The Gospel of Luke: Hope for the World

Well, Beloved, Merry Christmas. Glad that we can say that.

I've got no stones thrown at me for saying that. That's great. Well, Beloved, if you can turn your

Bibles to Luke chapter 1, we're going to be examining verses 26 to 38.

When you have that, please do stand for the reading of God's Word. Again, the text this morning is

Luke chapter 1, starting in verse 26. And Mary said to the angel,

How will this be, since I am a virgin? And 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 was called barren.

For nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, Behold, I am the servant of the

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

Word of God. You may be seated. Let me pray.

Father, we do come before you thankful on this Christmas morning, but most importantly, on this Lord's Day. We can observe your grandeur, your goodness, your mercy in the promises that were made in the

Old Testament that came to fruition with the hailing of the Incarnate One, the

Son of God, the one sent from heaven, our Deliverer and our promised Savior, even

Jesus Christ our Lord. It is on this day, as in every day, that we are reminded of your grace and your power, that your arm is not too weak nor too far to save.

But instead, Lord, not only did you send forth your arm, but you came in the person and work of Jesus Christ to deliver your people from their sins, so that all those who would trust in God, who would trust in Jesus Christ, would no longer be enemies of God, but instead would now have the right to be called the children of God.

Lord, help us even now to turn our hearts and our attention towards you and this most holy and sure word, that it may encourage us to know that there is truly hope for the world in Jesus.

We pray this in your name. Amen. Beloved, the world now more than ever needs hope.

It feels like every year there's just more and more trials and tribulations, more difficulty.

Here as we stand on the shores of a new year, 2023, we have economic uncertainty, political uncertainty, moral uncertainty, spiritual uncertainties of all kinds.

As we stand on the shores of a new year, we also stand on the shores of the promises of a sovereign and almighty

God, the same God who in times past has given us and spoken to us by means of his prophets and given us a sure word, beginning all the way, in fact, in the

Garden of Eden. When mankind fell into the most horrible sins, rebellion against God, against the

Creator, God promised that he would send forth into the world a

Savior. He did so in Genesis 3, in verse 15, when he told

Adam and Eve and the serpent in the garden the consequences of sins, but not only the consequences, but the hope that would come in the midst of their brokenness, that God would send forth a seed born of the woman, and that by means of the seed, all the nations, all the world, all sons and daughters of Adam will have the opportunity to have everlasting life, and not only that, but this promised seed will even crush the head of our enemy, the serpent.

So great is the promises of God, that not only did he promise it from the beginning at the fall of mankind in the garden, he goes on throughout redemptive history to set this expectation that there will be one whose name is

Shiloh who will come, that there will be one who will come from the house of Judah who will deliver the people of Israel, will deliver

God's people from their sins, that there will be one who will have great power and authority over the nations, even as Daniel the prophet sees in his vision in Daniel 7, one like a son of man coming before the ancient of days to receive a kingdom and power and glory, and that all nations would serve him.

So great was the expectation that the prophet Jeremiah says in Jeremiah chapter 23, verses 4 and 5, that there would be one who would come whose name would be

Jehovah Sekenu, Jehovah our righteousness, that there would be one who would be born of a virgin in Isaiah chapter 7, verse 14, in Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6, one who would be born a son upon whose shoulders the government will stand, and of the increase of his government there shall be no end, and he shall indeed be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, and the

Prince of Peace. And this one, this well expected one came into the world just at the right time.

It says in Galatians chapter 4 that in the fullness of time God sent forth his son born of a virgin, and God did indeed send forth his promise and awaited son, even

Jesus Christ our beloved Savior. On this Christmas Day, most importantly on this

Lord's Day, we're reminded of the true reason for the season. It's not candy, it's not presents, it's not

Santa Claus, it's Jesus. See last night me and my kids we had our

Christmas celebration and the tradition in our household usually goes something to this degree where we'll sit down and we'll have family worship together, we'll worship and we'll sing songs of praises on Christmas, and then what we'll do is we'll go over the narrative of the story of Jesus' birth.

