[Machine transcription]
In the name of Jesus, amen.
Dear Saints, rejoice, Emmanuel will come to you.
We rejoice particularly this morning in hearing the sermon that the angel preaches to Mary.
Gabriel sent from heaven to reveal to Mary what was going to happen to her and what it
meant.
In fact, this sermon that Gabriel preaches to Mary is quite stunning in its theological
detail.
Let’s maybe get after it this way, I heard the song this week, I don’t know if it was
on the radio, there’s always a battle to, you know, to keep the Christmas music off
of the radio, and so Carrie now has a trick and says, it’s not Christmas music, it’s Advent
music.
That’s her trick.
So the Christmas music was on the radio, I think, and the song was, Mary, Did You Know?
Remember that song?
And it’s this question, asking Mary, do you know all of these things about your child?
Now, I just want to answer those questions from the sermon that Gabriel preaches to Mary.
Mary, did you know that your baby boy was the Lord of all creation?
Yep.
That’s what the angel said, the Son of the Most High.
Did you know that your baby boy would one day rule the nations?
Yeah, I knew that too.
In fact, that he would sit on the throne and rule the nations and that his kingdom would be forever.
Remember, did you know that your baby boy was heaven’s perfect lamb?
Yep, I heard about that too.
The sleeping child you’re holding is the great I Am?
I knew that also.
Mary, did you know that your baby boy would one day walk on water?
That’s a new one.
The angel didn’t mention that.
But Mary, did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters?
In fact, that yes, he would be the redeemer of the whole world.
world. Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new? Yes, because not only
is Jesus promised, but the grace that he delivers is promised as well. This child that you delivered
will soon deliver you, yes, that too. Mary, did you know that your baby boy would give
sight to a blind man? Maybe. Depends on if she connected the dots between the promises
in Isaiah 40 and Isaiah 60, probably she did. Mary was quite a theologian. Mary, did you
know that your baby boy would calm the storm with his hand? That also is new information.
But did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod, that when you kiss this
little baby, you kiss the face of God? In fact, Mary did know these things. Mary did ponder
these things in her heart. Mary did receive this all in the preaching of the angel Gabriel.
Listen to the seven things that Gabriel says about Jesus. Verse 31,
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and give birth to a son,
and two, you shall call his name Jesus, which means the Lord saves us,
three, he will be great, magnified, worshiped, and four, he will be called the son
of the Most High. Five, the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David.
That’s what we heard about in the second Samuel 7 passage in Psalm 85. The Lord
will give to him the throne of his father David. And six, he will reign over
the house of Jacob forever. And even more, seven, there will be no end to his
kingdom. Now that’s quite stunning. I mean imagine, it was probably enough for
for Mary to learn that day that she was going to have a child without the help of a man,
that already is stunning enough.
But that this child would be God in the flesh, the Son of the Most High, the one who would
fulfill all the promises of the Old Testament, the one that the people had been longing and
waiting for, that all of humanity had been praying for since the Lord announced in the
Garden of Eden that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, that
this one is now going to be born. Jesus, the Christ, God in our flesh, to save us and to
redeem us. It’s really quite stunning. This is the first great mystery of the Christian
faith, the doctrine of the Incarnation, that God Most High takes upon Himself our humanity,
our flesh and blood. And He does this for the purpose of redeeming us. This is the mystery
that is being discussed in Hebrews chapter 10. We’ll talk about it more later this week,
but this is the mystery that is brought forth there where the Lord is quoting the Psalms
and He says, “…offerings you did not desire, but you have prepared a body for Me.” In other
words, all the blood of bulls and goats sacrificed on Old Testament altars were not enough.
There was needed a sacrifice greater, holier, more wonderful, and that sacrifice is the
body and blood of Jesus.
Jesus is laid then in the manger so that he can be nailed to the cross.
He’s placed there in the hay so that He can be placed in the tomb.
He’s given a body and given our own flesh and blood so that He would have something
to pour out for the price of our redemption, for our salvation, so that His birth is connected
directly to His death and to His resurrection.
