WEBVTT 00:00:00.720 --> 00:00:05.139 Well, very good morning, everyone. It's great to see you. I must admit, I really loved that 00:00:05.139 --> 00:00:09.279 last song. It was on in our house this morning. Alex was practicing. It's just fantastic. 00:00:09.419 --> 00:00:15.560 Great, powerful lyrics. I hope we will see come out so gloriously as we turn to God's 00:00:15.560 --> 00:00:20.780 words now. So can I encourage you to grab a Bible and turn to Luke chapter 1, verses 00:00:20.780 --> 00:00:29.879 26 to 38. But just before we get into this, why don't we just still ourselves and let's 00:00:29.879 --> 00:00:35.359 ask that God would come and be with us now as we turn to his word. Let's pray before 00:00:35.359 --> 00:00:42.379 we begin this morning. Father, we ask that you would thrill us from your words this morning 00:00:42.379 --> 00:00:49.500 as we turn to consider this Christmas story, perhaps such a familiar story to many of us. 00:00:50.140 --> 00:00:56.519 Father, would you come and help us see it afresh this morning? Help us to see your greatness 00:00:56.520 --> 00:01:03.060 goodness and your goodness. Oh, Father, would you help us to grasp something more of the 00:01:03.060 --> 00:01:09.700 enormity of what you have accomplished for us and done for us in your son, Jesus Christ, 00:01:09.800 --> 00:01:15.280 in whose name we pray. Amen. Amen. Okay, are we feeling Christmas through this morning? 00:01:16.340 --> 00:01:19.480 A little bit. I saw a few Christmas jumpers. Put your hand up. You've got a Christmas jumper 00:01:19.480 --> 00:01:24.540 on. There's more than one. There's two. Does this kind of count? I picked it this morning 00:01:24.540 --> 00:01:29.359 and I thought it kind of counts. I don't know if it does. Why don't you turn to your neighbour 00:01:29.359 --> 00:01:33.060 if we're not in the Christmas mood already. Here's a pop quiz question for you to kick 00:01:33.060 --> 00:01:40.159 us off. Ten seconds, okay. What do seven out of the last ten UK Christmas number ones have 00:01:40.159 --> 00:01:44.900 in common? And if that's too easy for you, why don't you see if you can have a go at naming 00:01:44.900 --> 00:01:54.800 the seven artists? Thirty seconds, turn to your neighbour, on you go. Okay, that'll do. 00:01:56.140 --> 00:02:01.580 Okay, with one accord, what does seven out of the last ten have in common? X-Factor. Hands 00:02:01.580 --> 00:02:05.880 up if you don't have a clue what X-Factor is. Are we all right? Good, we're there. Okay, 00:02:06.320 --> 00:02:12.599 X-Factor, here we go. X-Factor, hands up if your perfect Saturday night is a takeaway and 00:02:12.599 --> 00:02:21.019 the X-Factor on the telly. Okay? Hands up if last night was X-Factor on the telly and 00:02:21.019 --> 00:02:32.759 a takeaway. We love this show, don't we? We love this show. No? Our nation loves this 00:02:32.759 --> 00:02:38.459 show. I was thinking on it this week, why does our nation love this show? Why do we go 00:02:38.460 --> 00:02:44.360 bonkers for it every Christmas? Now, I'm not hopeful for this. Does somebody want to tell 00:02:44.360 --> 00:02:55.860 me who won last year? Okay? A guy called Ben Haynow. Okay? He was, before he was famous, 00:02:55.980 --> 00:03:02.840 he was a van driver from Croydon in London, and 9.1 million people tuned in to watch that final 00:03:02.840 --> 00:03:08.780 last year. And 214,000 of us proceeded to buy this single. I was not one of them. 00:03:10.360 --> 00:03:17.300 But that really is child's play when you compare it with the 17.2 million who in 2010 saw Matt 00:03:17.300 --> 00:03:22.900 Cardle win the X-Factor. And his Christmas number one, When We Collide, wasn't even his song, 00:03:22.960 --> 00:03:32.020 it was a cover, sold 419,000 copies to make it Christmas number one. Why do we go bananas for 00:03:32.020 --> 00:03:37.380 this show at Christmas time? I was thinking on it this week. I was thinking on it last night as I 00:03:37.380 --> 00:03:44.260 was watching it. Do you not think it's because it taps into something that we all love about Christmas? 00:03:45.480 --> 00:03:52.540 Do we not love as a nation, do we not love a Christmas miracle? Do we not love a rags to riches 00:03:52.540 --> 00:03:59.240 story? Someone from the bottom goes right to the top. Do we not love it when someone defies all the odds, 00:03:59.240 --> 00:04:05.280 overcomes all the barriers and obstacles, and accomplishes what is seemingly impossible? 