And we'll go and we'll talk about the nativity and the circumstance surrounding it, and then we'll say, you know,

Jesus is so good that on his birthday we're the ones who get gifts.

That's how good Jesus is. Usually on your birthday you're the one who gets the gifts, but on his birthday he is so good he allows us to share in the gift giving and exchange.

And the kids seem to really gravitate towards that idea, and then what we do is we'll pray together, each one prays, and we'll say we're praying, thanking

Jesus for coming into the world. And then we'll sing happy birthday to Jesus and then we'll open presents.

Because it's not about the gifts, and I make that very clear to the children, it's not about the gifts, it's about the gift giver, and that's

Jesus. Which is why in my household we don't teach them about Santa Claus, because the true gift giver is not

Santa Claus, it's Jesus Christ. I preached at a Baptist church once, obviously

I'm kind of a Baptist myself, right? And I preached at a Baptist church, and I preached for a youth event around Christmas time, so it was

Christmas Eve. And there were some young kids in the audience and stuff, and I was teaching them about the real reason for the season, it's

Jesus. And as I was teaching this I slipped and I said, because everyone, we already know that Santa Claus isn't real.

And in the audience there was a little girl who gasped. And I looked over there and I looked at her parents and I said,

I don't know. And this is literally what she said, she's like, thanks for ruining my childhood.

So I ruined her childhood, but I also taught her an important lesson, and her parents an important lesson.

Don't lie about the greatest gift giver that there is. It's Jesus. It's not

Santa Claus, it's not mom and dad, it's Christ. And it's because we have such a great gift giver in Jesus that we can enjoy the season in its totality, not depending upon what kind of gift we have received, but knowing that we've already received the greatest gift that one can receive, and that is

God's Son, Jesus Christ. God has given us the greatest gift that can be given, and it's

His Son. So much that God loved His elect, so much that God loved the holiness of His own name and character, that He sent forth

His Son, Jesus Christ, to be an offering for sin, to be born the one who held the universe together, to now be held by the hands of a virgin as a child, as an infant, that He who fashioned the universe would now be knitted together in His own mother's womb.

Incredible grace, incredible love, amazing love, and amazing grace is what we see here in the story of hope entering the world through Jesus Christ.

We see in this particular set of verses that we've examined this morning, that we've read, in Luke chapter 1, verse 26.

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

Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. Let it be known without a shadow of a doubt that Mary was indeed a virgin, and this is significant and important in the redemptive history and narrative of God's unfolding purposes in Holy Scripture.

God chose Mary, a virgin, who was betrothed to a man whose name was

Joseph, whose lineage was of the house of David, to bring forth

His Son, His royal Son, the true Son of David, Jesus Christ, into the world.

One of the earliest opponents of Christianity in the first, second, third centuries of the church, the pagan

Romans, this is one of the first places and points of attacks upon the character of Jesus Christ.

One of the early criticisms of Christianity in the first three centuries of the church was that there was no possible way that Mary could have been a virgin.

It is inconceivable. And so there were rumors floating around in the early church that Mary got impregnated by a

Roman soldier so that to add insult to injury, not only was she not a virgin, but in fact he was a half -breed, that he was not even a full

Jew. He was a Gentile with a Gentile father whose father worked for the beast itself of Rome, who was a centurion in the army of Caesar.

These were the criticisms that were arising in the early church against the narrative of the nativity and of the virgin birth of our

Savior. But Luke, being the historian that he is, uses these words very carefully, demonstrating that he is indeed, demonstrating that he is the one who is bringing forth, that God is the one bringing forth his son through the womb of a virgin, a virgin birthed to a man.

And the virgin's name was Mary. So twice in the text she's referred to as a virgin.

Now the Bible says in Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14 that the

Messiah would be born of a virgin or a maiden. There's some criticisms in that text as well.

Some of you may know that the word that's used in the Hebrew can be translated either as virgin or maiden in Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14.

And there are some scholars who will look at that and say, we see the Christians are trying to insert their theology in the translating of the

Hebrew word there. But the reality is, a maiden was someone who was young enough to be a virgin.

