Dec. 11, 2016 Our God Keeps His Word by Pastor Josh Sheldon

Well, the passage from Luke, as you can see in the bulletin, is our text for the preaching this morning.

Luke 1, 5 -38, in the beginning of Luke's Gospel here, it presents us with events that if we think about them for a minute, they are of almost unimaginable significance.

Not just something that happened in some small place that very few people actually knew about, but immense significance, unimaginable importance.

As I said earlier this morning, before we prayed, that the final answer to sin, to redemption, to curing the broken relationship between man and God is taking place.

If I read our Bibles within the framework of redemptive history, if we see this flow of history coming from, let's say back in Genesis 3 -15, after the first sin in the garden, and God's promise there in Genesis 3 -15 of the

Messiah, of the Son of God who would come and do something about it, and that development of that story, of that history, of how

God shows us with ever more detailed revelation, how and when

He's going to bring it about, then what Luke records in the first two and a half chapters of this

Gospel is almost without parallel in terms of its significance, of its importance.

It's the conception of two men. The conception of two men, both by miraculous intervention of God, and these two occupy the interest from Luke 1 -5 all the way to 2 -21.

These two who were conceived, these announcements that this morning we will attend ourselves to.

Of course, I speak of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ, and these two represent the culmination of all

He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old, if we can borrow from Luke 1 -70.

These two, John the Baptist, the forerunner, Jesus Christ, the culmination of all that God has spoken by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old, and that's what this opening of this

Gospel occupies itself with from 1 -5 all the way to 2 -21.

We call this the Advent. We call it the Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not John the

Baptist, though with a small a it's His Advent too, but when we speak Advent we mean

Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It's a name not found in our Bibles, but it's a good and descriptive one, like Trinity.

We don't find the word Trinity in the Bible, but we know that God is one

God in three persons, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and therefore we describe it as Trinity, a good word that reflects the biblical truth.

And here Advent does the same thing, and usually we capitalize the A, which is a good practice.

This refers to the infleshing of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. That's what the

Advent is about. It's more than just His birth that's encompassed in that word.

More than just His birth, it's all the events surrounding it. It's the miraculous conception of His forerunning herald, which is foretold to the priest

Zechariah, and then the even more stunning conception of Jesus Christ Himself, the one the

Baptist was destined to announce. And more than this, more than all that, the

Advent means and shows us and founds us and reinforces us with the truth that God keeps

His word. The Advent means that God's word is true. Your word is forever cast in the heavens, says the psalmist.

God keeps His word. Everything He spoke through the prophets was never in doubt.

Advent properly understood is the record of God's faithfulness. It is a buttress to our faith that we're reminded that God's word, spoken so long ago, comes to conclusion, comes to a culmination, a fulfillment in Luke chapters one and two, and we learn that God's word cannot fail.

God's word will never fail. What does it say later on in the scripture?

For it's impossible for God to lie. And if ever a word is spoken by a prophet,

God's word through a prophet, and that word did not come true, that's a false prophet. And if indeed that word that didn't come true came from God, may it never be the case.

But if that was the case, then God's word could fail. It is impossible though that God's word could fail.

The Advent reassures us of this, the historical fact of the birth of John the

Baptist, and then a few months later, Jesus Christ Himself, in accordance with all that the prophets spoke, tells us that, that we serve, that we worship, that we've put our life, our reliance, our faith, our trust, our hope in a

God who does as He says He will do without exception.

I want to occupy ourselves this morning with these announcements made to the parents of these two. First to the

Levite Zacharias, and then to the betrothed Virgin Mary. And Lord willing, next week we're going to look at the completion of what here is just beginning, meaning the actual births of these two, and then the week after,

Lord willing, we'll see the worship, the adulation, the praise due to God for what

He has here done. So we're underway. The first announcement made to this

Levite is Zachariah, and it happens while he's serving in the temple. Luke, our very careful historian, he gives us quite a bit of detail about this man

Zacharias and his wife. Zachariah was of the division of Abijah.

The Levite families were carefully recorded to ensure that only true descendants of Levi served, and the serving he was doing at that time, lighting the incense, was a huge honor.

His wife Elizabeth was a daughter of Aaron. They knew right where she came from, a direct descendant of Israel's first high priest.