00:04:06.460 --> 00:04:12.640 Do we not love it when the impossible becomes possible? Well, here's what we're going to see 00:04:12.640 --> 00:04:19.379 this morning as we look at these verses in Luke. This is what Luke is telling us, that the birth of 00:04:19.379 --> 00:04:26.399 Jesus is the against all odds story. That the Christmas story, the birth of this king, 00:04:26.759 --> 00:04:35.120 is the Christmas miracle. Here's the big idea for us this morning. Christmas, God makes the impossible 00:04:35.120 --> 00:04:43.860 possible. He makes the impossible possible. And the wonder of it, unlike X-Factor, is that it wasn't 00:04:43.860 --> 00:04:52.939 accomplished by rags going to riches? It was accomplished by riches taking on rags. And this 00:04:52.939 --> 00:05:00.520 moment right here in Luke's gospel, this moment in history, changes everything. Changes everything. 00:05:01.860 --> 00:05:05.439 And I must admit, I came to these verses this week to study them, and I thought I knew them. 00:05:06.280 --> 00:05:11.139 And they're so familiar to us, aren't they? We read them every year. You maybe read them ever since 00:05:11.139 --> 00:05:16.939 you've been a child. So familiar. But can I encourage us to come at them fresh this morning? 00:05:17.879 --> 00:05:24.219 And maybe like me this week, to see something more of the enormity of what God has done for us here. 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:29.740 So with that in mind, why don't we turn to the verses? This is Luke chapter 1, 26 to 38. 00:05:30.620 --> 00:05:32.139 And let's read them together. 00:05:35.819 --> 00:05:37.180 This is what Luke writes. 00:05:37.180 --> 00:05:45.900 In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 00:05:46.040 --> 00:05:53.439 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David's. The virgin's name 00:05:53.439 --> 00:06:01.100 was Mary. The angel went to her and said, greetings, you who are highly favored, the Lord is with you. 00:06:02.340 --> 00:06:06.620 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 00:06:06.620 --> 00:06:13.920 But the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God. You will conceive 00:06:13.920 --> 00:06:22.439 and give birth to a son and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of 00:06:22.439 --> 00:06:29.759 the most high. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over 00:06:29.759 --> 00:06:39.180 Jacob's descendants forever. His kingdom will never end. How will this be, Mary asked the angel, since I'm a 00:06:39.180 --> 00:06:45.759 virgin. The angel answered, the Holy Spirit will come on you and the power of the most high will 00:06:45.759 --> 00:06:53.219 overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the son of God. Even Elizabeth, your relative, 00:06:53.220 --> 00:06:59.840 is going to have a child in her old age. And she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth 00:06:59.840 --> 00:07:09.180 month. For no word from God will ever fail. I am the Lord's servant, Mary answered. May your word to me 00:07:09.180 --> 00:07:18.220 be fulfilled. Then the angel left her. So I guess I just want us to walk through this passage this morning. 00:07:18.220 --> 00:07:24.380 And in classic Sesame Street style, this message this morning is brought to you by the word be 00:07:24.380 --> 00:07:30.900 as it crops up in this passage. So we pick up the story with the angel Gabriel sent on his second 00:07:30.900 --> 00:07:36.300 mission, having already delivered a message to Elizabeth that she was going to have a baby boy. 00:07:37.080 --> 00:07:45.100 The second mission this time, he is sent to go to a girl who is pledged to be. Now notice where Mary is 00:07:45.100 --> 00:07:51.300 geographically here. She's in this little town of Nazareth. Now what can we say about Nazareth? 00:07:52.700 --> 00:07:59.340 Well, it's a little town of no great renown. It's not a kind of place that you go for a glitz and glam. 00:07:59.439 --> 00:08:04.720 If you're looking to book your summer holiday, you're not looking at Nazareth. Nazareth, as far as 00:08:04.720 --> 00:08:11.379 Galilee is concerned, is right on the bottom rung. And you see that crop up in a few places in the 00:08:11.379 --> 00:08:16.680 Gospels, where people make snidey comments about the kind of people that come from Nazareth. How could 00:08:16.680 --> 00:08:25.480 anything good come from Nazareth? Well, it's to this place, this town that God sends the angel Gabriel 00:08:25.480 --> 00:08:34.059 to announce the greatest news that the world will ever know. Not to a palace and a princess, but to a 00:08:34.059 --> 00:08:41.120 young girl in a backwater town who is engaged to the village carpenter. Now let's be