And often that was the connotation behind the word maiden that was used in the Hebrew text.

And again, Luke, being under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, brings forth this truth that the virgin

Mary was indeed a virgin. Now we reject, however, the notion from Roman Catholicism that teaches that she was a virgin but then is now a perpetual virgin.

Because the reality is we see in Scripture that Jesus has brothers. He has siblings.

That Mary was not a perpetual virgin or that that is in some way a way for her to be holy.

That somehow being a perpetual virgin makes her special in heaven today.

We reject those pagan notions about Mary and we hold fast to what the

Scripture teaches about her, which is in fact that she was a virgin at the time of the conception of Jesus Christ.

Now, that's the history and the theology, but let's make this a little bit more personal.

Mary was a person. Mary was a young woman. And she's a young woman who is being commissioned with probably one of the most important tasks in history, to bear

God's Son. Think of the magnitude of that for a moment. It's a big deal when a woman is pregnant.

It's even a bigger deal when she's pregnant with God's Son. And how does she respond to this word from the angel

Gabriel? Well, notice what the angel Gabriel says to her in verse 28, and he came and said to her, Greetings, O favored one.

The Lord is with you. Again, we don't know what the angel Gabriel looked like.

We don't know the circumstances. It seems, however, that when these individuals in Scripture encounter an angel, they look very much like we do.

And so she responds in verse 29, but she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.

What's interesting from her response is that she's troubled. And I asked myself as I was reading this, why would she be troubled?

What is so troubling about the angel of the Lord visiting her and bringing forth this declaration that she is favored and that the

Lord is with you? I'd be pretty pumped if that were me, right? If an angel came down and said,

You're favored. I knew it, right? I knew it.

The Lord is with you. Like, yes, and with you also, right? I would be so ecstatic. But what about the circumstances made

Mary so unsure, so troubled at the saying of what sort of greeting this may be?

She's trying to discern what is the intention here? What will the

Lord have me do? And I think I got it. It is a fearful thing to be used of God.

It's a fearful thing. Okay? It's exciting. It's one of the most exciting things that can happen in your life is being used by God, but it's also terrifying.

It's terrifying because it comes with great responsibility. It comes with great trepidation and also with so much blessing and trials.

And here Mary could not even begin to fathom the trials of her life, starting in the

Nativity and then going all the way to seeing her own son crucified on a cross.

There's a song, a modern hymn, a modern song that goes like this, Mary, did you know? And what

I love about that song is that it takes us from the Nativity all the way to the cross.

And it reminds us that this little boy, this infant son whom

Mary will soon hold in her hands is the one who will die for mankind's sin.

Did she know? Did she know the weight, the gravity of what this child would do?

Well, she had some idea, as the angel of the Lord will declare to her in a few verses from now, but she could not truly, as we cannot truly, comprehend the breadth and the length and the depth of what it means that Jesus came and died for sinners.

So great is this mystery, so heavy is this truth, that Mary is discerning what will the

Lord have me do? What will the Lord's will be for my life? How will

God use me? And what message does this angel bring and bear for me?

You're following along in the teaching, Gabriel visits the Virgin Mary with the greeting the Lord was with her.

Again, this is a good word, a word of encouragement, a word of power that the

Lord is with her. However, she was disturbed.

And notice how she responds at this greeting, or how the angel responds at the greeting.

The angel said to her, the angel Gabriel discerning her troubledness, says, do not be afraid

Mary, for you have found favor with God. The angel assures her that she has found favor with God.

You can write that in as well. They were disturbed, the angel assures Mary of God's favor. What a word of encouragement.

How encouraging is that? Imagine the young woman, the Virgin Mary, who by some accounts was as young as 15 or 16, we don't know her age exactly, but she was likely around 15 to 18, very young, the whole world ahead of her, bethrothed to a man named

Joseph, and now receiving this earth shattering news that she's with child.

And this is what the angel Gabriel declares to her in the following verse. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name

Jesus. This is the word that the angel brings from the very presence of God.

Remember last week we learned how Gabriel is the angel that stands in God's presence. As he brought the word to Zechariah and Elizabeth, he is now bringing the word to Mary.

