and let Him know the whole situation that, from your standpoint, He is obviously unaware of?
“Um, Lord? This plan you have, the one with me bearing Your Child. Um, did you know that I am a virgin? This is going to be hard to explain.
Would you discuss some other options that you think would be a better plan for God?
“You know, I think you might want to consider using someone else, someone not a virgin so this child could have a better chance in life.”
It seems foolish knowing what we know now doesn’t it?
But don’t we do this when God alters our plans?
We get the call from the doctor and we find out we have cancer.
We go into work and find out that we have been laid off.
We are just running to the store and someone runs into our car, and they are uninsured.
“God, what are you doing?!” “Do you need some help with planning?” I have plans already and they don’t include this!”
Mary’s Response
How does Mary respond to these altered expectations?
These are some of the most profound words in all of Scripture when we truly consider what is going on with Mary.
She says, “I am the Lord’s servant… May it be to me as you have said.” (Luke 1:38)
Are you kidding me? What kind of faith is this?
This is a faith that accepts altered expectations because she knows the God who is in control intimately. She knows that even if she doesn’t understand all of the situation, God does and God is good. Her expectations for her life are nothing compared to what God has planned for our eternity.
Paul writes to the Romans in
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Romans 8:18 - I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. (NIV)
Faith Accepts altered expectations trusting that the Lord is good all the time.
But this is the kind of faith that not only accepts altered expectations but this is a
Faith that Believes without Seeing
Faith Believes without Seeing
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You have heard the phrase Seeing is believing?
Well Faith is Believing without seeing.
Mary believed the angel
about what he said about her and
about what he said about Elizabeth
The angel told her that even Elizabeth was 6 months pregnant despite the fact that she had been
barren all her life and
was now old and
beyond child bearing years.
Listen to what Mary does after the angel tells her these things and leaves her.
Luke 1:39-45
39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40 where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!"
Mary believed that what the Lord had told her would be accomplished.
She believed that she would bear the Christ child
She believed that the Lord had blessed Elizabeth with a child.
She believed these things without seeing, but as some of them were confirmed, like Elizabeth’s pregnancy, Mary’s faith grew more.
God is so good to us.
He knows how weak we are.
And even as we understand what the author of Hebrews tells us in that “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1), God helps us in our weakness by confirming some of the things he tells us so that our faith in other matter, those that aren’t always confirmable, can grow stronger.
God told Mary that she would bear a Son who would be the Messiah, that was something that was un-confirmable. But He also gives her something that can be confirmed, that Elizabeth was pregnant.
Now while I believe that Mary believed what she was being told, (after all it was an angel speaking to her), we still need our faith to be supported and grown as we move forward in life, even if it isn’t completely confirmable with hard evidence.
These are the things we need to continually recall in our minds as we move forward in life. (Illus: Jason’s neck)
For Mary, God used Elizabeth’s pregnancy, the shepherds coming, the wise men coming, not only to honor and glorify Christ, but these were things that helped Mary (and I am sure Joseph too) grow in faith to help her believe without seeing.
One last aspect of faith that we learn through Mary is that
Faith finds Contentment despite Circumstances
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Read with me
Luke 2:1-7
1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to his own town to register.
4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. (NIV)
Now, I am sure that we all have heard this story a lot. We hear it every Christmas.
But this story is not only remarkable for what we read, but what we don’t read.
We don’t read that there was any complaining about the situation.
Application
Have you ever been in a position that you are trying to do exactly what God wants and nothing seems to go right?
That can be rather frustrating.
Imagine Mary and Joseph.
They took steps of courage in staying the course when it seemed like there were better options from a worldly point of view.
Mary is taking steps of faith and trusting God through all of this.
They are doing just what the Lord would have them do.
We, from our human standpoint, think that God should smooth things out for them, shouldn’t He?
“Ok, God, they are following you and relying on your strength, why not just give them a room at one of the inns? I mean, you are in control of everything, aren’t You?”
Have you ever been there?
Have you ever been in the spot where you are trying to live for the Lord and your circumstances are just the absolute pits and they seem to keep getting worse?
