You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama.
Our passion is to experience and express grace.
Join us.
We began a sermon series last Sunday in the Gospel of Luke.
Getting a chance to hear Luke talk to us about the purpose of writing his book, that we would
have our doubts and our struggles brought to God and have them addressed by his word
with truth about Jesus, who he is, what he did, how he turns our expectations and assumptions
upside down and yet at the same time remains at the center always, always the focus of our
attention and of what God is doing in our lives.
And that's true this week.
Even before we get to the birth of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, he's at the center.
It's all about him.
The whole point this morning as the angel Gabriel comes to two different people is that Jesus
is no ordinary baby.
In fact, that in Jesus, God displays his redeeming grace and his rescuing power in a unique way.
This will indeed be a unique child to be born.
The unique circumstances we'll read this morning surrounding his birth will highlight his unique
identity and mission while at the same time they'll demonstrate the astonishing and unique
power of God.
For now, I'm just going to read the end of the passage we'll look at this morning.
Beginning in verse 34 after Gabriel has delivered a shocking message to the Virgin Mary,
you will bear the Son of God.
Hear God's word at Luke 1 in verse 34.
And Mary said to the angel, how will this be since I am a virgin?
And the angel answered 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 to me according to your word.
And the angel departed from her.
Pray with me.
Father, thank you for your word.
Thank you for this passage that reminds us very directly that nothing is impossible with
God.
And because of that, Father, we come to you this morning with things that may seem impossible
to us.
And we ask that you would speak to us.
That we would hear.
That we would have not just ears to hear, but minds to understand and hearts to believe.
So, Father, would you do that?
Would you even speak through me?
Through someone who himself must believe again today?
Father, use me and speak clearly through your spirit that we might be changed forever.
Do that because we desperately need you.
We need you to speak to us.
We need you to change us.
And we ask it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
I mentioned we're going to look at two angelic visits this morning.
Luke sets them up as an interesting study in comparison and contrast.
You'll see that as we read through them.
You'll notice the similarities and differences.
Let's look at the first one beginning in verse 5.
Zechariah and Elizabeth.
Elizabeth, a priest and his wife of pure religious pedigree, have been faithfully following God
for many years.
All the way into their old age, right?
And all along as they've followed God, they've been doing so with a heavy burden.
With unfulfilled longings.
The desire of their hearts to have a child.
But Elizabeth is barren.
We find out later on in verse 25 that this is not only a deep grief for them, but also
a public shame.
The passage is clear that their situation is not, in fact, a divine punishment.
But people in the community have taken it as such.
As an indication of a lack of God's blessing towards them.
A reproach.
A black mark.
A burden that they have now carried beyond their childbearing years.
And as we keep reading, Zechariah goes into the temple of God at the peak of his religious
service to burn the incense.
This would have been the only day of his life he got chosen for this special task.
And in the middle of it, an angel shows up with a message for him.
Verse 11.
There appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.
And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him and fear fell upon him.
But the angel said to him, do not be afraid, Zechariah.
For your prayer has been heard.
And your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you shall call his name John.
Imagine the emotion Zechariah is having.
He didn't see this coming and all of a sudden a son.
A son.
We've been waiting for this.
But the angel continues.
Verse 14.
And you will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth.
For he will be great before the Lord.
And he must not drink wine or strong drink.
And he will 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 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 for the Lord a people prepared.
Not just a son.
Not just any son.
Now certainly Zechariah had prayed for a son.
I suspect many times.
But the prayer the angel says has been heard.
Is most likely his prayer for the redemption of God's people.
That he would have just been praying before the altar of God.
For God to break his silence.
400 years.
And send the Messiah to rescue his people.
And that indeed is what the angel is announcing.
Zechariah's son John will prepare the way for God's gracious redemption.
It's happening.
But Zechariah can't believe what he hears.
Maybe you don't blame him.
But he protests that they're too old.
And he asks for a sign.
And he receives one.
A gracious discipline.
To help him trust God's word.
He will be mute.
Until the baby is born.
So this scene closes with Elizabeth rejoicing in God's grace to her.
She says thus is the Lord done for me.
In the days when he looked on me.
To take away my reproach among people.
How incredible she says.
God has heard the cry of our hearts.
Our whole lives we have suffered waiting for a son.
Our whole lives we have suffered waiting for God's redemption of his people.
We've carried grief.
We've carried shame.
We've felt forgotten.
And now both these things are going to happen at the same time.
Both the things we've been longing for and waiting for are coming.