And the word that he brings is that not only will she conceive a son, similar to the circumstances preceding this with Elizabeth and Zechariah bearing

John in old age, but this will be even more miraculous than this, because this will be a virgin conception.

You see, Elizabeth and Zechariah, though barren and in old age, still conceived a son by natural means.

But this son will be born totally supernaturally through the work of the

Holy Ghost by God working miraculously in the womb of the virgin.

And in doing so, the word that God gives to Mary through the angel

Gabriel is this, that you will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus.

Jesus. Why that name? Why did

God appoint His son to be named Jesus? Maybe some of you know that the name

Jesus wasn't very common in that time. It was common in the Old Testament times. Matter of fact, you may know it by another pronunciation, which is

Joshua. Joshua and the Hebrew Yeshua, which is where we get the word

Jesus in English, is the same name. Joshua and Jesus is the same name.

What you might not know about that name is what it actually means. Some of you might know that the common response that I hear, it means

God saves. But it's more than that. Yeshua, Yeshua, that name in Hebrew means not just that God saves, but particularly that Yahweh saves or that Yahweh is our salvation.

This child that was to be born was unlike any child that has been born up until that point and will ever be born.

Because this child is indeed Yahweh, our salvation.

The Bible says concerning this child, this son, as we've examined already, as was alluded to in Isaiah chapter 9, he shall be called the mighty

God. He shall be called, Jeremiah 23 verse 4 and 5, he shall be called

Jehovah, our righteousness. This child not only is

God, not only is he divine, but he is the very God of the

Old Testament. He is Yahweh come in human flesh.

He's God incarnate. He's the incarnate deity, the one who made all things, now is himself stepping into his created order, taking on flesh so that he can be truly human and experience what it is to be human.

Tempted and tried in every way, the scripture says, yet without sin. And one of the ways that he did not receive that sin nature is because his father was

God. He had no earthly father. There was no natural means of conception.

This child, his father was God, and he was himself

God, veiled in human flesh. This is the mystery of the incarnation, the mystery of the

God -man, God becoming flesh in Jesus Christ. His name shall be

Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. He is

Jehovah, our salvation. Yahweh, the Savior. But not only that, notice what it continues on to say in verse 32, and he will be great and will be called the

Son of the Most High. Some of you may have the question similar to the questions that arise from Jehovah's Witnesses.

I had the opportunity this week, twice, to speak to Jehovah's Witnesses. It's always fun for me. And one of the things

I always want to talk to them about is the deity of Christ, the deity of Jesus. And it's one of the things that they like talking about too.

They like debating back and forth on this issue. And they say, if Jesus is God, why is he then called the

Son of God? He can't be God if he's the Son of God. What I want to say is, you fool, you do not know the scriptures.

But I say it much nicer than that. Instead I say, you are a

Son of Man, are you not? Your Father is human, therefore you are truly human.

God's Son is truly God because he's his Son. They're of the same essence, nature.

Jesus is the Son of God as he is the Son of Man because when the Bible calls him Son of Man, it means he's truly human.

The Bible calls him the Son of God because he's truly God. This is a statement of essence and nature.

The Bible uses this phraseology elsewhere in other ways as well. For instance, there's a phrase, the sons of the prophets, which means that you are a prophet.

Because you're the order of the prophets. You are the son of the prophets, means you are a prophet. In similar fashion,

Christ being the particularly unique Son of God is the only one who shares in the very essence and nature of his

Father. Which is why it says in John chapter 1 that Christ is the image of the invisible

God. He is the only begotten God who has made the Father known, who is in the bosom of the

Father. He has explained him, he has made him known, he's exegeted the Father because he's in the bosom and he is the only begotten

God, only unique God. This is our Savior, Jesus Christ.

And so Jesus Christ is the Son of the Most High God by virtue of his deity.

Jesus is truly God of God and he's also truly man. And this way he will be called the

Son of the Most High. And it says in the Lord God, this is Yahweh God, will give to him the throne of his

Father, David. Interesting that it says he'll be called the Son of the Most High, but he'll also be the

Son of David. Why is that significant? It's significant because God made a promise to David that his descendant will sit on Yahweh's throne forever.

