* Visited by an Angel

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. All right, let's turn in our Bibles to the gospel of Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1 and the title of this morning's message is Favor with God.

Do you want to have favor with God or do you have favor with God? So this passage, a well-known section around Christmas time, it's often read. This is known Luke 1, 26 through 38. This is known as the Annunciation.

This is where the angel Gabriel announces to the Virgin Mary that she is going to bring forth a child who will be called the son of God. But the thing that we're going to look at this morning is the statement in verse 30 where the angel tells her you have found favor with God.

Before we begin, let's open in a word of prayer. Lord God, I thank you for this assembly. I thank you for each one who has come out. Those who will watch or listen later on. Lord, I believe that your spirit is drawing many people near to you.

And I know that those listening, we want this favor with you. Lord, show us how to do that. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Let's read Luke chapter 1, verses 26 through 38. Luke writes, 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. And 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. 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 bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus. And he will be great and 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 will be no end. Then Mary said to the angel, how can this be since I do not know a man? And 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. Now, indeed, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age. And this is now the sixth month for her who is called barren.

For with God, nothing will be impossible. Then Mary said, behold, the maid servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. And may God add a blessing to the reading of his word.

So I think the first thing that needs to be said here, as far as Mary having God's favor, the favor Mary had with God was unique. I think that's a safe thing to say. Believers can find favor with God.

And we do want to have this favor with God. We'll get into that in a moment. But Mary was a chosen vessel. Mary was very unique. She was chosen of all the women. She was chosen to give birth to the Christ child.

The scripture doesn't tell us why she was chosen for this honor. It doesn't say it was based on her own devotion and personal piety. Although one might assume that she was the godliest woman on earth.

I tend to think that she probably was. But the scripture doesn't say that. There were other factors. In order to give birth to the Christ, you had to be Jewish. So the woman had to be Jewish. She had to be directly from the tribe of Judah.

And she had to be of the line and lineage of King David. So it couldn't just happen to anyone. But she did fit those qualifications. But at the end of the day, why Mary was chosen for this honor, the scripture doesn't explicitly tell us.

But we do know that Mary had favor with God. Matter of fact, it says she is highly favored. So we don't know all the details about this. We do see a few things. Look at verse 27. In verse 27, it says she was what?

A virgin.

So we know that Mary kept herself pure for marriage. Verse 28, she is not just favored. As I said, she is highly favored. She is blessed among women. What does that mean? Basically, she is the happiest of all women.

Since this would have been the dream of any Jewish woman to give birth to the Christ. Now when Mary sees the angel Gabriel, what's her reaction? She said, I've been waiting for you. I knew you would come and tell me that I was given this honor.

No, that wasn't her reaction. She's afraid. She's terrified. If you were visited by an angel at night, you would be terrified too. I assure you. Presumably she's never been visited by an angel before.

So this would cause any person to fear or stand in awe. She doesn't know why he's there. Notice, because she's not prideful, she doesn't just assume he's there to bestow upon her this great privilege.

Mary is humble. So this is another thing we see in order to have favor with God, we should be humble. Angels can be the bearers of good news and bad news. So she doesn't really know why he's there. So who is this angel?

His name is what?

Gabriel.

Right.

Back in verse nine, he identifies himself as Gabriel, the one who stands in the presence of God. So he visits Mary. She's afraid. And he sets her at ease by saying, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

So there's only two holy angels mentioned in scripture. One of them is Michael. He's more of the warrior angel. The other holy angel that's mentioned in the Bible is Gabriel. He is more of God's messenger.

And he gives her this message that she will give birth to a son. He even gives her the name and the name is Jesus. And of course the name Jesus means Jehovah is salvation or Jehovah saves. This is one of the great teachings or one of the great doctrines of Christmas, the incarnation.

Do you realize that Jesus is Jehovah in human flesh? God became a man. Now, in order for that to be true, we get into the second great doctrine of Christmas, the virgin birth. In order for Jesus to be God incarnate, he couldn't be Joseph's son.

Otherwise, he'd be the son of Joseph. In order to be the son of God, he had to be born of a virgin. And of course, Mary at this time is a virgin. So this is a miraculous birth. And then the angel tells Mary that another type of miraculous birth was going to occur.

Her cousin or her relative Elizabeth is already pregnant six months along. Go back to verse 37. Or go ahead to verse 37. So with Mary, the virgin birth with Elizabeth who is barren, she's an old woman.

She's going to give birth miraculously in a sense. How is this possible? Verse 37, for with God, what? Nothing shall be impossible. And then in verse 38, Mary says, behold, the maid servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word.

And the angel departed from her. In other words, Mary's response is one of full faith and assurance in what the angel said. She says, basically, I am the Lord's. Behold, referring to herself, the maid servant of the Lord.

God can do with me whatever he wishes. So Mary, make a note of this. She had zero doubt. This incredible message, she had zero doubt that it was true. She believed the angel's word because the angel's words were what?

They were the words of God. The angel is just the messenger. Okay, so remember, Gabriel is God's messenger. So if you take notes, write this down. These are sort of the three main points. Number one, in order to have favor with God, this is what we've learned.

In order to have favor with God, like Mary, she believed, right? So number one, we must have faith. If you want favor with God, you must have faith in God. And without faith, the scripture says what? That no one can please God.

Hebrews 1 verse 6, without faith, it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. So in order to have God's favor, number one, you need what?

Faith.

You need faith in God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And what we just read in Hebrews 1 verse 6, he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. So number two, in order to have favor with God, and I would argue this is part of having faith.

It's more than just an intellectual belief in your mind that God is there. And yes, Jesus is his son. In order to have God's favor, we must diligently seek him. We need to make God a priority. We need to set our heart upon him.

So Mary is going to have a child, and her relative Elizabeth and her husband Zacharias, they are also going to bring forth a child, and that child will grow up to be who? John the Baptist. This story about Zacharias and Elizabeth is sort of reminiscent of an Old Testament story, between two people.

Think of an older woman, well past childbearing age, who all of a sudden finds out, get this message that she's going to have a child. Who is that?

Sarah, right?

There's Abraham and Sarah. So this should remind you of Abraham and Sarah. That's significant, I think. We'll see that in a moment. Look at Luke 1 verse 6. It says that Zacharias and Elizabeth were what?

This will be our third point. They were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless. You say, well, that's a pretty high bar to reach. Right, right, it is.

So this is the third thing we see. Those who have favor with God, number one, have faith. Number two, diligently seek the Lord. And number three, at least with Zacharias and Elizabeth, they kept God's commandments.

Now, before you get too discouraged and think, well, I'm having a hard time keeping all of God's commandments, blame us. We also know that the scripture says that all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God.

So don't understand this to mean that Zacharias and Elizabeth were perfect or without sin because that wasn't the case. But we'll get into this. Is it possible to walk before the Lord blameless in this general sense?

And I actually think that it is. You say, well, I don't know about that. Well, it says they did, right? It does. Okay, verse seven. But they had no child because Elizabeth was barren and they were both well-advanced in years.

So it was that while he was serving, that is Zacharias, while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.

And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was what?

Trouble.

Yeah.

You bet he was troubled. We're seeing a theme here. Zacharias sees the angel. He's troubled.

He's afraid.

Mary sees the angel. She's afraid. Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morse Corner Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, morsecornerchurch .com.

And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.