honest, if we were 00:08:41.120 --> 00:08:46.620 writing this fairy tale, if we were writing this, this isn't how I would have scripted it. If I were 00:08:46.620 --> 00:08:52.639 giving Gabriel the orders here, if I knew the cosmic proportions of the message that I had to deliver, 00:08:53.060 --> 00:08:58.340 Nazareth wouldn't be number one on my list. And if Nazareth isn't number one, then Mary certainly 00:08:58.340 --> 00:09:03.019 wouldn't be number one in terms of the person I would go to. Now why don't we aim for someone at the 00:09:03.019 --> 00:09:08.100 top of society? Why don't we aim for a place of influence? Certainly that's the best way to get this 00:09:08.100 --> 00:09:17.800 news out. But God chose Nazareth and God chose Mary. And even with that, I hope you're beginning 00:09:17.800 --> 00:09:25.180 to see what kind of gods we're dealing with here. The God not of pomp and pride, but the God who 00:09:25.180 --> 00:09:33.620 considers the unimportant and goes towards the seemingly insignificant. He goes towards the outsider. 00:09:33.620 --> 00:09:40.060 Now maybe that's a word for some of us here this morning. Maybe you're here and you feel as if you 00:09:40.060 --> 00:09:44.700 could never be good enough for God, that you feel like God, he should just pass over me because I'm 00:09:44.700 --> 00:09:50.679 too insignificant. Well, I hope even now at the outset in these verses, you see that that is not God's heart, 00:09:51.580 --> 00:09:55.100 that God is for you, that God moves towards you. And this is what we're going to see here, 00:09:55.139 --> 00:10:01.639 that we're dealing with a different kind of king. So here's Mary, she's pledged to be. Now that word 00:10:01.639 --> 00:10:07.919 pledged, it means something more than our concept of engagement. Mary has committed herself to Joseph 00:10:07.919 --> 00:10:14.039 and Joseph has committed himself to Mary. The two of them are joined in a union that can only be 00:10:14.039 --> 00:10:22.939 separated by divorce. Serious stuff. Well, it's into this backdrop that Gabriel delivers his greeting to 00:10:22.940 --> 00:10:29.820 Mary at verse 28. What does he say? Look at it there. He says, the Lord is with you. 00:10:31.120 --> 00:10:37.700 You are greatly favored. And how does Mary react to that news? How does Mary react to that greeting? 00:10:37.820 --> 00:10:42.780 She is greatly troubled. That's what the text tells us. In other words, she's petrified. 00:10:43.300 --> 00:10:47.860 She's petrified. What does this mean? Why are you here? What's going on? Have I done something wrong? 00:10:47.860 --> 00:10:54.120 Has Joseph done something wrong? Why are you here? It's interesting, isn't it? In our culture, 00:10:54.220 --> 00:11:00.539 when we talk about seeing angels, it's all cuddles and wings, isn't it? It's all cute. Well, 00:11:00.600 --> 00:11:07.759 you never see anything like that in the Bible. Mary's reaction is quite normal. She's afraid. 00:11:07.759 --> 00:11:17.519 And what does the angel say to her? Well, it's Christmas time. There's no need to be afraid. 00:11:18.919 --> 00:11:22.519 See, it wasn't Bob Geldof and Band-Aid that came up with that line, was it? It was the angel Gabriel. 00:11:22.600 --> 00:11:28.980 What does he say? He says, do not be afraid. There's our next bee. Do not bee. And why? Well, 00:11:29.019 --> 00:11:36.220 because she is favored. God has looked upon her in his grace, not because of who she is, 00:11:36.220 --> 00:11:41.680 not because of what she has done, not because she got the most votes on the Galilean X factor, 00:11:42.480 --> 00:11:48.840 but he's looked on her. The text tells us for no other reason than he is God and he is good 00:11:48.840 --> 00:11:56.200 and he looks with grace on people. He goes towards the undeserving. This is our God. 00:11:56.960 --> 00:12:03.940 Looking on the lowly, reaching down to the humble. Mary is favored. She is a recipient of God's grace 00:12:03.940 --> 00:12:11.100 and his love. Why? Because God is gracious. Now, what does Gabriel say? Well, he says, you will be. 00:12:12.640 --> 00:12:17.720 You will be with child. You're going to be a mom, Mary. You're not going to have to wait for that 20 00:12:17.720 --> 00:12:22.620 week scan to learn the gender of your child. It's going to be a boy. And you're not going to have to 00:12:22.620 --> 00:12:27.680 go through that process of picking a name, trying to decide a boy's name and a girl's name. He's going to 00:12:27.679 --> 00:12:35.339 be called Jesus. Now, instantly here, do we not see that this is no normal child? That there's a plan 00:12:35.339 --> 00:12:41.019 and there's a purpose of cosmic proportions with the birth of this child? There's a plan. There's a 00:12:41.019 --> 00:12:47.759 purpose. Really, the clue is in the name. What's his name? Jesus. The Lord is salvation. That's what 00:12:47.759 --> 00:12:54.399 Jesus means. This boy, not named in hopeful expectation of what he might become, 00:12:54.399 --> 00:12:59.500 but named precisely in keeping with what he has come to do and to accomplish. 