And we know, to read again from Luke, they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the statutes and commandments of the

Lord. Now we need to pause for just a moment and understand this does not mean that they were without sin.

They were not without sin. They need, just like any other sinner, a

Redeemer. And there's only one Redeemer, and that's Jesus Christ, who is the center of attention here in Luke chapter 1 and 2.

But don't overread this when it says that they walked blamelessly in the statutes and commandments of the

Lord. I think if we put it in some kind of our 21st century vernacular, we would say that they were really good at it.

They were consistent. They knew the rules and they followed them better than almost anybody else. But always to say almost.

Followed them really, really well. Don't overread and think that they were sinless or somehow perfect or sanctified or anything like that.

Verse 7 tells us a couple of things about them. Verse 7 tells us that they had no child.

And the reason for this is given to us succinctly and without any medical details. There's no technical reason given to us for this.

It says she was barren. That's all it tells us. Simply that. She was barren.

She couldn't give birth. They had no child after presumably many years of marriage.

Maybe she was unable to conceive. Maybe she was able but simply had not. We just don't know.

So that's one thing. They were without child. And the second thing we learn is that both of them were elderly.

Too old to hope for a child. Now this might make us think back to Abraham and Sarah.

And Abraham and speaking to the Lord when God repeats his promise that he will have a son and that son will carry the promise and that son will have a son who will carry the promise and so forth.

And he says, put it in our vernacular again, he says to God something like, how can this be?

I'm too old for that. And Sarah by the way is almost as old as I am. It should remind us of something like that.

This idea that God is going to miraculously work where from a human perspective something is impossible.

Barrenness. To have no children in the Hebraic mind of the day was thought to be God's judgment.

You can read in the Old Testament about Sarah, about Rachel, about Hannah. Any number of women whose lack of a child caused them incredible distress.

A son for them at that time in that day, a son was really the social security system of the day.

Because it was a son who would take care of the parents when the parents were too old. The couple is pious.

They are known to be faithful to God's law. Their peerage is peerless.

They were to be envied except for this one blight on their otherwise favored life.

No child. And so then we learn Zacharias is chosen by lot to burn incense in the table.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Now I don't want to go into a lot of detail on how they rotated this honor through the different tribes and families within Levi and came up to the man who on a particular day would go and burn the incense.

But the odds against you ever being chosen, you being a Levite, who had often been in the running, were incredibly small.

Now you can look this up yourself. There are many background commentaries that will show you how marvelous this was to be chosen.

I'm not going to burden you with that this morning. Just understand that to have this happen is not like hitting the lottery.

That would be small compared to this. And he has this once in a lifetime honor to represent his family and the whole tribe of Levi and really

Israel as a nation as he goes to offer the incense. And that in and of itself is enough to make this day memorable.

If all Zacharias did was go into the temple, burn the incense as an offering to God, and during that time offer prayers on behalf of the people, the multitude outside who are waiting for him to see what happens.

If all that happened was just that, this day would have been burnt into his memory.

If we did journaling like we did today, he would do this in block letters in indelible ink.

He would put it in a way that he would never lose it and forget that on this day, I served

God by burning the incense. This is his biggest day, likely to be the biggest day of his life.

But it's about to get bigger. It's about to get a lot bigger.

This angel suddenly appears before him and tells him his prayer has been heard. And then this, your wife

Elizabeth will bear you a son. That's interesting. We have to stop and think about this for a moment just so we can follow the narrative flow that Luke is giving us.

You see, Zacharias had not been praying for a son. He and his wife were well beyond that possibility.

Zacharias was so sure that this was impossible that he even questioned the messenger, knowing he was an angel.

He said, how can this be? I'm too old. My wife is too old. He didn't actually believe him.

And that was not the content of his prayer. We can connect it that way.

Grammatically, it seems like your prayer has been answered and the prayer for a son is going to be fulfilled.

That's not it. Your prayer has been heard. Your wife will bear a son. What he was praying for though, what he was actually praying for was

Israel. The whole multitude outside is praying that the incense offering would be pleasing to God and that he would hear and answer the priest's prayers because the priest is there on behalf of them and all the people, all of Israel.

And again, I want to slow down as we go through this narrative. I want us to think for a moment about what

Zacharias was actually doing. He was offering incense. He was offering incense to the

Lord. Incense was an integral, a hugely important facet of temple worship.