And isn't this just like God?
Who time and again uses childless couples.
In the advancement of his kingdom.
Just think back to many examples in the Old Testament.
You could start with Abraham and Sarah, right?
Childless at the age of a hundred and then Isaac comes.
You could think of Hannah and Elkanah who are blessed with Samuel later in life.
Think of widowed Ruth who not only receives a husband in Boaz.
But then with him bearing children who are in the line of Jesus.
God meets us in our pain and our disgrace to remind us that he's not forgotten us.
And also to show his miraculous power that indeed nothing is impossible with God.
That's the message here.
No barren womb prevents him from giving life and rescuing his people.
He's intent on giving gifts that people have not earned.
He has a son coming for Zechariah and Elizabeth.
And a savior coming for his people.
Elizabeth realizes when she says this at the end of this scene.
I think she realizes in her suffering what our African American brothers and sisters
have learned over the years in their suffering.
As one of their sayings goes,
God may not come when you want him.
But he's always on time.
That's true, isn't it?
It may not always be our time.
It may not always be what we want.
But it is right on time.
Elizabeth helps us hear the message that the angel delivered to Zechariah.
It's a message of grace.
Of unmerited favor from God.
That we'll hear repeatedly this morning.
God's message through Gabriel is this.
Grace to you, Zechariah.
Don't lose heart.
Don't be afraid.
Don't give up hope.
My redeeming grace and rescuing power are coming to you.
And through you to many others.
That's what Zechariah hears.
But then the scene shifts from mighty Jerusalem to a tiny town called Nazareth.
Of which it is said in these days,
Can anything good come from Nazareth?
They didn't think so.
But Gabriel visits there a young woman named Mary
who's engaged to a man named Joseph.
Yes, the Mary and Joseph you're familiar with.
You can be quite confident as you begin to read the portion of God's word
where Gabriel comes to Mary
that Mary didn't have grand thoughts of herself before the angel came.
Too young to be important.
Women were not well respected in the culture of the day.
And besides that, she's from Nazareth.
Low expectations.
Let me explain it to you this way so you.
Get a little bit of the feeling of how Mary might have felt.
I was watching the Olympics this week
and saw a swimming race where all the attention was focused
in the middle of the pool on the American and Australian swimmers,
the powerhouse favorites who were supposed to win the race,
the top qualifiers.
Everybody was watching them.
And down at the bottom in lane one,
almost off of the screen on my TV,
was a swimmer from Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan, the great swimming powerhouse
with a grand total of zero swimming medals
in the history of the country, I believe.
The commentators, of course, glossed right over him
saying something like he had a personal best in the semis
just to kind of get in the pool here,
don't pay attention,
watch the ones in the middle.
And having been dismissed,
with no one watching him,
at the last second this guy creeps up,
sticks out his hand,
and touches first a gold medal for Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan.
Nazareth.
She never would have expected to be of great significance.
But the angel comes and brings grace to Mary too.
Listen, verse 28.
He came to her and said,
Greetings, O favored one,
the Lord is with you.
But she was greatly troubled at the saying
and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.
And the angel said to her,
Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God.
Now, saying Mary was greatly troubled as Zechariah was
has to be an understatement, doesn't it?
She's very young.
Many think as young as 12 years old
or perhaps her early teens at most.
She lives in the middle of nowhere
in a place full of nobodies
and an angel shows up to talk to her.
Just being there would have been overwhelming.
But what's the message?
The message again to her is grace
as it was to Zechariah.
Favored one means recipient of grace from God.
That's what the word is actually saying.
That God's special blessing and God's presence,
the Lord is with you,
both are being promised to her.
You have found favor with God
is again saying God has graciously determined
to bless you.
These words to Mary are often misunderstood,
but the nature of the divine favor
that's coming to her
is emphasizing not her merit,
but rather God's great generosity.
It's not so much Mary full of grace
that attracts God,
but God so full of grace
that He pours out on Mary
so that she is blessed.
First, God promises His grace to Mary.
But then as if that weren't enough,
it gets even more remarkable.
Verse 31,
Behold, you will conceive in your womb
and bear a son
and you shall call His name Jesus.
He will be great
and will be called the Son of the Most High.
And the Lord God will give to 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.
The grace God gives to you, Mary,
is also going to be through you
to many others.
You're going to have a son.
But again, not just any son.
The Son of God.
His name, Jesus, tells you,
Yahweh saves.
And that's the plan here, right?
As we just read it.