00:13:01.500 --> 00:13:09.319 What does the angel Gabriel say? Well, here's our next beat, verse 32. He will be. He will be what? 00:13:09.399 --> 00:13:16.439 Well, he will be great. Follow it with me. He will be great. This boy will define greatness. 00:13:17.279 --> 00:13:23.439 He will be the ultimate one. He will be the glorious one. He will be the one who all the earth looks to 00:13:23.440 --> 00:13:31.260 for what it means to be great. And he will be the son of the most high. Now, you read that as a Jew and 00:13:31.260 --> 00:13:40.760 you read king. You will have a throne, the throne of his father, David. You see that Christ, it is not 00:13:40.760 --> 00:13:51.260 his surname. Christ is his job description. This child, God's chosen and promised king, he is the one who's 00:13:51.259 --> 00:13:58.840 going to come and he's going to win the victory for his people. This child, Jesus is the fulfillment of 00:13:58.840 --> 00:14:03.500 all that has been unfolding in the Old Testament, like we were seeing on that video. So helpful. 00:14:04.139 --> 00:14:12.399 This is all pointing to him. He is the king, the long expected king that they've been waiting for. 00:14:12.399 --> 00:14:20.079 And God will establish this king's kingdom. Do you notice that? It will be eternal. It will have no end. 00:14:21.100 --> 00:14:27.340 Do you see what he's saying? That the Babylonians had their kingdom. It ended. The Persians had their 00:14:27.340 --> 00:14:32.259 kingdom. It ended. The Egyptians had their kingdom. It ended. But this king, his kingdom, it will have no 00:14:32.259 --> 00:14:40.039 end. And why will it have no end? Because this child is God in the flesh. It's God's son. 00:14:40.039 --> 00:14:46.860 You see what Gabriel is saying? That the event in which the whole of redemption history has been 00:14:46.860 --> 00:14:52.539 moving forward to is kicking off and is kicking off right here in this young girl's womb. 00:14:53.559 --> 00:14:56.480 That's what the angel Gabriel is saying. This is massive news. 00:15:00.059 --> 00:15:05.939 I have a good friend who lives in Canada. I grew up with him here in Scotland. And I noticed this week 00:15:05.940 --> 00:15:09.940 on his Facebook page. I know we're not massively into Facebook, as John told us this morning. 00:15:10.380 --> 00:15:15.420 But on his Facebook page, I noticed this week he put up a link to a wild Scotland video by a guy 00:15:15.420 --> 00:15:18.880 called John Duncan. Maybe some of you have watched it. You can Google it when you go home. 00:15:19.560 --> 00:15:23.680 But it was this four minute video, basically. It was almost like a Visit Scotland video. You know, 00:15:23.700 --> 00:15:29.020 when you see Scotland at its best. You know, that kind of video. So I was watching this thing and 00:15:29.019 --> 00:15:36.220 panoramic views of mountains and sunsets, probably up in the west coast. There was children playing on 00:15:36.220 --> 00:15:43.699 beautiful sandy beaches. There's horses galloping in green lush fields. There's seals swimming in 00:15:43.699 --> 00:15:51.439 crystal blue sea. All of this set to atmospheric music, so romantic. And I found myself sitting there 00:15:51.439 --> 00:15:58.360 thinking, goodness, I'd love to live in that country. I'd love to live there. And then it suddenly 00:15:58.360 --> 00:16:02.899 dawned on me. It was Thursday. Do you remember Thursday? It's not a pretty day, was it? Do you 00:16:02.899 --> 00:16:08.940 remember Thursday? Blowing a gale outside, tipping it down with rain, freezing cold. I wonder if you've 00:16:08.940 --> 00:16:16.419 ever been in that situation, had one of those moments where what you're being told and what you 00:16:16.419 --> 00:16:21.700 see at ground level seem to be two very different things. Have you had one of those moments? Because I 00:16:21.700 --> 00:16:27.879 think Mary is having one of those moments right here. Gabriel has been telling her some incredible 00:16:27.879 --> 00:16:35.899 news, massive news. And I bet you there's that moment where Mary thinks back to the birds and the 00:16:35.899 --> 00:16:44.120 bees that her mom told her when she was growing up. She thinks to her betrothal to Joseph. She thinks 00:16:44.120 --> 00:16:49.939 of the marriage bed that hasn't been touched yet. And she thinks to herself, understandably, 00:16:49.940 --> 00:16:58.080 how will this be? How will this be? That all sounds lovely, Gabriel. It sounds incredible, 00:16:58.220 --> 00:17:03.540 but you're overlooking the obvious. Are you not familiar with how the reproduction thing works down 00:17:03.540 --> 00:17:09.840 here? That's not going to happen. Well, what does Gabriel tell her? Look at it there. It's fantastic. 