You can read of the incense when it was first put together back in the book of Exodus.

And God gives a very specific recipe, a very specific formula for it.

And there's frankincense and there's all these different components. And what he says, it is so important to God that if you should try to imitate it and get caught, you die.

Death penalty for imitating this formula. That's how important incense was.

That's how important it was to God or is to God. That only the Levites would do this because it was their function.

It was they to whom God had delegated this. And the incense itself was in that sense very holy, very important to God.

Why would that be? What's a stick of incense? How important can that be?

Incense in the temple covered the smell of the sacrifices. I can't go on describing that and I've never experienced anything close enough to it to describe what that would be like, but I think it would be fairly unpleasant.

You have animals with their fur, their innards being burned in different ways at different times, different methods, depending on what kind of sacrifice was brought into the temple.

They couldn't have smelled good. And the aroma would cover that.

It would cover that smell. The animals themselves, we'll read this with Noah after the flood waters receded and he offered a burnt offering to God and the smell of it goes up to the

Lord and the Lord smells it and it's a pleasing aroma to him. Incense was a part of that.

Incense brought a sweetness, a pleasing smell to us to cover up the other.

And this makes some sense because if the aroma of the burnt offering, of the sacrifice to God for sin was pleasing to him and accepted, then it makes sense that we would then have a pleasing aroma to us to remind us of God's goodness in accepting what had gone on just the moment before.

It's a pleasing aroma to God. Why is it pleasing to God? This whole idea of this smoke rising to God and going to his very throne is pleasing to God because God is pleased to forgive sinners.

God is pleased when sacrifices are made and by faith people say my sin was on that animal.

We laid our hand on its head vicariously through the high priest who confessed our sin upon that animal.

The animal died in our place. And when that smoke rose up, why was

God pleased? Because it was a smoke that in that sense represented the faith. The faith in God's word that sins were indeed forgiven when the animal died and I understood it died in my place.

That's what this was all about that Zacharias was doing. Understand he didn't just walk in there, light some candles, say a prayer and turn around and tell people he was done.

This is so much more majestic than that. Psalm 141 likens incense to prayer.

Let my prayer be counted as incense before you and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice much the same way

Revelation chapter 5 verse 8 says that the bowls of incense before the throne of God himself are what?

They're the prayers of the saints. This is the context of the angel

Gabriel's announcement that God had heard Zacharias' prayers. This is what

Zacharias was doing when all of a sudden he's a mighty angel. Here's this mighty angel. And I would fear, as I hope you would fear, if an angel actually did appear to one of us.

We've said before they're not cute little cherubs with wings floating around and just acting nice.

They're mighty. They're the ones who stand and rank at the host of heaven.

We're Yahweh Tzevaot, the Lord of hosts, the king of all the universe at the head of his army.

Who's behind him? Rank upon rank upon rank of angels with swords and spears and shields, though they don't need them.

But just for us to picture and understand who they are, that's who Gabriel is. But we should fear if we should ever be praying, open our eyes and there is literally before us an angel.

That is a time to shudder, as did Zacharias. But this is the context when

Gabriel comes to Zacharias. And this is what Zacharias was doing with the incense and praying for the people in the multitude outside, praying that Zacharias would be heard because he's praying for them.

It's all prayer, all offering up to God at this time as he's lighting and burning the incense.

And he says your prayers have been heard, more than just heard. He says your prayers are to be answered.

They're going to be answered. They're praying for Israel's redemption, which most commentators think, and I believe that that's true and correct.

They're praying for the redemption of Israel by the promised Messiah. This is exactly what is now at that very moment being set in motion.

Your prayers have been heard. You're praying for Israel. You're praying for the consolation of Israel, meaning the

Messiah, to come, for Malachi's prophecy to finally come to fruition.

That prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear a son, which is a key component as we all know from the end of the story.

We've read through Luke a few times, haven't we? That's why

Elizabeth is going to have a son. Now you notice she says, the Lord has taken away my reproach, but that's not the purpose of her having

John the Baptist. Not to take away her reproach, but to announce the coming of Jesus Christ, as Elijah said.

And see how the hearing of their prayers is immediately matched to the way God's going to bring it about.

Through a son, born to an elderly couple, barren all their life. You know, there's a period called the 400 years of silence.

