Sunday, November 26, 2023 AM

one, as he begins to lay out the deep and rich background of the arrival of Jesus Christ, the

Messiah. You know, I hope that you plan on singing lots of carols this season.

Singing carols is serious business. It begins light, it begins happy, it may be a bit trite as you get into your teenage years.

Again, just sing this stuff again. But, in fact, it's serious business.

It is the response of a faithful subject to the reigning glorious King.

I think it's a wonderful thing to rejoice in the advent, the birth, the nativity, every year that we would stop and reflect and rejoice in the birth of our great

King. Singing carols is serious business, but it's a seriously joyful business.

And it depends upon this announcement, the annunciation of the arrival of God the

Son in human flesh. And when we come to Luke chapter 1, verses 26 through 38, if we have done our homework and done our due diligence, we will have read a lot already about the promise of John the

Baptist. Some really amazing things about how John the

Baptist would be born. And it might bring to mind, why don't we celebrate the birth of John the

Baptist? Roman Catholics do every June 24th. You can celebrate the birth of John the

Baptist. You'll probably have to light a candle, say a prayer, offer a sacrifice, do something weird. Why don't we do that?

Why don't we celebrate the birth of John the Baptist? Well, Luke, in first describing the forerunner and then describing the fulfillment, describing the

Messiah after the prophet, we see a contrast.

We see a contrast. The angel Gabriel came both to Zacharias, the father of John the

Baptist, and to Mary, the mother of Jesus. Gabriel came to them both. He announced a miraculous birth to both.

He gave the name of the child to both. He declared the mission of both.

Both Zacharias and Mary were told not to fear. Both of them, in answer to their questions, received confirming signs to help them with their faith.

But they're not the same. The greatest prophet of all the old covenant is not worthy to untie the sandals of the

Messiah. The differences are clear, and we're going to hear them read for us in a moment.

But remember, Elizabeth was barren. Mary was a virgin. John would be a prophet in the wilderness, out in the middle of nowhere.

Some of you all live there. Nice and quiet. But the

Messiah would be the king ruling on the throne of his father, David.

John the Baptist would be filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ would be conceived by the

Holy Spirit. Contrast between the forerunner and the fulfillment is starkly made so that by moving from the lesser to the greater, we would see how great our

Savior Jesus Christ is and worship him. I invite you to stand with me as I begin to read

Luke chapter 1, beginning in verse 26. This is the word of the

Lord. Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named

Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David.

The virgin's name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, Rejoice, highly favored one.

The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women. But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and considered what manner of greeting this was.

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

Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the highest, and the

Lord will give 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.

And Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I do not know a man? Then the angel answered and said to her,

The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the highest will overshadow you. Therefore also, that holy one who was to be born will be called the

Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren.

For with God, nothing will be impossible. Then Mary said, Behold, the maidservant of the

Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Why celebrate?

Why celebrate Christmas? Well, we're not going to find the answers to that question by paying attention to what remains of American culture.

We're not going to find the answer to that in any kind of cheap tradition or cheap advertisement.

We're not going to find answers to that in some sort of pagan trappings.

But we ought to celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ, the grace of it, the glory of it, the mystery of it, the wonder of it.

We ought to celebrate. We ought to celebrate in a particular way. We ought to worship

God in spirit and in truth. You know, around Easter, on Resurrection Day, we like to say,

He is risen. He is risen indeed. I'm trying to start a new tradition around Christmas.

He is given. He is given indeed. We'll try. We've got five weeks. We'll catch on.

All right. Try again. Try again. He is given. He is given indeed. Amen. Amen. We need to celebrate the nativity, celebrate the birth of Christ.

We just sang a song about Emmanuel, God with us, the quote on the bulletin about God being with us.

Not just God, yes, God, but God with us, for us, in His Son Jesus Christ, there is gospel joy and gospel hope.

Now, let's consider this announcement that Gabriel gives to Mary, and we want to consider some of the things he says to her, the instructions he gives to her, the pronouncements he makes to her, and he tells her to rejoice, verses 26 through 28, to rejoice.