00:17:09.960 --> 00:17:16.740 What does he say? That she will conceive by the Holy Spirit. That this conception is not going to be 00:17:16.740 --> 00:17:22.539 man's doing. It's going to be God's doing. What Gabriel is saying here to Mary is that we're not 00:17:22.539 --> 00:17:28.640 dealing with a God who works on the basis of human limitations. We're working and we're dealing here 00:17:28.640 --> 00:17:35.700 with the God who defines what is possible. Remember who sent me, Mary? It's the God who makes the 00:17:35.700 --> 00:17:42.900 impossible possible. This is the God who parted the Red Sea for his people. This is the God who flung 00:17:42.900 --> 00:17:48.640 stars into space and who created the world out of nothing. This is the God that we're dealing with 00:17:48.640 --> 00:17:55.620 here. For him, nothing is impossible. You know, I wonder whether some of us need to recapture 00:17:55.620 --> 00:18:04.240 something of that this morning. That wonderful and incredible truth about our God, that nothing is 00:18:04.240 --> 00:18:11.120 too hard for him, that nothing is impossible for him. Do you see what's going on here? Friends, 00:18:11.119 --> 00:18:20.619 let me ask you, how big is your God? God doesn't work according to our agenda. God isn't limited to 00:18:20.619 --> 00:18:29.019 working within our capacity to fathom. We're dealing here with the God who makes the impossible possible. 00:18:30.939 --> 00:18:38.739 Mary will conceive. The virgin will give birth to a son. And the thing to see here is that that news 00:18:38.740 --> 00:18:44.700 hasn't come from left field. This is something that was promised long ago. The prophet Isaiah, 00:18:45.839 --> 00:18:50.859 speaking of a time when God would personally come to deliver his people, like we saw in the video 00:18:50.859 --> 00:18:57.460 earlier, so, so helpful. And what is going to be the sign of that happening, that great deliverance? 00:18:57.620 --> 00:19:03.380 Well, there it is in Isaiah 7, 14. Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. 00:19:03.380 --> 00:19:10.260 Now, what's that sign? Well, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Emmanuel. 00:19:11.720 --> 00:19:18.520 That's massive. The unfolding of this rescue mission, the plan that's been hatched in eternity 00:19:18.520 --> 00:19:26.900 past, is beginning to unfold right here. Right here. God's coming to rescue his people. 00:19:26.900 --> 00:19:34.500 The virgin will give birth to a son. Now, we don't have encyclopedias have been written on the doctrine 00:19:34.500 --> 00:19:39.780 of the virgin birth. I had an exam on Tuesday and I wrote a massive essay on it. It's an incredibly 00:19:39.780 --> 00:19:45.519 brilliant doctrine. But let me just tell you two things about what this virgin birth is telling us. 00:19:45.700 --> 00:19:50.380 It's telling us two things, I think. Firstly, it's telling us that we are lost. 00:19:50.380 --> 00:19:58.620 We are lost. This is one almighty custard pie in the face of humanity's thinking that we can be the 00:19:58.620 --> 00:20:07.360 solution to our problem. Now, we've, our little girl is nine months old and she's going through this 00:20:07.360 --> 00:20:11.800 phase just now where she just knocks things down. I don't know if there's any other parents in the 00:20:11.800 --> 00:20:16.480 room that go through that process. She just seems to, you put food on her high chair, she'll take it and 00:20:16.480 --> 00:20:21.579 she'll throw it off. You'll build some bricks for her. She'll crawl from the other side of the room 00:20:21.579 --> 00:20:27.120 to come over to knock them down. Well, when I'm bathing her at night, I'll line the ducks up in 00:20:27.120 --> 00:20:31.200 the side of the bath. And again, she'll crawl over and she'll knock the ducks off the bath. I don't 00:20:31.200 --> 00:20:35.980 know what it is. I don't know what the ducks have done to her, but she's not having any of it. But she's 00:20:35.980 --> 00:20:40.259 going through