Christmas Pt.1

1:09The river winds its way under the earth to this large cavernous room that was glowing blue. And they were trying to figure out the source of the light. So when they got down to the cavern, they looked up on the ceiling and they found that it was covered with thousands of tiny creatures. Take a look at this picture on the screen here. They're known as arachnocampa lumiosa, which sounds like a spell from Harry Potter. But they're these tiny little glowworms, they're only found in New Zealand, and that silk-like thread that they use to trap insects is what glows blue and illuminates the cave. So here's another photo. When you enter the cave, this is what you see. Isn't that incredible?

1:57The Waitomo Glowworm Cave is something truly extraordinary, something that you just can't see every day. And it is a fitting picture of the birth of Christ, which is something that is extraordinary. This extraordinary event by which God brought light into our dark world and hope to our hearts. So let's turn our attention now to verse 26 of Luke chapter 1 as we focus on this extraordinary event of the birth of Christ. You see in verse 26 that God sends the angel Gabriel to this very ordinary place, Nazareth.

2:36Now, Nazareth was a small town in the northern region of Galilee, and most Jews looked down on anyone from Galilee, and certainly anyone from Nazareth, because of the large Gentile influence that was there in the community and in that region. In fact, when Philip told his brother that he had found the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, Nathanael said, Nazareth. Can anything good come out of there? Nobody expected the Savior to come from a place like Nazareth. They expected the Messiah to come from a big, influential city, a place like Jerusalem, someplace that had international renown and acclaim. That's what would make sense in the eyes of the world.

3:20But Jesus didn't go to an extraordinary place, he went to an ordinary place. And not only that, not only was Gabriel sent to this very ordinary place, he was sent to very ordinary people, an ordinary woman named Mary and an ordinary man named Joseph. Joseph was not a member of the royal court. He wasn't a priest. He wasn't a prophet. He wasn't even a religious leader in the community. He was a carpenter, a man of trade.

3:50And Mary, we don't know much about her. She's Joseph's fiancé. She's a woman who's never known a man. And what's remarkable is that after the opening of the Gospels, Mary is only mentioned a few more times in all of Scripture. Joseph is only mentioned implicitly one other time, and it's in mockery. When the crowd is listening to Jesus teach, some of them call out and they say, Isn't this the carpenter's son? So they're barely mentioned after this point.

4:23But, friends, one of the biggest points of the birth of Christ is that God does these extraordinary things. In ordinary places and through ordinary people, like Mary and Joseph. Let's take a look at verse 28. Gabriel came to her and said, Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. So Mary at this point is both frightened and confused. She's greatly troubled because an angel has appeared to her. Every time an angel appears to somebody in Scripture, they're scared to death.

5:05The angel always has to say, don't be afraid. So he appears to her and addresses her, and she's confused because she doesn't understand why God would have come to her. You know, there's a lot of traditions out there where Mary has come to be regarded as an exceptionally holy person, as someone who is equal to Jesus or nearly equal to Jesus in standing, as someone who has special access to God that the rest of us don't have. They've put Mary on a pedestal, with some believing that Mary was chosen because she was fundamentally different than we are, or at least vastly different than the rest of us. But that's not the case. Warren Wearsby points this out in his commentary. Take a look.

5:50Mary certainly never expected to see an angel and receive special favors from heaven. There was nothing unique about her that such things should happen. If she had been different from other Jewish girls, as some theologians claim she was, then she might have said, well, it's about time. I've been expecting you. No, all of this was a surprise to her. Luke records that Gabriel called Mary, O favored one. And that word, favored, is keros. It can be translated grace or favor or kindness.

6:28And if you go all the way back to the beginning of the Bible and you look at God's interactions with Noah, of course, this is a Hebrew word, but God uses the same word, favor, that's translated here in the Greek. And in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it's the same exact word. And so what you find in Genesis chapter 6 is that the whole world is wicked. The thoughts of everyone's heart is only set on evil continually. But then the text notes in Genesis 6:8, but Noah found favor or grace in the eyes of the Lord.