Now, in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named

Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was

Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary, and having come in, the angel said to her, rejoice, highly favored one, the

Lord is with you, blessed are you among women. Now, we're going to walk through that twice, and we're going to look at the details twice.

This is an historical moment in more than one way, historical in fact and historical in importance.

We have the angel Gabriel, the same angel who spoke to Zacharias in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, where she is definitely showing, and everybody knows, that she who was called barren is definitely barren no more.

In that sixth month, the angel comes to Mary. He is sent by God to a city of Galilee named

Nazareth. Now, Galilee was the armpit of the

Jewish civilization, and Nazareth was worse.

Nazareth was the poster child of why Galilee was a terrible place to live in the eyes of the

Jews, the scribes, the Pharisees, everybody who was living close to Jerusalem and basking in the holiness of that place.

Nazareth is very interesting. One ancient document calls it a one -well town.

That's how small that place was. It was a one -well town. How undeveloped, how backwater, how unimpressive.

Another historical document, it was known as trash town, because when the Romans came marching through the area, that one little road, that one little spur that went off the trail towards Nazareth, those who lived there didn't want the

Romans around, because they just pillage and plunder and take, and who wants that? So they threw all kinds of refuse and garbage up and down that road, so when the

Romans looked at it, they thought, no way, we're not going to the local dump. You can hear the cynicism about Nazareth in one of Jesus' own disciples,

Nathanael. When he was told that the Messiah had arrived and he was Jesus from Nazareth, what did

Nathanael say? Can anything good come out of Nazareth? To this place, to this unexpected, backwater, despised location, the angel

Gabriel was sent to a virgin. Now, to those of you who do not know what that means, this is 2023 after all.

This means that Mary had not had any sexual intercourse whatsoever.

She was not married, she was betrothed. She was betrothed. Which means that there was a man named

Joseph who had talked with Mary's father and said, I would like to marry your daughter.

And he had promised to give to her father a dowry of sufficient value to show his commitment to the woman.

And the father, no doubt, was setting aside something to give to Mary that she would take with her into that marriage relationship.

And all was arranged. This betrothal was stronger than being engaged. It was so strong that if you were to break off a betrothal, it required the level of divorce to dissolve that relationship.

That's how secure this relationship was. She's betrothed to a man whose name was

Joseph. And notice Luke mentions that Joseph was of the house of David.

By the way, Mary's also of the house of David. Luke records that as well later on.

The angel comes there and comes in and says, rejoice, highly favored one, the

Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women. What in the world is going on here?

God sends Gabriel into Galilee to Nazareth. Mary was a virgin, betrothed to Joseph of David.

Those are the facts. But these facts are like freight cars of a super heavy duty train.

And every one of those freight cars is carrying tons and tons of Old Testament theological freight.

The promises of God, the promises of God, all being carried along by the story that Luke tells.

Gabriel, a name which means, my God is a warrior, will be very important a little bit later on when

Mary sings her song. We're going to look at the carols of Luke. Mary sings a song.

And others begin singing songs. And we follow through all these carols in the Gospel of Luke.

We're going to see Mary sing a song inspired by a prayer, inspired by a song in which

God is declared a mighty warrior. Gabriel was sent to a dark place to pronounce a promise of great light.

Isaiah chapter 9 verse 1 says, Nevertheless, the gloom will not be upon her who is distressed, as when he first lightly esteemed the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward more heavily oppressed her by the way of the sea beyond the

Jordan in Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.

And verse 6 explains it, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called

Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

That kind of light shining upon Galilee. Not only do we hear about Gabriel and Galilee, but we also hear about Nazareth.

Well, what is Nazareth? What does the word Nazareth mean? It didn't mean trash town.

Nazareth doesn't mean one well town. That was just the nicknames. Nazareth means branch town.

Why is that important? Isaiah 11 verse 1, more Christmas stuff from Isaiah.

There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch, capital B, branch shall grow out of his roots.

And in that day, verse 10 of Isaiah 11, in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, who shall stand as a banner to the people.