We spoke about it several months ago in Sunday school. From Malachi's last word, which Conley read to you a few moments ago, to the

Gospels, to the beginning of the Gospels. That period of about four centuries is called the silent period.

Now if you were in Sunday school when we talked about this, you'll know that God was not at all silent during this period. He just wasn't speaking specifically through prophets, and that word through the prophets being inscripturated at that time.

But not silent. But this is what we call it, the 400 silent years. And here, coming to an end.

Coming to an end. From Malachi's last word to then. And Zacharias is the first to see it.

God is speaking once again to his people. He's about to send his Messiah, but before he sends his

Messiah, he will bring forth the herald promised by the prophet. Malachi chapter 4 verse 5.

Again, was read to you just a few moments ago. And there Gabriel quotes Malachi almost word for word.

The Son to be born to Zacharias and Elizabeth is that prophet. That very prophet.

The one Jesus will later name the greatest of them all. Amongst the prophets there is none greater than John the

Baptist, said Jesus Christ. His name will be John, and John means in its

Hebraic form, God is gracious. He will minister in the spirit of Elijah.

He's going to be like him. He's going to be fiery. He's going to be an ascetic. He's going to dress funny. He's going to eat funny.

What do you have on that animal skin and he wore the leather belt and he ate locusts and honey and that's all he has.

He's going to be very much like Elijah in that spirit, but not just looking like him or acting like him.

He's going to be fiery. He's going to be ascetic. He's going to be fierce and fearless in his denunciations.

He will point the same finger to Roman soldiers as he does to tax collector as he does to kings.

He will be faithful to obey God at every step. John the Baptist. This is the first announcement.

This morning we speak of two announcements. This is the first one. John the Baptist. The beginning of the end of that period of redemptive history.

The beginning of the infleshing of Jesus Christ. The beginning of the final answer to the broken relationship that you have with God.

And I say you have with God, but if you have the Lord Jesus Christ, if he is your savior by faith in him, if you've repented of your sin and gone to him and put your faith, your trust, your hope in him, in Jesus Christ and what he will do some 33 years after the events of Luke chapter 1 and 2, which is of course the cross where he died for your sin, then no, not a broken relationship.

No longer a broken relationship, but a restored one. One where God, because of your faith in Jesus Christ, is pleased to call you his son or his daughter.

Adopted literally into his family. An heir of Christ and all things that are

Christ's are yours because of faith in him. The fracture that we had with God because of our sin now having an answer in the advent.

But this was the first announcement. The second announcement follows very closely and that of course is the young maiden, the virgin

Mary, who's going to be told that she will bear the one that John is going to proclaim.

Now she's not told about John and all that. We know the story there. That's why I said it that way. She's going to bear that one.

So Gabriel goes to Zacharias and says the herald is coming and you're going to bring him about and what you've been praying for, the redemption of Israel, is about to be set in motion.

And then to Mary and says this one who can complete all that, you are going to bear.

I want to read the encounter one more time. The encounter between Mary and Gabriel.

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was

Joseph of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he 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.

And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name

Jesus. Go on a little bit more. He will be great and will be called the son of the

Most High. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and ever.

And of his kingdom there will be no end. And Mary said to the angel, How will this be since I am a virgin?

The angel said to 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 barren. 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. Now I read all that, though I know you just heard it a few moments ago.

So you can see the similarities between this and Zacharias' encounter with the same angel.

Well, obviously the angel Gabriel is the messenger in both cases. This one who stands in the presence of God.

He makes it clear that God, it is God who is acting to fulfill his word. The names for the children are specified to both.

John then Jesus. And we know that in the Bible when you name someone, you are taking ownership.

You're approving your authority, your sovereignty over them. It's like putting a stamp saying this one is mine.

So much so that I have the right and the authority to name them.

You know in the book of Daniel, when Daniel and his friends get their names changed, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, well those were given to them by Nebuchadnezzar.

Why? To prove his authority over them. To prove his ownership, if you will, of them.

It's why God changed Abram to Abraham. It's how

God changed the name Jacob to Israel. So both of them have their names specified.

This one is going to be John. It's Mary. This one must be Jesus. In both cases,

Luke gives us the lineage of them. We know that Zechariah was from the tribe of Levi.

