Introduction:
It is hard to believe that December is already here. And with December upon us, as a church, we need to go back and visit the area of Nazareth and Bethlehem and see what all that excitement was about some 2000 years ago. To us, looking back at the events that unfolded, it is called the Good News. I don’t know about you, but in a world filled with bad news, I like to hear Good News. In fact, I never get tired of hearing Good News. Give me Good News any day over Bad News!
It was also during this time the angels told the shepherds it was a time of great joy. The times, we live in, are filled with hardship and sorrow, not much joy, so it is good for us to go back and visit the time of great joy and to remind ourselves that we can have that same great joy.
Now the Good News and the Great Joy meshed together with the birth of Christ. Those events did not happen by accident; those events were not a coincidence, nor were those events the result of fate bringing them together. Good News and Great Joy meshed together at the birth of Christ because it was God the Father’s plan that it happened exactly that way. I can tell you this about me; I love it when a plan comes together, and this was a perfect plan coming together. So tonight, I want to see what I can learn about the plan.
Scripture:
Luke 1:26-38 (NIV)
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.
Point #1
THE FIRST THING THAT I NOTICE ABOUT THE PLAN IS THAT GOD IS THE AUTHOR OF THIS PLAN, AND FROM THE VERY BEGINNING GOD MADE HIS PLAN A MISSIONARY PLAN.
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."
Look what it says: God sent the angel Gabriel to tell Mary about the plan. God sent Gabriel to tell Mary about Christ. God the Father could have come Himself; nothing was preventing Him from coming to earth and telling Mary directly that you are going to give birth to the Savior of the world.
Instead, in God’s plan, somebody had to go tell Mary about the Savior, and that blessing on that first Christmas fell upon the angel Gabriel. Listen to me: every Christmas since that first Christmas, the blessing has fallen upon the Christians to announce that the Savior has come into the world to save them from their sins. God didn’t have to do the 2nd Christmas and every Christmas after that way. He could have come from heaven and told every one of us directly that the Savior came to free you from your sins. But God’s plan was missionary from the very start.
POINT 2
IN THE FIRST CHRISTMAS PLAN, MARY WAS MORE FEARFUL OF THE WORDS THAT GABRIEL SPOKE THAN THE ACTUAL APPEARANCE OF GABRIEL, BUT GOD GAVE HER THE FAVOR IN WHATEVER FORM IT TOOK TO OVERCOME HER FEARS.
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."
If I was Mary and an angel appeared to me, to be honest with you, I would be so afraid that I would not hear a word that the angel said to me. You got to remember nowhere are we told that the angel came down from heaven in the appearance of a man. We are lead to believe that Gabriel appeared to Mary in all His heavenly splendor. I can see it now, God said it was time for His plan to occur, and He sent Gabriel just as he appeared in heaven. Now what would that look like? We get a glimpse of what that might look like by looking at the angel that appeared at the tomb that Resurrection morning.
Matthew 28:2-4 (NIV)
2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.
3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.
4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
The strong Roman guards were so afraid of the angel’s appearance that they shook and became like dead men. And here in this story we have Mary, who is probably somewhere between 12 and 14 years of age and she is not afraid of the angel but the angel’s words. How did that happen? It was God’s plan, and He was going to give her whatever grace she needed to overcome her fear of the appearance of the angel.
But we are told in this passage that she is afraid of his words, that they troubled her. But we know the end of the story, Mary overcome that fear. How did that happen? It was God’s plan, and He was going to give her whatever grace she needed to overcome her fear of having a child while yet a virgin.
Do you know what the Christmas story tells us? In God’s plans for your life, we usually meet God’s plan with fear, but we need trust that God will give us whatever grace we need to overcome our fears.
Point #3
THE FIRST CHRISTMAS PLAN REMINDS ME THAT WHAT MAN SAYS IS IMPOSSIBLE, GOD SAYS IS POSSIBLE AND GOD DOES NOT ONE, BUT TWO IMPOSSIBLES TO PROVE IT TO US AT CHRISTMAS.
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.
Man has a way of discrediting what God has done. A person gets a CT scan, and it shows cancer, and so the doctor tells the patient you have cancer. A few weeks later the doctor orders another CT scan to see how fast the cancer is growing and there is no cancer. The doctor tells the patient the good news you have no cancer. There must have been something faulty in the first scan. Not giving the credit to God! One miracle the world will try to explain away.
But the angel Gabriel announces there are two miracles in this plan. This plan is no ordinary plan. You are going to conceive Mary by the Holy Spirit and your relative Elizabeth, who we all know is past the childbearing age, she has nothing inside her to have a child, she was barren, is now six months pregnant.
And it like God is challenging the world, ok world, explain away both miracles. And the Angel Gabriel comes back with a nail to the coffin of the skeptics. 37 For nothing is impossible with God."
So, the Christmas plan is God assuring you and me that whatever our situation is today, nothing is impossible with God.
