Luke 1 December 15, 2002
Nothing is impossible with God. – Luke 1:37
Back, at least 8 years ago Mitchell’s (the Christian bookstore) had a huge sale. They called it their garage sale. They brought out all the damaged books, the books that had been gathering dust in their warehouse, and they sold them at greatly reduced prices. I called a good friend and we made the trek from the West end to their store in the east end. It was a great drive, we told stories, joked with each other, ribbed each other and laughed a lot. When we got to Mitchell’s we met up with another good friend by chance and we started to sift through the books – looking for the gems amongst the rubble. Again we laughed a lot – it is amazing the number of inane books that Christians published – we were constantly howling at the various titles. “84 reasons why Jesus is returning in 1984.” I did find some gems though and the pile of books I was carrying grew higher and higher. When I wasn’t looking my buddy slipped a book on top of my pile as a joke. I did notice the book before I got to the check out, and I quietly slipped it back into the bins. The title: “The Infertile Christian” – typical guy humor. I knew we were going to have a conversation on the way home.
We bought our cheep books, got into the car and started driving, and I said, “You know that book you slipped on to my pile – it probably wasn’t the best choice for humor.” I went on to explain that Pam and I had be trying to have a baby for the better part of a year, and we weren’t successful. Both of us had been to the doctors, and we were talking about what some options might be – we were actually scared that our hopes for children might not be realized. My friend was all apologetic and truly sorry for the joke, and then I told him the worse news – the other friend, they had been trying to have kids since they were married, they had tried every fertility drug, and treatment, they had been tested and examined, and the doctors had no idea why, but they just could not conceive children. They had finally given up hope, and it caused them great pain. My friend was kicking himself really hard now.
Infertile – it’s a harsh word – but not near as harsh as “barren” verse 7 – Elizabeth was barren – the word itself comes with images of desert plains with cracked, sun-scorched soil, or windswept tundra where nothing even thinks of growing. It’s a simple, throwaway phrase – Elizabeth was barren.
You can imagine Elizabeth and Zechariah on their wedding day both so pleased with each other – They would have been considered doubly blessed: Elizabeth has come from the family of a priest, and she is marrying a priest. Zechariah is not just a priest, but, a man of God with a reputation for goodness and grace. Zechariah marrying this beautiful young woman who had a passion for serving God and following him forever. You can imagine the dreams of a houseful of children, of raising the boys to be priests in the footsteps of their father and grandfather, of teaching the simple things to get them through life, of teaching them to pray, telling them the amazing stories of the great works of God. And then months go by, and more months where they is nothing – the family begins to hint jokingly about the need for grand kids, then the jokes start to be more biting than funny. Elizabeth has to endure discussions of the birds and bees from her female relatives, and then from women she hardly knows. Zechariah begins to worry, he begins to wonder why, and he begins to pray, even beg God for a child – just one child. Someone that can share their love, and carry their name.
Although they are “upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly, people in the town start to wonder if there may be some deep dark secret that Zechariah and Elizabeth are not telling them – some sin that was so bad that God would remove his blessing from them and not give them children. The women of the town start to distance themselves from Elizabeth, knowing that something must be wrong. She becomes known, not as Elizabeth, but as “the barren one.”
Zechariah go through their whole life together without a child, and now Elizabeth is past the age of child birth even for a healthy woman – if they had not given up hope before, surely they had now.
In those days there were so many descendants of Aaron, the original priest, that if you were a priest, you only went to the temple to serve for two weeks out of the year. The rest of the year you stayed in your hometown and practiced a trade just like everyone else.
Zechariah has gone to Jerusalem to serve in one of his two weeks of the year, and finally the lot falls to him to offer incense! Zechariah is an old priest, and he had never been chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary and offer incense. Some died without ever being chosen for this great honor - he must have begun to wonder if he would die before he was chosen. – thinking that something must be wrong with him, to have no children, and to never had been chosen to offer incense.
The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD. Pr. 16:33 - it is lucky he didn’t have a heart attack out of excitement.
Normally, the chosen priest would enter the sanctuary with a few others to prepare for the offering and then they would all leave him to offer the incense alone.
At the signal of the priest in charge, the priest would light the incense, and when the people in the temple courts saw the smoke rising up they would fall on their faces and pray silently.
The silence would be broken by the priest who had offered the incense coming out and blessing them with the priestly blessing. The priest would leave the sanctuary fairly quickly - it was a great honor to enter the presence of God, but you didn’t want to stay there too long in case your where struck dead for presumption.
So you can imagine how the crowd would have been wondering where Zechariah was while they were prostrate on their faces for much longer than they were used to. - The reverent silence would have turned into a very uneasy silence as each person was wondering what happened - "did the old guy keel over in there?, isn’t some one going to do something?"