This is the Son of God,
the promised Messiah,
the one who's promised
to reign over God's people forever.
The one that they've been waiting for
to sit on David's throne forever.
He's going to be the hero.
He's going to be the hope of the world.
This is even bigger than a gold medal for Kazakhstan.
This is the most important person
in human history
through all the Old Testament.
The one Mary and all her family and friends
know is the hope of God's people.
They've heard about Him.
He's the one she's read about
over and over in the prophets
but never knew when to expect.
The one of greatest significance
will come through one of seeming insignificance.
The Messiah seemed almost like a dream to Mary
and now I will be His mother?
Mother?
But Mary believes.
She assumes it will happen
but she does want to know
how this is going to work out.
You know, I got a fiance after all.
She wasn't hoping for a pregnancy.
It's going to be complicated for sure
and the angel explains in the words
that we read earlier how it happens.
Just like this miraculous event
taking place with your relative Elizabeth,
the reason this can happen
is that nothing will be impossible with God.
You need to know, Mary,
that God is powerful enough
to overcome your insignificance,
your youthfulness,
your station in life.
He rescues His people
because of His great power.
And isn't this just like God?
To condescend to Mary.
Isaiah tells us that God dwells
in high and lofty places.
Places like heaven.
Places like the temple in Jerusalem
and so on.
But that He meets with the lowly.
that He meets with young Mary in Nazareth
and gives her through Gabriel
the message of grace.
Grace to you, Mary.
Don't lose heart.
Don't be afraid.
Don't give up hope.
My redeeming power,
my redeeming grace,
my rescuing power
are coming to you
and through you to many others.
Now part of the many others
that God's promising His grace is coming to
is all of Israel, His people.
You've probably picked up on the similarities
between the accounts of Gabriel's visits
to Zechariah and to Mary
and I've tried to highlight along the way
some of the distinct differences too.
Look at some of the differences this way.
First of all, Zechariah's a man.
He's male.
Mary is female.
Zechariah is old.
Mary is young.
Zechariah has long been a faithful priest.
Mary's merely a maidservant.
Zechariah is there in the temple at Jerusalem
and Mary is stuck in nowhere Nazareth.
Side note before we move on,
which one of these two responds appropriately
to the angel's message.
It's not the one you might expect, is it?
And we're going to come back to that
as we go through the Gospel of Luke
because as I told you last week,
one of the things Luke is going to show us
over and over again
is it's the insignificant outsiders
who become honored insiders
in God's kingdom.
This is how he works
and this is one example of it
here at the beginning.
Zechariah's mute.
Mary's commended and praised for her faith.
But for now, notice
that despite their different responses,
grace comes to both of them, doesn't it?
To the two extremes of the spectrum
of God's people
covering everyone in between,
grace comes to them.
To both of them
who may have been feeling overlooked.
Imagine what God's people in general
must have been feeling.
Overlooked may have been putting it mildly.
For 400 years,
they haven't heard from a prophet.
Used to happen all the time.
Where is God?
Why is he silent?
Has he forgotten about us?
Certainly they wondered.
We're back home finally,
but with the Romans on the throne,
not the Davidic king
who's supposed to be reigning
and ruling over us.
We've got all these promises from God,
but fulfillment-wise,
I'm not really seeing a lot of it turning out.
Certainly God's slow at best.
God must have seemed very far away to them.
Some, I'm sure, felt the grief
and the disgrace that Zechariah
and Elizabeth felt.
Others, I'm sure, felt the insignificance,
the smallness that Mary felt.
But all of them would have been
in the same place of needing to hear from God,
of being desperate for him to act,
to speak,
to come and rescue.
And so these messages of grace
are speaking to all God's people,
to the old men as well as to the young girls,
to the ones in the temple in Jerusalem,
all the way over to the nobodies in Nazareth.
It's finally happening.
Someone named John is coming
to turn many of us to the Lord our God,
to make ready for him a people
prepared for the coming of the Lord.
And then the Messiah himself is coming,
the son of God, the Davidic king,
the eternal ruler of God's people.
God's fulfilling his promises.
We can have hope again.
He's going to use the old
as well as the young
for his saving purposes.
What about me?
That means me.
He'll use me.
And so we hear the message of his grace.
Grace to you, my beloved people.
Don't lose heart.
Don't be afraid.
Don't give up hope.
My redeeming grace, my rescuing power
are coming to you and through you
to many others.
And that's the message of grace
that each of us needs to hear
and trust this morning.
