Christmas 2017 Great Expectations Luke 1:26-38 Message #1 of 2 S771 Sermon given on December 24, 2017 Sunday Morning Service Pastor Rick Lancaster
Great Expectations Luke 1:26-38 Opening Comments Turn in your Bible to Luke 1 Here we are, one day from Christmas I don t know about you, but I love Christmas I ll be honest, I love getting gifts maybe too much, but I do So, as the 25 th of December approaches, I get more excited That s not all Christmas means to me, but I m just being honest, I look forward to Christmas morning with great expectation As I was preparing for this message, I thought about what it might have been like for Mary as she looked ahead to that day that we will celebrate tomorrow What were her expectations for this child My daughter Rebecca is here expecting their second child Every parent, and grandparent, imagines great things for these little ones that God blesses us with Mary didn t have to imagine about how great her son was going to be Let s pray now and then get into our text Pray Teaching Great Expectations There are some details the Bible leaves out that we wish we knew more about I would love to know more about Mary Luke 1:26-27 She just bursts onto the biblical scene when the angel Gabriel shows up with a radical announcement for her Luke 1:28-29 Who is this woman? Why did God pick her for this enormous responsibility and great privilege? highly favored = God chose to show her greater favor than others doesn t say why 1
Some suggest it is because she was perfect = sinless Bible doesn t say that, and that disagrees with what the Bible says elsewhere Romans 3:23 all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God Bible teaches, only Jesus lived a perfect life was sinless Angel also said, blessed are you among women God singled her out of the millions of women alive in the world He chose her for a special mission In a way God does that every time He allows a woman to become pregnant But this conception, birth, and Child were going to be special Mary is seriously freaked out by the appearance of this angel and what he says to her Gabriel still has more to say to her Luke 1:30-31 He repeats the fact that God is going to show her special favor Tells her that she is going to have a son and even gives her a name for the Child Jesus = The Lord is salvation, or the Lord saves Jesus name tells us why He came to the earth 1 Timothy 1:15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. An angel told Mary s fiancé, Joseph, that very thing Matthew 1:20-21 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins. The fact that an angel appears to Mary is pretty amazing, what he says next really blows her away Luke 1:32-33 Gabriel says this Child will be the most important thing to ever come to this earth He will be great, and He will rule forever That part seems to go over Mary s head, she is concerned about something a little more immediate 2
Luke 1:34 We read earlier that Mary was a virgin It is a logical question, how is this going to work, how will I conceive this Son? The angel Gabriel answers her Luke 1:35-37 Gabriel used Mary s cousin Elizabeth as an example She was an old woman who was barren God opened her womb in her old age and allowed her to conceive a son, John the Baptist Nothing is too hard for God Sadly, we too often live and pray like there are things that are too hard for God I doubt that Mary actually understood everything the angel told her, but her response is an example to all of us when we hear the Lord speaking to us through His Word or through his messengers Luke 1:38 Mary was a young woman who trusted God and believed what the angel said to her We don t know how long after this that Mary became pregnant, probably not very long But then she had nine months to think about what the angel said to her This Child she was expecting was predicted to be great Tonight, we will look at chapter two and talk about the night Jesus was born That was a night like no other, and many incredible things happened It says this about Mary s response Luke 2:19 Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. All parents and grandparents have great expectations about their young children Their hopes are high expect them to live lives better than their own Hope that they will achieve more in life than we did Hope that they will succeed where we failed Hope that they will not struggle in the same ways we did Hope that they will smile more, laugh more, love more 3
What must it have been like for Mary? The angel told her that He would be great, called the Son of the Highest, and He would reign over the house of Jacob forever She would expect great things from this Child The angel Gabriel told her and Joseph that this Child would be the Savior King of Israel Hundreds of years earlier, the prophets of Israel predicted that a Savior King would come The whole nation of Israel was expecting this Savior King to come Every son born carried the hope of the nation that he would be the Messiah, the Savior King It is hard to imagine what this young mother imagined as her son grew As He took His first breaths in that dark, dingy stable The first time He cried, or smiled what did she imagine as she watched Him sleep What did she see the when He took His first steps, and said His first words? The Bible records very little about the life of the Savior King before He was baptized by John and started His public ministry It is possible that Mary may have started to see the realization of the words of Gabriel as Jesus started teaching and doing great miracles But as time went on, she would have seen the leaders of Israel growing increasingly hostile toward her beloved Son And then early on that Friday morning she is awakened and told that her Savior King Son has been arrested She watched helplessly as they falsely accuse Him and beat Him and then sentence Him to death Did she think back 33 years and wonder if Gabriel had lied to her? How could her Son be the Savior King if they killed Him? It is interesting to me that Gabriel told Mary that her Son would be great and reign over Israel, but said nothing about saving them The angel that appeared to Joseph told that Mary s Son would save people from their sins, but said nothing about Him ruling over Israel 4
All of Israel, including Mary, were expecting a king to come in and save them from their enemies Jesus did not come to be the Savior King He came to be the Savior and King The Son that Mary carried in her arms and watched grow did not come at that time to establish His kingdom on the earth Before Jesus could deliver Israel from their enemies, he had to make a way for them to free from a tyrant far worse than the Romans He had to set them free from the bondage of sin That Friday afternoon that Mary watched her firstborn son die on the cross, she witnessed the greatest act in human history 1 John 2:2 NLT He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins and not only our sins but the sins of all the world. Jesus fulfilled His role as Savior when He offered Himself on that horrible cross Oh, He is King, in fact, He is the King of kings, but He has not established His kingdom yet That s what we declare every time we pray the Lord s model prayer Matthew 6:9-10 In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus is my King, and His kingdom is in my heart And as Christians, we are expecting Jesus to come back and establish His kingdom, maybe soon and that would be great Until then, the greatest gift we can give anyone is to introduce them to your Savior He wants to be their Savior too When I met my Savior and King, I wasn t really looking for Him I was living my life, my way I was a good person Didn t need the emotional crutch of religion God helped me to see that there was more to life than I was living And I wasn t as good as I thought I was What really got to me was that God cares about me and loves me He proved that love by sending His beloved Son to be my Savior 5
For the last 20 years I have been trying to figure out what God saw in me that would cause Him to do that for me And after all the time studying and teaching the Bible, the only answer I have found is, Because He loves me! He loves you too! Let s Pray! Join us tonight at 6pm for a Christmas Eve service Don t forget to invite someone! 6