Meanwhile as we already know, Zechariah was talking with an angel.
Zechariah is startled and afraid - this huge being in blazing white clothes shows up when he is supposed to be alone doing the greatest task of his life - good thing God blessed him with a strong heart!
13But the angel said to him: "Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. 14He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth.[2] 16Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. 17And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous--to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
"You are going to have a son!" - not just any son, but a great prophet - as great as Elijah: the greatest prophet - filled from before birth with the Holy Spirit - the one to prepare the way for the Lord!
He is the one to be "a voice of one calling in the desert, `Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him."
This is too much for old Zechariah, and while he is a good and Godly man, he is not perfect, and he cannot believe this amazing word. 18Zechariah asked the angel, "How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years."
Gabriel is not pleased: "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news! - As a sign, and a rebuke makes him mute until John’s birth.
Zechariah finally comes out of the sanctuary but is still not able to break the silence with the blessing
The people figure out from his gesturing that he has had a vision.
He goes home, and Elizabeth becomes pregnant. - she hides herself for 5 months - For visual impact?
You can imagine the old gossip’s jaw drop to the floor when old barren Elizabeth comes to the well five months pregnant!
I can imagine Elizabeth walking up to the one woman who took most pleasure in calling her barren, and who had the most opinions about why she was barren: "The Lord has done this for me," she said. "In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people." (Luke 1:25)
Elizabeth’s miraculous pregnancy took away her shame, Mary’s brought her shame.
The Birth of Jesus Foretold
26In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."
29Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32He 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, 33and 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?"
35The 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[3] the Son of God. 36Even 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. 37For nothing is impossible with God."
“Nothing is impossible with God”
It is not impossible for him to give a child to a woman who had been called dried up by everyone in her village.
It is not impossible for God to give a child to a virgin without the help of a man.
What is impossible in your life?
What is the thing that is hopeless?
A child? A broken relationship? A loved one who is far from God? A decent Christmas? A healed body?
What is impossible in your life?
“Nothing is impossible with God”
I’d like you to take the piece of paper in your bulletin, and on the side that says “Nothing is impossible, I want you to write your impossible prayer request.
Our Response – Mary’s Response
Inbetween 37 & 38 Mary’s head must have been spinning
The Angel’s message: You are going to have a baby!
Great news if you are married and want to be having children, but not such good news if you are only engaged, and still a virgin.
- to have a baby meant having sex - meant adultery - at least grounds for divorce, at most punishable by death - woman caught in adultery in John 8
Joseph was going to divorce her - Matthew 1:19 "Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly."
this news could ruin her life, if not end it. – the culture she was in was not that different from Pakistan today where “honor killings” are on the rise – where the families kill their own daughters for having even a conversation with a man and thus dishonoring the family
- she would be divorced in disgrace, no man in his right mind would want to marry her
She offers herself to be used.
She doesn’t say "no way! – do you think you’re going to ruin my life, and my wedding day?"
She is going to be the mother of the Messiah - the one they have waited so long for! The one who will bring salvation to all people - she is truly blessed.
The fact that she will give birth to the Messiah doesn’t mean that here life will be any less dangerous, it does not mean that Joseph will automatically still marry her, it definitely doesn’t mean that the town gossipers will not be yabbering away when her tummy starts to grow before it should.
Her response: "I am God’s servant, what you said is ok with me."
But it still amazes me that she agrees to go along.
This pregnancy will still bring her disgrace, and yet she still chooses to go through with it because she is God’s servant.
Sometimes God asks us to do things that will bring disgrace to us. He will not likely ask you to be a pregnant virgin,
If you haven’t given your life to Jesus, If you haven’t asked God to forgive you because of Jesus yet, God may be asking you today to accept the Son of God just as he asked Mary!
he may ask you to befriend an outcast at work, school, or neighbourhood
He might ask you to turn the other cheek in a disagreement, and thus loose face rather than save it.
He may call you to be a peacemaker in a situation where you know a peacemaker is going to be shot.
He might ask you to stand up for his right way when everyone around you thinks it is the wrong way. Some Christian beliefs are not all that politically correct anymore, and we might have to take a little disgrace because of that.
All these things may cause us some disgrace. But we may be called into suffering some disgrace for God’s sake.
What I want you to do is to ask yourself “What is God calling me to that is difficult – I want you to write that on the side of the insert that says “"I am the Lord’s servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said."
Take the sheet home with you – maybe you can’t fill it out today, but fill it out soon, put it in your Bible or devotional guide and pray through these two things over the Christmas season.
Tell us if they are answered.
