The Question Of Mary: How Will This Be? Series

The Questions of Christmas (2)

The Question of Mary

How Will This Be?

Scripture Reading: Luke 1:26-38

The biggest surprise of my life

happened in the summer of my sixteenth year

when a tall, lithe, beautiful brunette--

whom I had asked out the summer before

and been refused--

started going out with me,

and eventually became my wife.

The biggest surprise of Kristin Marks’s life was when she met a suave, handsome, smooth-talking man, became engaged, and got married--all in less than eight months time!

The biggest surprise of Henry and Deb Saas’s life was when the lady performing an ultrasound on a very pregnant Deb informed them that there were at least three babies in her womb. Henry quickly told her she had five minutes to change her story.

The biggest surprise of Vic Conner’s life was when his mother remarried a few years ago, and to such a man that Vic says he couldn’t have picked better himself!

And Kay Johnson was quite surprised when, expecting her first child, she learned that not only was her mother pregnant, but so was her father’s new wife!

The biggest surprise of Jon Saas’s life happened one day in Arizona, when his parents got him and his brothers into the van under the pretense of looking for land to buy, and hours later announced that they were all packed and going to Disneyland!

The biggest surprise of Gary Manka’s life may have been when he got the news that a suitable kidney had been found after only three weeks on the transplant list.

For Greg and Pam Beck, the big surprise happened in 1994, when--after receiving a dream promotion in their dream location and the day before closing on their dream house--Greg was tapped by his company to fill an emergency vacancy in the company somewhere else, bringing a rude awakening from all those dreams.

The biggest surprise of Jill Oglesbee’s life was somewhat like Mary’s: she and Mark had been told that they couldn’t have kids, so when Kyla came along. . . and then Traister . . . and then Aidan! . . . they were quite surprised.

Good morning. My name is Bob Hostetler, and this morning at Cobblestone Community Church we continue a four-week series of messages from the Bible, entitled “The Questions of Christmas.” And through the course of those four messages, we’re going to encounter some of the most basic,

most searching,

most revealing

questions that any human being has ever asked.

So, if you would, please turn in your Bible to the Gospel of Luke, the 3rd book of the New Testament

—Matthew, Mark, LUKE—

and to the first chapter of that book.

If you’re reading from one of the

table Bibles today, you’ll find it on page 710 . . .

Once again, that’s Luke, chapter one, where we’re going to meet a young woman

who received perhaps one of the biggest surprises in history,

a surprise that turned her world--and ours- upside down,

and we’re going to discuss her response to that surprise,

which was a question,

a question that has been a part of the Christmas story for two thousand years now . . .

Now, if you worship here regularly, you’ve heard me say this before, but I encourage you to get in the habit of bringing your Bible with you to our Cobblestone celebrations each Sunday,

so you can read

with your own eyes

from your own Bible

what’s being taught up here at the front.

And if you’re here without a Bible of your own this morning, please feel free to use one of the copies we provide for you in the center of each table.

And if you don’t own a Bible of your own, we’d be thrilled if you would take one of ours home with you . . .

So, let’s look together at Luke chapter 1, and our study of God’s Word this morning will begin in verse 26 of that chapter and extend through verse 38. So I invite you to follow along with me in your Bible as I read aloud from mine, beginning at Luke 1:26:

In the sixth month, 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. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 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, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; his kingdom will never end."