We know that his wife was a descendant of Aaron. We know that Mary was from the line of David.

And in both cases, Zechariah and Mary, both of them had a question about how all this is going to come about.

Now Zechariah doesn't want so much a question as a statement. He says, how can this be because I'm old, my wife is barren?

Really, it's take the question mark away and what he's saying is, this cannot be because I can see the difficulties and they're insurmountable.

But both have a question. This cannot be, how can this be because I'm old?

Mary says, how can this be? I am a virgin. There are also some differences.

Zechariah had quite an audience waiting for him. A multitude praying while he's in burning the incense and praying on their behalf.

Well Mary on the other hand, had none. Did you notice that?

It's just her and Gabriel. The multitude that saw

Zechariah came out, they could attest that he had seen a vision. Mary had only herself and the angel as witnesses to what happened between them.

Strikes me that Mary's message that she heard from Gabriel was so much more brief than what

Zechariah's heard. You've found favor with God, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, call his name

Jesus. And of course from Matthew, who's the only other gospel writer who speaks of the advent, the nativity of the

Lord Jesus Christ, we know that he gets the name Jesus because he shall save his people from their sins. He will be great, he'll be called the son of the most high.

God will give him the throne of David. He will reign over Jacob forever. Of his kingdom there will be no end.

Done. Compare that, it's about half what was told to Zechariah. And her answer is interesting.

She asks how this can be since she is a virgin. We must not let ourselves get bogged down on whether she meant she was a maiden or betrothed or literally a virgin.

In Sunday school this morning I forget, was it the RSV? That in Isaiah 7 says behold the virgin shall be with child.

And they said behold the young maiden shall be with child. And oh that's just such a terrible thing. They said young maiden instead of virgin and it's denying the virgin birth.

No that's not the case. But I don't even want us to get bogged down on that because whatever Isaiah 7 actually said or meant in the original

Hebrew and how that was fulfilled back in Isaiah's day, in Jesus' day,

Mary was a virgin. Literally, physically, in every way, in every sense of that word in our language today means it to be.

We don't have to get bogged down on that ancient text because it means what it said.

However we translate that one word, in any case, under inspiration by the promise of Gabriel speaking directly for God, we have this fact, a cardinal truth of our faith.

And here's where we get it from, of Mary's condition.

Her answer is very interesting. Shows incredible discernment in my opinion.

A more expected response might have been, so when Joseph and I are married, our first born son will be the son of the

Most High. Is there anything else I need to know? That might be what we would say. Okay, I'm going to be married in,

I don't know how long it was from the point when Gabriel came to her that the wedding date was. But wouldn't that be a logical answer?

Sure, it makes perfect sense. I'll be married in a few months and everything will be fine. And we'll name him that and just get on with things.

But that's not what she says. Her response shows that she knew that this child would not be the result of her coming relations with her betrothed

Joseph. By pointing out that she wasn't yet married nor had any relations with men ever, she's showing that she understands that her son would be conceived in a different way.

Something outside the natural course of things was going to take place. Can we simply say a miracle?

That God was going to intervene against the normal course of events, the normal way of things, and that He, God, was going to do it.

Gabriel's answer, very interesting, verse 35, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the

Most High will overshadow you. These are two names for God. And again, as we did with the incense,

I think it does us good to just slow down here and think about this for a moment. Let's ponder this.

The Holy Spirit will come and the power of the Most High will overshadow.

Two names for God. And it's not reading into our text, our Trinitarian theology, to say that each name designates a person of the

Triune God. It's not reading into the text. It's just right there. The Holy Spirit of God is a person of God.

He's a person of God. We call Him the third person of the Trinity. And the

Most High is an often used name for God the Father, the first person of the

Trinity. The Most High, who is that? It's El Elyon.

It is God Most High. It's the name used when Abraham meets

Melchizedek for the first time in Genesis 14. In Psalm 91 .1,

and these are just a few examples. Psalm 91 .1, he who dwells in the shadow of the

Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. One and the same, the

Most High and the Almighty, not speaking of two different gods or a fourth person of the Trinity. These are

God the Father, the Most High, the Almighty. If you read Daniel 7, the

Most High God is throughout that chapter. Stephen uses this name in his great sermon.

In Acts 7 .48, he says, Yet the Most High, El Elyon, he does not dwell in houses made by hands.

