An Early Christmas Gift Luke 1:26-38
INTRODUCTION
Ever received a Christmas gift early? I do sometimes. From time to time my family in England sends presents. They often arrive early, and I have to confess that sometimes I have opened them before Christmas.
That part of God’s gift we call “eternal life” we have to wait for. Clearly we need to pass from this life before we can enjoy life in the next. But we would be mistaken if we believed we had to wait until then to enjoy the benefits of God’s gift.
God offers his gift of salvation to all people – and it is a gift we can start enjoying right now. You don’t have to wait until you die to enjoy the benefits of God’s gift.
In this account of the angel Gabriel’s visit with Mary, we see that there are at least three aspects of God’s gift that we can enjoy right here, right now.
1. KNOW THEY ARE PRECIOUS TO GOD (vv 26-30)
First of all we see that recipients of God’s gift can know with assurance they are precious to God (OHP)
Greetings you who are highly favored (v28).. Mary, you have found favor with God (v30)
Brigadier Jim Wallace, “God weeps over your rejection of the gift of his Son.” (Advocate and News this week re bolstering Army numbers for SAS response to terrorist attack)
You really matter to God. All people are precious to God.
The angel Gabriel said to Mary,
Greetings you who are highly favored (v28)
And also …
Mary, you have found favor with God (v30)
And we are told that Mary was “greatly troubled” by this greeting. Why would she be greatly troubled?
It may well have been because she didn’t feel particularly favored by God – she may well have felt unworthy of such an honorable greeting. To the world Mary was not worth very much – and she probably believed it! To the world she was an insignificant, impoverished child. And she was a woman in a culture where men ruled supreme! The world said she had little value – good for childbearing and housekeeping – that’s about it.
But in this account Mary reminds us that our worth in God’s eyes doesn’t depend on our age, how much we know about the bible, or on whether or not we are a Christian. Mary reminds us that our value is not dependent upon what we have achieved with our lives – nor is our value dependent upon what’s happened to us in life. The youngest, simplest and most despised - according to this world’s terms - can have a vital faith in God, be loved deeply by him and find their true value in knowing him.
To God every person is acceptable; loved; favored; approved; important; valuable; dignified; distinguished; priceless; significant – you matter to God!
In the Psalms we are reminded that we are “Fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps 139:14). Our value is built-in to who we are not what we have done with our lives.
Remember the prodigal son? The father loved him simply because he was his son, not because he was a success. To the world the son’s life was a complete write off, but he was still precious to the father.
The point is, everyone matters to God (Luke 15)
So part of the early Christmas present is to know you are precious to your heavenly Father.
So what? What does this mean?
Well for a start, being precious to God means that you have worth that is beyond adding up. No matter what you have done with your life – no matter what’s been done to you in your life – you are priceless. God says you have immense value.
The challenge is – do agree with him?
I think you’re wise enough to recognize that there’s a problem if you don’t agree! When we don’t agree with God there’s a problem. You are so, so precious to your heavenly Father – do you agree?
So we’re precious to God – so what else?
Well, other people are precious to him too. How are you contributing to other people’s sense of worth or worthlessness? (Spouse, children, work colleagues, employees). Do you belittle others? Put down’s are funny sometimes, but they are expensive.
Illustration: One of the funniest put downs I heard was on the Drew Carey show. Drew had won the Bat mobile in a contest and he was driving Mimi to work in it. Being the precious Bat mobile Drew didn’t want to thrash it so he was poodling along. Mimi asked him to go faster so she could feel the wind in her face, Drew responded, “Have you ever considered that the wind would like to go around your face?”
Put down’s are funny sometimes, but they are expensive.
Mary was a product of her society, she probably didn’t believe in herself very much – and we are products of our society too. God has to undo all of our cultural baggage to let people know how valuable they are to him – are you getting in the way? Or are you a channel through which God can express his unconditional love to others.
How can we cooperate with God in undoing all the worthlessness people feel about themselves?
The most obvious way seems to me to be that we ought to encourage others. People can accomplish awesome things given some encouragement – when someone else notices your value and comments on it, it motivates us enormously.