this phase where she just knocks things down. I haven't taught her how to do that. 00:20:40.319 --> 00:20:46.180 She just does it. And that's what the Bible is saying about our heart attitude towards God. 00:20:46.480 --> 00:20:50.920 By our very nature, we just shoved them away. We wanted nothing to do with him. 00:20:51.860 --> 00:20:57.200 We preferred the darkness. That's what John's gospel tells us. We preferred the darkness and 00:20:57.200 --> 00:21:02.700 we were lost in the darkness and we have got no hope of putting ourselves right with God. 00:21:04.559 --> 00:21:09.860 Now, John prayed it earlier. Is it not heartbreaking to see the darkness in our world? Just looking 00:21:09.860 --> 00:21:12.819 on our news screens at what's going on across the world just now. 00:21:12.819 --> 00:21:19.639 But the thing is, the darkness is not just out there. The darkness is in here. Do you 00:21:19.639 --> 00:21:25.259 not know that to be true in your own life? Do you not know the darkness inside you? I 00:21:25.259 --> 00:21:29.639 remember thinking about these things when I was thinking about Christianity. And I took 00:21:29.639 --> 00:21:33.399 M People's advice, I searched for the hero inside myself, and let me tell you, he was nowhere 00:21:33.399 --> 00:21:39.639 to be found. We preferred the darkness. Do you not know, friends, your own brokenness? Do you 00:21:39.640 --> 00:21:46.759 not know your own frailty inside? Do you not experience the frustration and the pain of 00:21:46.759 --> 00:21:52.380 living in a world that is dark? There's not something inside of us that says that there 00:21:52.380 --> 00:21:55.880 must be something more than this. There must be. There must be something more. 00:21:57.860 --> 00:22:02.100 But the virgin birth tells us that the answer to mankind's problems are not to be found within 00:22:02.099 --> 00:22:08.959 our species. No mere man is going to be able to change the course of humanity. The human gene 00:22:08.959 --> 00:22:15.559 pool is redundant when it comes to producing a savior. The virgin birth tells us that we 00:22:15.559 --> 00:22:23.699 are lost. Secondly, it tells us that we are loved. God could have quite justifiably left us to our own 00:22:23.700 --> 00:22:31.440 devices. He could have quite justifiably passed right by, but he didn't. The glorious news, friends, 00:22:31.559 --> 00:22:39.220 here is that the light is about to burst into the darkness. The hope of all the world is coming. 00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:46.680 That God is acting for his people. God is getting involved. God is getting his hands dirty. God is 00:22:46.680 --> 00:22:53.360 about to take on flesh. God is going to move into our neighborhood. God is about to take a heartbeat. 00:22:53.359 --> 00:22:58.240 And if you're struggling to get to sleep tonight, have a goal at getting your head around that 00:22:58.240 --> 00:23:07.539 paradox. The creator of all things in a cradle. It's not incredible. Absolutely incredible. Jesus, 00:23:07.919 --> 00:23:14.119 the one through whom all things were created. Jesus, the one who was in the beginning. Jesus, 00:23:14.319 --> 00:23:22.699 the heir of all things, is about to humble himself. And humble himself in the most incredible 00:23:22.700 --> 00:23:33.019 way possible. To take our form. And what do we see in his life? We see that he has not come to have his 00:23:33.019 --> 00:23:41.980 feet washed. He has come to wash the feet of his people. That he has come not to be served, but to 00:23:41.980 --> 00:23:50.059 serve. This is the kind of king that we're dealing with here. Jesus, fully God and fully man. 00:23:50.059 --> 00:23:57.279 Fully God, i.e. he's born out with the sinful line of Adam. He's not tainted with our sin. Meaning that 00:23:57.279 --> 00:24:03.659 he's able to live the perfect life in obedience and worship to God. And he's fully man and that he is 00:24:03.659 --> 00:24:11.619 truly one with us. He is Emmanuel. God with us. And he can represent us before God because he has taken 00:24:11.619 --> 00:24:22.439 our skin. God came looking for us. Now let me just say, maybe you're here this morning and I see you 00:24:22.439 --> 00:24:27.979 think that God doesn't care. He doesn't care about me. He doesn't care about my brokenness. He doesn't 00:24:27.979 --> 00:24:34.879 care about my world. Well, do you see how this is telling us that God doesn't and didn't remain 00:24:34.880 --> 00:24:44.280 distant and unmoved, residing above. But God moves alongside. God cared enough that he would send his 00:24:44.280 --> 00:24:50.080 only son. You see, we're not dealing with the God of the possible, but we're dealing with the God of 00:24:50.080 --> 00:25:00.100 the impossible. I've got that right, haven't I? Yes, that's it. God makes the impossible possible. 