In Mark 5 .7, also in Luke 8 .28, Jesus confirmed to be the son of who?

The son of the Most High, El Elyon. It's the name used for God the

Father, and it expresses to us this transcendent majesty, this unknowable power.

Remember some of the comments I made about Psalm 145. His greatness is unsearchable.

We can't get to the bottom of it. His greatness needs to be with much greatness, greatly praised.

He's great, he's great, he's great, he's great. This is what the Most High means.

It evokes for us his transcendent majesty, his power.

It should put in mind for us the sheer awesomeness of his very person.

The Most High will overshadow you. God the

Spirit will come upon you, El Elyon.

The Most High God, the transcendent, unknowable, majestic God will overshadow you.

So what do we have here? We have the Most High, we have the Holy Spirit, the same who hovered over the waters back in Genesis 1, the one who brought order from chaos and life to the world.

He who is the creative energy of God, he is the one who will come upon her, the

Holy Spirit, and he is going to bring life where life ought not yet be. Is this too remarkable for us to believe?

Can we wrap our minds around it, but do we believe that it is he, it is the Holy Spirit of God who brought life to the world where there hadn't been life before he did that?

That it is he who populated the waters with fish, the skies with birds, and the earth with animals?

We can be amazed that God's attention will be drawn to this singular young girl, but let us not be amazed that the bringer of life brings life.

The bringer of life brings life. And that's what Jesus Christ and in his advent, in his life, in his death on the cross is all about just that one thing in a way, life, life from death, from nothingness.

Paul says in Ephesians 2, and you he made alive who were dead in trespass and sins.

Who is you? Who is the one who made us alive? The same

Holy Spirit who will come upon Mary, the same Holy Spirit we have in Genesis 1, the bringer of life, the one who regenerates your soul and gives you faith to believe in Jesus Christ and repent of your sin.

He is the same one who came to Mary, who came to the waters, and if you will repent of your sins and come to him and plead with him for forgiveness and acknowledge that your sins put

Jesus Christ on the cross and there he willingly by his Father's will paid your penalty, he, that same

Holy Spirit will give you life, bring you from your current dead man walking state and give you true life, everlasting life in the

Lord Jesus Christ. Titus 3, 5 tells us it's he, the

Holy Spirit who gave life to our spirits. Ephesians 1, 13 tells us that life, that real life comes when he, the

Holy Spirit, the same one in Luke chapter 1 makes us able to believe.

So to bring life to the virgin's womb, that's remarkable. But to bring life in terms of God is not, because God is life and the

Holy Spirit is he who does just that. The Holy Spirit will come upon her and the

Most High will overshadow her. Why so? Why is it like that?

Is it not enough that the Spirit should miraculously bring life? How is the

Most High involved? If Jesus is to be Son of the Most High, as verse 32 tells us in that same chapter, then he, the

Most High, El Elyon, God the Father, Yahweh, is going to be

Jesus' Father, capital F, Father, which is exactly what

Jesus Christ throughout his lifely ministry called him. He says, you can pray our

Father, but he himself, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, addressed him the same way, as his own

Father. Mary became a child by the creative activity of the

Holy Spirit and by the power, the distinct power of El Elyon, God Most High.

We spent a lot of time there, and I very much encourage you when you read this nativity announcement.

It says the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the Most High will overshadow you.

Don't go by it too quickly. Spend some time and ponder those names of God. Consider which persons of the

Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and here we have Father and Holy Spirit.

Consider that and how they were involved here and what that means to our salvation and the very purpose for which

Jesus Christ came. Another important thing that the advent of Jesus Christ tells us, it was an act of God for which he employed both divine and human means.

We see divine means the Holy Spirit of God and Most High God, El Elyon, acting together in a miraculous way through ordinary human means.

We often read about the messianic fervor of the times back then and how this had something to do with the timing of things, but we have to say no.

Luke, our very careful historian doesn't say anything like that. It's simply this, God determined when all this would come about.

God determined when his so -called silence went in. God is the one who in eternity past, but then spoken through the prophets, decided when

John the Baptist would be conceived and when, more importantly, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, would begin that aspect of his humanity.

He didn't look down. God didn't look down and suddenly decide that this was a good time for his Messiah. Events proceeded according to his will, his sovereignty, his power.