Look at the encouragement Mary received from Gabriel, “You who are highly favoured.” And with that encouragement, with a right understanding of her true worth, Mary was able to face the enormous assignment before her – to be mother to the Son of God – to raise him, to stand by him as he accepted his calling and ministered - often under harsh circumstances - and finally to witness her dearly loved Son pay with his life for our sin. With the encouragement she received from Gabriel, Mary was able to face the most heartbreaking scene any parent could face – the cruel torture and death of a child.
Preciousness. It’s an early Christmas gift that you can enjoy right here, right now - today. Preciousness. It means value yourself and value others – God does.
2. LIVE WITH PURPOSE (vv31-33)
Recipients of God’s gift also live with purpose (OHP)
Everyone has asked themselves the question, “Why am I here?” in some form or other. We must have a reason for being here. There must be a purpose for life. And to discover what it is you have two options. The first is speculation.
When I’ve asked people what they think the purpose of life is the most common answer I get is “to be happy and content.”
Interestingly when I have asked why people see this as the purpose in life, the answer I get is usually something like, “Because that’s what I observe in other people’s lives and on TV.”
One person I asked said that the purpose of life is to work! Can you believe that?!
Maybe we should hire him to be Senior Pastor!
The point is, people speculate about the purpose of life – their guessing that it’s happiness and contentment – because that’s what other people and TV tell them.
The second option for discovering our purpose for life is revelation. We can turn to what God says is the purpose of life – and we do that through looking into the Bible.
Here in this passage, Gabriel said to Mary, “You will be with child” (v31). God’s purpose for Mary was to carry the presence of an awesome King - Jesus; the Word, message/gospel.
Let me tell you more about Brigadier Jim Wallace (Advocate). In that same article you will read that he gave up a $140, 000 a year promotion to General, to remain loyal to God’s purpose. He said, “I loved the Army and soldiering but I felt I was being drawn to another cause….For some time I had felt called to the cause of Christian lobbying.” He goes on, “Whenever a teenager overdoses on drugs or a father or mother suicides after a marriage break-up, they become real victims in this war we are in.”
You see what Brigadier Wallace knows and what every other Believer should know, is that our purpose in life is not about us! (OHP)
The bible says,
For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible … everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him (Colossians 1:16 Msg)
Our purpose in life is not about us, it’s about God. We find our purpose in God.
Pastor Rick Warren explains this in his book “The Purpose Driven Life.” He says,
The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. It’s far greater than your family, your career, or even your wildest dreams and ambitions. If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God. You were born by his purpose and for his purpose.
You see, God called you into existence – you didn’t make yourself – so there’s no way you can give yourself a purpose for existence.
If you made a wooden boat, it would be a wooden boat. There’s no way the wooden boat could decide that it would be something else. It might have plans to sail around the world, but it would still be a wooden boat.
You were made by God and for him. You cannot make yourself something else.
Now, Mary probably had plans for her own life. She may well have planned to marry and settle down to a quiet life with 1.46 kids living at the back of Joseph’s carpentry shop in Nazareth. She may have dreamed of walking to the market each day with her “daughter” that she and Joseph planned to have after enjoying five years of married life before starting a family.
You see, what we learn here is that we don’t get to choose the purpose of our life. God gives us our purpose for existence.
God made you, and he made you for his purposes.
God’s purpose for Mary was to carry the presence of an awesome King – Jesus – in her womb. To carry him to Bethlehem, then to Egypt as a refugee, then back to Nazarteh. She then to carried him through to adulthood, and then to his grave. And after he rose from the dead he gave her and every other Believer instructions to carry him to the world.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in n the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:19- 20)
God’s purpose for Mary was to carry Jesus.
And what was true of Mary physically then, is true of all us spiritually today – our purpose for living is to carry Jesus to a needy world.
In the OT the Israelites carried what was known as the “Ark of the Covenant.” It was big ornate, gold covered box – there was only one, and God was present in this “Ark of the covenant.” Wherever the Ark went, there was God’s presence.
And then right here at the beginning of the NT, Mary carried the presence of God literally in her womb, in her unborn Son Jesus (vv39-45).
Now, today God’s purpose for us hasn’t changed. We are to carry the presence of God within us by receiving the Holy Spirit. What a privilege and awesome responsibility.
Now for many of you this is not new. You are familiar with passages like …
1CO 6:19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 1CO 6:20 you were bought at a price.
Yes each individual Believer carries the presence of God. But let me take this point one step further.