Not only do they have to deal with the virgin birth situation with some skeptical friends and family but then
they have to make this long and arduous journey while
Mary is 9 months pregnant and on top of that
There is no place for them to stay and now she is having the baby.
Really?
Come on God, what did they do to deserve this?
I want to read for you again the first words of the angel to Mary.
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Luke 1:28, 30 - 28…"Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you…
30 "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.”
We don’t normally equate one bad circumstance after another with finding God’s favor.
I don’t know why though.
Scripture clearly tells us that we are going to face trouble and persecution as we seek to live a godly life. As we look through individual people in Scripture, we find suffering as they follow the Lord.
Noah – Noah was a righteous man (Genesis 6:9) and he had to spend years building an arc and probably taking ridicule from those around him.
Job – suffered greatly and yet was blameless and upright (Job 1:1).
Prophets - (Elijah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Hosea, to name a few) suffered as they walked in obedience to the Lord.
Listen to what the author of Hebrews says about some of the prophets.
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Hebrews 11:36-39
36 Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. 37 They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. 39 These were all commended for their faith,
Faithful men, experiencing circumstances that were awful, but finding contentment in the Lord.
In the New Testament we see
The Apostles – rejoiced in being counted worthy to suffer for the Name (Acts 5:41)
Paul – God said “This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name." (Acts 9:15-16)
Paul was put in prison, flogged five times with 39 lashes, beaten with rods, stoned, shipwrecked, was deprived of sleep, hungry and thirsty and without food, and at times had been cold and naked. (2 Corinthians 11:23-27)
And what does he tell the Philippians?
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Philippians 4:11-13
I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
It is through faith that we receive the Lord’s strength to be content in any circumstance so He might be praised and receive glory.
God’s favor is not about good earthly circumstances.
God’s favor is about close relationship that finds peace and joy and contentment in God’s presence despite the presence of hardship and suffering.
Mary faced challenges, but
through the power of God’s Spirit,
through the people that the Lord put in her life to help encourage her and keep her focused,
she grew in faith and in her trust of the Lord and received strength to endure and not only endure, but to have peace and contentment.
Maybe you are in a place today where your faith has been challenged due to circumstances.
You are following after the Lord and you lose your job.
You are striving to glorify the Lord in your role as a husband or wife and it seems that your marriage is only getting worse.
The doctor calls and the news is not good. The cancer is back and it has spread.
Turn to the Lord in faith. It is
because of His birth into this world that we celebrate this time of year,
because of the perfect life he lived, and
because of the sacrificial death and separation from the Father He experienced,
that we can live in faith and hope now, even in the midst of hardship, and look forward to that eternity where there will be no pain, no suffering, no hardship, but all things will be new and we will be in the presence of the Lord forever.
Listen to what Revelation 21:1-7 says believers in Jesus Christ can be looking forward to.
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21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
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5 He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."
6 He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
If you have never trusted in Jesus as your Savior, He, today, wants you to exercise the faith He has given you to be saved.
Romans 10:9 - if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. NIV
And if you are here and have received Jesus as your Savior, the Lord today wants you to exercise the faith he has given you to Live the Life of faith with peace and contentment looking forward to the day we are with Him.
Listen to Peter’s words about a faith that finds peace and contentment and joy in suffering
1 Peter 1:3-9
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3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade — kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
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6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (NIV)
We can find peace and contentment knowing that this is all just temporary and that we are going to be with the Lord for eternity.
Conclusion
(Worship team come up)
If you are here today and want to
receive Jesus or
take a step of faith asking the Lord for his strength to experience his peace and contentment in your circumstance,
I am going to do something that we don’t always do.
I want to give you an opportunity to come and be prayed with and prayed for as the worship team leads us in O Come All Ye Faithful.
if you
want to confess Christ as Savior or
want to say along with Mary, “I am the Lord’s Servant…may it be to me as you have said.” And ask for the Lord’s strength for that peace and contentment, then I invite you to come up to the alter while the worship team leads.
I and a few others will be up here to pray with you or for you or you can just kneel down here as a way to actively speak your faith.
I invite you to come as the worship team leads us in O Come all ye Faithful.
Sing - O Come All Ye Faithful
