Fourth Week of Advent (Joy) - Part 2

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.

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 troubled, and fear fell upon him.

I bet it did, and this is something we see again and again and again. Mary, when the angel comes to visit

Mary, she's troubled. Wonder what manner of greeting this was. The shepherds, when the angels appear to the shepherd out in the fields, what does it say?

That they were troubled. And now when Zacharias sees the angel, he also is troubled.

Verse 13, but the angel said to him, Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard, and your wife

Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John, and you will have what?

Joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the

Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink, and he will also be filled with the

Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb, and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the

Lord their God, and he also will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the

Lord. So this was a monumentous time in Israel's history.

There's a lot of expectation about the coming of the Messiah, and there were people in different sects and groups all looking for it and waiting for it.

So it was a time of expectation, a momentous time in Israel's history, and certainly

John and Jesus would bring, and their births did bring great joy.

Amen. And hopefully as we look back and and read these things and and meditate upon these things, this should give us joy and gladness.

So this was a momentous time in Israel's history, and if I can take a moment, you know, we are living in a momentous time in our own history, and I would just like to raise the question, are we experiencing joy and gladness?

The birth of John brought about joy, right? The birth of Christ brought about joy and rejoicing and gladness.

So are we experiencing joy and gladness in our time? You know, we often talk about happiness as something that comes as the result of our situation in life.

Happiness, generally we think of it comes and goes based on our situation. But joy should not be based on our situation.

It's the joy of the Lord who never changes. So our joy should be constant and consistent.

I saw one study that said of all the different groups that they they polled and examined, that regular churchgoers have coped better than any other segment of society during the pandemic.

Wouldn't we expect this? That faithful Christians are going to be, generally speaking, hopefully more joyful.

If we have faith in God, shouldn't we expect a little less worry and a little more trust?

You know, the Greek word for joy can also be translated as a calm delight, a calm delight.

You know, when I set certain things before my eyes, they don't give me a calm delight.

When I set the television before my eyes, I don't, and you know me, I'm not down on you for a while.

I have a television in my house, I admit it, okay? But it doesn't bring me calm delight. Looking at the front page of the newspaper does not give me a calm delight.

Most of the things out there do not give me a calm delight.

When I set this before my eyes, it can bring a calm delight.

Setting the Lord before you should deliver calm delight.

If Jesus, through the sound of his mother's voice, can cause a baby to leap in his mother's womb, certainly

God's word and God's spirit can do that for us. Now, going back to Luke chapter one, the angel of the

Lord has announced that Zacharias and Elizabeth would have a son, verse 18. And Zacharias said to the angel, after hearing all of this, how shall

I know this? For I am an old man and my wife is well advanced in years.

And the angel answered and said to him, I am Gabriel, the one who stands in the presence of God and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings.

But, and I don't necessarily see this in what he said, maybe the angel can read his mind and his heart, but notice what the angel says.

But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their own time.

And the people waited for Zacharias and marveled that he lingered so long in the temple.

But when he came out, he could not speak to them. And they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple for he beckoned to them and remained speechless.

So, to have a child, this was the desire of Zacharias and Elizabeth, two very godly people walking blameless before the

Lord, but they didn't have a child. That's what they really wanted. That's what they were praying for.

And isn't that interesting? They're praying for it. And then the Lord says, you're going to have it. And they're like, how could that be?

There's a problem there. Does that ever take place? You pray for, you know, it's like Peter, they pray for him to get broken out of jail.

He shows up at the door and, well, it's his angel. It can't be him. This is what happens where we'll pray for something.

And then when the Lord answers the prayer, we're dumbfounded. It shouldn't be that way.

Okay. So, Zacharias trusted in God. They prayed and God answered their prayer, sends an angel to deliver the news.

And the initial reaction of Zacharias was unbelief. At least initially,

I'm old. My wife is old. Maybe you made a mistake and you went to the wrong person.

Maybe you're going to talk to the other priest. Yeah, I think

Zacharias, he must have known better on some level, but consider this is a crisis moment.

Like he's freaked out. If you, you would freak out in that situation too. If you saw an angel to deliver this new, if you just saw an angel, you would do that.

He was afraid. He probably didn't know what to think. People often don't respond the right way when they are in a moment of crisis or fear or pressure.

So it's hard to fault Zacharias, but the angel of the Lord made him mute because of his lack of faith and saying, you're going to have a child.

Now, I just want to compare this to the response of Mary. All right. Luke chapter one, look at verse 26.

Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel, same angel 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. And by the way that you've heard of the prayer, the hail

Mary, only half of it's biblical. Okay. The second half isn't biblical first 29.

But when she saw him and it's unbiblical to pray to Mary, that's the important part, but when she's a great woman in 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, 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'll be great. And it'll 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. Whenever the angel told Zacharias, this is much more amazing.

And then Mary said to the angel, how can this be? Since I do not know a man now, her response may sound similar to the response of Zacharias, but there's one big difference with Zacharias.

Uh, he had been praying for this. There's no evidence. Mary was praying to give birth to the Messiah. Uh, Zacharias had been praying for that.

That's number one. And this has happened before Abraham and Sarah come to mind.

He knew that account. So this has happened before with Mary.

There had never been a virgin birth. Never will be again in the history of the world.

So it's a completely different situation. And Mary's question is reasonable.

I mean, with Zacharias and Elizabeth, uh, John's birth was miraculous, but it was brought about by the normal way.

Uh, Mary, this seemed, how could this be? So it's a reasonable question. 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.

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, what nothing will be impossible.

And now listen to Mary's response of faith. She says, behold, the maidservant of the

Lord, let it be to me according to your word.

And the angel departed from her. So Mary walked by faith and not by sight.

She couldn't see how this was possible, but faith is knowing what you cannot see.

God told Mary something that appeared to be impossible, so amazing.

She couldn't understand it. And she believed it. She believed it. That my friends is faith.

And Christmas is kind of that way. We are being told in the scripture that God became a man, that the creator of heaven and earth became a little baby lying in a manger that someone will say that is hard to believe.

If God exists, it's not that hard to believe for with God, all things are possible.

So in a way, this kind of thing is given to us. This incredible statement was given to Zacharias.

An incredible statement was given to Mary and they had faith.

They believed it. I trust this Christmas season. You will have faith. And let's just go back to where we started in verse 41.

And it happened when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the

Holy Spirit. In verse 44, Elizabeth says to her, for indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.

And I pray that Christ would bring joy into your house this Advent season.

Let's close in prayer. Our father and gracious God, we thank you for your compassions, which fail not.

As your word says, they are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. And father, we ask that you would bless your people with hope, peace, love, and the fullness of joy.

And Lord, if there is anyone listening who has never trusted in the gospel that Jesus died and rose again to give all who believe in him everlasting life, we pray that they would do it today.

And Lord, if there is someone who is redeemed here listening, but they know in their heart, they have not been setting the

Lord before them. I pray that they would determine to do it starting now, starting today, that they would experience the joy that you have for them.

And we pray all this in Jesus name. Amen. Thanks for listening.

I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris 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, morriscornerchurch .com.

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