7:01Mary and Noah were not fundamentally different from you and me. They were ordinary people like us, but they were also people who feared God, people who God was pleased to use to accomplish his extraordinary purposes. And so, friends, I want you to think about the fact this morning that God uses ordinary people like Mary and Noah and you and me to accomplish extraordinary things. And the reason that he does that is because when God does extraordinary things through ordinary people like you and me, Me, it's him that gets the glory. If he always chose the most famous, the most talented, the most credentialed, then of course human beings would get the glory.

7:41It would make sense that God uses those types of people, but he continually picks ordinary people so that there's no other explanation other than that an extraordinary God is doing extraordinary things through ordinary people like us. I want you to look again at the angel's declaration. Take a look at what Gabriel says. He says, Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you. The Lord is with you. So God doesn't choose Mary and then leave her to figure out how this whole thing is going to work out on her own. He was with her and he would be with her. In fact, friends, this is the very message of Christmas, isn't it?

8:25Jesus is Emmanuel, he is God with us. The message of Christmas is that Jesus took on flesh to be with us. And after his resurrection, before he ascended into heaven, he told his disciples, and behold, I am with you always, even to the very end of the age. Friends, we have a God who not only bestows undeserved favor on us, but we have a God who promises never to leave us or forsake us, who is with us.

9:00Who will be with us to the very end of the age? And as we saw last week in our message about heaven, who promises to dwell with us for the rest of eternity? That's the good news. Do you believe that? Do you believe not only that God will be with you forever, but that God is with you today in the ordinary mess of life? In your ordinary calling, on an ordinary Sunday or Tuesday or Friday, that God is with you.

9:36See, I think sometimes we don't pray big prayers and we don't attempt big things for God because we don't functionally believe that God is with us. Not just that He will be with us one day, forever, but that He is with us now, today, into here and now. Without God, many things are impossible. But with God, nothing is impossible because He is all-powerful. So, this Christmas season provides an excellent opportunity for us to reevaluate how are you praying?

10:11Are you praying perfunctory prayers because that's what you're supposed to do in the morning when you wake up and read your Bible? Or are you praying big prayers, big prayers for the salvation of your family members, your relatives? Many of you are going to see those people this week or next week. Are you praying big prayers for their salvation? Are you praying big prayers for your children? Are you praying big prayers for your co-workers and classmates, for yourself, that God would use you, an ordinary person, in extraordinary ways? Friends, if we believe that God is with us, then there is no prayer that's too big to pray. It's only our lack of faith that God is actually with us and that He's all-powerful to do whatever He pleases through ordinary people like you and me that keeps us from praying those kinds of prayers.

10:59So Mary found favor with God, and God was with her. And that brings us to Gabriel's message in verse 31, which is the most extraordinary thing that was ever said to any human being ever. Look at verse 31. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

11:41So, after telling her not to be afraid and reminding her that she has found favor with God, Gabriel speaks the most mysterious, incomprehensible, mind-boggling words that have ever been uttered. You're going to conceive and give birth to the Messiah, the Son of God. She is to call his name Jesus, which is the more modern form of the Hebrew name Joshua. It means God will save. And when the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph, Mary's fiancé, in a dream, he told her, You're going to name him Jesus because he is going to save his people from their sins.

12:24This is what Jesus came to do. Sometimes we lose sight of that at Christmastime where it's all about the trees and the decorations and this baby in a manger, but we cannot lose sight of the fact that Jesus came here on a mission. He was born to die, he was born to die and rise again. That's why he came. He came to save us from our sins. And that is said right at the outset of the Gospels, that this is why Mary is going to conceive and bear the Son, so that he can save us.

12:56So you get these three primary truths about Mary's Son from what he speaks to Mary. And the first is that this son is going to be great, and he will be called the Son of the Most High. He's going to be great and be called the Son of the Most High. In other words, he's going to be very different from every other child that's ever been born. So earlier in the same gospel, the angel appears to a man named Zachariah. He's a priest. And he tells him that his wife Elizabeth, although they are Both old and advanced in years, she is going to conceive and bear a son as well, and he is going to be called John. And he said, the angel said to Zachariah, he is going to be great before the Lord, or great in the sight of the Lord.