00:25:00.099 --> 00:25:04.799 Oh, we'll edit that from the recording. I can't remember what it said. And it's interesting because 00:25:04.799 --> 00:25:11.279 Luke only uses that phrase one other time in his gospel. And if you fast forward to Luke chapter 18, 00:25:11.399 --> 00:25:16.279 we'll just put something on the screen. He uses it when he's dealing with and talking to the rich 00:25:16.279 --> 00:25:25.199 young ruler. And the young ruler's question to Jesus is, teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? 00:25:25.200 --> 00:25:31.440 What must I do to inherit eternal life? What does Jesus say? Keep the commandments. 00:25:32.620 --> 00:25:37.539 To which the young ruler responds, well, I've done that. And Jesus says, well, there's one thing that 00:25:37.539 --> 00:25:43.100 you're lacking. Go and sell all that you have and give it to the poor. To which the young man is very 00:25:43.100 --> 00:25:48.799 unhappy and he walks away. Why? Because he didn't want to do it. And so the disciples and those in the 00:25:48.799 --> 00:25:52.700 crowd, they look at each other and they say, well, if he can't be saved, if he's not going to get there, 00:25:52.700 --> 00:25:57.700 then what chance do we have? And Jesus says that, doesn't he? It's easier for a camel to go through 00:25:57.700 --> 00:26:06.660 the eye of a needle. But what does Jesus mean by that? Well, he's saying that on the roads to the cross. 00:26:07.460 --> 00:26:15.140 Jesus is about to make the impossible possible. For the life that started in the crib is now going the 00:26:15.140 --> 00:26:27.120 way of the cross. A humble birth would end in a humiliating day. His death, by it, he gives his 00:26:27.120 --> 00:26:33.020 life for our sin. He opens up the way for us to come to know God. For all those who would believe 00:26:33.020 --> 00:26:39.640 in him to come and be reconciled, to come and be made one with our creator. Do you see the way to God, 00:26:39.640 --> 00:26:47.060 the way to heaven that was shut? Jesus opens it by his death. The impossible becomes possible. 00:26:48.280 --> 00:26:54.140 And here we have it right here, the rescue mission unfolding right here in Luke chapter 1. 00:26:54.900 --> 00:27:02.520 Mary will conceive and give birth to a son. Massive, friends. Massive. 00:27:02.519 --> 00:27:09.960 Now, how does she react? Well, let's look at our last bee and cue the beetles. Here we go. 00:27:10.879 --> 00:27:19.440 Let it be. Let it be is what Mary says. She says, yep, let it be. You see, what began with fear ends 00:27:19.440 --> 00:27:25.500 with faith. And I think Mary for us here is a great example of what it means to walk by faith. 00:27:25.500 --> 00:27:32.740 And notice two things about Mary as we close. Firstly, notice her humility. She bows the knee 00:27:32.740 --> 00:27:40.500 to God and says, I trust you, God. I trust you. And I was reading this week that apparently 00:27:40.500 --> 00:27:46.279 £84 million worth of gift vouchers will go unused this Christmas. Does anybody actually bought a gift 00:27:46.279 --> 00:27:52.200 voucher for a present? Or bought one on previous Christmases? So I think I have. There's that stat. 00:27:52.200 --> 00:27:59.319 £84 million worth of vouchers go unused at Christmas time. Apparently, people just put it in the top drawer, 00:27:59.440 --> 00:28:04.220 just forget about it, move on. Friends, can I encourage you? Can I plead with you? Do not do that with this gift. 00:28:05.559 --> 00:28:14.680 It's far too glorious and far too important and beautiful to pass over. God has come and he's given you 00:28:14.680 --> 00:28:22.180 his only son so that you and I could come to know him. It's incredible. But you see how Mary, 00:28:22.200 --> 00:28:29.180 Mary takes God at his word and she walks in faith. That's what it means to have faith, to know something 00:28:29.180 --> 00:28:36.620 of God, to hear from him, to trust his word and to act in it. And if we commend Mary for her humility, 00:28:36.799 --> 00:28:43.440 we'll see lastly her bravery. This is a brave girl we're dealing with here. Now put yourself in her 00:28:43.440 --> 00:28:49.480 shoes at this point. For Mary to walk in faith, for Mary to believe God, to take him at his word and 00:28:49.480 --> 00:28:55.339 to act upon it. It's a costly thing. Just think about what she's got to do. She's got to