In the Old Testament, when God established the kingship in David, the Davidic dynasty, he made a promise and a covenant with that house.

He says that from you will come the one who will reign eternally, the true and the greater

David. For as great as David was, he was still but a man. And David sinned, sinned greatly, yet we still consider

David a hero of the faith. Though he was a murderer and an adulterer, God still used him mightily.

But yet, as great as David was, as rich as he was, as wise as he was, and as great as he was, according to Scripture, saying that he was a man after God's own heart, he was still imperfect.

And there had to come one who was greater than David, but still of David, still of his lineage, of his dynasty, of his household.

And later sermons from now we will discuss this more in detail as we look at the genealogy of Christ.

But one of the things that the Scripture gives us insight to here in the text, all the way back in verse 27, is that the virgin bethrothed to a man whose name was

Joseph, of the house of David, Jesus' adoptive father, Joseph, was also of the house and lineage of David.

I will also make the case that Mary is also by blood of the lineage and house of David.

So there is a blood right and a legal right that will come to the adoption that Joseph has upon Christ.

There is a legal right to the throne and there is a bloodline to the throne of David through the conception, the miraculous conception of Christ, but also the legal adoption of Joseph to Christ.

There is this Davidic promise that is made sure here in Scripture. The Davidic promise being this, that Christ will sit on the throne of David.

And verse 33 says, And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

Jesus is the heir apparent. He is the one who has the legal right to reign over the household of David.

He is the one who has the legal right to reign over the house of Jacob, Israel. But not only that, he will reign over the nations, his kingdom, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

And beloved, here we sit, nearly 2 ,000 years after the miraculous conception and birth of our

Savior, and we are even now demonstrating the truthfulness of this word, that his kingdom is forever.

It is forever. God's kingdom in Christ, which was established at his incarnation, which was firmly established through his ministry, his death, burial, and resurrection, is alive and well today through the church, through the proclamation of the gospel.

Even as we sit here 2 ,000 years later, we have seen in those 2 ,000 years rise and falls of great empires, of great leaders.

We have seen plagues and pandemics. We have seen wars and rumors of wars.

We have seen ups and we have seen downs. We have seen economic booms and economic disasters. In 2 ,000 years of human history, mankind has seen it all.

And the only constant in the last 2 ,000 years is Christ and his kingdom. For his kingdom is forever.

And of it there shall be no end. So regardless of what next year brings, whether it's boom or bust, whether it's highs or lows, know this and be assured of this promise.

There's hope for the world because the kingdom of God reigns. Amen? It reigns.

This promised son, the son of the most high God, the one whom the Lord God will give to sit on the throne of David, he reigns even now.

And this is the difference between good and bad eschatology. Always have to sneak that in there.

The difference between good and bad eschatology is this. One is waiting for the enthronement of Jesus.

The other acknowledges the enthronement of Jesus. We acknowledge that he reigns now.

He's king of kings, lord of lords today as he was yesterday and as he'll be tomorrow.

We're not waiting for him to be enthroned. He is enthroned. His kingdom has been established.

His promises are sure. And brothers, we are living in that time of blessing that God's kingdom reigns even now over the nations.

And so the question that Mary now brings is of great significance.

But before we even get there, I want to establish this one more time. If you're following along in the teaching, Jesus is the

Messiah. This is a messianic promise that was made in the

Old Testament that's now coming to fruition in the life and incarnation of Jesus Christ. He is the promised

Messiah who Daniel, the prophet Daniel, if you can turn there to Daniel chapter 7,

I want us to read this together. And Daniel 7, one of the most consequential prophecies in the

Old Testament, one of the most quoted Old Testament prophecies in the

New Testament. Daniel chapter 7 verse 13 and 14. Daniel sees this vision and he says,

Daniel 7, 13. And I saw in the night visions and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man.

He came to the ancient of days, was presented before him and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people, nations and languages should serve him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away.

