By Faith Mary

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:10

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

00:18

Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

00:25

And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. Our scripture reading for this second midweek of Advent is taken from the

00:34

Gospel of Luke chapter 1 verses 24 through 38, which reads after these days his wife

00:45

Zechariah's wife Elizabeth conceived and for five months she kept herself hidden saying thus the

00:52

Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me to take away my reproach among the people.

00:59

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named

01:05

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

01:12

Virgin's name was Mary and he came to her and said greetings oh favored one the

01:17

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

01:27

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

01:36

Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High and the

01:42

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

01:54

And Mary said to the angel how will this be since I'm a virgin and the angel answered her the

02:02

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

02:10

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 was called barren for nothing will be impossible with God and Mary said behold

02:26

I am the servant of the Lord let it be to me according to your word and the angel departed from her this is the gospel of the

02:35

Lord in the name of Jesus so the angel Gabriel who doesn't make very many appearances last time we saw him what we saw him last week when he appeared in the temple in the temple and proclaimed to Zechariah that well his aged wife will give birth to the one who prepared the way of the

02:58

Lord and that he's to be a Nazarite from his birth and of course Zechariah not exactly believing

03:04

Gabriel well he lost his voice for a little while yes he when

03:09

God speaks even through an angel you might want to pay attention but prior to that we only hear of Gabriel one other time and it was 500 years before this it was when the

03:22

Prophet Daniel was in Babylon and Gabriel appeared to him and so Gabriel announces nothing will be impossible with God now the word impossible it's not a word that appears in Scripture very many times and when it does well we ought to take note let's do a little survey here shall we have

03:44

Scripture a Luke chapter 18 25 through 27 famous passage says this it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle then for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God those who heard it said well then who can be saved who can be saved and Jesus said well what is impossible with man is possible with God it was

04:09

Jesus saying that it's impossible for man to save himself especially if he's rich and that God is the one who has to save us that's exactly what he was saying

04:19

Hebrews 618 says it's impossible for God to lie this is absolutely true when

04:26

God speaks what he says is gonna happen happens Hebrews 10 4 says it's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins well this is most certainly true too and our sacrifice for sins and everybody sacrifice for sins is the

04:42

Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world Jesus Christ the Holy One of God and Hebrews 11 6 says without faith it's impossible to please

04:50

God it doesn't say it's difficult doesn't say it's a wee bit challenging it says no it's absolutely impossible to please

05:01

God hmm impossible it makes about as many appearances as scripture as Gabriel so when it shows up pay attention for tonight let's add to this small list that we we will here we'll we'll we will rely upon science science tells us this very real impossibility it's impossible for a virgin to conceive and give birth see that's not how the birds and the bees work yeah this is exactly what script scripture prophesies in two places in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 the

05:39

Lord cursing the serpent who deceived our first parents says I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed the seed of the woman he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel you see the seed of the woman see

05:59

Jesus is not the seed of a man and a woman he's the seed of a woman and notice here he's a he prophesied in Genesis 3 15 and then

06:11

Isaiah 7 14 1 we're all very familiar with especially during this time of the year behold the

06:16

Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel which means

06:24

God with us and that's a scary thought if you think about it I thought God was separated from us because of our sin and our rebellion against him

06:32

God with us is he coming to kill us God with us it's a little bit of a dis disconcerting thought but see everything in our text tonight well kind of drips with the words of our hymn comfort comfort ye my people tell her that her warfare is over these are words of comfort written to us today from the

06:58

Gospel of Luke and it let me return back to the text after these days Zechariah's wife

07:04

Elizabeth conceived and for five months she kept herself hidden saying thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me and when the

07:14

Lord looked on her what did the Lord do for Elizabeth he took away her reproach from among the people

07:20

God looking on her taking away her reproach God taking away someone's reproach so that rather than experience reviling and hatred and being seen as cursed she is now considered blessed you see that is mercy that is grace that is not judgment that is kindness not hostility that is comfort not terror these are words of comfort see

07:46

Luke has good news to share with us and the text continues in the sixth month six months from what was it

07:54

June no the sixth month from Elizabeth's conception the angel

07:59

Gabriel again was sent from God to a city of Galilee named

08:04

Nazareth Nazareth can anything good come from Nazareth what an impossibility that something good would come from Nazareth so the angel

08:17

Gabriel was sent to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David and the

08:24

Virgin's name was Mary and he came to her and said greetings Oh favored one the

08:30

Lord is with you but she was greatly troubled at the saying and trying to discern what sort of greeting this might be and the angel said to her do not be afraid

08:38

Mary for you have found let me leave the word untranslated here you have found chorus with God you found chorus chorus is the word we translate oftentimes into grace to find

08:56

God's favors to find his grace so here Mary she's found grace not judgment favor not contempt and the angel continues and behold you will conceive in your womb and you will bear a son just like the