In general, you see,
it's not too hard for us to believe
that nothing is impossible with God.
It sounds good.
It feels good, we like to think,
that his redeeming grace
and rescuing power
will come to and through the overlooked
because we love a good underdog story,
don't we?
I mean, that sounds great.
Sure, that could happen.
God could do it through Zechariah and Elizabeth.
God could do it through Mary.
He could use anybody.
It's not so easy to believe
when you are the one who's overlooked, is it?
When you're the one feeling the shame
or the disgrace.
When you're the one who feels insignificant
and small.
When you carry shame
or you've experienced rejection
or unfulfilled longings
like Mary or Zechariah or Elizabeth,
it's easier then to respond like Zechariah
to the promise of God's grace.
Oh yeah, sure.
But me?
No.
But us?
No.
We're too old.
I've blown it too badly.
You don't understand.
It's easier to feel that
than it is to respond with faith
like Mary.
I think of just some of the conversations
I've had recently
and I realize that it's very hard
for us to believe this message
for ourselves.
There's the older couple
with grown kids who are wayward
and they worry.
They followed God all their lives
and they expected better
but now it's embarrassing.
Perhaps others will think
they weren't very good parents
and could God still use even them
to reach their kids?
There's the elder who feels
God has seemed distant lately
and wonders if the exciting feeling
of nearness to God
that he loves to share with others
will ever return.
There's the young woman
without children
even though that's the desire
of her heart
and some days she feels marginalized
some days she feels
just painfully empty
and like she can't share
with someone she'd long to share with.
There's the pastor
I don't talk to myself that often
but when I do I try to tell you.
The pastor's struggling
some days to believe
he's significant
if the church is not making
a big splash
like the one across town.
Am I doing great things
for the kingdom?
Is God at work here too
with ordinary,
inadequate me?
There's the guy staring
divorce in the face
and maybe not for the first time
and fearing the shame
and disgrace
that Elizabeth felt
from the community
and thinking he'll be sidelined
in God's plan.
There's the high schooler
who grew up in the church
but now doesn't sense
she has significance.
Wonders about her place
in God's kingdom.
Where do high schoolers fit in?
It doesn't seem
to be a place for her.
There's the mother
who's exhausted
without ever leaving the house
to do something
that feels truly important
to her
and it seems
no one notices
except her toddlers.
Now when we feel emotions
like those
and others
that you may be feeling
it's hard to believe
God's message of grace
is for us
isn't it?
It's very difficult
to imagine there
that God could not only
rescue us
but that he could use us
for the sake of others.
We seem left out
and we get discouraged
and we're hopeless even.
But it's what God says
to us this morning.
It's the message
he wants you to hear.
God's grace to us
grace to you
dear ones
whom he loves.
Grace to you
who feel
overlooked.
Grace to you
who feel
neglected.
Grace to you
who feel
ashamed.
Don't lose heart.
Don't be afraid.
Don't give up hope.
my redeeming grace
my rescuing power
are coming to you
and through you
to many others
it's how he works.
It's people
who feel
overlooked
and disgraced
or insignificant
that God
delights to bring
his grace
to and through.
You remember Daniel
just this summer
and his ordinary faith
in an extraordinary God?
That's the point.
Ordinary people
like us
can believe
the promises
of a God
who nothing
is impossible for.
He's the one
who is great
not us.
I don't know
if you heard
the interview
with synchronized
divers
David Badiah
and Steele Johnson
after they won
an Olympic silver medal
this week.
Apparently all I did
was watch Olympics
this week.
Sorry.
It was a great interview.
They asked him
how do you
keep calm
with the pressure
of the Olympics
bearing down on you?
And they both gave
great responses
one after the other.
How do we stay cool
under pressure?
Well you see
it's not as big a deal
as y'all might be
picturing it
because my identity
is in Christ
they both said.
My significance
is rooted
in Jesus Christ
and so
standing up there
on the diving board
at the Olympics
it wasn't all
that pressure packed.
It wasn't all
riding on that
one dive.
A great answer.
What I didn't love
is how they instantly
seemed to become
heroic Christian examples.
They were the ones
who'd finally
made a testimony
for Jesus
because it made me feel
like if I really
wanted to make
a difference for Jesus
I'd have to start
by winning
an Olympic medal
and then talking
about Jesus
on TV.
And how was I
ever going to get
from here
to there?
What about the lady
facing cancer
at home
with her identity
rooted in Christ?
Or the young person
entering a new school
or the man
losing his job
with their identity
rooted in Christ?
