Responding To A Christmas Miracle

Responding to a Christmas Miracle

Luke 1:26-38

Online Sermon: http://www.mckeesfamily.com/?page_id=3567

It is almost Christmas time again! While I am not a big fan of insane traffic and shopping in overcrowded malls, how I love to visit family and friends and gorge on some of the best cooking one could ever desire! And while expressing love towards one another is part of our obligations to God at Christmas time I can’t help but think that there is more asked of us during this joyous occasion! For instance, when the virgin Mary was told she was about to have a child who would be called the “Son of God” who would fulfill the Messianic prophecies, how did she respond? God asked her to risk her very life and fulfill a role in His kingdom beyond her understanding and yet she had incredible faith and said, “may Your word be fulfilled in me!” Even though Mary was a teenage with a low social status, this “ordinary person” was told she would become the mother of Jesus! The Bible states we are Christ’s ambassadors, royal priests and have been given spiritual gifts to accomplish the divine roles assigned to each one of us! Since we are divinely enabled should we not respond to the babe lying in the manger with more than just enjoying presents and great food? Are we not like Mary being invited to love Jesus by doing great things in His kingdom? What keeps us from serving Jesus this Christmas, is it fear of being ridiculed, fear of not being capable, laziness, or outright disbelief that the Good Shepherd can do anything in and through our very lives? During this sermon, please listen to how Zachariah and Mary responded to the angel Gabriel and ask yourself, how should I respond to Christ’s birth so that I might honor Him rightly on His birthday!

Jesus’s Birth Foretold

“In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy” (26a)

In foretelling the birth of Jesus Christ Luke invites us to go back to the first of the chapter and review the foretelling of the birth of John the Baptist. The story begins stating that in the time of king Herod there was a priest named Zachariah who was married to Elizabeth who was a descendant of Aron (5). Though both were “righteous in God’s sight, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly” (6), like Abraham and Sarah, Elkanah and Hannah they were beyond childbearing years and “faced lifelong disappointment and shame” of not being blessed by God with children. One day when Zachariah’s division was on duty he was chosen by lot to “go into the Holy Place before the presence of God and burn incense during the sacrifice.” This was a once in a lifetime experience but what made it even more miraculous is what happened next. The angel of the Lord Gabriel appeared and told Zechariah to not be afraid for he was “gripped in fear” (12). Gabriel told him that his prayers had been heard and he was going to have a son and who was to be named “John” (13) which means “the Lord has shown favor.” John would be a prophet that would go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, he was to take the Nazarite vow to never take “wine or fermented drink,” and would be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he was born (15)! John would be the promised Elijah of Malachi 4:5-6 who would “turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous – to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Malachi 3:1-2, 17)! While John would later deny that he is actually Elijah in person, Jesus called him Elijah in spirit (Mark 9:12; Matthew 17:12) for he was the messenger Isaiah foretold, a voice calling in the desert, “prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him” (Isaiah 40:3; Mark 1:1-3)! Though Zachariah was a righteous man and was in the Holy Place in the presence of God, due to the old age and closed womb of his wife Elizabeth he doubted the glorious news that Gabriel had just shared with him (18). Christmas is filled with the miraculous! Like Zachariah do you have doubts God is sovereign? Like him are you walking by sight and not faith and if so, will not this destroy your witness and your service to the Lord on His birthday?

“God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. This virgin’s name was Mary” (26b – 27)

Like John the Baptist, God sent the angel Gabriel to announce the birth of Jesus to His soon to be mother, Mary. Even though Luke interweaves both stories so closely together they represent one “narrative of God’s great plan of salvation,” they differ significantly. First, John the Baptist’s birth is foretold in the temple of the Lord while Jesus’ birth is foretold in a “small, backwater town that had a bad reputation (John 1:46). “Nazareth, a shoddy, corrupt halfway stop between the port cities of Tyre and Sidon was overrun with Gentiles and Roman soldiers” and was so insignificant in its day that it was “not even mentioned in the OT, Josephus, rabbinic literature, Mishnah, or the Talmud.” Second, while Zachariah and Elizabeth were married and older, Joseph and Mary were betrothed to be married and significantly younger. To be betrothed meant the “first stage involving the payment of the dowry or bride price had been made,” Mary would still be living with her parents, no sexual intercourse was allowed, and to get out of the arrangement required a certificate of divorce. Since most young women were betrothed between the ages of twelve and fourteen, she was likely a teenager. While Luke does not mention the virgin-birth prophecy of Isaiah 7:14, his use of “virgin” here points to the Messianic virgin birth. And lastly, even though like Elizabeth Mary was likely of the Aaronic descent, Luke tells us that Mary’s husband Joseph is a direct descendant of king David, fulfilling the Messianic prophecy in Isaiah 9:6-7. At this point in the story, it is almost like Luke is inviting the reader to see that God not only chooses the “great” but also the “significant” or “obscure servant” to do great things in His kingdom! Is this not an invitation for each of us to serve knowing that He alone will guarantee the harvest?