For the Gentiles shall seek him, and his resting place shall be glorious, meaning that the branch, notice that he says the branch comes out of Jesse, and the branch is the root of Jesse.

You know, Jesus once upon a time asked a question of the Sadducees, and he quoted

Psalm 110. David writes, the

Lord said to my Lord, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make all of your enemies a footstool for your feet.

Jesus asked the question, how can the Messiah, being the son of David, also be his

Lord? And the Sadducees shut up and never asked him another question. How can it be, and the branch, because, because the

Messiah is God everlasting, before Abraham was, Jesus said, I am.

And he's also born of David in his human nature, so he is both a root and the branch.

And Nazareth is branch town. In Matthew's account, it says that Joseph took

Mary and the child up out of Egypt, took them to Nazareth, thus it would be fulfilled, he shall be called a

Nazarene, branch man, from branch town. Further, not only is it

Gabriel and Galilee and Nazareth, but Mary was a virgin betrothed to Joseph.

Well, Isaiah 7, verse 14, then he said,

Here now, O house of David, is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? Therefore the

Lord himself will give you a sign, behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name

Immanuel. God with us. And he said, the house of David, he's going to be born of the house of David, that's what

Isaiah also says. And Acts chapter 2 and Acts chapter 13, in fact, when we get to Acts chapter 13, you're going to hear

Paul come out and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and say, these are glad tidings.

That sounds very Christmassy, doesn't it? What is the announcement? What is the glad tidings? It's that the

Messiah has been born of the house of David, that he is God in human flesh, that he has come to save.

Glad tidings. And so what does the angel say to her? He starts, an angel shows up, people get scared.

Now it's, if you have in your mind, like some of the paintings and some of the child stories and so on, that some lovely female comes floating in with wings.

This is not in the Bible. Every time an angel shows up, he shows up and he appears to be a man, but obviously he's not, and he's really scary.

It's kind of like Moses coming out from hanging out with God himself and scaring everybody because he's glowing.

When the angel shows up, everybody gets scared. And notice that he comes in, verse 28, and having come in, he just walks in.

He doesn't fly in, he doesn't hover above the house, he just walks in.

And so she's afraid. She is very troubled.

Verse 29, but when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.

Then the angel said to her, do not be afraid. This is the second thing. First he says, rejoice. Now he says, do not be afraid. Do not be afraid,

Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son, and he shall call his name

Jesus. He will be great, and he will be called the son of the highest, and the

Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

So first of all, rejoice. Rejoice in God keeping his promises. Rejoice in God giving us his son just according to what he said.

But also do not be afraid. Mary was afraid. She was disquieted.

She was anxious through and through. She was perplexed. She was perturbed. She is casting her reason across the full scope of her mind, trying to find some kind of solid understanding for what is happening to her in this moment.

And she's so obviously afraid, the angel says, do not be afraid. I think in angel training, this is 101.

First thing you say, look, when you, first thing you say is do not fear. Do not be afraid. The angel comforts

Mary by giving her the word of God, the promises of God, assuring her of the love of God, and it's all about the arrival of the son.

Notice he says, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son.

So it'll be Mary's son that she conceives, but also he will be called the son of the highest.

So she's, so Jesus, Mary's son, but also the son of the most high, the son of God himself.

And also notice God will give him the throne of his father, David. So he's the son of prophetic fulfillment.

Mary your son, name Jesus, Mary your son, the son of God, also the son of David.

The promise is of a son. How scared was

Mary? I don't know. Maybe in this moment, she was as frightened and as Adam and Eve were, having sinned against God, standing naked in their shame before him, about to be cast out from the garden of Eden.

What comfort did God give to Eve? A son, seed.

He declared that there would not be a truce, there would not be peace between the serpent and all of humanity, there would not be a one -world conspiracy.

He said, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed.

You will bruise his heel, but he will bruise your head, crush your head. The promised seed, that's the comfort.

Do not be afraid. There's a son. Do not be afraid. Boy, do we need to hear that.

How often do you catch yourself doom scrolling? Bad news, bad news, bad news.