And his kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed. As the angel

Gabriel brings forth the message of glad tidings to Mary, he affirms this truth that this son whom she is about to conceive is the promised one from Daniel's vision.

That he is the one who is one like a son of man, which is Christ Jesus. In fact,

Jesus uses this title more than any other title in his earthly ministry. He refers to himself as the son of man.

But the son of man here isn't just a human figure, but he's also a divine figure.

How is this possible that the son of man is a divine figure? Well because he approaches the ancient of days, that's

Yahweh God, was presented before him and he was given dominion and glory and a kingdom.

Brethren, this is the same Yahweh, the same God who is said in Isaiah 42 .8,

I am Yahweh, that is my name and I will not share my glory with another.

And yet, this divine figure, this son of man is coming before the ancient of days and receiving what?

Glory and a kingdom. That which Yahweh does not share, he shares equally with the son of man.

So much so that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.

In the Greek Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it uses the word

Latreo here, which means divine worship or service. It is spiritual service that is being rendered to the son of man here when it says that all nations and languages and peoples should serve him, render him sacred service.

And his dominion is an everlasting dominion. Only an eternal person can have an eternal dominion, which shall not pass away and his kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed.

Here we are, 2 ,000 years of human history since the incarnation. We've seen kingdoms come and go.

Kingdoms fall, kingdoms rise, yet one constant has remained and it is the kingdom of God.

So regardless of what epoch we're living in today, what dispensation we are in today in regard to the nations, know and be assured of this,

God's kingdom will remain forever. And that should cause us to be optimistic about the future.

It should cause us to be optimistic about the state of the church. It should cause us to be optimistic about where world missions is heading because he reigns and nothing has stopped it and nothing will stop it.

Truly there's hope for mankind. Jesus is the promised Messiah who

Daniel calls the Son of Man. And he is the one who will sit on David's throne and he shall reign forever.

That's the promise. And it's the promise that we are all evidence of today.

We see the evidence of it because Christ reigns in our hearts through faith.

He reigns in the church when we come together under the authority in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see the powerful presence of the

Lord when we're gathered. We sit at the Lord's table. There's so many ways in which we see the reality of his reign today.

But now as we look at the scripture and in Luke chapter 1, our main text, verse 34,

Mary said to the angel, how will this be since I'm a virgin? You see, it's always the question that comes after the promise that should be evaluated and should be looked at.

Similarly to how Zechariah, encountering the same angel six months prior, he begins to question.

He begins to ask the question of how. How and why? How will this be?

But I think there's a big difference between the way that Zechariah in the previous couple of verses asked the question and how

Mary asked the question. You see, it's not always the question that's the problem, but it's the intent and the heart behind it.

Sometimes when life happens to us, we rightfully ask why. But beware of your heart in that circumstance.

Beware of how you ask the why. God is sovereign, and he does not have to give us any answer, nor does he owe it to us when things happen in our life.

But God is also gracious, and he's kind, and he's good. And if you approach him in faith, and if you approach him with the heart that says,

Lord, I don't know why or how, but if this is your will, if it is in this way that you will glorify your name, may it so be.

And in that way, we gratify the heart of our God. And then in verse 35, the angel answered her, saying this, 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.

Not a son of God, but the Son of God. So the angel, Gabriel, gives her the answer that she's looking for.

How will this be? Since I'm a virgin, she asks, it'll come by means of the power of the

Holy Spirit. The Most High will overshadow her and bring forth into her womb the life of God's precious

Son. Now there's a warning here as well. If you have ever encountered the

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints, the Mormon church, the LDS church, if you watch some of their videos, which they usually put a lot of marketing money behind on Facebook and YouTube, so if you're watching a video, you'll have these advertisements from the

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints. In one of the videos, the president or one of the apostles of the church will say this, we believe that Jesus Christ is the literal

Son of God. And that sounds good, right? Because we believe that Jesus Christ is literally

God's Son. But, there's a big difference. The difference being, in the

Mormon theology, that God the Father had relations with Mary.

That somehow, someway, there was a physical manifestation of the

Father, because they believe that the Father is bodily, is corporal, and that God the

Father had relations with the Virgin Mary. That is heresy. That is not only heresy, it is blasphemous.