13:45And that's what you find all throughout the rest of the Gospels. John, in fact, would be great. Jesus himself said that among men born of women, there is no one greater. There would never be anyone greater than John, John the Baptist. But when Gabriel says that Jesus is going to be great, he doesn't say he's going to be great before the Lord, or like great in the sight of men. Because you think about John, great as he was, he was still an ordinary person. And when he was languishing in prison for preaching the truth, he had doubts about whether Jesus really was the Messiah that God had promised. He went through all the same things that we do.

14:29But not Jesus. When Gabriel tells Mary, your son will be great, it is, as commentator R.H. Stein says, an unqualified greatness. There are no words after that, just he will be great. Not great in the eyes of men, not great compared to other people, not great in the sight of the Lord. He will be great. And that's because he's God's Son, the Son of the Most High. You notice it doesn't say a Son of the Most High. Contrary to what some Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons believe, he's not a son of the Most High. He is the son of the Most High. So Mary's son is going to be great, and he'll be called the son of the Most High.

15:14The second thing we learn is that Mary's son is going to sit on David's throne. You may remember back in verse 27 that Joseph was said to have been of the house of David. What that means is that he is a direct descendant of King David. And in 2 Samuel 7, David wants to build a temple for the Lord. He has known that this tabernacle has been used for many, many years to worship God, and he wants to build the Lord a permanent place of worship where his glory and his spirit can dwell, and the people can come and offer sacrifices. He wants to do that for God.

15:56But God tells him no. He says instead, his son Solomon is going to build the temple and not him. But then God adds this. Take a look at 2 Samuel 7 on the screen. When your days are fulfilled, and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

16:30So instead of David building God a house, God says, David, I'm going to build you a house. I'm going to build you a house in a kingdom that's going to last forever. I'm going to establish your throne forever. This is a prophecy about the fact that the Messiah is going to come from David's lion and sit on David's throne. And it reminds us that God always keeps the promises that he makes. Christmastime is a great time to reflect on God's faithfulness, on the fact that whatever he has said in his word, he has always kept his word. And what that means is we can trust whatever he says, no matter what our circumstances seem to suggest, no matter how bad things get in our lives, we can always trust God's promises because he always keeps his word. He always has, and he always will. So Mary's son is going to sit on David's throne.

17:26And then, third and finally, Gabriel says that Mary's son will have a kingdom that never ends. So you think about the greatest kingdoms that we learn about in Scripture and in history: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, all of the greatest kingdoms in both the Bible and in history books that came after these times, all of those great kingdoms came to an end. But Mary's son was. Would reign over a kingdom that has no end. He would always rule, and no one would take it away from him.

18:08And not only that, every human kingdom is imperfect by nature. Even the best ones recorded in Scripture, the best ones recorded in the history books, are still riddled with failures and missed opportunities and disappointments. When we put our hope in human government, and this is such an important message for us Americans to hear on a regular basis, when we put our hope in human government, we will always be disappointed. No human ruler, no human representative, no human president ever sets out to disappoint his or her people or constituents, but it's inevitable. It is inevitable that that's going to happen.

18:53When Jesus returns to reign not only over the house of Israel, but over the whole world, he will never fail. He will never disappoint us. He will never let us down. All of our hopes and expectations will finally be met in him. So just remember, when you see those bumper stickers that say things like, is it 2024 yet? It doesn't ultimately matter. We should vote for godly men and women and put them into office in our country. But they ultimately cannot save us. They ultimately cannot fulfill our hopes and expectations. Instead, our hope has to be. To be in the coming king, whose kingdom and reign will never end, and it will be perfect. Take a look at Isaiah chapter 9. Paints such a beautiful picture.

19:41For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

20:15So Mary's special son would be great because he would be God's son, because he would sit on David's throne in fulfillment of all the prophecies made hundreds of years before he ever showed up, and because his kingdom would never end. He would reign in righteousness forever. But understandably, Mary had some legitimate questions that she hoped that Gabriel would answer. Let's take a look at verse 34. And Mary said to the angel, How will this be, since I am a virgin? And the angel answered her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth, in her old age, has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who is called Baron. For nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her.