Oh, that's even worse news. I'll share that one, because that will really cheer up my relative or my friend.

Do not be afraid. Why? There's a son, and his name is

Jesus. His name is Yeshua, his name is

Joshua, his name is the Lord saves. The Lord saves, that's what his name is.

The angel tells Joseph in Matthew's account that he will save his people from their sins. That's where Adam and Eve were.

That's what they need, that's what we need, that's what Mary needs. Here is a savior, a son named

Jesus. He will be great in all of the greatness of what great means, that's him, and he will be called the son of the highest, the son of the most high

God. He will bring God to us and us to God.

The Lord will give him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign forever and ever.

His kingdom will not be shaken, his kingdom will have no end. Look at all the comfort that there is, that there is one who has a kingdom and his power, his authority will not be undone, but will only continue and grow and solidify.

There is a son, there is a promised one who fulfills everything his father wants him to do, and in him we can have our righteousness.

And look, he is a son whose name is Jesus who saves us from our sins. First John says that perfect love casts out fear.

The word for fear there is terror, being terrified of God. We don't have to be terrified of God when we're in the love of God.

And the love of God casts out terror, but what does it cultivate? It cultivates a different type of fear, a reverence and awe of God where we think of him first and think of him most, recognizing that we always live before his face.

Do not be afraid. We think about this son, the son of God, the son of David, the son of promise, the son of man, all these promises from the

Old Testament, from Psalm 2 and Psalm 110, Isaiah chapter 9 and 16,

Jeremiah 31 through 33, Daniel 2 and 7, and many, many others begin to sparkle and echo in our minds as we hear this heavenly announcement to Mary.

Here is a son, one who is greater than Adam, he is the fulfillment of David, he is the embodiment of that kingdom that God sketched in shadow beneath Mount Sinai.

Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. Here is light amidst the darkness. Here is warmth amidst the cold.

Here is kindness amidst the cruelty. And we rejoice. We rejoice in Christ's nativity and know that we do not have to be afraid.

Why? Because God has given us his son. We do not have to live in terror and in fear and in quivering before all of the bad news of our time.

Why? Because God has manifested his love and his grace and his mercy. He has given us his son.

Interesting study. Grab one of your search programs, your Bible app, go look how many times

God says, do not fear. It will encourage you. Do not be afraid.

Do not fear. And then see how many times he points to his son Jesus Christ as the reason why we don't have to fear.

Thirdly, the angel pronounces to Mary that the Holy Spirit will come upon you.

The Holy Spirit will come upon you. Now, after everything that the angel said to Mary, there are some really amazing things that we hear.

We hear about this child being the son of the highest.

We hear that his name is a special name, that of Savior, that of Jesus. We hear that he's going to reign on the throne of his father

David in messianic fulfillment. And we see that there's an everlasting kingdom. Really huge things.

Mary can't get past the first part. Excuse me. Wait. Hold. Stop. Hang on. I know not a man.

Let's solve this first part, Mary says. Now, she knows

Joseph. She's not married to Joseph. She says, this is not going to work.

Mary's confusion is understandable. Now, when Gabriel answers her, what does he say in verse 35?

The angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the highest will overshadow you.

Therefore, also, that holy one who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Still waiting for the particulars,

Gabriel. How does that work again? Do you see that Gabriel's answer does not pressure wash with rationalism away every scrap of mystery?

You see that? The mystery is maintained. How is it that Mary, a virgin, will conceive?

Many a sophisticated idiot, many a credentialed fool, many a self -righteous sinner has looked upon the heavenly testimony of the

Holy Spirit's power to create human life in Mary's womb, and they have turned away, preferring darkness to stunning light.

There are many mysteries. There is the mystery of creation. There is the mystery of marriage, the mystery of the conception of a new human life.

There are the mysteries of time and heaven and the very nature of God himself.

And then there's the mystery of the incarnation, the knot in which all these mysteries are tied.

The mystery of the incarnation is both the supernova of God's manifested glory and the event horizon of all creation's redemption.

Mary would as soon conceive a son on her own as create a universe out of nothing but God.