We do not share the same Jesus Christ with the Mormon church. We do not share the same

Jesus Christ with the Jehovah's Witnesses. We do not share the same Jesus Christ with the Muslim.

Our Jesus is a unique one. He is the one of scripture. He is the

Son of God. And the means by which God brought him into the world was by the miraculous working of the

Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin. The power of the Most High was at work in the incarnation and conception of God's Son.

Anything that deviates from that is heresy and blasphemous.

Verse 36 says, This is important because he's contrasting the two narratives, the two stories.

You have, on one hand, the conception of John the Baptist, and that was unique. That was, in a sense, very miraculous because Elizabeth was barren in old age.

Yet, what is happening in the womb of the Virgin is far more consequential. It's far more miraculous.

It is the very power of the Holy Spirit coming upon the young Virgin to overshadow her so that what is to be born in her womb will be called holy.

Holy. Set apart. That's what the word holy means.

It means literally to be cut and separate. How then will God's Son, Jesus Christ, be holy, be different, be other than?

It is because he did not receive a sin nature from his

Father, because his Father is God. If you're following along in the teaching, the conception of Jesus was miraculous by the power of the

Holy Spirit. This is true and right theology. This is not what the

Mormon Church teaches or what other groups teach, but this is what the truth of Scripture is, that the

Holy Spirit is the one who came upon the Virgin to bring forth the life of God's only

Son. The Messiah would be born holy for he did not inherit a sin nature.

I want you to write that in there as well. The Messiah would be born holy for he did not inherit a sin nature from a biological

Father. This is why the virgin birth is essential to Christian theology.

If you lose the virgin birth, you lose the uniqueness of Christ as the

Holy One, set apart One, who is the only One who can truly live a life free from sin.

If Christ had a biological Father, he would have inherited that nature. Yet, he did not have a biological

Father. His Father was from heaven, was God the Father. Therefore, he does not inherit a sin nature and is able to be free from the corrupting aspect of the nature that we have received in Adam.

He has no biological Father. In contrast to Zechariah and Elizabeth, who conceived a son miraculously, but still naturally.

So, though John would be great, Jesus Christ would be the greatest. There would be no one ever born like this again in history.

It is the first and only time. Jesus is again the only unique son of the

Father. Verse 36 and 37 again says,

As and behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son. And this is the sixth month of her who was called barren.

For nothing will be impossible with God. Isn't that good news?

That there's nothing impossible with God? Here's the hope for the world.

Here's the hope. Hope came into the world through impossible circumstances, by means of the

God of the impossible. That's hope. In the midst of the impossibility of there being hope,

God made a way for there to be hope in Jesus. There's hope for us. There's hope for you.

There's hope for the world. And notice how Mary responds in verse 38. Behold, I am the servant of the

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

Notice how in the previous story with Zechariah, Elizabeth, and John the

Baptist, how Zechariah responds with almost faithlessness, though he was a man who was righteous and blameless in his generation.

And he can't believe it. Yet here you have a young woman, a virgin, and she says, let it be according to your word.

It's that simple faith. You have on one hand, Zechariah, probably knew the scriptures better than anyone else did.

Had seen, lived a life of faith, seen the providence in the hand of God many times in his life.

And yet, upon that visitation, he's in disbelief.

Here you have a young woman on the other spectrum of this. Not lived a lot of life.

Not a lot of experience. Probably not a lot of understanding in theology. And yet, she sees the angel of the

Lord. He gives her this word, and her response is with simple faith.

May it so be according to your word. Mary says, I'm your servant. I'm your servant.

Whatever you will do with my life is for your sovereign hand and prerogative, and I will submit to it.

That's the heart that every one of us ought to have. Lord, whatever you would have us do, whatever it is that you have ordained from heaven for us, may it so be according to your word.

I'm your servant. Here I am, as the prophet Isaiah said, send me. And it's with that same heart that Mary responds.

I think one of these are the reasons why the Lord chose Mary to be the mother of our

Savior. And she says, let it be according to your word.