tell Joseph 00:28:55.339 --> 00:29:00.720 that she's pregnant and he's not the father. It's not a conversation that's going to be pretty, is it? 00:29:01.700 --> 00:29:08.500 That's a difficult conversation. She may well lose her marriage because of this. And if her marriage 00:29:08.500 --> 00:29:15.720 goes, her support goes, her social standing goes, probably her income goes, all of these expectations 00:29:15.720 --> 00:29:19.900 that you bring towards a marriage, the children, the family home, the grandkids, all of that may 00:29:19.900 --> 00:29:25.019 disappear in a second because she's listened and she's trusted what God is saying here. 00:29:26.279 --> 00:29:30.319 Now, if you read Matthew's gospel, you know that it almost did cause her her marriage, that Joseph 00:29:30.319 --> 00:29:35.799 almost did walk away, that he wanted to divorce her quietly. He wanted to do it under the radar. 00:29:35.799 --> 00:29:43.879 It's a costly thing. And if it wasn't just with Joseph that it was a costly thing, think about her 00:29:43.879 --> 00:29:50.339 reputation and her social standing in the community that she's living in. Nazareth, not a big place, 00:29:50.419 --> 00:29:54.200 and people being people being people. You know if one person finds out about this, that Mary's 00:29:54.200 --> 00:30:00.419 pregnant, Joseph isn't the father, you know that spreading like wildfire. It brings shame on her 00:30:00.420 --> 00:30:06.620 family, brings shame on her. You see how trusting God here is a costly, costly thing for Mary. 00:30:07.340 --> 00:30:12.300 This is a big deal. But despite it all, she surrendered her reputation to God's will. 00:30:13.500 --> 00:30:17.500 And here's the big thing for us to see, and I think this is a massive challenge here. I found it a 00:30:17.500 --> 00:30:25.039 massive challenge. Mary does here, she puts God's revelation above her reputation. That God's word is 00:30:25.039 --> 00:30:32.000 more important to her than what people think about her. What a lesson for us. Are we willing, 00:30:32.119 --> 00:30:35.319 especially if you think about what goes on at Christmas time, you think about the office parties, 00:30:35.440 --> 00:30:40.240 you think about university, you think about family, friends who do not believe this message. Is this 00:30:40.240 --> 00:30:47.879 not a costly thing to stand for? And will we be willing to pay the price that may well come our way for 00:30:47.879 --> 00:30:54.619 standing, for speaking for this message? Are we willing to be brave in our association with this 00:30:54.619 --> 00:31:02.019 child? Are we willing to sacrifice our reputations for the sake of following and being obedient to 00:31:02.019 --> 00:31:09.719 God's words? Mary says, let it be. And I pray that that would be our response this morning, 00:31:10.359 --> 00:31:15.459 that we would say, let it be. So whether you're a Christian here, a non-Christian, let me that, 00:31:15.699 --> 00:31:19.659 I pray that that would be your response, that we would welcome this child with open arms, 00:31:19.660 --> 00:31:25.759 that we would grasp something of the enormity of what's gone on here. Mary says, let it be. 00:31:26.860 --> 00:31:32.880 So there it is, Luke chapter one, the Christmas miracle that God has made the impossible possible. 00:31:33.920 --> 00:31:39.620 The rags didn't become riches, but riches took on rags. And let me finish with these words of the 00:31:39.619 --> 00:31:46.879 apostle Paul. He would write this, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was 00:31:46.879 --> 00:31:55.599 rich, yet for your sake, he became poor, so that through his poverty, you might become rich. What a 00:31:55.599 --> 00:31:58.539 glorious message, friends. Why don't we pray as we close. 00:32:13.599 --> 00:32:18.519 Father God, we thank you. Thank you, thank you for this wonderful truth that we've been looking at 00:32:18.519 --> 00:32:25.799 this morning, that you are the God who makes all things possible. Father, thank you that this message 00:32:25.799 --> 00:32:30.400 tells us that when we weren't looking for you, you came looking for us, that you are the great pursuer, 00:32:31.299 --> 00:32:36.779 and we worship you and love you for that, Father. And so I pray this week, Lord, that we would think 00:32:36.779 --> 00:32:41.960 deep on these things, that we would see something more, our prayer at the start, something more 00:32:41.960 --> 00:32:48.119 of the enormity of what you have done for us by sending your son, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. 00:32:48.519 --> 00:32:48.920 Amen.