I just want to deal with one more question and then we're going to close for this morning. When did

Mary become pregnant? When did this actually happen?

Gabriel said the Holy Spirit would come and the Most High would overshadow her, but neither gospel has a record that tells us when.

When was Jesus Christ actually conceived? Here's my opinion.

Here's what I think. I think it happened at that very moment. I think it happened when

Gabriel answered her question. His word, which was God's word, was fulfilled right then.

I also think, and this is at best informed speculation, but it comes from much study and it fits well with the text, that when she said, behold,

I am the servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word, that she was at that moment bearing within herself

Jesus Christ, the Son of the Most High. So what does the advent mean?

For one thing, as I've said over and over, it means that God keeps his word, that we serve a true and reliable and faithful God, that every jot and tittle of what he says will come to pass.

Malachi ended his ministry with the prophecy of the Spirit of Elijah coming to herald God's anointed, the

Messiah, and it's always been understood this way. Through all the centuries, that's how

Malachi's final words have been understood by us. Observant Jews still place a glass of wine outside the house during Passover.

Why? Because if Elijah should come back and choose to return to their house first, he'd have a glass of wine to welcome them inside.

And remember as a little boy, as a Jew, going to the Passovers, there'd be an empty seat.

So he came in and the wine, and he felt welcome, he would come in and announce his return by sitting at the seat that we would have there waiting for him.

After Malachi, there was of course the seeming silence of God, and then after 400 years of so -called silence, about 2 ,000 years ago from our time, suddenly

God acted. Gabriel was sent to announce these miraculous pregnancies and to explain their significance.

Faithful Jews like Zechariah, Elizabeth, and Mary, and later in chapter 2 we meet

Simeon and Anna, those who were praying, all faithfully waiting for God to bring about his word.

And here it happens. Now we know that prayers don't force God's hand, but prayers are an essential part of his unfolding will.

So we find Zechariah's praying. Gabriel says he has heard and was going to act, not because of the prayers, but God hears and answers prayers, and somehow moves in concert with prayers, though our prayers don't force

God to do anything. Joshua reminded

Israel as they took possession of the promised land, and now I'm about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things the

Lord your God has promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you. Not one of them has failed.

Several centuries after that Solomon said much the same thing when he dedicated the temple. He said,

Blessed be the Lord who has promised rest to his people Israel according to all that he promised.

Not one word has failed of all his good promise which he spoke by Moses his servant.

The advent, the infleshing of God. Jesus Christ, the second person of the

Trinity, very God of very God, came as God and as man.

The Holy Spirit brings life to the virgin's womb, and the Most High, God the Father, overshadows her and confirms himself as the

Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus. Jesus, he is divine as God is his

Father and his conception was outside of the normal human means. He is human insofar as he came in the form of sinful flesh, born of a woman under the law, tempted as we are, yet without sin, and so the perfect sacrifice of God.

He's the ultimate proof, Jesus is the ultimate proof that God keeps his word to the last detail.

John, the author of the gospel of that name, he speaks of another birth. One that is the promise for which

Jesus came. In John chapter 1 he says, But to all who did receive him, meaning

Jesus Christ, to all who received him who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God which speaks nothing less than your salvation.

Matthew's gospel would add that his very name carries that promise. His name is Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.

The advent is about his conception, his nativity, but his birth is only the beginning. He grew as a man, his life was always in perfect conformance with his father's will, and by this he was, he is, the perfect lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

He died on the cross innocent before men, and more important, innocent before God. Yet God made him to be our sin, so that if you should believe in his name, if you should repent of your sins, sin being the very cause of Jesus Christ's coming, of the advent, if you will but repent and believe that the

Christ of the nativity became the Christ of the cross and that there he bore your sins, you will be saved.

That promise was secure just as was the promise of his advent. Amen? Heavenly Father we thank you for the day that you have given us again.

We thank you Lord for your word which tells us these things and the significance of them.

We thank you Father that you sent your son Jesus to be sin on our behalf, and that you

Father in the might of your power, you El Elyon, use normal humanity to bring about your will in this miraculous way.

Great is the mystery of God and the mystery of godliness, but Father we thank you for these things.

We thank you that we have such a secure and reliable record of the historical fact that your son, the eternal son of God, Jesus Christ, became as we are and dwelt among us.