21:23Unlike Zachariah, if you go back and read earlier in chapter 1 of Luke, Mary does not seem to doubt what Gabriel says to her, but it doesn't seem possible. So Gabriel explains that a miracle is going to take place. Through the Holy Spirit, Mary is going to conceive a child, and it is this miraculous conception that is going to allow this child to be called holy, the Son of God. Apart from this miraculous conception, Jesus would have been no different than any other human being ever born, because Adam's guilt and his original sin would have been passed down through him right down to Jesus.

22:07But through the power of the Holy Spirit, God would be Jesus' father. Mary would be his mother, assuring that he could be both fully human and fully divine simultaneously. So we often refer to this as the virgin birth, but there was nothing out of the ordinary about Jesus' actual birth. He was born the way babies are born. It's the virgin conception that is the miracle of Christmas and the greatest miracle of all time. Almost every single year, I share this quote from Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology because I don't think I've ever read anything that quite captures the sentiment as well. Take a look again, some of you for the first time, some of you for the 200th time.

22:56It is by far the most amazing miracle of the entire Bible. Far more amazing than the resurrection, and more amazing even than the creation of the universe. The fact that the infinite, omnipotent, eternal Son of God could become man and join himself to a human nature forever, so that the infinite God became one person with finite man, will remain for eternity the most profound miracle and the most profound mystery in all the universe. The incarnation, God taking on flesh to dwell among us, is indeed the greatest miracle and the most profound mystery in all the universe.

23:45And it was essential because apart from it, there could be no atonement for sin. Gabriel told Mary, for nothing will be impossible with God. Many things are impossible for us, and chief among those things is trying to atone for our sin. God's word reveals that our sin has broken our fellowship with God and that we are placed under his righteous wrath because of it. We deserve death and eternal punishment because of our sin. But, friends, there is nothing that we can do to atone for our sins, nothing that we can do to make up for our sin against God and regain our good standing with him.

24:34There is no sacrifice, no animal that can be offered, no money that can be paid, no service that can be rendered, no religious exercise that can be performed that will make up for our sin. And even if there were something that we could offer, something that we could do to make up for our sin, we still wouldn't be righteous before the Lord because we have still failed to obey positively everything that God has commanded us to do in his law.

25:08But this is what Jesus came to do. He came to do both of those things for us, to actively obey God's commands perfectly, every day and in every way, and to passively suffer in our place for our failure to keep God's law on the cross. He took our punishment upon himself, and God credits him. His righteousness to us through faith. Mary believed that God could do the impossible, that an extraordinary God could do extraordinary things through her, an ordinary girl. She believed God and called herself the Lord's servant.

25:49And so, friends, as we enter this final week of the Advent season, I want to ask you: do you believe God? Do you believe that God can do the extraordinary among your friends, your family, your coworkers and classmates in your own life? Do you believe that He can do the extraordinary, including atoning for your sins through the person and work of Jesus Christ? And if so, does our life show that we believe that? Do our prayers show that we believe that? Do our efforts at discipleship and evangelism show that we believe that? Do the sacrifices that we are prepared to make to see God's kingdom expand and grow in our community and across the world, do they show that we believe that God can do extraordinary things through ordinary people like you and me?

26:47If God can take on flesh in order to save us from our sins, then truly, nothing is impossible for Him. Let's pray. Father, sometimes it seems easier to believe that you could take on flesh and dwell among us than it does for us to believe that you can do seemingly impossible things in our lives or in the lives of others. But Lord, if you can add humanity to your divinity, if you can take on flesh and dwell among us, and forever unite yourself to a human body, then there is nothing that you can't do.

28:24Forgive us for being a people who often pray small prayers because we're afraid. That we're afraid that if we pray big prayers, impossible prayers, that we'll just be disappointed. Help us, God, to pray and ask for the humanly impossible, for souls to be saved, for missionaries to be raised up and sent out, for gospel workers to be sustained, for that co-worker or that classmate who seems like the last person in the world that would ever receive Christ and begin living for Him.

29:17For adult children who are estranged, for marriages that seem beyond repair, for family situations that appear hopeless. God, we pray and ask you to do the impossible that you might get the glory by doing extraordinary things through ordinary people like us. Help us to pray big prayers. Help us to attempt great things for you, believing that you can do it and that you will. Thank you, God, for your word. Thank you for Mary and Joseph, who exercised incredible faith and set an example for all of us with their holiness and their trust in you.

30:15In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.