This one born is Jesus, which means the Lord saves.
And this is why the preaching of the angel to Mary can also be applied to us.
Now, not that we are all going to conceive children, that’s not the application.
And we have to be especially careful.
You know, when we read the Bible, one of the things that we have to look out for
is that we don’t take what’s not for us and apply it to us.
Like, uh, we don’t want to, for example, we hear the Lord telling Moses to hold up his
rod so that the, uh, so that the water won’t fall on the people crossing the Red Sea.
And that doesn’t mean that we, you know, go and hold up a rod while we watch, like, the
UT football game, hoping that they’re going to win, you know.
That command to hold up the rod was given to Moses and not to you.
So we have to be careful for that.
And the same is true in this text.
We have to be careful that we don’t take what is not meant for us and apply it to us.
But because of what Jesus has done, the comfort of the message of Gabriel can be brought to
us.
Listen to what Gabriel says, and this is maybe a little, I’m going to give you a little
bit more literal translation than is what’s there in the ESV that we have in our bulletin.
Having come in, the angel said to her,
Rejoice, you are a highly favored one.
The Lord is with you.
You are blessed.
And then later, verse 30,
Don’t be afraid.
You have found favor with God.
Well, I think in those five things that the angel says to Mary, we will find comfort.
Now, I don’t know how you’re feeling, I don’t know how this Christmas is sneaking
up on you, if you’re happy and full of joy, or if you’re sad, or if you’re mourning,
or if you’re afraid.
I was reading this great little text from Martin Luther this week on his introduction
the Psalms and he said that the human heart is like a boat out to sea and it’s blown by four
different winds, sometimes by joy and hope and sometimes by sorrow and fear. And it seems like
the winds of sorrow and the winds of fear especially have been blowing hard this year.
So we find ourselves in this situation as Christmas comes along, but listen to what
the angel says, to those who are tempted to sorrow, who are feeling sorrow over your own
condition and over the condition of others, you who are mourning, whatever loss it is,
the angel comes and says, rejoice.
The one born is born for you.
Or, or we might feel like we’re despised by God or forgotten by God. I don’t know
how many times that’s come up lately. Someone mentions a pastor, it just seems
like the Lord isn’t hearing my prayers and it seems like the Lord has forgotten,
like I’m on the bottom of his to-do list. But listen to what the angel says, you
You are highly favored by the Lord.
Or for those who feel like we’re abandoned by God, like God has just turned His back
on us altogether, like He’s forsaken us, listen to what the angel says to you, the Lord
is with you.
In fact, that’s the second name given to Jesus by the angels, Immanuel, God with us.
Or for those who are tempted to be afraid, and how easy it is to be tempted towards fear.
Fear of getting sick, fear of dying, fear of losing a job, fear of whatever, there’s
a lot of reasons for fear.
Listen to what the angel says directly, do not fear.
Why?
You have found favor with God.
For those who worry, and this is perhaps the worst danger of all, for us who think that
we have not lived up to God’s standard, or maybe we should say it like this, for those
of us who know that we have not lived up to the standard of God, who are worried that
to face God on judgment day means to be condemned, the angel says, you have found grace with
God. I think the word in the text is favor. It’s better to say grace. You have found grace
with God, undeserved, unearned, as you can’t pay it back, you have found the
smile of God because of what Christ has done. So in the midst of all
these troubles, the angel comes and he preaches, and we rejoice because the
one that was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary and was born on Christmas
Day, the one who was 33 some-odd years later nailed to the cross and laid in
the tomb, was all of these things, make no mistake, He was all of these things for
you. He is your Jesus, your Savior, your hope in the midst of despair, your joy in
the midst of sorrow, your confidence to stand before God in the midst of despair and doubt.
He is all of these things for you.
God be praised.
Rejoice, you highly favored ones.
The Lord is with you.
Do not be afraid.
Amen.
Amen.
And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds through Jesus
Christ our Lord.
Amen.