09:15

Lord said in the Garden of Eden that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent he you shall bear a son and you shall call his name now this is where the

09:26

Greek is gonna just well let us down just a smidge you see she would have heard the words probably in Hebrew or Aramaic and Jesus's name well the the word

09:39

Jesus is a Greek form of it if you would but the word is the name is

09:44

Yeshua Yeshua this is a compound

09:49

Hebrew word consisting of two elements the first yes sure yeah yeah oh you know the idea here is this is the name of God so the

10:00

Jesus is the beginning portion of his name actually is the very name of God and the last part

10:07

Yasha it means to deliver to save to rescue put it together

10:13

Yahweh saves Yahweh rescues Yahweh delivers see

10:20

God with us is here not to condemn us but God with us is here to save and to deliver us the angel continues he will be great and we'd be called the son of the

10:35

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 of his kingdom there will be no end a king forever one who saves us one who rescues and so Mary said to the angel well how will this be

11:08

I'm a virgin see she's never been with a man and I don't know if you've noticed this there's this theme in all of Scripture of all of these barren wounds that God has filled from Abram's wife

11:25

Sarah who be Sarah I who becomes Sarah she gives birth to Isaac in her old age to well

11:31

Samuel's mother who couldn't give birth I mean all throughout the Old Testament story after story after stories of all these barren wombs that the

11:41

Lord has filled and is there no more barren of a womb than a virgin's womb doesn't get more barren than that it may as well be the

11:51

Sahara Desert of wombs how will this be since I'm a virgin and the angel said to her the

11:57

Holy Spirit will come upon you the power of the Most High will overshadow you therefore the child to be born that will be born will be called holy the

12:07

Son of God and behold your relative Elizabeth in her old age has conceived a son and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren for nothing will be impossible with God and Mary said behold

12:22

I am the servant of the Lord let it be to me according to your word and then the angel departed from her for nothing nothing will be impossible with God you see

12:39

God is up to something he's up to something big so yeah and in order to kind of understand this

12:46

I need to warn you don't get in the way of what God is doing by trying to put yourself into the middle of the story and here's what

12:54

I mean this is not a parable about your life where you too will be visited by Gabriel or maybe even somebody more important like the

13:01

Holy Spirit and then receive a special assignment from God that's not what this is about no this is about us receiving grace us receiving mercy us receiving a

13:17

Savior a Deliverer one who has come to rescue us how can this be for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God Romans 3 23 says but nothing will be impossible for God John chapter 1 starting in verse 9 says the true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world he was in the world and the world was made through him yet the world did not know him he came to his own and his own people did not receive him but to all who did received him who believed in his name he gave the right to become children of God now watch who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but born of God you see the birth of the

14:09

Savior and the Virgin signals God's rescue so that you can be born of God you can be born from above well how can this be those born dead and trespasses and sins are born under the dominion of darkness and born slaves to sin death in the devil but see nothing will be impossible for God and this is the same motif the same theme we see and that very famous passage in John chapter 3 the

14:40

Nick at night passage where Nicodemus comes and says teacher we know that you are come you have come from God and listen to Jesus's words amen amen

14:49

I say to you unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God Nicodemus said to him how can a man be born when he is old can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born

15:04

Jesus answered amen amen I say to you unless one is born of water and the

15:10

Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God that which is born of the flesh is flesh that which is born of the

15:15

Spirit is spirit do not marvel that I've said to you you must be born from above the wind blows where it wishes and you hear it sound but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes so it is with everyone who is born of the

15:30

Spirit Nicodemus said to him how can these things be Wow all this birth stuff you see the birth of the

15:43

Virgin signals the God God is going to be giving birth to children through Christ how can these things be

15:55

Jesus answered him are you the teacher of Israel and yet you don't understand these things amen amen

16:01

I say to you we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen but you do not receive our testimony if I have told you earthly things and you do not believe how can you believe if I tell you of heavenly things no one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven the

16:17

Son of Man and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so must the

16:22

Son of Man be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him whoever believes in him is not condemned whoever believes in him is born of God born from above and all of this calls for faith you see the same faith that Mary had by faith

17:11

Mary though her womb was barren because she was a virgin and had not known a man she gave birth to your

17:20

Savior so that you can be born from above born from God and all of this calls for us to unite our voices with hers and say behold

17:34

I am the servant of the Lord be it be it to me according to your word these are the words that comfort us

17:46

God has sent his son Yahweh saves

17:52

Yahweh delivers we are rescued in the name of Jesus if you would like to support the teaching ministry of Cunzinger Lutheran Church you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Cunzinger Lutheran Church 15950 470th

18:19

Avenue Northwest Oslo Minnesota 56744 and again that addresses

18:26

Cunzinger Lutheran Church 15950 470th