If you're following along the last part of this teaching, in contrast to Zechariah, Mary receives the Lord's message according to his word.

So she believed in the word that was coming from the angel, that this was coming from the very presence of God, and she acknowledges that with God, nothing is impossible.

Nothing is impossible. You know, I love Christmas. It's no secret. I've told you before.

Christmas is probably my favorite of the seasons because it's the only time of the year where I can walk into a

Walmart and I can hear the words being sung on the intercom, Christ is the

Lord. Christ is the Lord. You see, nature and even the culture, for at least a time, has to bow the knee to King Jesus.

Even the secular world stops all that it's doing to acknowledge the

Savior and his birth. It's one of the reasons why I love it so much. It's also a time to remember the hope that we have in Jesus.

And it reminds me of a time in my life where I had no hope. It was around this time of the year when

I became a Christian, and when I became a Christian in December of that year, 2008,

December 15th, I was kicked out of my parents' house, or actually my father's house, and I was 16 years old, and I was on the streets by myself right before Christmas.

We didn't celebrate it, but right before Christmas, and it gets pretty cold in Connecticut. I didn't even have a coat.

And so I remember the church that I had begun attending, the youth group pretty much took me in, and the youth pastor took me into his home, and I stayed with him during Christmas.

It was my first Christmas. We had a service for the youth group, and this was a great evangelical free church, and it was a fantastic youth group.

And one of the things, this was my first Christmas, this was my first time in this setting, and during youth group we had this

Christmas party, and it was a Christmas exchange. And so everyone in the youth group brought a gift, and I was just newly homeless.

I didn't even have a coat at this point. So I had no gift, and the kids didn't really know me too well.

So I had no gift to bring, and I was pretty sure I wasn't going to even get a gift because I was just so new to the group.

So who would think of me? Who would know that I was even there? And we had a time of worship and Bible study, and then at the last point we all got in a circle and we all began the gift exchange, and everyone had a gift in their hand except for me.

And I felt totally out of place, totally defeated. I feel like, well, I've got nothing to give.

I've got nothing to offer. I've got nothing. I've got nothing in my hands, nothing I can bring, nothing I can receive.

And it was during that time of gift giving that we prayed, and the gift that everyone had in their hand was for me.

And it is that moment that I saw the grace, the kindness, and the love that Christmas is all about, that it's about the love of Jesus, that love and hope has come down, and it's come down in Jesus Christ.

And what a time for us as Christians to remember that and be reminded of that, but also to demonstrate that love, that hope, that grace with one another, that though he, our

Lord Jesus Christ, was rich, he became poor on our behalf so that in him we might become the riches of God.

It is truly a time to remember the amazing grace and the amazing hope that we have in Jesus Christ.

May this Christmas, may this Lord's Day be a reminder of you, to you, the true reason for the season.

Hope has come down, and he has a name. It's Jesus. Let's pray. Sovereign Lord, we thank you that true love has come down.

We thank you that true hope has come in Jesus Christ.

Lord Jesus, we're reminded of all that you have done for the redemption of your people.

On that holy night, you were born of the womb of the Virgin. You passed into this world which you created.

You who held the stars in its places and positions were now to be held by the hands of a young woman, a young maiden.

Lord, we cannot even begin to fathom the mystery, the power, the grace, and the mercy that we encountered on that Christmas morning or night.

We thank you, Lord, that you did come into the world, that you were truly born of the

Virgin, that you lived a holy, perfect, blameless life, and that through your perfect obedience, you have purchased for us an eternal salvation that cannot be taken nor denied.

We thank you, Lord Jesus, that it is by your good work that we can have now entrance into this grace in which we now stand.

We thank you, Lord, that you are such a good Savior that on days like today, days in which even the world stops to remember who you are and what you've done, you're so good that you allow us to receive gifts.

And what greater gift has there been given but the gift that you've given us through your shed blood, through your perfect obedience, and through the life that you offer, even the life to come, and the ages of immortality?

Lord Jesus, may you be praised and glorified today as in every day, but even so now that we remember the true reason for the season.