EPH 2:22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
As a community of Believers together we carry the presence of God to our generation – as NBBC we don’t get to choose this purpose – it’s given to us.
And so we need to be sure that this is what we are doing both as individuals and as a church – to be engaged otherwise is to be outside the purposes of God.
The challenge for us then – now we know something of God’s purpose – is to submit to it; To hand over our whole lives in order to achieve it; To surrender every decision to it –in order to carry Jesus to our generation.
3. EXPERIENCE GOD’S MIGHTY POWER (vv34-38)
Finally, recipients of God’s gift experience His mighty power (OHP)
The angel said to Mary, “Nothing is impossible with God” (v37). And Mary came to see that this was true through two miraculous births - that of John the Baptist to her ageing and supposedly infertile relative Elizabeth, and through the birth of her own Son - Jesus.
And point here is this, power in the Christian life is not about the quantity of our faith, it’s about the quality.
And look at the quality of Mary’s faith. When told she will have a baby even though she’s a virgin she asks …
“How will this be? (v34)
The answer from God’s messenger …
Nothing is impossible with God” (vv34 and 37)
Mary’s immediate response is one of faith …
LK 1:38 "I am the Lord’s servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her.
You see Mary’s faith was of a good quality. She wasn’t focused on her power to bring this about, or whether or not she deserved such an honour. Her focus was on God, on his purposes, and his power to do what he said he would do.
Later on in history the apostle Paul would express this kind of faith in these words, he said …
I can do everything through him who gives me strength (Philippians 4:13)
Living with power in life is not about how much faith we have – it’s all about who our faith is in – it’s about a relationship.
For us this means two things.
For Believers it means don’t fall into legalism. You see it’s so easy for us to treat faith like a gift of magic – if we just follow this formula we will know God’s power - but this renders faith useless. Power to live the Christian life victoriously comes from a deep and intimate relationship with God – not from a program of bible reading or ritualistic forms of prayer.
We hear it all the time and most Believers are guilty of it. It’s usually put something like, “If only I could get my quiet times more regular I’d be a better Christian.”
Perhaps you’ve fallen back into that. You’re struggling to enjoy your faith at the moment. All I can say is get over it.
This is a poor and shoddy approach to faith – it’s a short cut – a recipe kind of faith (If I do this God will do that) – it’s a works based faith. And a faith that is poor and shoddy and based on our works is powerless.
Let me remind you that God says you are precious – he loves you whether you read the bible every day or not.
Don’t misunderstand me, there is some value in reading the bible and praying everyday in a systematic way (I do it) – but we are mistaken if we believe that this alone will sustain us and give us power in the Christian life.
This is because a part time God = part time power. How can we expect to live with God’s power when we spend just ten minutes in prayer and reflection each day? No, a powerful Christian life is bathed in prayer and practices the presence of God in all of life. Powerful Christian living comes from the art of seeing God in all of life and staying in touch throughout each day. It’s about communing with God. It’s about an intimate relationship.
I’m sure this is revision for many of you. Still it’s good to have a reminder.
We said that living with power in life is not about how much faith we have – it’s all about who our faith is in. For Believers this means avoid legalism (That’s faith in ourselves) – and aim to practice the presence of God in all of life.
But power is also available for those who are yet to believe.
The angel said to Mary, “Nothing is impossible with God” (v37).
Later on Jesus said that not even your salvation is impossible for God to bring about.
Some people once asked Jesus,
"Who then can be saved?" (Luke 18:26b)
And Jesus replied, "What is impossible with men is possible with God" (Luke 18:27)
You see one lesson we learn from this account of Gabriel’s visit to Mary is that nothing in God’s will is impossible for him – and this includes your rescue. God can bring salvation to you whether you feel worthy of it or not.
Remember, you too are immensely precious to your heavenly Father – he does weep over your rejection of him. And through the life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ he has provided a way back to a whole life and a reconciled relationship with him.
CONCLUSION
These are the gifts God holds out to you, not just at Christmas, but every minute of your life.
Every single one of us can know with absolute assurance that we are precious to God (you are important, valuable, priceless, noble); and that we can live with an eternally significant purpose (every one of us can be bearers of God’s presence bringing wisdom and sense in a senseless, aimless world); and we can know God’s power for living in all of life.