We don't have to be
the Lord's
Olympic medalists.
We can just be
the Lord's servant
the way Mary
was.
See the message
of God's grace
meeting us
in all those
ordinary places
in Jesus
is powerful too
when you share that
with others.
Don't you long
to experience
and express
God's grace?
To have the
rescuing power
of God flow
to you
and then through you
to many others?
It is this
amazingly unique
Jesus
whose angels
are coming
to talk to people
about his birth.
He's promised
in this passage
he's actually
already come
to us.
He's not someone
we're looking forward
to maybe one day
that will develop.
He has come
to us
as evidence
that God
is speaking grace
to us
and himself
the very content
of that message.
In Jesus
God's redeeming
grace
and rescuing
power
have already
come to us
so we can believe
he will continue
to meet us
right where we are.
Because you see
it's not actually
something new
that we are putting
our hope in
and waiting for.
It's not about us
getting everything
we ask for
and all our desires
fulfilled.
Mary wasn't asking
for a child
was she?
Not every childless
couple in Israel
were promised
a son
like Zechariah
and Elizabeth
but everyone
received the message
of God's grace
through John.
Not every
insignificant young
woman in Israel
was promised
to be the mother
of God's son
like Mary
but everyone
received the message
of God's grace
the fulfillment
of God's promises
the hope
for eternity
and redemption
through Jesus.
that's for all of us.
God's message
of grace
for all of us
because it's
here at the cross
isn't it?
That Jesus
provided for us
the greatest
instance
of God's
rescuing power
his redeeming
grace
coming to
the overlooked
because Jesus
himself
became overlooked
by his father.
Jesus himself
took upon him
our shame
on the cross
he carried
our griefs
on the cross
and was punished
and put away
in our place.
What was just
the promise
of a baby
to Zechariah
and to Mary
has become
a man
who lived
for us
and died
for us
so that
what is
promised
in Jesus
would be
true
for all
of us
no matter
how badly
we failed
no matter
how insignificant
we feel
no matter
how undeserving
we are
that all
of us
who trust
in him
would be
welcomed
at the table
of the
father
of heaven.
That's the
message of grace
for you this
morning.
It's the
message Jesus
preaches to us
through his
body and blood
which he offers
to us
this morning.
Grace
to you.
Grace.
He has come
in power
to rescue
us
and he will
through you
share
that good news
of his grace
with many others.
Remember what he
told his disciples
as he instituted
this supper.
He said
I received from the
Lord what I also
delivered to you
that the Lord Jesus
on the night
he was betrayed
took bread
and when he had
given thanks
he broke it
and said
this is my body
which is for you
do this
in remembrance
of me.
In the same way
also he took
the cup
after supper
saying
this cup
is the new
covenant
in my blood
do this
as often
as you drink
it in remembrance
of me
for as often
as you eat
this bread
and drink
this cup
you proclaim
the Lord's
death
until he comes.
this is the
table of the
Lord
where we're
reminded
that nothing
is impossible
with God
where we're
reminded
that he could
save me
that he could
save you
because he could
come
and has come
and has taken
our place
this is not the
table of Southwood
or the Presbyterian
church
if you know
Jesus
and that he
has stood
in your place
for your sins
come
welcome
and eat
with us
if you don't
know Jesus
if you say
that sounds
interesting to me
I've heard him
talked of before
but you don't
know him
and trust him
to be the only
reason that you
could walk in
to the throne room
of the holy God
and be at peace
then don't come
and pretend
outwardly
something that's
not true
inwardly
we'd much
rather you
actually meet
Jesus
not just
the bread
and the juice
that represent
to us
his body
and blood
we'd love
to introduce
you to
Jesus
so I'd
encourage you
not to
take the
elements
but to
wait
and to
come
and to
talk
with us
and hear
more
about who
Jesus
is
let me
pray
and then
we'll
come
to the
table
together
Father
it is a
good thing
that nothing
is impossible
for you
because we
are those
who could
not have
made it
to you
on our
own
we could
never
have done
enough
and gotten
things figured
out enough
to deserve
to eat
with you
and yet
you have
invited us
to come
you have
made the
way for
us
through the
blood of
Jesus
and so
we thank
you
for that
would you
take these
very common
elements
that give
us just a
picture of
his body
and his
blood
and make
them effective
in our
hearts
to build
our faith
and our
trust in
him
that he
would be
the only
one we
trust
strengthen
our
faith
we ask
in his
name
amen
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information
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at
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